Chris Murphy: Trump's tariff policy has nothing to do with trade

[Nevilledog]

https://www.ft.com/content/6d0c25e1-f8e5-43d6-88eb-5587df9f58a1

No paywall link
https://archive.li/ZdgAh

Economists and pundits have spent the last two weeks frantically trying to decode what President Donald Trump’s ultimate aim is with tariffs. Last week’s spectacular flip-flop, in which he paused the majority of them for 90 days, came after the White House had spent days insisting the tariffs were not up for negotiation but were instead a long-term strategy to help revitalise the US industrial base and bring back jobs. However, there is a simple reason that Trump’s shortlived tariffs make little economic sense: they are not designed as economic policy but as a means to compel loyalty to the president.

When combined with smart domestic industrial policy, tariffs can help to protect American jobs and goods. But these chaotically designed blanket global tariffs are not accomplishing anything other than threatening to send prices skyrocketing and destabilising the global economy. This makes sense because Trump’s goal seems to be to impose economic chaos, requiring the leads of industry to come running to him to plead for relief.

According to reports, Trump has acknowledged that he does not mind if his policies cause a recession, so long as they do not lead to a depression. He must not remember the nearly 9mn jobs lost during the Great Recession of 2008 and the 10mn Americans who lost their homes to foreclosure. But these tariffs were never really about helping working people, bringing jobs back to the US or fixing our broken global trading system. The 90-day pause is proof of that.

How many new manufacturing plants or jobs are being created to justify jeopardising Americans’ retirement plans? Which are the 75 countries Trump is negotiating with? Have they offered terms that would serve American workers and not just special interests? Or are these tariffs just about putting US companies in a chokehold until they surrender?

*snip*

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. 75 countries is like his "two weeks". . . . . . . nt

[Walleye]

2. Yes, and deporting people isn't about keeping us "safe"

[unblock]

3. Exactly correct. Eliminate what doesn't make sense; whatever remains, however implausible, must be the truth.

... to paraphrase Sherlock Holmes.

It's getting old hearing all the ways in which Donnie's actions don't make sense. Nearly everything he does makes perfect sense if you recognize that he is a dictator, or at least a nascent dictator, trying to consolidate power and destroy all opposition.

The "revenge" angle in going after columbia or certain law firms is not entirely false, but really off the mark. Revenge is just the pretext, it's the cover story. The real goal there is to intimidate *all* universities and *all* law firms from doing anything that might displease the dictator.

The tariff crap, and in particular all the flip-flopping, is not because Donnie is an idiot about trade; it's because his goal is to show the business community that he can f around with any industry at any time, so again, intimidation. He's training businesses not to cross him lest he suddenly create a specific tariff that costs the offending business billions.

Tired of the media consistently missing the real story in ways that always help enable this dictatorship.