Summary
Trump had to reverse his aggressive tariff rhetoric after CEOs from Walmart, Target, and Home Depot warned of empty shelves and higher prices due to supply chain disruptions.
Investors reacted negatively to his threats against Fed Chair Jerome Powell, prompting a market sell-off.
Trump backtracked, expressing optimism on a China trade deal and now denying plans to fire Powell.
Global markets remain volatile, and the IMF cited Trump’s trade war as a “major negative shock” to global growth.
The thing is that real damage has already been done. Trust that was built over the course of - without exaggeration - most of a century has been squandered by imbecilic and ham-handed “move fast break things” tactics. Trust is very fickle, and the gain/loss dynamic is completely asymmetrical: it takes ages to build, but can be destroyed in an instant. And the recovery phase is always going to be slower than the initial build, and it generally doesn’t ever reach as high as was before the initial betrayal, because, you know, people remember things.
But it’s the kind of damage they can try to throw a blanket over, so his supporters can deny it. They’ll never go to other countries, or understand the moments when that trust could have helped. They’ll be detached until someone else is in charge (if it happens) then pull the blanket off to blame others. Like the past 40 years. The empty shelves though. That hits now, and people denying it won’t be for long. They won’t survive.
Not this time. The damage is hitting magats hard.
But they don’t mind the pain, as long as they think it is hurting people they hate more.
The reverse is also true: Trump/MAGAs took credit for the stock market gains when Trump was first elected, but then blamed Biden for the stock market crash after Trump took office.
Basically MAGAs said that Biden ruined the economy but no one realized until after Trump started running the country. Schrödinger’s Recession, I guess.
except actual americans… we can’t seem to remember shit past that last 20 second tiktok thing
You talk as though trusting the USA is a good thing, something to be regained. The U.S. is and always has been a genocidal, slave-owning, patriarchal oligarchy that masquerades as a “democracy”. I am actually quite happy to see tRump destroy the U.S. standing in the world, he has done more to destroy the evil empire in 4 months than anyone else in its entire history. It truly is a glorious thing.
I am entirely confident that you don’t understand the full implications of the vacuum of power that this will create.
I’m entirely confident that nobody fully understands that.