Summary
U.S. CEOs and business executives are alarmed as Donald Trump remains firm on imposing high tariffs on U.S. allies, despite warnings from economists about potential economic harm.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump’s late-night social media announcements have blindsided both his advisers and business leaders, leaving them scrambling to react.
While Trump consults some advisers, like Marco Rubio and Treasury pick Scott Bessent, his unilateral approach limits their influence.
The uncertainty has left business leaders struggling to find ways to alter his stance on trade policies.
Nobody in the US is going to be making money when everyone else calls Trump’s bluff and slaps a 200 percent exit tariff on goods to the US.
So a 1,000 dollar item will be 3,000 dollars when it hits US Customs and jump to 6,000 there because of Trump’s import tariffs. They can support that all day long because they just hand the money straight back to their domestic company. As far as they’re concerned they made a 3,000 dollar sale.
You might think we could just do without and use domestic manufacturing. But not only have we fucked domestic manufacturing in so many ways, this will apply to our food imports as well. So it’s not like we can just refuse to pay.
As much as the farm subsidies have been criticized, literally starving isn’t something we should have to worry much about.
Food we can do domestically just fine, as long as you don’t care about coffee and tea. Even those I just expect we’re going to make existing grounds/leaves stretch a whole lot farther.
I don’t think it’ll be as bad as some of Russia’s hard times, but goddamn is that a long, long way to fall.
I’m more concerned about world politics. We’re going to cede a hell of a lot of control of the world to Russia and China. It’s likely that China claims an entire vertical slice of the Earth, standing in the way of a good chunk of world trade.
Categorically false.
Manufacturers will not make money. Importers will not make money.
Owners WILL make money. Mark my words.
The owners of what? Everything in the US is going to skyrocket in price. If they’re a domestic company then their inputs are going to kill them.
The Peter Theils, the Blackrocks, various equity firms.
Just like wall street doesn’t mirror main street, crashing economies can be quite profitable if you’re in the right industry.
I see you’re talking about them buying everything they can. That’s going to be kind of hard when the stock market crashes though. While it can remain irrational, it cannot ignore companies collapsing.
John Pauson, Pauson & Co.
Made billions during '07-08