President Donald Trump announced a complete list of amazing tariffs in large and small countries last Friday, and reactions on the weekend were intense.
Welcome to the “Rate Panic Week”.
Many people have noticed the precipitated fall in the stock market and their own anger as tariffs were announced. A journalist who interrogated Trump Aoard Air Force One during the weekend even asked Hether to cancel tariffs if the Dow Jones index continued to fall.
“That is a stupid question,” Trump snapped.
Many stupid questions are asked and instantaneous analyzes are offered on rates. Most melinterprets why the Trump administration touches this step.
In the last episode, Peter Schweizer and Eric Eggers, Coanfitrions of The tear Podcast, explain the tariffs as addressing four main problems: national debt, consumer debt, our geostrategic position and, of course, trade.
“It has a tumultuous last pair of days and one expensive for the stock markets and the portfolios of many, including many people who listen to this podcast,” says Eric Eggers. “But what we want to do is what is happening as a reaction to tariffs and what Trump administration policies seem to be in a much larger image.”
They begin with some nostalgic videos of the pro-tarifa statements of the Democrats in the past, including Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Bernie Sanders (D-VT). Barack Obama campaigned to protect the national tire industry from Chinese imports. And in 1996, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) strongly opposed China’s “most favored nation” status due to its tariffs against US assets. “Why the switch?” Schweizer asks.
“The Democrats used to be the game that Wall Street really did not like,” says Schweizer. “That now is reversed. Then, from there the money for the Democrats comes.”
On national debt, Schweizer says that Biden’s economy looked better than it was due to the high governmental expense. “We were spending money as drunk sailors, and that is a child or insult to the drunk sailors we spend so much,” he says. The United States spent $ 4.4 billion in 2019, increasing to $ 6.8 billion in 2024. “You are going 2024, we were spending 50 percent more than we spent in 2019, while population growth was 3 percent. Everything was a facade … and now you have the globe of the globe.” “
The hosts highlight what the Treasury Secretary, Scott Besent, said during the weekend, that the performance of treasure bill has also decreased. It was 4.8 percent in January and fell to less than 4 percent following the tariff news. This will exert a downward pressure on interest rates for things such as consumer credit and mortgages at a time when consumer debt is in historical maximums and approximately $ 9.2 billion in federal debt will mature and need to refinance this year.
Then they resort to the geostrategic positioning of trade, special in the pharmaceutical and medical areas. We learned Covid how much we depended on China to produce thesis products, and it is strategically bad to trust an adversary for such important goods. Eggers says: “Then, if the objective of these rates is to help increase American production capacity, they want to take China to the table. They want China to consume more and produce. They want the United States to produce more and that China consumes less.”
The commercial element of this problem is, of course, that most economists do not like tariffs due to protectionism and the inefficiency they foster. Schweizer points out, he thought, that rates are reciprocal, Tax on countries that have similar rates or barriers accept US assets. China has many of these, and the hosts mention the tariff of 200 percent imposed on US dawning products by Canada as an example.
The hope of the administration on the commercial side is that tariffs will force other countries to reduce these barriers. Schweizer says: “I think we are going to see many encouraging movements in the future. And we go to real Goards what everyone says they want, that it is a world with open, free and fair trade. I think this is this this this this this this this this this this this this this this.” “.”
“It’s a great impulse. I mean, you’re going to be shining and opposition,” says Schweizer. “But people come to the table because the most powerful asset we have is Access to our market. People want to sell in the United States because we are spending. We have an unparalleled consumer market. And we need to use that positively to make sure that our products can enter these foreign markets, “he said.
For more information from Peter Schweizer, signed The breakdown Podcast.
