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Malta, Illinois | This thing can be read so many different ways to suit whatever your bias is. Personally I believe that long term tariffs were and are still part of Trump's plan. I didn't say it was a good plan but I think it was planned to be a little longer term than a few days. There were no signs of mass capitulation by these 70 countries. There really wasn't enough time for there to have been substantive discussions between representatives of the US and all of the other countries. It certainly looks like he was swayed by the big money people behind the scenes who put out the distress call to the WH over the collapse of the bond market. He can say that other countries were calling him, kissing his ass, and begging for mercy but I think that is a pretty far fetched tale. Now, to be clear I do believe that many of those 70 countries will ultimately knuckle under to some extent and cut some meaningless trade deals with the US. Some of them will have no choice but I don't believe that happened over the course of a couple of days. Trump was under pressure from the big money crowd to stop the bleeding. It has been reduced at least temporarily but now we wait to see what Trump's next move will be. It is only a 90 day pause so we could be right back to square one in 90 days. Meanwhile we will engage in the standoff with China. China is talking pretty tough saying that they will not negotiate but in the end someone will have to blink and I don't believe it will be the US. Time will tell. What strikes me as I read all of the different takes on this latest move is that the US is losing a lot of credibility on the world stage. This stunt of on again off again tariffs is not scaring anyone. We will be perceived a The Boy Who Cried Wolf eventually. | |
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