Everyone seems to think they are a horrible idea, but it is hard for me to believe that any politicians would do something that would harm the country with no upside.
Is there any scenario in which these turn out to be good for America?
Everyone seems to think they are a horrible idea, but it is hard for me to believe that any politicians would do something that would harm the country with no upside.
Is there any scenario in which these turn out to be good for America?
Comments
He is literally a fascist Nazi on Putins bankroll, his only goal is to destabilize the US, he does not give one fuck about hurting us, in fact that’s the point
Not an economist, but the most generous interpretation is that he wants to use the tariffs like a tax. Essentially place a heavy sales tax on the American consumer to raise revenue for the government. That combined with DOGE cuts could theoretically offset huge tax cuts for the wealthy without overly increasing the deficit. So no, still not good for America, but maybe good for a few very rich Americans.
Of course, Trump is unlikely to be thinking about it at this level. This may be the strategy of his advisors, or maybe their strategy is simply to cause a recession so the stock market crashes and rich investors can buy the dip. Either way, the only thing that appears to be going on in Trump’s brain personally is “America First, screw those other countries” (because he thinks tariffs are paid by the exporter, when actually they’re paid by the importer).
Raise prices, reduce consumption levels of foreign goods (and domestic goods). Threat of destruction may force foreign countries into more favorable terms (whatever they may be). Betting on foreign economies are more reliant on US and are under greater threat. Game of chicken with the US economy. If foreign countries capitulate (like US tech companies, universities, and law firms), maybe the objective is achieved without much pain to the US economy.
Edit: I am not an economist, I play one in my classroom (I teach business).
https://prospect.org/economy/2025-04-03-theyre-not-tariffs-theyre-sanctions/
He’s trying to bring manufacturing back to the states. Foreign companies like Toyota and Honda have some of their manufacturing here already to avoid the tariffs already in place.
Not an economist. Imagine tariffs like a slider.
If you put it up to infinity percent then basically importation is impossible and literally everything you make has to be done in your own country.
This has the advantage of creating jobs in all the industries that used to be offshore, but also the disadvantage of raising prices a lot and destroying export jobs (assuming other countries retaliate with tariffs).
If you put it down to 0 then that encourages globalisation, meaning that each country specialises in doing only what it is best at and exporting that and importing everything else it needs from other countries.
Globalisation has the advantages of lowering prices due to economies of scale and being a force for peace in the world as countries become reliant on each other.
It has the disadvantages of creating inequality and destroying areas which are no longer competitive, so for instance in the UK and US there are a lot of “rust belt” areas where there used to be heavy industries which moved to China.
The hope of globalists is that you can retrain a coal miner or steel mill worker to be a columist for the New Yorker and everyone can adapt to the new economy.
What happens in reality is that the left behind and forgotten areas tend to stay stuck and become angry and vote in populist leaders who are promising to reverse the changes which have destroyed their areas (which is a valid complaint in general, it was globalist policy that destroyed those industries) and bring back the jobs which were lost.
Trump is literally following the playbook of the movement that brought him to power. Namely that globalisation destroyed a lot of US industries and created left behind areas and just giving those people handouts isn’t enough to restore their pride or future so they vote in a leader who will get those industries back whatever the cost.