Donald Trump just imposed a 25 percent tariff on virtually all goods produced by America’s two largest trading partners — Canada and Mexico. He simultaneously established a 20 percent across-the-board tariff on Chinese goods.
As a result, America’s average tariff level is now higher than at any time since the 1940s.
Meanwhile, China and Canada immediately retaliated against Trump’s duties, with the former imposing a 15 percent tariff on American agricultural products and the latter putting a 25 percent tariff on $30 billion of US goods. Mexico has vowed to mount retaliatory tariffs of its own.
This trade war could have far-reaching consequences. Trump’s tariffs have already triggered a stock market sell-off and cooling of manufacturing activity. And economists have estimated that the trade policy will cost the typical US household more than $1,200 a year, as the prices of myriad goods rise.
All this raises the question: Why has the US president chosen to upend trade relations on the North American continent? The stakes of this question are high, since it could determine how long Trump’s massive tariffs remain in effect. Unfortunately, the president himself does not seem to know the answer.
In recent weeks, Trump has provided five different — and contradictory — justifications for his tariffs on Mexico and Canada…
…more in the article.
I never liked that many seem to be of the idea that Trump is an absolute buffoon who doesn’t know what he is doing. He and his goons are not headless chickens. They are not stupid, and know incredibly well what they are doing and why.
You don’t get to win an election twice if you’re as much of an idiot as most make him out to be. If we keep underestimating our ‘opposition’, we will continue to be defeated.
See this article for more: https://unherd.com/2025/02/why-trumps-tariffs-are-a-masterplan/
TLDR:
In this article, Yanis Varoufakis analyzes Donald Trump’s economic strategy, arguing that it is more sophisticated than his critics assume. Trump’s focus on tariffs is part of a broader plan to reshape the global economic order, which Varoufakis describes as an “anti-Nixon Shock.” Trump believes the U.S. has been exploited due to the dollar’s role as the global reserve currency, which he sees as a burden rather than a privilege. He aims to weaken the dollar to boost U.S. manufacturing and reduce trade deficits, while maintaining its reserve status to fund U.S. deficits and military power.
Trump’s plan involves using tariffs to pressure foreign central banks to lower interest rates, thereby depreciating their currencies relative to the dollar. This would offset the price increases caused by tariffs on U.S. consumers. The second phase of his strategy involves bilateral negotiations with key countries, leveraging tariffs and security threats to force them to appreciate their currencies and make concessions, such as buying more U.S. goods or relocating manufacturing to the U.S.
Varoufakis acknowledges the risks, including potential domestic backlash from Wall Street and the possibility of foreign countries, particularly China, creating an alternative financial system. However, he argues that Trump’s plan is coherent and should not be underestimated, even if it diverges sharply from traditional economic thinking.
I’m shocked that more people don’t consider a change in perspective on global economics. It’s been clear for a long time that the existing system is unsustainable.
That’s definitely someone’s opinion of what they are doing. I think he’s fallen victim to looking really hard for a plausible reason for emotional behavior. Trump and his admin seem more hell bent on gaining leverage in order to increase greatness and power over others and eventually profit. They aren’t looking to save or kill the dollar or reset the economy. In my opinion as an uneducated person they want to deregulate then tank the markets to create an environment where the wealthiest will buy up the discounted assets and profit when the economy swings back. Nothing more than a shortsighted opportunity to consolidate power and wealth, the same way he is trying to consolidate power into the executive branch.
The thing is, I don’t doubt there is an actual reason why these plans have some more intelligent purpose behind them; I doubt that Trump is the one thinking of this. I’m of the belief that Trump has a bunch of yes men around him that are smart and able to coerce him to do these things through careful manipulation strategies and feeding into his ego.
The project 2025 people already had every executive order and move lined up ready for him. No understanding required .
I don’t doubt the reputation of the writer or his general knowledge of economics…
But this is coping. The Trump administration is trying to wave their hands around and create a giant fuss for people like us and this writer to speculate on and create debates and panels to think about… while he and his people simply walk out of the white house with the treasury and all the inside investment opportunities they will ever want.
He’s just making chaos, plain and simple. These ideas about his master plan to disrupt the world’s reliance on the US dollar? Distraction and coping.
I agree this administration is more clever than we give them credit for, but any house thief can step up their game and pull of a heist when they set their mind to it, it’s not some kind of magic skill. If anything, I think it’s harmful to assume Trump is at all smart or has a plan because this makes a lot more assumptions than the most simple answer which is almost always the correct determination. He is making a mess because his ONLY plan is to make you think he has a plan. He does this with literally everything he says or announces, why would anyone think this is different? This is EXACTLY the fucking delusion I was railing against in another comment. There is no plan. Nobody is coming. Stop thinking others are smarter than you or have a backup plan.
My evidence? We’ve done all this fucking before, this is part 2 of a failure of a presidency. He didn’t change the world before, he won’t here. (Other than diminishing the US role in geopolitics so Russia can take center stage, all he really wants right now)
Dude that makes no sense at all. He wants to depreciate the dollar by putting on tariffs, an action you yourself admit depreciates all OTHER currencies, thereby increasing the value of the dollar?
Then after that he’ll “negotiate” to have the other countries to appreciate their currencies? By buying US goods and companies?? Both of those things appreciate the US dollar. China has been selling their goods to the US (something which should appreciate their currency) without appreciating their currency by buying property and companies in the US so they never have to use the US dollar to buy their own currency. This increases the value of the dollar while decreasing demands for the Chinese currency. This has been widely seen as unfair currency manipulation by China.
Things that increase demand for US dollars such as buying US goods and investing in the US APPRECIATE the value of of the US dollar. I haven’t read the article yet, but I hope your summary is incorrect, because Varoufakis is generally a very intelligent left wing thinker and I would be surprised to see this kind of gaffe in basic economics.
Edit: here is a link to the article since the one above didn’t work for me.
https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2025/02/21/donald-trumps-economic-masterplan-unherd/
While tariffs would work against Trump’s plan (by deppreciating foreign currencies) they give Trump revenue he can spend with congressional approval. Then for the countries that make a deal he’ll either force them to appreciate their currencies by swapping US dollars for their own currency (to depreciate the dollar), OR make them buy very long term US bonds (stabilizing the US debt markets) and buying US weapons (diluting the cost of US military R&D). Trump hopes this lets him depreciate the dollar while keeping it as a reserve currency (having his cake and eating it too).
Of course he doesn’t. He should be in elder care not in the White House.
Synonym for the past 4 years tbh. But hey, I (as a non-American) would be okay with old but not insane president. Guess we got both this time around.
He had the idea to raise tariffs, and he believes all his ideas are really good, so he followed his own good advice and raised tariffs, dead simple.
Because republicans want to fund the country entirely from tariffs instead of taxes.
Which worked out great for every country that has ever tried it.
And economists have estimated that the trade policy will cost the typical US household more than $1,200 a year
Remember this, when you hear about tax cuts for the wealthy.
off topic, but what does your signature mean? can you really copyright your comments? I’ve never seen this before
can you really copyright your comments?
By default, everything you write, from a novel to an Internet forum shitpost, is not only copyrighted by you but also “all rights reserved.”
What that guy is doing is (a) making his writings more available for reuse than they would be otherwise, and (b) making a point about how fucked-up it is that corporations treat stuff posted to social media as if it were a free-for-all they could use however they want.
It’s the equivalent of those Facebook posts you see telling Zuck that you don’t consent to your data being stored and sold.
Removed by mod
that’s what i thought. not sure if it is effective, but you do you!
not sure if it is effective
Well, if its good enough for ProPublica, and others, its good enough for me. 👍
all due respect, but you are not a news entity and you will never know whether your license was honored, so i really don’t see the point. but like i said, you do you
all due respect, but you are not a news entity and you will never know whether your license was honored, so i really don’t see the point. but like i said, you do you
The point is to have protection for my content. I have the same rights under the law as ANYBODY ELSE. All are capable of licensing their content on social sites that protects themselves with Safe Harbor laws.
As far as enforcement goes, that is not my job. If a law is not enforced doesn’t mean I don’t try to avail myself of the protections under the law. I don’t constantly audit my local police force to be sure that they are enforcing laws.
I want my content to be available and used by open-source organizations, and I signal that via my license. Otherwise the default licensing (show nothing) does not allow them to do so.
Finally, is it really worth your time (and all other citizens) to nag/harrass someone away from using the same laws that Corporations use to their benefit? I mean I point to an “Ask Lemmy” post often (here, let me do it again) where this has been hashed out already. You’re not saying anything new. But it seems like every individual still wants to recreate the conversation again, and again, and again, for SOME strange reason.
maybe if everyone is telling you the same thing, it’s not us that’s wrong? food for thought.
How do you practically exercise that right? Do you know how much money and time it would cost to attempt to go up against some multi-national corporation that scooped your comment up for their AI? Assuming you can even know it or prove it.
It’s not.
That’s chicken change if you make, say, $80K+. Significant if you make, say, $20K. (Thinking about individuals, not households, adjust accordingly. And COL is a huge thing depending.)
In any case, I’d take that number with a bucket of salt. Can’t see any way that number was calculated meaningfully this early in the game.
That is… less than I’d have guessed.
…willl cost the typical US household more than $1,200 a year…so far.
Funny, isn’t that the exact amount of the stimulus checks he handed out during his first presidency?
Putin said: “go forth and break shit” and here we are.
Also Putin, " say I’m not a bad person"
yup. it’s successfully costing america its allies.
It’s not inappropriate though. I’ve been saying for years Canada should not be so closely allied with such a fickle country.
I don’t get the $1200 #… If every component of my purchase goods is 25% higher to the manuf passed to me, shouldn’t it be 25% of my annual spend?
25% on top of the old price, for goods not produced domestically. Assuming that’s all of them, that’d be 25% of your spend going towards products (Services are part of your spend, but don’t get tariffed), indeed. But some things get produced in the US, so I imagine they factored that in there. For the average household, this seems to amount to about $1200/a
Well until you buy a car. So that $40,000 suv is now $50,000
Not arguing with you, just want to point out 25% is the new tax but that doesn’t mean the price is only going up 25%.
Not every good is imported. Not every country has tariffs leveed against it.
They are tariffing imported raw materials as well, like aluminum and steel.
Just my opinion as a layman: the tariffs give his corporate backers all the excuse they need to jack up prices even higher.
That, plus it seems very likely that he and friends are just manipulating the market to trade on the predictable moves he’s causing. Ya know, the kinda stuff that earned Musk some mild hand slaps and theatrical pearl clutching (in addition to giant financial benefits) in recent years.
It’s basically how Musk got rich. Intelligent market manipulation.
Intelligent market manipulation.
Not really intelligent, just blatant. He bet on the US and the NYSE enforcement mechanisms not actually working, and he won the bet. Same with Trump, except he bet against the US constitution.
It really feels like the kids of the people who carefully destroyed the checks and balances in the US and created a world order where they can quietly pull strings took over, and the kids don’t understand the value of discretion and are just seeing what they can get away with.
But he was also intelligent. He presumed that the bulk of money out there is comically dumb money, and he played that mass to his benefit. I remember watching 5,6,7 years ago how he would deliberately make Tesla stock look bad in the short term, to lure in suckers to short with high leverage, only to promptly reverse it, destroy the shorts and use their capital to make a new all time high. All while perpetually rewarding those who just hold and trust the man at the helm.
If this method sounds familiar, it was also used by the Tether clan to propel Bitcoin. But with a healthy dose of freshly printed fake money as well.
That’s a weird way to write inheritance.
Musk didn’t inherit billions.
How much was his dads gemstone mining business worth?
Less than a billion dollars.
Do you actually know how much it was worth though?
Agree, inflation can theoretically increase not only prices, but wages to compensate the increased cost of living, therefore appear as a boomed GDP, bringing the debt to GDP ratio lower without actually reducing debt. Eu, china, Russia all have much lower debt to GDP. Of course in reality inflation is hard to manage once it gets out of hand, and the levels of interest rates don’t give enough space for corrections, and the problem of inflation being the reduced consumption leading to a lesser increase of GDP.
GDP is always calculated in nominal and real (inflation adjusted) GDP.
Inflation does not reduce debt to GDP by increasing the perceived GDP, but by devalueing the debt owned, as it is a fixed sum with usually interest rates fixed for a certain time
And when he takes the tariffs off, the prices never go back to the original starting point.
yup, it forces everyone to raise prices, including competitors.
Market manipulation. He is also a TV show host, so he is a showman. He likes creating drama.
He is famous for bad management, causing his casinos to go bankrupt. His management style is going to bankrupt US and somehow make him richer.
Why can’t we make him unalive? He wouldn’t be able to play with WWIII that way…
Or just watch him bankrupt USA just like his casino, I think US need to go through that pain to realize why they should not vote for a showman, TV show host again.
Sun Tzu: “Never interrupt your opponent while he is in the middle of making a mistake.”
Sun Tzu I should read/listen to him much much more …
Actually in his previous presidency he managed to lose personal wealth rather than increase it. He is so incompetent he can’t even enrich himself with 4 years of being president lol.
Apparently It’s supposed to get rid of the browns and the gays and the women and everyone else until it’s just a bunch of old white men sitting around, counting money, and masturbating to AI porn? Kind of like a hateful gross version of Scrooge McDuck.
Spooge McFuck
Stoolge mcduck
Stooge McCuck
It seems to be working, I signed my ticket out of here. I’m a brown and queer woman. Just need to survive until immigration goes through.
Godspeed friend, hope this place will be worthy of you again someday
If you don’t mind, how are you pulling it off? Just trying to get ideas too.
Work transfer through my day job. I will note I’m taking a 50% pay cut for this, but the mental security and new friends will be worth it
Scrooge McDuck was also pretty awful. They had to invent a nemesis for him, Flintheart Glumgold, just to make him not seem so bad by comparison.
Donald is in indentured servitude after all. Gnarly man.
Nah, he’s a inbred golden retriever, that Russia and musk owns
I was talking about Donald Duck. This made me laugh though. Thanks for brightening my day.
The chaos is the point: make nothing normal, make nothing certain, and he can be free to do anything.
This is just disingenuous.
Lookup trade balance with each one of these. EU, china, Canada and Mexico and all of these are majorly disbalanced
You’re an idiot
It looks imbalanced until you understand that you guys are the only ones manufacturing dollars
And everyone knows that global economics is a zero-sum game, and therefore a “trade imbalance” means “we’re losing.”
So fucking dumb. Simple-minded fucks.
So explain it
He is a Russian asset and has been since at least 2014
Playing stupid games.
All this raises the question: Why has the US president chosen to upend trade relations on the North American continent?
It’s because the trade agreement trump’s unhappy with was made by a raging moron.
It’s also because the rest of the people in charge (mainly Republicans) aren’t doing anything to stop them. It also has to do with Americans being largely stupid.
Most republicans aren’t going to do anything because if they go against Trump … Trump will skewer them and they’ll lose their seat because their voters are stupid too.
The same moron who sunk casinos somehow
The secret ingredient is crime. The casinos were fronts for money laundering and “failed” on purpose as part of the scam.
That casinos well known to be money laundering for the Russians so it’s intentional, him not paying g contracters was where he had his scams
Must be that same idiot president of the Virgin Islands.
For everyone else following along, the USMCA that was put in place after Trump renegotiated NAFTA in his first term… was made by Trump. So he’s unhappy with his own legacy. Which seems on brand for him, tbh.
At the time he was extremely proud of it. It was the best deal ever made.
Part of the agreement allows for a review next year and his complaints could have been addressed them, but apparently negotiated such a lousy deal he can’t wait that long.
They are tanking markets for both the fire sale bargains and to hurt the poor more, so they can direct the resulting anger towards projects like territorial expansion and government privatization.
Thank you. Stated goals and actual goals for these people are always entirely independent, if they align it’s just coincidence / convenience. People need to stop being so credible and debating this shit on its stated terms, fascists don’t debate in good faith.
Hope that’s sarcasm because the USMCA was signed and implemented by Trump
Mr Trump actually said “I don’t know who would have signed this thing. It’s so bad!” about nafta2.
OP made a factual statement.
Hahah agreed
