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This """liberation day""" singlehandedly made me come here to check if anyone posted about it on SS because this is affecting everyone's financial futures with 401ks evaporating into thin air from the sell-off, as major indices have not dropped this much in a day since 2020 (but congrats to the put-holders and short-sellers). I know some people will say "zoom out" or "we'll bounce back eventually like we always have," and I don't even disagree with those points, but other economic crises have had complex factors leading up to them, while this was entirely avoidable and self-inflicted. We can't necessarily predict the future, but there's a good chance this isn't the bottom yet, so be wary of catching falling knives. Seriously, the stock market was one of the the greatest ways to generate wealth because getting rich off W2 income is laughable, but I guess that gravy train has ended for now. I'd rather die than be poor forever, because there's no point in life if you're not rich, plain and simple.
Okay also to answer your questions, I did hear the theory about how he and his acquaintances are engaging in insider trading, or he's planning on tanking the economy so that people with cash reserves can buy everything at a discount after the collapse, but honestly who knows what he's really planning. The fact of the matter is that most economists are decrying these tariffs, and 99% of the US population will bear the brunt of the damage.
The mass of people always feel economic issues. Cheap home loans to people who can't afford them by those knowing this, free trade deals that wipe out manufacturing, sending white collar jobs overseas all effect those on the low end. Each president has had their own economic theory and it's more than one thing that effect it, although its always pinned on one person. I doubt it is an evil genius plan to create a whole population of poor. It may turn out bad or good but it's too early to tell. I've heard economists say that a deficit is just fine, so I take their views with grains of salt.
I agree that in many situations people are quick to blame economic turmoil on the president without considering macroeconomic conditions. Even the Federal Reserve usually has more of an influence, as the committee decides interest rates to maintain acceptable levels of inflation and unemployment, two important factors that determine economic health. However, the indices (and the stocks within them) dropped in real time during mango man's after hours tariff rate announcement--it was blood red as soon as that chart was brought out, so that drop was very much solely his fault.
Although we will have to wait to observe the long term effects (if the tariffs are truly implemented), and past performance does not guarantee future results, it is important to note that the Smoot-Hawley tariffs are already an example of a similar policy, and they were widely blamed for worsening the Great Depression, so forward-looking markets are already bracing for impact. Furthermore, a trade deficit by definition is when a country imports more goods than they export, and this is more than reasonable for certain nations; the benefit is that overseas production results in cheaper goods delivered to the U.S. so that businesses increase their gross margins and post record profits, causing stock prices to rise.
He's counting on giving them "a taste of their own medicine" getting everyone else to fold. If it works, Libertarian high-fives everywhere. Should it fail, will he change course before a complete economic collapse?
Basically that other countries are screwing over the US by selling us products, that trade deficits are inherently bad (it just means we have the money to buy products and do so completely voluntarily), that trade in general is bad, and that there are no mutually beneficial relationships. The formula used to calculate the "reciprocal" tariffs was (trade deficit / imports) which has nothing to do with tariffs at all and is a nonsensical, made up metric that defies all reason and actually has me questioning reality.
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