Trump’s heart may be in the right place when he plays hardball with our trading partners, but he left little doubt on Wednesday that his brain is out to lunch on tariff math. His notion that revenues from sizable new import levies could pay off the national debt is as pernicious and lacking in common sense as Alan Greenspan’s statement that inflated home values constitute ‘wealth’. The Fed chairman has a PhD in economics, so it’s understandable why he would make such a ridiculous statement (along with another that purported to describe a U.S. capital investment boom at a time when household savings growth was in fact negative). But Trump is a businessman and therefore supposedly able to do the math.
33% Tariff on All Imports Would ‘Work’
Instead, the hard left and its flagship newspaper, the New York Times, did it for him, making him look like a yokel. The Times estimated that even if much higher import duties had no effect on U.S. consumers’ appetite for foreign goods, the extra revenues would not begin to produce a budget surplus large enough to pay off a national debt currently at $21 trillion and slated to grow by $800 billion in 2018. To merely offset the latter sum via trade policy alone, noted the Times, Trump “would need to impose a more-than 33 percent tariff on $2.34 trillion in imports — which is to say, every single good the United States imported last year.”
Numbers aside, only the economically benighted could want to see the U.S. Government running huge surpluses, since that would be tantamount to socking the private sector with huge new taxes. Most of it would be a direct offset against consumption — if not dollar for dollar, then by at least enough to put the U.S. economy in deep recession. One hopes Trump was just shooting off his mouth, since if he’s serious, his take on the use of tariffs is the most deflationary idea ever put forth by an American president.
President Trump is about the same as all leaders, any ideas are equally the same.
To observe Trump just observe as to ‘what persons have done’ not what they say.
You don’t build a high rise in NYC without knowing the pay off game and process, government officers, made men and have continue redirection of the observing law. He is a master of the old con a ‘Sneaky Pete’ beyond all one could image, his understanding of tactics and strategies are just that to achieve what needs to be done.
When the Atlantic City (AC) idea came around for gambling he was the leader of the pack, suggesting to rebuilt the city and to help all those living there with a better rise in the American life, sounds familiar. Education would now be solve in AC as profits from casino’s would be there to overhaul the city debt problems.
What took place was the raping of another American way of life by way of the card trick, building extreme debt levels even higher, done only to move toward the intended bust to hide all things gone astray. AC’s bust was Trump’s bust and he did not pay or even mention any of his owed debts to others. Just pack up and left the hero way allowing all those to hold the bag of whims, of course all done with that so call legal pen of action of the America business man.
As, Obama the great black hope so goes Trump path ahead of him, markets and nations adjust by way of persons behavior patterns and nothing more. And, the very fact we have had such poor leadership from the past ‘several’ leaders suggests this adjustment will not be an easy one. Reagan was the master of them all, talk with a ‘forked tongue’ about how bad large government is and while suggesting it created the largest government in human history had ever known. I saw that eye to eye when on the NYSE floor the day he arrived, being the 1st ever President to set foot on it, suggesting the fix was in and started full steam ahead.
One and many talk about the lasting rep of the Great John Law, that maybe Greenspan was his incarnation, well then…Trump came along.
Beware always as to where one looks for the ones that walk the righteous path, it seldom ever comes from those that have walked a path of creating poor, bad, and evil deeds of the said life of the past.
The nation of America is ‘beside’ themselves with ‘hope’ which will receive none, they seek justice as justice is by way of those that follow not lead, they seek truth, which is only a perception.
Have a great day Rick.
One’s civic duty is to hold and preserve ‘the process’, this is done by supporting the persons of the process. Once the people have spoken conflict is to abide itself in moving to support leadership. No one should ever support ‘failure’ towards an elected leader of the people. Doing so suggest that the ‘process’ of our government is failing.
It’s not the agreement or disagreement of ideology that is important by an elected leader, it is the agreement that the people move with a single hand of action. This can only be done though support; once that support is lost so is the ‘process’.
No one person in American government can hold the absolute power — we are not created as such and we do not do as such. We support and we act and believe in change forthcoming: another election will take place and the people will speak again. The American flag is a civil rights flag and in fact the only of all 200 odd nation states in the world, it is the freedom of ‘support’ that is solely given to our leaders to lead towards change that is the flag itself.
The change that has taken place is a generational turn, many traders/investors have never seen a global turn in how ‘globalization’ is turned off — in fact they cannot even think it can be turned off; it can and it is. They are in an array of confusion and cannot understand or see how the affects of the turn are going to affect all things. This is the real move of change and in time will be seen though changing prices of all markets. It has taken place before and as then at first it is deny. Trump is not the keeper of the gate in this turn he is of the ‘old guard’ not the new and what many see of his turn is just by way of himself observing an opportunity to be remember.
All President’s have an ingrained goal, and that is to be ‘remembered in history’ — at any cost.