I agree that an announcement of a deal spikes the S&P halfway to the moon. The problem with that thought: it presumes Trump wants even a vaguely reasonable deal. He doesn’t. He wants something that humiliates others for as much personal gain as he can get. The EU could propose 20% subsidies on all American products and Trump would ask for 25% and a 60% cut of that subsidy. And, he’d probably ask for some city where he had a bad experience to have 100% subsidies and pay 75% of its tax revenue.
None of this is about logic. It’s about vengeance from someone who has less than a 1st-grade understanding of the world, who is highly susceptible to manipulation and who’s obsessed with wealth and ego, both his and everyone else’s. Operate within those constraints, and you get a better idea - which is to say, “none at all” - of what he’s thinking and what to expect from him.
A party largely built on, “If the bad thing isn’t happening to me, it’s not important or isn’t real” elected the living perfection of that ideal and is surprised when he’s unconcerned about bad things happening to other people.
His fans don’t understand that the two are incompatible so he keeps on mentioning it.
Personally, I think that as long as Trump keeps hurting the people they do not like, they will continue to support him, even if they are all made poorer.
In a move seen as cushioning the impact from U.S. trade policy, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has cancelled orders that originate from China and Southeast Asian countries, leaving certain vendors on the hook with unsold inventory.
Anecdote time. I have a friend from HS who is pretty far right. He listens to about 90% of Joe Rogan’s shows in their entirety. He’s all bought in that most countries have just been screwing us for years and need to be punished.
When I told him that going this hard at tariffs puts at a high risk for recession and he said ‘I don’t buy that at all.’ I can’t even get him to admit that tariffs are inflationary. FFS.
You know if that had been a move down, everything would have shut off and all the “experts” would be begging for bans on short-selling. It’s a move up, though, so it’s all OK and we should go order the hemisphere’s supply of gasoline and pour it on the fire.
Presumably this only applies to the latest reciprocal tariffs that Mexico and Canada were exempted from? The previous global tariffs on steel, aluminum and automobiles are still in place in addition to the “border security” tariffs on Canada and Mexico?
