Another take on tariffs

[Econ4every1]

Here is my take on what the people who developed the tariff plan that Trump is running have planned.

I think that they want to bully the world into a world order with the US at the top. Tariffs are a way to inflict pain on every other nation of the world in order to increase US negotiating power.

I think that the US military will be offered as a protection racket to nations that agree to become vassal states of the US.

Other nations demonstrate their fealty by manipulating their own currencies to make buying goods more expensive in their nations in hope that this will create more markets for US exporters (ostensibly to lower the US trade deficit). Agree to be one of these nations and you get the privilege of selling to US markets, the largest in the world (at least at time of writing).

This strategy would normally result in the reduction of US reserves held abroad, but if you want access to US markets and military protection, you're nation (if you aren't from the US) will need to play ball and do what's good for the US first.


In summery, America will abandon any pretense of moral leadership in the world and demand that it be treated special and treat everyone else unfairly.

In reality this plan isn't as crazy as it seems. I say that trying to view this objectively. I don't agree with it, I think it will result in many unintended consequences, but if done right it is a way for the US to create a new shift that would have had some positives. But, like most of the things that Trump does, he can't help himself because this was never about shifting the global order, it was about hurting other nations and enjoying the power that comes from it

The plan requires trust and cooperation. It required a very slow roll out and negotiation. Trump took a viable plan (again, not that I think it was a good plan, just a viable one) and pooched it, badly. He'll hurt most of the people in this country, and countless people throughout the world and trust in the US will plumet and generations of American's will pay the price.

The upshot is that there is likely to be a sweeping rebuke within the US, so maybe there is some good that can come out of this? Maybe?

Europe will realize that it needs to be more self-reliant militarily will will have the unintended consequence of decreasing US military dominance as the weapons we create today require a large export market and huge scale to pay for the eye watering costs of our most sophisticated programs, programs that will be severely diminished over the next 20 years.

 

[Mr Person]

We already had tremendous geopolitical power through our military and economic ties. Trump is burning it all. Trump is ****ing stupid and/or intentionally wrecking American power.

The plan is exactly as crazy as it sounds. He's not bringing back some golden age of manufacturing. And whatever 'wins' you put in terms of his stated goals, the costs are infinitely more.

Thankfully, the trend of posters who put lofty things in their account name but post the opposite continues...

 

[Lursa]

Here is my take on what the people who developed the tariff plan that Trump is running have planned.

I think that they want to bully the world into a world order with the US at the top. Tariffs are a way to inflict pain on every other nation of the world in order to increase US negotiating power.

I think that the US military will be offered as a protection racket to nations that agree to become vassal states of the US.

Other nations demonstrate their fealty by manipulating their own currencies to make buying goods more expensive in their nations in hope that this will create more markets for US exporters (ostensibly to lower the US trade deficit). Agree to be one of these nations and you get the privilege of selling to US markets, the largest in the world (at least at time of writing).

This strategy would normally result in the reduction of US reserves held abroad, but if you want access to US markets and military protection, you're nation (if you aren't from the US) will need to play ball and do what's good for the US first.


In summery, America will abandon any pretense of moral leadership in the world and demand that it be treated special and treat everyone else unfairly.

In reality this plan isn't as crazy as it seems. I say that trying to view this objectively. I don't agree with it, I think it will result in many unintended consequences, but if done right it is a way for the US to create a new shift that would have had some positives. But, like most of the things that Trump does, he can't help himself because this was never about shifting the global order, it was about hurting other nations and enjoying the power that comes from it

The plan requires trust and cooperation. It required a very slow roll out and negotiation. Trump took a viable plan (again, not that I think it was a good plan, just a viable one) and pooched it, badly. He'll hurt most of the people in this country, and countless people throughout the world and trust in the US will plumet and generations of American's will pay the price.

The upshot is that there is likely to be a sweeping rebuke within the US, so maybe there is some good that can come out of this? Maybe?

Europe will realize that it needs to be more self-reliant militarily will will have the unintended consequence of decreasing US military dominance as the weapons we create today require a large export market and huge scale to pay for the eye watering costs of our most sophisticated programs, programs that will be severely diminished over the next 20 years.

Having the clout of the mammoth US economy behind him…which he did not build…allows him to be a bully and as said in the video…this administration is "trading only on their own preferred terms." This makes mango MAGAt magnet feel big and powerful…he doesn’t care about the impacts on other nations or his own citizens. He just likes having that power.

 

[SkyChief]

Here is my take on what the people who developed the tariff plan that Trump is running have planned.

I think that they want to bully the world into a world order with the US at the top. Tariffs are a way to inflict pain on every other nation of the world in order to increase US negotiating power.

Good lord - that's not what tariffs are intended to do. The pain from tariffs will be felt by American consumers - not other nations.

In summery, America will abandon any pretense of moral leadership in the world and demand that it be treated special and treat everyone else unfairly.

America is not the world's policeman.

"America is not the world's policeman. Terrible things happen across the globe, and it is beyond our means to right every wrong."

- Barack Obama

People need to stop thinking that America has some obligation to fix everything for everyone.

The plan requires trust and cooperation. It required a very slow roll out and negotiation. Trump took a viable plan (again, not that I think it was a good plan, just a viable one) and pooched it, badly. He'll hurt most of the people in this country, and countless people throughout the world and trust in the US will plumet and generations of American's will pay the price.

Trump said there would be some "pain":

"Will there be some pain? Yes. But we will make America great again, and it will all be worth the price that must be paid."

The upshot is that there is likely to be a sweeping rebuke within the US, so maybe there is some good that can come out of this? Maybe?

Europe will realize that it needs to be more self-reliant militarily will have the unintended consequence of decreasing US military dominance as the weapons we create today require a large export market and huge scale to pay for the eye watering costs of our most sophisticated programs, programs that will be severely diminished over the next 20 years.

Agree 100% Europe needs to become self-reliant militarily.

 

[Econ4every1]

Good lord - that's not what tariffs are intended to do. The pain from tariffs will be felt by American consumers - not other nations.

Do you know what the trade defect is?

America is not the world's policeman.

There is no comparison between a policeman and what the American military does.

People need to stop thinking that America has some obligation to fix everything for everyone.

"Obligation" is not what motivates the US to deploy its military.

Trump said there would be some "pain":

First, did he say that before he got elected?

Next, how much pain?
For whom?
For how long?

Agree 100% Europe needs to become self-reliant militarily.

At the cost of our own dominance.