A Day Late and a Dollar Short
April 3, 2025 9:06 AM Subscribe
"This might be the single stupidest thing any of us will ever see. It is stupid in every way: presentationally, intellectually, politically, methodologically, morally and of course economically. The word stupid doesn’t really suffice for the full level of idiocy we’ve now reached. It’s as if we’ve attained a new state of human mindlessness, a kind of species milestone." Ian Dunt in The i Paper (archive) on today's developments.
"There can be no logic-washing of Donald Trump’s tariffs. This isn’t part of a carefully-designed industrial policy or a cunning strategy to induce compliance among trading partners or a choreographed appearance of chaos to scare other governments into obedience. It’s wildly destructive stupidity, and the generations of American, and particularly Republican politicians, who allowed things to slide to this point are collectively to blame." Alan Beattie in The Financial Times (archive).
See also: two covers of The Economist, 22 weeks apart.
Yes, it's time for some post-Liberation Day Trump tariffs analysis. Links to columns from countries where observers can write without fear of being disappeared especially welcome.
"There can be no logic-washing of Donald Trump’s tariffs. This isn’t part of a carefully-designed industrial policy or a cunning strategy to induce compliance among trading partners or a choreographed appearance of chaos to scare other governments into obedience. It’s wildly destructive stupidity, and the generations of American, and particularly Republican politicians, who allowed things to slide to this point are collectively to blame." Alan Beattie in The Financial Times (archive).
See also: two covers of The Economist, 22 weeks apart.
Yes, it's time for some post-Liberation Day Trump tariffs analysis. Links to columns from countries where observers can write without fear of being disappeared especially welcome.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Double. There's another thread already going here -- loup
Congrats, America, your sitting president just punched the country in the junk repeatedly and told you it was everyone else's fault
posted by Kitteh at 9:10 AM on April 3 [7 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 9:10 AM on April 3 [7 favorites]
Should this maybe be conflated with the post above?....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:23 AM on April 3
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:23 AM on April 3
Seriously, read Dunt's account of how they calculated the "reciprocal" tariffs. It's utterly insane.
As a (probably intentional) side effect, it punishes poor countries the most: the ones whose own people can't afford to buy US-manufactured goods, but who export raw materials to the US and/or have become sites of offshore tech manufacturing. Hence the 46% tariff on Vietnam. If you're in the US, hope you've set aside some extra bucks for the Switch 2.
(I'm not gloating, I feel awful for you guys for the inflation you're about to see, but it's not like the entire rest of the world isn't about to be hammered by this as well. Even uninhabited sub-Antarctic islands.)
posted by rory at 9:24 AM on April 3 [4 favorites]
As a (probably intentional) side effect, it punishes poor countries the most: the ones whose own people can't afford to buy US-manufactured goods, but who export raw materials to the US and/or have become sites of offshore tech manufacturing. Hence the 46% tariff on Vietnam. If you're in the US, hope you've set aside some extra bucks for the Switch 2.
(I'm not gloating, I feel awful for you guys for the inflation you're about to see, but it's not like the entire rest of the world isn't about to be hammered by this as well. Even uninhabited sub-Antarctic islands.)
posted by rory at 9:24 AM on April 3 [4 favorites]
Should this maybe be conflated with the post above?....
Hm.
While Rhaomi has undoubtedly done a more comprehensive job of gathering links, I reckon you can't go past the pull quote on this one.
However, this thread has a 600% Links Trade Deficit with the other, so I agree that reciprocal measures probably await.
posted by rory at 9:34 AM on April 3 [5 favorites]
Hm.
While Rhaomi has undoubtedly done a more comprehensive job of gathering links, I reckon you can't go past the pull quote on this one.
However, this thread has a 600% Links Trade Deficit with the other, so I agree that reciprocal measures probably await.
posted by rory at 9:34 AM on April 3 [5 favorites]
This might be the single stupidest thing any of us will ever see.
Nonsense. If this government’s seemingly inexhaustible stupid reserves ever run low they will be fracking for stupid in seconds.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 9:45 AM on April 3 [5 favorites]
Nonsense. If this government’s seemingly inexhaustible stupid reserves ever run low they will be fracking for stupid in seconds.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 9:45 AM on April 3 [5 favorites]
Hey loup, it already had the USPolitics tag... I was thinking rather that we delete this one to focus discussion on Rhaomi's newer thread, where most of it is going already.
posted by rory at 9:53 AM on April 3 [3 favorites]
posted by rory at 9:53 AM on April 3 [3 favorites]
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posted by rory at 9:08 AM on April 3