A pretty cool read about Trump administration’s strategic goals. So if I understand correct, the tariff policies are not just about reducing trade deficits but are part of a broader economic plan to reshape the global financial system. With tariffs the US and A could force foreign central banks and governments to adjust their policies in order to ultimately devalue the USD to boost US manufacturing (at the expense of Wall Street and likely decreased geopolitical influence).
short term it is painful. i almost hate trump for it and regret voting for him,
but the truth is, this is waht we need to do to be competitive. plus we have all the wealth.
if we cut our spending we are really just causing havoc in other coutnries that are dependent on us and the higher process will make our people save more and stop this consumerism ideology.
this tariff though will make the fed more cautious in lowering rates. trump will ultimately force the fed between unemployment or inflation. if i was a gambling man, the fed will choose to save the unemployed and risk stagflation rather than super high unemployment.
in any case. trump will b eable to replace the fed in 2 years. if powell doesnt do what he wants him to do. he’ll be replaced with a more dovish fed than will be biased to trump.
It’s definitely an interesting time to be alive. The US and China are moving along the steps of Thucydides Trap and someone could say there’s already a war going on. Trump’s plan is part of this war. Structurally the matchup is pretty even imo: the US is energy independent while China has massive advantage in rare minerals. Technologically China is already ahead in some areas while the US controls financial flows and the dollar system. Military wise US is superior but China is taking huge steps and catching up. Soon they might rival US’s naval powers. Geography is on China’s side and their Belt and Road initiative is a economic superweapon.
Howard Lutnick (CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and Commerce Secretary) on the birth of DOGE:
So I’m in the car with him [Trump]… And I said, “We’re going to balance the budget.” And I said, "I
have one favor to ask of you If we can balance the budget for you - will you agree to waive all
income tax for every person who makes less than $150,000 a year for the United States of America,
which by the way is about 85% of America.
And the reason you want to work for Donald Trump is he looks at me, he goes, “Sure.” You realize
the president of the United States said, “If you balance the budget, sure.” And he’s not lying. He’s
not kidding. He’s like, “Yeah that seems that seems like a great idea.” Right and so and then I tell
him “Okay I’m going to go recruit Elon because Elon’s all in…”
When was this? Didn’t in his first term Trump give permanent tax cuts to the higher income deciles while the middle class got temporary cuts? Not sure if I remember that correctly.
I think it dropped March 20 of this year. It’s a podcast.
Trump 2.0 is a lot more Trumpian than Trump 1.0 was.
There’s an old expression, `Personnel is Policy.’
President Trump said on Joe Rogan (another podcast) during the campaign that the biggest mistake of his first term was hiring disloyal people, singling out neocons.
In part that was probably due to turtle controlling the Senate and refusing to take up confirmation hearings for nominees he (turtle) didn’t like.
Trump 2.0 is a lot more like what we were hoping for the first time round.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is on another episode of the podcast Secretary Lutnick was on,
The fake news WaPo used to proclaim that Democracy dies in darkness.
Trump 2.0 has been more open with the media than any administration I can remember.
edit: added:
if 3% of US trade runs through the Suez while 40% of European trade does, they have a point: why aren’t the Europeans doing the heavy lifting here instead of the US?
