GIVEN THE PROPORTION OF BETS HE'S LOST....:

[T]rump has an outmoded view of economics that was never true and is particularly false now.

It is true in a c[****]o, where Donald Trump's understanding of economics began, and perhaps ended. A c[****]o is a perfect zero-sum economy. If you win, the house loses. Much more often, your loss is the house's win.

That's because a c[****]o is not productive (aside from its employment of a few low-wage workers). Its only activity is gambling. Someone's win is another party's loss.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Trump's other occasional successes, in commercial real estate, have a history of relying on government tax abatements and other breaks. That's another forum for zero-sum, win-lose economics. One mogul dodges a tax; many ordinary citizens have to pay a little more.

But in the mainstream economy where most Americans work, economics is not zero-sum. Each transaction enriches both sides. When you buy an automobile it enriches the dealer, the manufacturer, the bank that provided financing, the suppliers who contributed parts--an entire web of affiliated parties. You, the consumer, also benefit--because you value the automobile.

In the Trump view of the world, one of those parties--say, the car company--"wins" and everyone else loses. In fact, every one of those parties wins, or rather benefits, to a small degree. And their increased prosperity marginally increases their propensity to spend and notches up growth for all.

The new high-tech and health-care economies are redolent with examples of firms whose success, rather than "taking" from others, has sprouted entire subcultures of spinoff companies. One successful enterprise leads to another. (Think of the iPhone and the gaggle of app developers founded in its wake.)

Although not every industry spawns such a virtuous circle, in a free economy every participant gains, to a small degree, from every trade. And that is true even for the foreign "trade" that Trump routinely disparages.

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