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Andrew Tobias
Andrew Tobias

Money and Other Subjects

Fareed Makes Everything Clear

April 6, 2025

Chris Murph says Trump’s tariffs are another tool for staying in power forever.  Watch (2 minutes).

I think he’s right but note that Trump’s tariff-philia pre-dates his megalomania.

One of the few things he’s been consistent about throughout his life, along with his discomfort with non-whites, be they tenants or generals — is tariffs.

Not least because he remembers reading (hearing?) about a time when there was no income tax, just tariffs.

Fareed Zakaria explains:


The real economic story of the past three decades is that the United States has surged ahead of all its major competitors. In 2008, the U.S. economy was about the same size as the euro zone’s; now, it is nearly twice the size. In 1990, average U.S. wages were about 20 percent greater than the overall average in the advanced industrial world; they are now about 40 percent higher. In 1995, a Japanese person was 50 percent richer than an American in terms of GDP per capita; today, an American is about 150 percent richer than a Japanese person. In fact, the poorest American state, Mississippi, has a higher per capita GDP than Britain, France or Japan.

And yet Trump has been convinced that through all these decades, America is actually in steep decline. 

. . .

But while America is the world’s dominant power, it is not so strong that it can act this irrationally. The world economy has grown to a size and scale that it will find ways around American protectionism, which is now among the world’s most egregious. Contrary to Trump’s stubborn beliefs, the United States was in fact already somewhat protectionist, with tariff and nontariff trade barriers greater than in 68 other countries. With these new tariffs, American protectionism is off the charts, with higher rates than the Smoot-Hawley ones of 1930 that exacerbated the Great Depression. In the short run, everyone will suffer. But in the medium to long run, countries will start trading around the United States.

China will clearly be the big winner in this new world economy because it will position itself as the new center of trade. Add to this Trump’s hostility toward America’s closest allies, and you will likely see Europe, Canada and even some of America’s Asian allies find a way to work with China.

Trump’s nostalgic worldview is rooted even further back than the 1960s. He looks fondly on the late 19th century, when, as he described this week, the United States had only tariffs and no income tax, and America was stronger economically than it has ever been compared with the rest of the world. This history is nonsense. In 1900, the United States accounted for about 16 percent of the global economy by one measure; it is now about 26 percent of it. Americans’ standards of living and health are much higher today.

But in acting out on his nostalgic fantasy, Trump might well end up dragging America back to what it was then: a poorer country, dominated by oligarchs and corruption, content to swagger around its backyard and bully its neighbors but marginal to the great currents of global economics and politics.


Is this what his fans voted for?  He promised to lower prices on day one.  Who knew he meant stock prices?




At least someone’s doing well:  Trump Family’s Cash Registers Ring as Financial Meltdown Plays Out.




Tony S.: “The New York City protest was huge.  It stretched nearly 40 blocks. The Times should have led with it.  Instead, there was a photo below the fold, with the story — Mass Protests Across the Country Show Resistance to Trump — on page A18.”

Kristina M.: “I saw these as I was scrolling through photos from various cities.  The first is from a member of a group called Dentists for Democracy:

Fight Truth Decay – No more lies or democracy dies.

“And this one:

They’re eating the checks!  They’re eating the balances!

“And for Youngblood fans, this one . . .

. . . which can be sung while marching.”

 

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