- Dec 17, 2010
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- Australia
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WHO are Trump’s tariffs working for? Certainly not working class America - or even middle and upper middle America!
Over the last month of tariff backflips, Trump supporters have held conflicting views on their President - but I fear a third alternative is true.
View A: tariffs are awesome
"Trump's tariffs are awesome - it's great to have a President with backbone! FINALLY we're doing something about manufacturing at home! Tariffs are going to hurt for a while - but we'll get there. MAGA FOR THE WIN!"
(This is the brave face while the markets decline.)
View B: Then Trump announces the 90 day pause.
"Trump is awesome! I know it seems random - but we all believe he actually has a plan! And look how the markets bounced back! MAGA FOR THE WIN!"
Where did the backbone go? Where did the long term manufacturing plan go? (See OPTIONAL FOOTNOTE below to contrast Biden’s plan.)
View C: Money and Mania.
MONEY: the idealist in me thinks economic policy like this should be decided by a whole Cabinet (or in America "Committee") of elected experts and economic and national security consultants brought in. They should have publicized debates almost like Parliament, with orderly rules, and time for the presentation of data.
When one wealthy oligarch-friendly President can come in and talk about tariffs and scare everyone into a Bear market - and then backflip into a Bull market - you've got to ask about this being a FUNDAMENTAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST! I'm Australian. I haven't looked this up - but is a President barred from playing the markets? If so, are his phone calls also tapped so he can be cleared of the accusation of doing so through oligarch mates?
There is a noticeable rise in the market BEFORE his announcement of a 90 day pause on the tariffs. Later that day there's a decent sell. Trump and his mates made tens or hundreds of millions INDIVIDUALLY in the one day's trading!
MANIA: Over 230 experts have diagnosed him as a malignant narcissist from thousands of hours of TV footage. Weirdly, with this condition it is MORE objective than having him sit in their consulting rooms lying to them about how fabulous he is. He lit up when he said he had the entire world lining up to "Kiss my ....". The position of President should be banned from someone with this condition - it leaves the fate of America - and when nuclear weapons are concerned the fate of the WORLD in the hands of one individual with too much power, and far too prone to use it for his own glory and everyone else's pain.
More than 230 doctors say Trump is too unstable to be president in open letter
OPTIONAL FOOTNOTE: BIDEN’S PLAN
In contrast Biden had a plan: If China is now a Cold War competitor we need to gradually ‘wean off’ dependence on, how about NOT alienating the entire western world we might need to rely on as we do this? Biden’s policy was mostly carrot, but a tiny little bit of stick. The Inflation Reduction Act encouraged vital security sectors at home like energy and chips through the IRA - WITHOUT alienating the entire western world.
Internationally Biden was encouraging “friend-shoring” - trade with trustworthy democratic allies. If we all compete with fair trade in a western economic block, we might get the economies of scale to bring our goods down to maybe only twice as expensive as Chinese goods - or even just 50% higher - depending on the type of good. We just don’t have the economies of scale.
Over the last month of tariff backflips, Trump supporters have held conflicting views on their President - but I fear a third alternative is true.
View A: tariffs are awesome
"Trump's tariffs are awesome - it's great to have a President with backbone! FINALLY we're doing something about manufacturing at home! Tariffs are going to hurt for a while - but we'll get there. MAGA FOR THE WIN!"
(This is the brave face while the markets decline.)
View B: Then Trump announces the 90 day pause.
"Trump is awesome! I know it seems random - but we all believe he actually has a plan! And look how the markets bounced back! MAGA FOR THE WIN!"
Where did the backbone go? Where did the long term manufacturing plan go? (See OPTIONAL FOOTNOTE below to contrast Biden’s plan.)
View C: Money and Mania.
MONEY: the idealist in me thinks economic policy like this should be decided by a whole Cabinet (or in America "Committee") of elected experts and economic and national security consultants brought in. They should have publicized debates almost like Parliament, with orderly rules, and time for the presentation of data.
When one wealthy oligarch-friendly President can come in and talk about tariffs and scare everyone into a Bear market - and then backflip into a Bull market - you've got to ask about this being a FUNDAMENTAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST! I'm Australian. I haven't looked this up - but is a President barred from playing the markets? If so, are his phone calls also tapped so he can be cleared of the accusation of doing so through oligarch mates?
There is a noticeable rise in the market BEFORE his announcement of a 90 day pause on the tariffs. Later that day there's a decent sell. Trump and his mates made tens or hundreds of millions INDIVIDUALLY in the one day's trading!
MANIA: Over 230 experts have diagnosed him as a malignant narcissist from thousands of hours of TV footage. Weirdly, with this condition it is MORE objective than having him sit in their consulting rooms lying to them about how fabulous he is. He lit up when he said he had the entire world lining up to "Kiss my ....". The position of President should be banned from someone with this condition - it leaves the fate of America - and when nuclear weapons are concerned the fate of the WORLD in the hands of one individual with too much power, and far too prone to use it for his own glory and everyone else's pain.
More than 230 doctors say Trump is too unstable to be president in open letter
OPTIONAL FOOTNOTE: BIDEN’S PLAN
In contrast Biden had a plan: If China is now a Cold War competitor we need to gradually ‘wean off’ dependence on, how about NOT alienating the entire western world we might need to rely on as we do this? Biden’s policy was mostly carrot, but a tiny little bit of stick. The Inflation Reduction Act encouraged vital security sectors at home like energy and chips through the IRA - WITHOUT alienating the entire western world.
Internationally Biden was encouraging “friend-shoring” - trade with trustworthy democratic allies. If we all compete with fair trade in a western economic block, we might get the economies of scale to bring our goods down to maybe only twice as expensive as Chinese goods - or even just 50% higher - depending on the type of good. We just don’t have the economies of scale.
