Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
These tariffs are such a colossal, unforced, self-inflicted debacle, worse than the Gulf War or Brexit.
Barbara Tuchman wrote a book years ago called The March Of Folly, about governments that pursued mistakes that were widely understood at the time to be mistakes, like Britain's loss of the American colonies and the US in Vietnam. I think I need to re-read it.
Democrats ought to be branding this stuff with the word Republican, because Trump is not going to be running in two or four years, and congressional Republicans are too scared and feckless to stand up for what they know they ought to be doing. Congress gave the executive this tariff power, and Congress could take it away.
|
I can't think of a satisfying explanation for why he imposed these tariffs. The pundits who argue they're part of a grand scheme to lower federal debt service and tamp inflation seem like after the fact Rube Goldberg schematics.
The best explanation I have heard was from a DC reporter who pointed me to an open letter Trump published in a paper back in the 80s touting the need to impose reciprocal tariffs. It seems he's just had this idea in his head for four decades, and now that he has nothing to lose, he's testing it.
So we're all lab rats in a giant experiment hatched way back when everyone was concerned about Japan taking us over economically.
Maybe shoulder pads, Vaurnet sunglasses with the cloth attachments on the sides, Judd Nelson, and full bushes will come back into vogue too.
