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Trump doesn’t seem to know why he launched a giant trade war (www.vox.com)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

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.

Nothing about this string of connections makes any sense. Why would they lower interest rates, why would their currency depreciate?

Other countries are just going to form trade partnerships with each other and avoid the US. There will be a new strengthening global economy that skips the US entirely.

It's Brexit all over again, but instead of the UK suffering from leaving the EU, it's the US suffering from leaving the global economy. At some point the US will have to come crawling back just for deals worse than it had in the first place.

Varoufakis' reasoning is fully consistent with the Trump/Musk world of drug-induced delusion.