USA Politics

____no5 said:
According to Yanis Varoufakis there's a method behind the madness, 4:15
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The keyword here isn't method, but madness. There is almost always some kind of method behind every act committed throughout history. It doesn't make it rational and it certainly isn't a marker for lucidity.

... And besides, Scott Bessent isn't one of the guys pushing big, all-encompassing tariffs. Lutnick and Navarro are.
 
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Could be. I’m not too familiar. On the surface it seems like a very bold, risky & irrational bet.

I hear all kinds of doom predictions but we need to see how it would play out. Historically with great disruptions come great opportunities too. I’m sure some countries will benefit in the end, remaining to see which.
 
You've got China, Japan and South Korea agreeing to cooperation against the United States's tariff push. Knowing those countries respective histories with each other, that's massive. The first Trump administration pushed tariffs against China and blew a gigantic hole in the US's agricultural sector. All China had to do was import their crops (namely soybeans, the US's #1 agricultural export) from other markets such as Brazil. They still get their product, and American farmers lose clientele. US taxpayer as a whole was on the hook for it as farmers received a massive bailout. (Something that's already been put on the table for them again in this second administration.) Canada is another country that has already announced they're diversifying their trade and looking elsewhere besides the US.

I fail to see the supposed hidden genius of this when the implementation was done so haphazardly that tariffs were announced on uninhabited islands and islands where the only population is a US military base. The tariff rate calculation was performed by AI. There's no grand strategy.
 
Yeah, this could work in favour of the US if there were continuity, say a few administrations one after the other support and build on that but it seems to me impossible that this will continue after Trump. It looks like gambling than anything else.
 
____no5 said:
Yeah, this could work in favour of the US if there were continuity, say a few administrations one after the other support and build on that but it seems to me impossible that this will continue after Trump. It looks like gambling than anything else.
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Because it's hideously dumb policy. Please explain how it would work in the US's favor.
 
Flaming Blimp Crash said:
Because it's hideously dumb policy. Please explain how it would work in the US's favor.
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I don’t think it would in the US’s favor in the short term.
Onhell’s video above explains the concept. The way I understand it is that Trump is a huge admirer of the manufacturing powerhouse US used to be and he believes that tariffs would help steer there.
I believe tariffs could help get there, but not in 4 years, not in even 10. Getting US to what it was after WWII you’d probably need a good 15 years. And you’d need further investments on education, training, infrastructure etc.

Additional explanation below. To be clear, I’m not sold on Trump’s tariffs, AT ALL, just trying to understand what’s the logic behind, and there should be one.

 
The US's manufacturing dominance after World War II? The infrastructure of the country was intact in comparison to Europe and Asia being ravaged by war on their soil. With that, the US had the head start of head starts to keep building its post-war economy. The external factors then compared to now? A completely different planet.
 
Flaming Blimp Crash said:
The US's manufacturing dominance after World War II? The infrastructure of the country was intact in comparison to Europe and Asia being ravaged by war on their soil. With that, the US had the head start of head starts to keep building its post-war economy. The external factors then compared to now? A completely different planet.
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Not to mention that his obsession with manufacturing ignores domestic and global factors that lead to outsourcing and moving from an industrial economy to a service economy.

The idea that this will somehow HELP the US is beyond ludicrous. The fact that he's deporting undocumented, documented as well as legal residents and the not so odd actual citizen is already hurting the economy, and has seen stunts like the one in Florida where they are floating the idea of relaxing child labor laws to fill the gap once done by migrants. This proves the idea that if you kick people out the ones here will jump at the chance to fill said jobs false.

On the other hand, somehow, since January there have been 300k+ jobs created....
 
Trump's decisions seem irrational and mad only if you believe he's making them in the interest of the American people, or even its economy. Trump is only acting in his own interest here.
 
Perun said:
Trump's decisions seem irrational and mad only if you believe he's making them in the interest of the American people, or even its economy. Trump is only acting in his own interest here.
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Not just his, there is a small gang of elites who are "advising" him on said upending of the current economic status quo.
 
This would be easily traceable and criminal to treasonous level. But nevertheless there’s something unconvincing in this argument. He keeps preaching tariffs for 40 years… And US isn’t any banana republic. There are checks, balances and serious institutions. Without a genuine motive this wouldn’t fly.
 
Checks and balances? :applause: He had turned the damn WH easter reception into a way to get personal donations. He is stacking institutions with loyalists and clamping down on the judiciary. The House talked about gutting funding to keep courts from hearing cases challenging the Administration.
 
Yes, I agree, it’s ugly and worrisome, but tanking his country or world economy for personal enrichment, with his loyalists knowing and supporting that, is altogether another level. We aren’t there yet.
 
____no5 said:
Yes, I agree, it’s ugly and worrisome, but tanking his country or world economy for personal enrichment, with his loyalists knowing and supporting that, is altogether another level. We aren’t there yet.
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His loyalists implies they'd be loyal to him and not the country or world economy. Which is the point of appointing loyalists.
 
Flaming Blimp Crash said:
His loyalists implies they'd be loyal to him and not the country or world economy. Which is the point of appointing loyalists.
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That would apply to a 10th rate banana republic or deep dictatorship, but we are talking about the strongest democracy in the world.
I agree 100% that the loyalists turn the blind eye when it comes to first amendment or bypassing congress for tariffs, but this is one thing and be accomplices to high treason, another.

They are delusional enough to believe that they will balance manufacturing prowess of China in a mere couple of years, Bessent says exactly that in the interview I posted above.

Also it’s 40 years Trump praises tariffs, before he even have remotely any shot to presidency. He lives in the past, a devoted McKinley admirer and all.

No doubt that he will try to enrich himself as a side-project, but there’s enough evidence that he believes his delusions.
 
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