you are being overly credulous if you hear a leader, when the country already has inflation, saying i am doing massive across board tariffs, plus laying off hundreds of thousands of federal workers, and your antennae don't immediately go up and freak out about recession risk. just cut out the blue vs. red crap, or the insane trump loyalty cult. if you heard that blurb of facts would you think we were in trouble or not.
if we consider the loyalty cult,..........you are betting on a man with heterodox ideas who already put the country in the health and economy ditch in 2020. who has multiple corporate bankruptcies. many failed companies besides that. convicted of fraud. liable for defamation. constant hyperbole. i get you folks see this as character attacks you disagree with, but if i am betting on a horse to try new things, i don't bet on a proven loser.
"That" is what you want to bet on? at some point here stop the "own the libs" insanity and wake up on the crappy policy bets you're placing on someone with a history of snake oil issues.
Agreed. The Biden/Harris followers were in a loyalty cult
funny but last i recall biden got left curbside before the election, so, no.
and compared to the right, on the left i could freely tell anyone i wanted that harris sucked and was a poor choice. no one called me a DINO. the party does not collapse down to basically one man and his ideas.
I believe there is a not-wholly-unreasonable take about building something out of tariffs and the possibility of negotiation strategy and tactics (see, for instance, the best points from Oren Cass), but there are way too many holes and maybes in that line of thinking for my taste when you consider the implications of it being wrong.
Without going fully conspiracy-thinking about it, I think Hanania is closer to the mark. Hanania can be off-base, and sometimes contemptibly so, but he’s bright and has some decent points. I see this as, at least partially, one of his decent takes.
“Authoritarian leaders do not care about the prosperity of the country. If these tariffs stick, it is a massive increase in Trump’s personal power. Businesses will be desperate for exceptions, any jobs created would be dependent on Trump’s policies. The corruption is the point.”
You don’t have to carry that out to full-on corruption or the most nefarious sort of authoritarian regime for it to make sense when you consider Trump’s personal ethics, his admiration for authoritarian leaders, the way a lot of his decisions have appeared to be for sale, and the way the exception game has appeared to be developing since he took office.
the problem with saying 'this is just how trump negotiates' is that trump is betting that other nations will consider the USA the same dependable place as it has been since WW2, once this blows over.
It looks a lot to me that every nation on earth is saying 'the USA is different now and will stab us in the back the first chance it gets so let's sell dollars and us assets.' It won't be the same after this.
The dollar is plunging, for example. In the past, in a crisis the dollar has risen as a safe haven. Now the dollar is flown from.
Without the dollar as the prime currency on earth, we will impoverish ourselves.
Will that capital come back like trump thinks it will? Not all of it. But trump thinks it will.
Other point is war...clearly japan and SK and europe have to go nuclear now and that's terrible, terrible news.
This post was edited 49 seconds after it was posted.
If anyone hasn't read 1984 yet, I highly recommend it.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins next to a ticker showing the Dow down 1,200 points: "We are really, really excited, and very grateful for President Trump's leadership."
Is it an overstatement to say that ANY employee that ever says, "We're grateful for our boss' leadership" should be fired by SOMEONE on the spot ? Or maybe at least stoned....a bit?
oh, come now, mr. bond.
be serious.
it's the sheer amount of sack-massage speak. it's practically the right's brand. and it sounds like north korea.
i can barely watch a tv show without noem's commercial coming on, and it's not just let me tell you the policy, it's "thank you......."
y'all do understand you can be a hard worker AND the one who tells the boss the truth, right? and be someone who sees himself as equal enough in the world they would never grovel and debase themselves like this?
i mean, ted cruz. dude clowned on his wife. he would never have my support again. he'd get party line bills.
it's a loyalty cult enforced by public bashing and exile. it's a few steps short of some junta or kremlin.
Trump tariffed every country in the world except Russia and North Korea. Historic allies like the France, Canada and Australia got tariffs, but not his buddy Putin.
Trump even tariffed a bunch of things that aren’t countries, like the British Indian Ocean Territory, which has no civilians living there. It is inhabited primarily by US soldiers, and some British soldiers. No tariffs for Russia and North Korea though.
Trump tariffed every country in the world except Russia and North Korea. Historic allies like the France, Canada and Australia got tariffs, but not his buddy Putin.
Trump even tariffed a bunch of things that aren’t countries, like the British Indian Ocean Territory, which has no civilians living there. It is inhabited primarily by US soldiers, and some British soldiers. No tariffs for Russia and North Korea though.
What trump does is the complete opposite of capitalism. He weakens the free market between countries, with tariffs he removes the ability for the strongest, smartest and most talented people to make money. Few people get anything positive from it. It is positive for people like musk who no longer have to compete with other car brands as the others will get more expensive due to tariff.
Now we see that China is starting to cooperate with Japan and South Korea- something wrong have never seen before. Asia will get stronger than ever while US weakens itself. Chips etc will be so expensive for US that they will lag behind in technology. I don't understand why trumpists want their country to be weak and ineffective
1) They don't. They are ignorant and have no understanding of the implications of this administration's actions.
I believe there is a not-wholly-unreasonable take about building something out of tariffs and the possibility of negotiation strategy and tactics (see, for instance, the best points from Oren Cass), but there are way too many holes and maybes in that line of thinking for my taste when you consider the implications of it being wrong.
Without going fully conspiracy-thinking about it, I think Hanania is closer to the mark. Hanania can be off-base, and sometimes contemptibly so, but he’s bright and has some decent points. I see this as, at least partially, one of his decent takes.
“Authoritarian leaders do not care about the prosperity of the country. If these tariffs stick, it is a massive increase in Trump’s personal power. Businesses will be desperate for exceptions, any jobs created would be dependent on Trump’s policies. The corruption is the point.”
You don’t have to carry that out to full-on corruption or the most nefarious sort of authoritarian regime for it to make sense when you consider Trump’s personal ethics, his admiration for authoritarian leaders, the way a lot of his decisions have appeared to be for sale, and the way the exception game has appeared to be developing since he took office.
the problem with saying 'this is just how trump negotiates' is that trump is betting that other nations will consider the USA the same dependable place as it has been since WW2, once this blows over.
It looks a lot to me that every nation on earth is saying 'the USA is different now and will stab us in the back the first chance it gets so let's sell dollars and us assets.' It won't be the same after this.
The dollar is plunging, for example. In the past, in a crisis the dollar has risen as a safe haven. Now the dollar is flown from.
Without the dollar as the prime currency on earth, we will impoverish ourselves.
Will that capital come back like trump thinks it will? Not all of it. But trump thinks it will.
Other point is war...clearly japan and SK and europe have to go nuclear now and that's terrible, terrible news.
What is clear is that the tariffs have nothing to do with industrial policy. Anyone who knows anything about how to get manufacturing back into the US knows that this is not how you do it.
I do agree that this is a power play by Trump to make every industry beholden to him by forcing them to declare loyalty in exchange for being granted an exception to the tariffs. But I do not think that this was the plan all along. I really do thin that Trump is dumb enough to be 100% bought in on the Great Replacement Theory and sees himself as a semi-messianic figure who can turn the US back to the 1950s (complete with the de jure racism). And Trump spent the last 4 years getting ready to be back in power not by looking at his failures and trying to figure out how to do it better with more competent people at his side. He spent the last 4 years finding the most loyal sycophants that he could and now is surrounded by the most incompetent cabinet in US history.
Also, I think Trump is aware of some fringe benefits to doing this. The most prominent one is his hope to move the US away from a progressive income tax to what is basically a national sales tax in the form of tariffs. Trump thinks that he can win votes if he cuts taxes on tips, SS payments (if there are any SS payments), etc. and has even floated doing that instead of making his tax cuts permanent.
The other fringe benefit is ending the dollar's reign as the world's reserve currency/safe haven. Trump wants to do this because the crypto billionaires want to have crypto take over that role. That is really the only way crypto will have any continued growth as it has failed to become an actual usable alternative to national currencies in international trade due to its volatility.
the problem with saying 'this is just how trump negotiates' is that trump is betting that other nations will consider the USA the same dependable place as it has been since WW2, once this blows over.
It looks a lot to me that every nation on earth is saying 'the USA is different now and will stab us in the back the first chance it gets so let's sell dollars and us assets.' It won't be the same after this.
The dollar is plunging, for example. In the past, in a crisis the dollar has risen as a safe haven. Now the dollar is flown from.
Without the dollar as the prime currency on earth, we will impoverish ourselves.
Will that capital come back like trump thinks it will? Not all of it. But trump thinks it will.
Other point is war...clearly japan and SK and europe have to go nuclear now and that's terrible, terrible news.
What is clear is that the tariffs have nothing to do with industrial policy. Anyone who knows anything about how to get manufacturing back into the US knows that this is not how you do it.
I do agree that this is a power play by Trump to make every industry beholden to him by forcing them to declare loyalty in exchange for being granted an exception to the tariffs. But I do not think that this was the plan all along. I really do thin that Trump is dumb enough to be 100% bought in on the Great Replacement Theory and sees himself as a semi-messianic figure who can turn the US back to the 1950s (complete with the de jure racism). And Trump spent the last 4 years getting ready to be back in power not by looking at his failures and trying to figure out how to do it better with more competent people at his side. He spent the last 4 years finding the most loyal sycophants that he could and now is surrounded by the most incompetent cabinet in US history.
Also, I think Trump is aware of some fringe benefits to doing this. The most prominent one is his hope to move the US away from a progressive income tax to what is basically a national sales tax in the form of tariffs. Trump thinks that he can win votes if he cuts taxes on tips, SS payments (if there are any SS payments), etc. and has even floated doing that instead of making his tax cuts permanent.
The other fringe benefit is ending the dollar's reign as the world's reserve currency/safe haven. Trump wants to do this because the crypto billionaires want to have crypto take over that role. That is really the only way crypto will have any continued growth as it has failed to become an actual usable alternative to national currencies in international trade due to its volatility.
of course it's industrial policy. Just like the 5 year plans in the USSR were industrial policy. Just like juche in NK is industrial policy.
I think we have to take trump literally.
he literally thinks trade deficits are bad thing and he wants to eliminate them. He thinks that somehow making low margin widgets here will make us ever richer. He thinks our heft as a nation will coerce nations to make stuff here instead of in, say, Vietnam.
He also wants to cut income taxes and replace that income with tariffs as you say.
I'm just repeating the trump platform because I think that's all there is. Nothing more, nothing less. No hidden effort to replace the dollar with crypto.
Is it an overstatement to say that ANY employee that ever says, "We're grateful for our boss' leadership" should be fired by SOMEONE on the spot ? Or maybe at least stoned....a bit?
oh, come now, mr. bond.
be serious.
it's the sheer amount of sack-massage speak. it's practically the right's brand. and it sounds like north korea.
i can barely watch a tv show without noem's commercial coming on, and it's not just let me tell you the policy, it's "thank you......."
y'all do understand you can be a hard worker AND the one who tells the boss the truth, right? and be someone who sees himself as equal enough in the world they would never grovel and debase themselves like this?
i mean, ted cruz. dude clowned on his wife. he would never have my support again. he'd get party line bills.
it's a loyalty cult enforced by public bashing and exile. it's a few steps short of some junta or kremlin.
Maybe I'm slow, but after 10 years of this, those Noem TV commercials STILL managed to surprise me. At least at the end, the first time I saw one. It's an official U.S. government commercial, I think. The U.S. taxpayer PAYING for Kristi to lick Donny's a**. You think they can no longer surprise you, and then.........
What trump does is the complete opposite of capitalism. He weakens the free market between countries, with tariffs he removes the ability for the strongest, smartest and most talented people to make money. Few people get anything positive from it. It is positive for people like musk who no longer have to compete with other car brands as the others will get more expensive due to tariff.
Now we see that China is starting to cooperate with Japan and South Korea- something wrong have never seen before. Asia will get stronger than ever while US weakens itself. Chips etc will be so expensive for US that they will lag behind in technology. I don't understand why trumpists want their country to be weak and ineffective
1) They don't. They are ignorant and have no understanding of the implications of this administration's actions.
2) Something about trans people
The Finns know we're dumb. We just have to help them out understanding JUST HOW dumb.
Trump really thinks we can find millions and millions of workers in America to make shoes and whatnot.
at the same time he is tossing out the people who *would be willimg* to make shoes and whatnot.
“Lutnick is right, we need to get all our grandmas and children to make Nike $NKE shoes in the USA We will need 450,000 workers to hand stitch shoes 17 hours a day Who will volunteer?”
Come on, you’re better than that and have moved the goal posts.
You originally claimed “technically we have sanctions on russia so there is no trade with that country.”
The bolded part is wrong, we absolutely DO have trade with Russia and as cu.ckz points out there are countries we trade with less than Russia but they still had tariffs placed on them.
Eric Trump contradicting the White House that these tariffs are not about negotiating. The grift is not hidden. Why would they?
Eric Trump
@I wouldn’t want to be the last country that tries to negotiate a trade deal with @realDonaldTrump. The first to negotiate will win - the last will absolutely lose. I have seen this movie my entire life…”
Mt. Rushmore of hateable Trumper women: Noem, Gabbard, Leavitt. Who's the 4th? I know ER will go for Hubba (and the other 3 don't want her on there with them).
Trump really thinks we can find millions and millions of workers in America to make shoes and whatnot.
at the same time he is tossing out the people who *would be willimg* to make shoes and whatnot.
“Lutnick is right, we need to get all our grandmas and children to make Nike $NKE shoes in the USA We will need 450,000 workers to hand stitch shoes 17 hours a day Who will volunteer?”
Is cosmetic surgery and dentistry included in the health plan?
If that isn’t the absolute truth, it’s a whole lot closer to it than anyone here can put on the table. No doubt some anti trumper has dig deep into the details, but I don’t pay that close attention. what I do know is that Wharton is top shelf and Trump was on top of that shelf. His delivery you may not like but his knowledge is unmatched.
You aren't just whistling Dixie, Hotyonk. Trump's economic brilliance in un-paralled in common times. Trump is a fiscal sophisticate. He has the rest of the world cowering in fear of his tariffs, while liberals bemoan their precious, elite privileged 401Ks.
Eric Trump contradicting the White House that these tariffs are not about negotiating. The grift is not hidden. Why would they?
Eric Trump
@I wouldn’t want to be the last country that tries to negotiate a trade deal with @realDonaldTrump. The first to negotiate will win - the last will absolutely lose. I have seen this movie my entire life…”
Yeah, Eric, the same impressive movie that included 6 bankruptcies, multiple fraud judgements, etc.
Has there ever been a worse self own than this? And all he had to do was get into office and ride the wave and make some minimal changes to keep his brainless M@GA base happy.