The Financial Times has a good summary of the idiocy of this week’s tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
It’s often exaggerated how much control presidents have over the economy. They get too much credit when times are good (even when it’s a president one likes) and they get too much blame when times are bad (even when it’s a president one dislikes). But handing the power to unilaterally set tariffs to one person has turned out to be a catastrophe, and when the inflation and recession come, for once the blame really will belong squarely in the Oval Office.
And this is worse than Donald Trump merely being economically illiterate. We knew that. He’s hardly the only politician who is, usually we can survive that. But that he would implement such an embarrassingly incompetent plan shows that not only is he clueless, he also doesn’t listen to anyone around him who might be able to warn him about the consequences of his idiotic policies.
The focus on trade bilateral trade deficits really highlights this, because it has all the sophistication of being outraged at the grocery store because you buy so much from them and they don’t buy anything from you in return.
If it weren’t so sad, it would be funny that he’s even got his administration referring to this as “Liberation Day”. He said it will be a day we remember, and that much is probably true, although it will be in the way that we remember the Smoot-Hawley tariffs. Former Trump staffer Anthony Scaramucci was right to refer to this as “Liquidation Day”, because that’s what we’re going to see happen to businesses in the US and beyond.
Anyway, buckle up. Trump’s slamming on the brakes of the economy and he’s going to take the whole world with him.