Phase 1: Impose Tariffs - Phase 2: ? - Phase 3: Profit
The underpants gnomes (vid) had a great plan:
1. Steal underpants, 2. ..., 3. Profit
bigger
The Trump administration seems to think likewise:
1. Impose tariffs, 2. ..., 3. Profit
There was already some struggle while implementing phase 1.
Phase 2 seems to create even more serious problems:
Charles Gasparino @CGasparino - 16:42 UTC · Apr 21, 2025BREAKING: Japanese negotiators are complaining that the problem with the trade negotiations with the White House, what's delaying concrete progress and a real deal, is that US keeps changing its ask in terms of exactly what it wants, said one financial CEO who speaks regularly to country officials. Maybe it's a negotiating tactic. But the lack of publicly announced deal progress is depressing the dollar, spiking bond yields and leading to a flight to quality to gold and now Bitcoin. Developing
Gregg Carlstrom @glcarlstrom - 17:38 UTC · Apr 21, 2025Not just Japan. Every diplomat I've asked about tariffs in the Middle East has told a similar story: they don't know how to engage with the Trump administration because everyone makes different demands
Also, we are really in trouble if Bitcoin is now a "flight to quality"
Every single person who works for the White House on trade seems to have a different idea of how to (ab)use the tariffs. There seems to be no big common plan to which they are all aligned to. This won't work.
Markets need rules and assurances that the rules will be adhered to. Any factor that increase insecurity will require additional security margins within each deal. When all this gets too expensive, unpredictable and complicate people will simply bail out. Money is leaving the U.S. dollar denominated markets. This creates the unusual case where share prices, treasuries and the dollar conjointly decline.
But "trust us" some pro tariff folks might say. "Phase 3 will soon come and its gonna be huge."
May be. I for one am not yet convinced.
Posted by b on April 21, 2025 at 18:30 UTC | Permalink
next page »Insider trading
3,500% Returns In 3 Hours: The Extreme Case of April 9, 2025
At 12:58 pm EST on April 9, 2025, someone placed perfectly-timed SPY options bets just 32 minutes before Trump's surprise tariff announcement. These $0.85 contracts soared to $31 each by closing bell. A $100,000 bet became $3.6 million in hours. The odds? A 1-in-4,484 chance of even minimal profit.
https://www.dataandpolitics.net/3-500-returns-in-3-hours-the-extreme-case-of-april-9-2025/
Posted by: Exile | Apr 21 2025 18:35 utc | 2
May be. I for one am not yet convinced.
Posted by b on April 21, 2025 at 18:30 UTC | Permalink
If, and it's a big if, the gambit is decoupling china from "western trade" (and including most countries too weak to bail out)....
1. It may not work at all
2. It may work but falling short of objectives and creating two big blocks
3. It may work but the decoupled rump block may, over time, win over those that had to bend the knee now
4. Profit, but might hasten military conflict
5. Profit
Now, I can't give a probability for any of those options...
A final option is that this is just the us shacking off the others and there never was a china decoupling objective, just the appearance of one. A kickback here, an advantage there, a maga signaling for internal usage and after a while everything's the same.
IF for the benefit of western investors just a maneuver to force RF and china to allow serious investment in their assets and agreement to let a portion feed the rentier system...
Anyone's guess IMHO
Posted by: Newbie | Apr 21 2025 18:52 utc | 3
Step 1: Impose tariffs
Step 2: Extort tariffed countries for concessions to remove the tariffs imposed in Step 1
Step 3: Profit
It worked pretty well with Trump's first term when Justin Trudeau's government took Meng Wanzhou hostage during the negotiations for the USMCA when Trump voided the existing NAFTA. It irreparably damaged relations between Canada and China, making Canada even more reliant on the US due to the lack of alternative trade partners willing/able to buy Canadian goods. Of course, with Trump's second term, the USMCA gained from Canadian servitude is now history as well.
The concessions in Step 2 would probably involve breaching existing trade agreements with China in exchange for removing the tariffs. Any country that gives such concessions will as a result become completely dependent on US trade. In effect, splitting the world between the Chinese and US trade networks.
Posted by: Sid Victor Cattoni | Apr 21 2025 18:57 utc | 4
China Warns Countries Not To Align With US in Trade
https://www.rt.com/business/616057-china-us-pressure-warning/
"Washington reportedly plans to pressure nations seeking tariff relief to reign in their turnover with Beijing..."
Posted by: John Gilberts | Apr 21 2025 19:00 utc | 5
Phase 3: The vultures swoop in, having insider intel, and buy up all the distressed assets for cents on the dollar to end up controlling ever more of the wealth and resources, including human, of the planet.
Of course, to reach Phase 3 one has to figure out Phase 2 - and here I haven't a clue how this works out/or not.
Posted by: Don Firineach | Apr 21 2025 19:02 utc | 6
***
One of the main safe-havens used today is definitely Gold, sound money for 5,000 years. JP Morgan has a quote that is attributed(?) to him from the 1910's... Gold is money, everything else is credit.
This was just before the secret meetings at Jekyll Island. Credit, aka Debt is Fiat currency. It used to be backed by gold but now it's backed by the "Full faith and credit" of the US Government.
This is now in serious jeopardy since the us govt can't pay it's bills properly and it's getting harder for them every month. The flight to sound money is well underway in the East. The west still doesn't know what the fvck they are doing!
Got Gold?
Silver, food, water, heating/cooking supplies and Lead???
Posted by: bisfugged | Apr 21 2025 19:02 utc | 7
LOL. I must admit - for a moment i was very confused as to what site i'm on, reading the headline then having a link to the underpants gnomes.
As to the negotiations: this all is beyond satire.
Lastly: a late happy easter to b and the rest.
Posted by: kspr | Apr 21 2025 19:05 utc | 8
There is a document referred to as "Mar-A-Largo-Accord" that might shed some light on the tariff 'strategy': https://www.hudsonbaycapital.com/documents/FG/hudsonbay/research/638199_A_Users_Guide_to_Restructuring_the_Global_Trading_System.pdf
Golem.de has published an 'explainer' on the strategy (in German): https://www.golem.de/news/die-strategie-hinter-den-zoellen-trumps-dollar-schachspiel-2504-195341.html
Posted by: G | Apr 21 2025 19:12 utc | 9
Phase 2 is "screw your counterparty".
Trump's plan will never pay out 'cause you can't collect on a blown up counterparty.
He is going bust and its going to be spectacular.
Posted by: too scents | Apr 21 2025 19:14 utc | 10
This piece captures the essence of the total lack of gorm that is the USA today. If it were not so serious, this would be comedy gold.
https://indi.ca/the-dog-who-caught-the-trade-car/
"The Japan trade delegation walked out of the Oval Office, hat in hand. There is no deal to be had with America because there is no one to deal with. Trump is like a dog who caught a car. He doesn't know what the fuck to do with it.....
....“A trade deal w/ a major economy is a complicated project; US deal w/ mid-sized economy S Korea took 17 months to work out. W/ Japan or EU, it will [be] even longer.” Even with states that already have a gun to their head, it still takes years to negotiate details. Trump now has to negotiate trade deals with 185 entities across the world, some of them populated only by penguins, because who the fuck made this spreadsheet?"
Except:
"As former Assistant Secretary of War Chas Freeman said, “the Japanese said 'well, what is it that you want?' And the Americans could not explain what they wanted.” Where do you go with this? It's like being held up by a guy with no coherent demands. What do you want? My wallet, my watch, directions? Talk to me man!....
....In this shituation, proximity with the king is what matters, so all 185 affected territories need to negotiate with Trump directly, which is troubling because he little to no attention span for anything."
It gets worse:
"A politburo full of crazies like this just leads to complete bureaucrazy. Simpleton spreadsheets spread out into complex chaos. Can you imagine being a customs agent right now? You don't know the rules you're supposed to enforce from minute to minute. Are you supposed to listen to your boss, or watch TV for your boss's boss? The system simply isn't built to turn globally shipping on a dime like this. In fact, US Customs actually seized up and briefly stopped collected some tariffs at all."
To the point that:
"DHL America has simply stopped importing any B2C goods worth more than $800, from anywhere at all. DHL simply cannot operate in this environment."
Meanwhile:
"Overall, US imports are down 64% and exports are down 30% (roughly matching the China drop). Even though Trump has backtracked and exempted a huge number of Chinese goods, the damage is done. If you ship something now, he's highly likely to change his mind while it's coming over. Rather than becoming the workshop of the world again (which requires inputs) America is just closing up shop with a sign that says ‘Gone Fishing.’ They're reeling countries into negotiate, but then throwing them back because they have no idea what to do with them."
Who would have predicted that the USA would use Monty Python as a systemic operating system?
If only Bill Hicks and George Carlin were still around.
Posted by: Dave Hansell | Apr 21 2025 19:19 utc | 11
"I don't even remember why I have this site as my home page anymore." Jans at 1.
Answer: The MOA site became your venue of choice before your admiration for Trump warped your critical thinking skills.
Posted by: Mark Moore | Apr 21 2025 19:22 utc | 12
Michael Hudson argues that the lack of industrial planning and state management of industrialization via public investments undermines the public rationales for the tariffs.
Instead, Trump wants to lock in tax cuts for the rich and thus return the country to the Gilded Age of Robber Barons like himself and his golfing buddies.
To the extent that Trump wants to reshore critical production his method rests on an overinflated understanding of the US economic role in the world. He expects everyone to pay tribute for exporting to the US or investing in USG debt.
That kind of belligerent, hub and spokes structure is no longer necessary given China and the BRICS' alternative models of free trade, multilateralism and and win-win cooperation.
Far too many are rushing to declare the end of globalization when we are only seeing the end of US centric globalization. The rest of the world won't degenerate into American style thuggery.
Posted by: Crumchy | Apr 21 2025 19:22 utc | 13
“Chancellor on the brink of second bailout for the banks”
-Satoshi, 2009
Posted by: E | Apr 21 2025 19:22 utc | 14
The line drawn between owning the world's reserve currency, and not being the world's reserve currency, is a very slippery slope.
At some point in time a county falls off the line.
Before a country falls off, there rages a fierce battle between "Having The Cake and Eating It Too".
Eating The Cake tends to end a country's reign as the world's reserve currency.
No country has ever won the battle between Having Your Cake and Eating It Too!
They all ended up Eating The Whole Cake!
Posted by: Blind Bridge Troll | Apr 21 2025 19:26 utc | 16
B. referencing South Park. This just made my day.
Posted by: Clueless Joe | Apr 21 2025 19:28 utc | 17
anyone want to take a stab at pointing out when satoshis’ invention ever had to be “bailed out” over the last 16 years? Sincerely open to a very wide definition of “bailed out”… Gregg Carlstrom? B? Michael Hudson? Anybody?
PS (Conflating it with all its’ imitators does not count!)
Posted by: E | Apr 21 2025 19:31 utc | 18
Phase 3 big beautiful collapse. It will make covid look like a sneeze. Phase 4 and 5 are the interesting ones.
Posted by: LosBanos | Apr 21 2025 19:32 utc | 19
trumps intentions may be "noble" (im using that term as loosly as the poophole of our eu rulers), but his implemention is just wrong.
he wants production back to the us. making the economy strong "again". and all that good stuff.
but instead of trying to make it attractive for companies and people, he goes around and pisses all over the board for everybody else. coercion. mafia stlye. the eternal bully since its birth. how can america become the big good guy for all things, if the foundation is rotten to the core and refuses to deviate from this path?
if trump wants to be a great man thats remembered fondly, unlike his precedessors, then maybe he should start at home. and that "at home" does not include bullying everybody else. amend your laws. do something about the school system. get your kids away from those damn phones. every kid in the us wants to become a youtuber or an influencer of some sort. those things pay more then a factory job. do something about THAT before going around the world and tariffing some island full of penguins.
Posted by: Justpassinby | Apr 21 2025 19:38 utc | 20
Collapsing the global economy for the Golden Billion navel gazers.
One last great hoovering and the entire straw house blows down. They can run off and let the chaos begin.
When the dust settles it's pennies on the dollar.
Martial law and brute force.
sounds like a movie doesn't it?
Posted by: ld | Apr 21 2025 19:42 utc | 21
There’s a very old meme about the danger of a massive earthquake if every single Chinese citizen jumps into the air in unison. That distent roaring sound you can hear is something similar. It’s all the Chinese rolling about on the floor slapping their thighs and biting the carpet.
Posted by: Dave Hansell | Apr 21 2025 19:48 utc | 23
"very kid in the us wants to become a youtuber or an influencer of some sort. those things pay more then a factory job. "
onlyfans. Top of the influencer food chain.
What factory job? Many would give their pinkie fingers for a factory job. Its other jobs on onlyfans.
People can make it where minimum wage is high. Half the CA homeless population is there working. Seen several nice corvettes parked at the encampments. How the heck do people make it where minimum wage is $6? Skilled trade follows that trend. Move from CA and boom $40 becomes dollar $15. Live in a tent and your set in CA.
Posted by: LosBanos | Apr 21 2025 19:48 utc | 24
Dave Hansell | Apr 21 2025 19:19 utc | 11
Lofl...the uncertainty and volatility is a feature NOT a bug!!
I read a great article on ZH recently that stated accurately IMO, "chaos in the Global Supply Chain is one of the examples Trump's handlers plan to help take down the western financial system, take all the wealth of the middle class and then move ALL operations to the East"
Posted by: bisfugged | Apr 21 2025 19:54 utc | 25
Okay. I know step 2:
Videos of factories with slave labor, bad prisons/organs for sale, etc.
Posted by: freedom fritos | Apr 21 2025 19:59 utc | 26
Pretty ironic - a fucking German heckling any trade or economic policy of an American President.
Posted by: NigelTufnel11 | Apr 21 2025 20:00 utc | 27
The profit could be hurting China for the sake of hurting China. A lot of Americans don't like China because if they shine too brightly, America doesn't look as awesome. Petty but it is human nature.
Posted by: dukeitout | Apr 21 2025 20:07 utc | 28
NigelTufnel11 | Apr 21 2025 20:00 utc | 27
Trump has both a trade AND an economic policy?
Posted by: Dave Hansell | Apr 21 2025 20:09 utc | 29
Posted by: Dave Hansell | Apr 21 2025 20:09 utc | 29
It is not any trade and economic policies. It is the best trade and economic policies. Maybe of all times. As per b's article, it is so many perfect economic and trade policies, there is one for every human on this planet.
Posted by: kspr | Apr 21 2025 20:12 utc | 30
Trump has both a trade AND an economic policy?Posted by: Dave Hansell | Apr 21 2025 20:09 utc | 29
Yes, he has lots of different trade and economic policies, all running at the same time, it’s just that some of them conflict with others. It’s kind of like trying to run multiple anti-malware applications (on a Windows device) at the same time; everything quickly grinds to a halt...
Posted by: j | Apr 21 2025 20:15 utc | 31
We're dealing with capitalism. Phase two for the gnomes is the creative destruction of the underpants. They don't talk about that phase because then people whine about losing their jobs and houses and that they can't afford to buy food for their kids anymore. Losers!!!! So you just call it tariffs to punish the evil foreign enemy. Phase three is the greatest ever profit by making new underpants with much reduced wages and benefits for the losers. Long live the gnome king!
Posted by: Sjeng | Apr 21 2025 20:22 utc | 34
Posted by: j | Apr 21 2025 20:15 utc | 31 Oh well, cocked up my own username, I dunno...
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 21 2025 20:23 utc | 35
I know nothing about tariffs.
It looks like Deep State may have their first scalp, Pete Hegseth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALbtQp04NOg
Posted by: Suresh | Apr 21 2025 20:23 utc | 36
The insanity of the tariff ploy is a feature.
It is meant to crash global markets and then they will be minimized for all but China and such.
Seems to be working.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 21 2025 20:25 utc | 37
Posted by: kspr | Apr 21 2025 20:12 utc | 30 Wins the thread!
Posted by: steven t johnson | Apr 21 2025 20:30 utc | 38
I read the Golem article linked by G | Apr 21 2025 19:12 utc | 9, it makes a speculation that I am unable to fully restate here, because I don't grok economics. Basically it says that the tariffs are a mere first step of several planned, with the 90-day halt necessary to allow some market players to adapt. The proposed scheme involves "step 2 = negotiations" about the overseas dollars [whatever the correct term is], with the endgame to devalue the dollar in order to the save the system.
Posted by: persiflo | Apr 21 2025 20:38 utc | 39
Tariffs, schmariffs, this doesn’t seem to be slowing down...
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 21 2025 20:38 utc | 40
Posted by: NigelTufnel11 | Apr 21 2025 20:00 utc | 27
########
An American maintains that his country is still first-world in 2025. 😂😂😂
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 21 2025 20:39 utc | 41
re NigelTufnel11 | Apr 21 2025 20:00 utc | 27
Even more ironic, an amerikan whose name is redolent of a famously incompetent englander cricketer spouting trumpist tosh. I know tufnells are famed for being chinless wonders but I would have thought that would have prevented their seed spreading across the atlantic and confining itself to the village of inbred idiots that spawns them.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Apr 21 2025 20:45 utc | 42
don't even remember why I have this site as my home page anymore.
Posted by: Jans | Apr 21 2025 18:32 utc | 1
Allow me help you with that
https://getneurosurge.com/?hopId=8484fb77-f8ef-4f4c-adea-6e6df08b9c7f
Posted by: nwwoods | Apr 21 2025 20:45 utc | 43
How many times have we seen think tanks and "the smartest guy in the room" totally miscalculate US policy in the last 25 years?
At one point, we may start assuming that their plans will not work instead of assuming that they will.
That would demonstrate the ability to learn from past experiences, which I find modern Western humanity to be terrible at.
A lack of memory is key to controlling people. That was an important part of 1984.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 21 2025 20:47 utc | 44
psychohistorian | Apr 21 2025 20:25 utc | 37
"Seems to be working."
Really?
Meanwhile, in the real world, the US/Western failing model is being bypassed by the Global Majority.......
"On March 17, 2025, the People’s Bank of China unveiled a pivotal shift in global finance: the digital RMB cross-border settlement system is now fully connected to the ten ASEAN nations and six Middle Eastern countries. This move instantly expands digital yuan interoperability to cover nearly 38% of global trade, enabling participants to bypass the SWIFT network long dominated by the U.S. dollar. In the words of The Economist, this is a “Bretton Woods System 2.0 Outpost Battle,” and blockchain is the new battlefield.
While the legacy SWIFT infrastructure still endures 3–5 day delays for cross-border transactions, China’s digital currency bridge compresses settlement time to just 7 seconds. In a landmark trial between Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi, a payment from a Chinese firm to a Middle Eastern supplier was completed in real-time—without six layers of intermediary banks, and at 98% lower transaction costs. This “lightning settlement” is reshaping expectations for global capital flow....
.....These efficiencies have already attracted 23 central banks to join China’s digital currency bridge trials. Notably, Middle Eastern energy exporters report a 75% reduction in settlement costs.
....Today, over 87% of countries worldwide are now compatible with the digital RMB system, and cross-border payments have topped $1.2 trillion USD. While Washington debates the future of the dollar in a digital age, Beijing has already built a blockchain-based global settlement network spanning more than 200 countries.
This is more than just a shift in monetary plumbing—it’s a quiet but seismic reordering of global economic influence. For international investors, especially those seeking alternatives beyond U.S.-centric finance, China’s digital RMB strategy is a powerful signal of where the future may be headed."
Whilst the schizophhenic US Administration sits in the corner of the room amidst is ainient and crumbling infastructure and disintigrating social cohesion playing with its abacus and holding meetings with no agenda and no idea what it wants with all these other countries; with no coherent practical joined up industrial policy and no clue how to organise what it wants because it has run out of gorm.......
......the rest of the world in moving on and leaving the USA and the Collective Worst behind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSgvI1ELfqQ - America can't compete with China's new high speed frontier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvKvlB5qPOg - China's Canton Fair....America is done (tariffs not working)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwKoQpA9VkA - (German) select for English subtitles. - China's bridge infrastructure building the Belt and Road connections.
Posted by: Dave Hansell | Apr 21 2025 20:51 utc | 45
I find it quite ironic that this meme, which has traditionally poked fun at leftists and communists (1. impose communism, 3. Create an equal and fair society), is being repurposed to take a dig at a policy designed in the short term to defuse the debt-financing time-bomb, deliberately planted by Yellen.
Posted by: Milites | Apr 21 2025 20:52 utc | 46
I told a friend that at the beginning of this whole tariff war that the only possible explanation for this whole policy was to extract as much resources/money from the current US economy/system by the elite who back Donald Trump. The best modern day parallel that comes to mind is 1990s Russia under Yeltsin.
The elite/cunning recognized the USSR was over and it was time to feast on the carcass. I believe this is the direction we are headed for , of course the presentation will be different but the outcome will be the same, increased concentration of the US assets in the hands of the elite and the general population having a decrease in quality of life.
I'm not sure why people keep going round and round on this, anyone who has ever built something over the long term with their own hands knows that first a base/foundation must be built and then building further upon that. This is simple stuff that any serious person understands, right now if this policy of re-industrialization was actually legit, it would first start with a re organizing domestically of the educational/health care/cultural/environmental/regulatory environments in the USA. None of this has happened and even if it was started it would take multiple presidencies.
The fact that people think this is anything but a bust out of the USA via the elite is non sense.
Posted by: silverfoxes | Apr 21 2025 21:06 utc | 47
Posted by: Dave Hansell | Apr 21 2025 20:51 utc | 45
And with Western financial intermediaries cut out of the loop, what happens to Western FIRE-based GDP?
Gone are the days of sitting on balance transfers for a couple of days, creaming off the ‘vig’ of overnight interest earnings.
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 21 2025 21:10 utc | 48
I find your posts very informative indeed and therefore valuable. I don't find the 'ad hominems' in them to quite fit, though, they'd be better without them.Posted by: arthur brogard | Apr 20 2025 21:03 utc | 377
This is not the first time I've locked horns with the poster I've accused of being lazy. He previously tried to pass off ChatGPT-generated responses as words from the oracle of truth, demonstrating his lack of knowledge in both the inner workings of "AI" and in the subject matter being discussed.
Marxists practice criticism and self-criticism. Rather than treating my words as ad hominem, treat it as an exhortation for self-improvement.
On the other hand, some Westerners believe literacy and education to be a communist plot, so I understand if Westerners prefer to ignore my advice and remain ignorant.
https://x.com/akoz33/status/1232052025514496002“Literacy” was always the most basic tool of totalitarian propaganda. If you are not literate you can’t be fed communist propaganda. The most steadfast anti-communist I knew in my childhood was my maternal grandfather who was illiterate. Communist propaganda did not reach him
As for the other poster I've criticized, his inconsistent position regarding Trump needs to be brought to light. He first sold Trump as being a potent force that will revolutionize American politics and accuse anyone who challenged his position as suffering from TDS. Then, when Trump has taken power and continued running the Empire as usual, except with a bit more theatrical flair, he shielded Trump from criticism by saying that Trump can never bring about a revolution because Trump is constrained by the system that Trump is a part of. This MoA poster did all this while promoting himself as a Marxist. I haven't seen any authentic Marxist that believe in an omnipotent and omniscient being playing 5D chess and working in mysterious ways.
Now, onto the subject of cost of living in China.
Seen this guy?Posted by: arthur brogard | Apr 20 2025 22:09 utc | 378
While I'm not aware of every influencer on TikTok, I'm well-informed about the living conditions in the various parts and socioeconomic strata of China. Since you shared some videos, I thought that I should introduce you to Xiaodai https://v.douyin.com/fzb_1aVjtxk/
Xiaodai's videos are in Chinese, so I doubt they'll appeal to you, but I just want to show you how migrant workers working in construction has economic mobility in China. Take note that most of his videos were filmed during the so-called "COVID lockdown" period of China where a bunch of outside observers were falsely claiming that Chinese economic activity came to a standstill. His earliest videos showed him, his wife and 2 kids living in cramped conditions (he himself sometimes lived in worker dorms) while saving up money to buy a proper modern apartment. This video, for example: https://v.douyin.com/HQS0hElDiZ4/ Now he has finally moved into the house he bought: https://v.douyin.com/rKxqONNpYZc/ Ever since his videos exploded in popularity, he has transitioned from being a migrant worker to selling food items (shipped online orders) back in his hometown. But even without gaining internet fame, he was well on his way to giving his children a better life than the one he experienced.
His rise in fame partially had to do with the Taiwanese people discovering his videos right when Taiwan experienced a bout of egg shortage (much like the one affecting America right now). Many in Taiwan live under the propagandized delusion that people in the Mainland are so poor that they cannot afford to eat tea eggs 茶叶蛋. Xiaodai smashed that propaganda. Xiaodai showed that the cost of living is low and even a migrant worker in a physical job can buy a house and support a family in the Mainland. This made many Taiwanese lament their own conditions as Taiwan is in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis beyond just the egg shortage. This incident was significant enough that political commentators wrote articles about it, like this one: https://www.guancha.cn/politics/2023_03_29_686054.shtml (you can machine translate it)
Regarding America Against America,
I got the book. Now gotta get it translated.Posted by: arthur brogard | Apr 20 2025 22:09 utc | 378
https://archive.org/search?query=america+against+america+wang+huning
https://ia801806.us.archive.org/12/items/america-against-america/America%20Against%20America.pdf
America Against America is available in English and can be freely downloaded. Unless you mean translating it to another language?
As an aside, you don't need to split up your replies to me into multiple comments if you don't want to. I only do that myself because my comments sometimes do not pass MoA's filter, and trying to hunt down the offending paragraph is too time-consuming for me.
Posted by: All Under Heaven | Apr 21 2025 21:10 utc | 49
OMG, that is so sad. Poor Kenny! I had no idea. But as J.D. Rockefeller might have said, "You can't make an omellete without scrambling a few eggs. Or a few Kennys. And don't take it personally, it's just business."
Posted by: Clever Dog | Apr 21 2025 21:11 utc | 50
I appreciate that trump is undoing what I believed were bad policies of the previous administration. It bothers me that that is possible because recent presidents have increasingly ruled by presidential order. It seems more like a dictatorship than rule of laws enacted by a congress, representing the interests of citizens.Posted by: Samu | Apr 20 2025 19:22 utc | 374
Trump is not undoing any bad policies. He is simply solidifying control for his faction of capitalists. It's capitalist infighting. At the same time, he is enriching himself and his cronies at the expense of the working class. In American-speak, the situation can be described using the promotional phrase from the movie Alien vs Predator: "whoever wins, we lose".
Posted by: All Under Heaven | Apr 21 2025 21:11 utc | 51
Posted by: Jans | Apr 21 2025 18:32 utc | 1
I doubt that very much
Posted by: weeC | Apr 21 2025 21:15 utc | 52
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 21 2025 20:25 utc | 37
The insanity of the tariff ploy ..Seems to be working.
<= I want the global stock and bond markets to fall to zero and stay there.
we don't need wall street the city of London or the Taiwan, Hong Kong Japanese stock and bond markets because the companies with securities in those markets are beneficiaries of nation state created patents, copyrights and other state created monopoly powers.
we need everyday people competing with each other in an unrestricted technical environment (everyone can use everyone else's technology). Every product should be generic. The people of the world need to eliminate monopoly powers from the hands of an private entities. the major function of the nation state system has been to make the monopoly powers available to satisfy investor greed. Achieving marketing parity can only be done if the nation state system is controlled by the bottom up populations instead of by the Oligarch owned top down governments.
Capitalism will always seek the break even price for its goods and services ALA the competitors (suppliers), in the market capitalism serves, have no monopoly powers. On the other hand, Monopolism will always seek to rip off its customers in order to make a profit.
stock and bond markets are about monopoly power. What would Microsoft be worth if none of its patents and copyrights were enforceable? How many different business entities would compete with all market players on an even footing if government were to do its job and deprive all comers of monopoly power?
IMO, This whole tariff thing is about protecting the monopoly power created by rule of law and the nation state division of the world into about 200 different territories.
Posted by: snake | Apr 21 2025 21:17 utc | 53
Trump is not undoing any bad policies.
Posted by: All Under Heaven | Apr 21 2025 21:11 utc | 51
#####
Good. I want a managed decline without nuclear war.
Those "bad policies" are the poison that will topple the beast for good.
I would be scared if Trump actually focused on infrastructure or education. Throwing billions at the military and Israel is perfect.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 21 2025 21:42 utc | 55
Have we reached the stage of Rules-Based Ordure yet?
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 21 2025 21:42 utc | 56
Another sad day on US stock marketsThe market capitalization of public American companies lost more than one and a half trillion dollars on Monday.
Graphic of Monday's market
https://x.com/SprinterObserve/status/1914421084239355944
----
Please, Trump, people cannot handle this much winning!
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 21 2025 21:47 utc | 57
Well, if the tariffs don't work, Trump has already named his scapegoat: Jerome Powell, head of the Fed reserve. MAGA people will agree whole-heartedly, even if they haven't the first clue why, or who Powell is, or what he does. [Powell is in a tight spot. The tariffs may cause such inflation that he has to raise interest rates. Powell did not have anything to do with the tariffs, of course, but Trump is already blaming him for the fall-out. Too bad the whole capitalism thingie is so prone to winner take all.]
---------------
(Reuters) -The U.S. economy could slow unless interest rates are lowered immediately, President Donald Trump said on Monday, repeating his criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who says rates should not be lowered until it is clearer Trump's tariff plans won't lead to a persistent surge in inflation.
"With these costs trending so nicely downward, just what I predicted they would do, there can almost be no inflation, but there can be a SLOWING of the economy unless Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOW," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
The comments, and the administration's seemingly intensifying pressure on a Fed chair Trump has stated he would like to see gone, sent stock markets lower and bond yields higher as investors and analysts mulled the fallout should Trump ignite a fight over the Fed's monetary policy independence and try to remove Powell before the end of his term a little over a year from now. [...]
https://news.yahoo.com/news/finance/news/trump-warns-economic-slowdown-unless-140237728.html
--------------------
Posted by: teri | Apr 21 2025 21:53 utc | 58
Exile | Apr 21 2025 18:35 utc | 2
…someone placed perfectly-timed SPY options bets just 32 minutes before… lol…. It’s 9/10{11} all over again. And 2008, and… the wind-back the day after the sniping of Trump’s at Butler Field Penn.
Posted by: Melaleuca | Apr 21 2025 21:53 utc | 59
"5. The tariffs are a financial scam perpetuated by Trump or by those advising Trump without him knowing.
I’ve seen this theory less than the above, but a lot of people have said they believe this. Their idea is that Trump and or his advisors know that the tariffs are going to crash a lot of stocks, so they make bets in the stock market to take advantage of their insider information. This is called insider trading and is of course illegal. It still takes place all the time but is difficult to prove because if there is no paper trail or recordings of people talking about it, all you have is people making suspiciously good choices. This is what many people complain about when politicians make a lot of money by what looks to them like a suspiciously uncommon ability to make smart trades more often than not.
Would Trump do that to make money? I’ve seen people argue against that idea saying Trump has a lot of money, so why do anything illegal, and because if there is lots of damage to the economy that would also cause his fortune to diminish. Plus, the Democrats did everything they could to try to stop Trump, and because they ended up with jack squat — they had to invent crimes. Therefore, this theory is simply not credible because Trump has never been the type of person to openly do something so illegal. He has always been rich and apparently always law abiding — so why would he do something so out of character just to make more money that he doesn’t even need? Someone else replied that maybe Trump is so angry at what the “elites” did to try to stop him from getting elected that it's not about making money, it's about revenge."
From Revenge of The King: Trump’s Terrifying Tariffs
Posted by: kana | Apr 21 2025 21:54 utc | 60
Posted by: teri | Apr 21 2025 21:53 utc | 58
############
There is always a scapegoat. MAGA is allergic to accountability.
Emotional children.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 21 2025 21:55 utc | 61
Posted by: silverfoxes | Apr 21 2025 21:06 utc | 47
100% Correct. This is 90s Russia/Warsaw Pact now taking place in the USA. We can now start calling Musk, Bezos and the rest of those retards ‘oligarchs’.
The old commenters and barflies have mostly gone. Good to see Persiflo and others. Would like to hear Bevin’s take, and Paveway IV.
Posted by: Patroklos | Apr 21 2025 21:58 utc | 62
"Money is leaving the U.S. dollar denominated markets."
.
.
Stop being ridiculous.
Yes, I know your received dogma is being ignored. It's a personal, emotional blow for you. But this scattered hysteria is unseemly.
Every single country has a simple, full and final solution: Drop all trade barriers.
Or, make a list of all those they are willing to drop, and negotiate reciprocal tariff drops accordingly.
Or do nothing, and watch foreign capital investment flood into the US.
Lots of choices here. You seem to think the one and only choice is by multinational corporate interests, their paid lackeys in governments, and casino finance. Not hardly, but you'll have to learn how to learn, in order to see that.
Posted by: seer | Apr 21 2025 22:03 utc | 63
Its very easy to Trump-bash today, even by those that in fact should recognize his policies align with their world view. But yeah, that means identifying with a buffoon - an image projected by his opponents - and that wont do because egos are today the most important determinant of behavior.
Posted by: alwk_a | Apr 21 2025 22:03 utc | 64
Have I missed the results of the Fort Knox audit? Or haven’t they been published yet?...
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 21 2025 22:10 utc | 65
Jans | Apr 21 2025 18:32 utc | 1
I don't even remember why I have this site as my home page anymore.
---
Because a broken clock is right twice a day. I used to think getting Ukraine correct was due to some unique military insight. Wrong, all it took was a contrary position that got lucky.
However, as MoA moved into areas which some readers actually have real experience, the whole facade was exposed as nothing more than malcontents cosplaying as subject matter experts.
The most obvious reveal is the lack of any understanding of the USA's cultural foundation aka "getting ahead".
Take Norwegian for example; do any of those who remained in the home country have any idea, inclination or insight about those who left?
Or reflect on the fact that Norwegians would just be another variation of ice niggers if they weren't sitting on reserves?
Nope, all the Euros here are simple reactionaries who are repelled by overt, over the top US patriotism (ie exceptionalism), never thinking to consider any deeper meaning.
It's just lazy and stupid, all sound and fury signifying nothing. I still swing by now and then hoping maybe someone might if only for a moment consider that maybe, just maybe Americans are actually a different breed, impatient, easily bored and willing to sacrifice to achieve material reward.
It's a really dumb bet to go against not what currently is, but what is being reignited.
Posted by: Markw | Apr 21 2025 22:13 utc | 66
One of my subscribers linked to a recent chat between Nima and Mark Sleboda where at the 43:45 point to the 49:00 Mark provides a very accurate assessment of what the tariffs are for. What seems to be happening is suggested by the title of this article, "When You Make Enemies Everywhere, You Can't Sell Anything", particularly when combined with Sleboda's assessment. As I've already opined in a handful of articles, Trump's entire "economic program" is a chimera, a fantasy, a pipedream, a smokescreen, all designed to hoodwink the public while renewing his tax cuts for the top 10%, increasing them and eliminating the tax on capital gains--MAGA was and is nothing more than a campaign gimmick to get Trump elected because it appeals to those that are easily duped. Look at the reality of his record not at all his bluster and ringmaster showmanship.
I know and have reported on very serious economic planning and its very intricate and detailed nature. Nothing Russia or China and others do is off the cuff and done without extensive planning and research. None of that is present with MAGA or the tariffs that're supposed to fuel MAGA. And then there's the combination of the debt issue and the serous question regarding how MAGA is supposed to be financed. Crooke and Napolitano chatted about the debt issue at the beginning of their chat today and is worth a listen along with everything else.
Jeremy 65
Excellent to ask about Fort Knox audit again… peer-to-peer electronic cash is audited every 10 minutes for 16 years straight … won’t hear that from Glenn from The Economist tho!
Posted by: E | Apr 21 2025 22:15 utc | 68
Has our little German Marxist host explained to all you dullish Continental punks the tariffs and VATs the EU and European governments have thrown on Americans all this year?
Care about Europe. The United States, Russia and China are going to work shit out. You people have been deadbeat parasites living off American defense and Russian energy for decades. Be a real fucking disaster if there aren't 50 days of mandated paid vacation anymore. No more full 787s to the Canarys and Carribbean.
Dumbass Socialists. Your time is OVER! Step up. Everything in Geopolitics now means you Europeans LOSE!! We Americans are gonna be okay. So will the Russians and Chinese. You're THROUGH. REAL Fascism is already underway.
Posted by: NigelTufnel11 | Apr 21 2025 22:16 utc | 69
Trump and his administration is trying to remove the actual oligarchs, those that exploit our consumerist vulnerabilities as humans. Making everyone an addict to crappy goods or services. Enabled by open borders and infinite resources for marketing. You lot should be able to see this and cheer the fight but yeah orange man bad.
That there is backlash is understandable. That his political opponents try to prevent him from deporting their voting base is understandable. That you measure the success of an economy based on its stock market and its currency is not.
And b, yes, there is nothing that the Trump government wants from their trade partners. It is on purpose so, not because of chaos. There is no trade deal to be made, only when the trade balance evens out you can negotiate. They just have to live with the tariffs until then. Tariffs are the natural state of world trade. What we had in the past 20-30 years is an anomaly and not progress.
Posted by: alek_a | Apr 21 2025 22:18 utc | 70
Karlof1 67
A little birdie on nostr linked to a report of 12 major satoshi miners that claims the reason for sustained rising hashrate is due to Russia and China….
Posted by: E | Apr 21 2025 22:24 utc | 71
Trump and his administration is trying to remove the actual oligarchs, those that exploit our consumerist vulnerabilities as humans.
Posted by: alek_a | Apr 21 2025 22:18 utc | 70
#####
Is that why he was congratulating his billionaire buddies in the Oval Office after announcing the tariff pause when they made billions on the stock market?
America didn't need an Oligarch whisperer.
It needed a revolutionary who would jail Oligarchs and confiscate their ill-gotten loot.
At the least, they would have their Congress pass laws to punish oligarchy.
In the meantime, America is on the verge of more tax cuts for the Oligarchy, and MAGA will cheer for it, like turkeys cheering for Thanksgiving.
If Trump were anti-Oligarch, his supporters would be able to point to ONE substantive thing he has done against the Oligarchy since taking office again.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 21 2025 22:25 utc | 72
I know nothing about tariffs.It looks like Deep State may have their first scalp, Pete Hegseth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALbtQp04NOg
Posted by: Suresh | Apr 21 2025 20:23 utc | 36
Holding up Trump are a bunch of clowns.
After that it's clowns all the way down.
Posted by: ChatNPC | Apr 21 2025 22:27 utc | 73
Posted by: NigelTufnel11 | Apr 21 2025 22:16 utc | 69
But somebody still needs to audit Fort Knox, just to make sure... you know...
Just to ensure that:
doesn’t become the Mother Of All Defaults (MOAD)...
Still, I gather that His Royal Orangeness has plenty of experience about debt restructuring; all good, yes? Except, what happens when the creditors won’t get on board? When the creditors find that a market of 350-odd million debt-bloated, deskilled, and asset-poor can no longer maintain the illusion of solvency? Yet there’s a market of 7½ billion to be sold to instead?
Debt can only buy so much, until the creditors call time...
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 21 2025 22:31 utc | 74
In 1972 the Limits to Growth study more or less put the writing on the wall and the chart on the linked page below says it all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth
The Limits model has been validated many times since by comparing the 1972 results against the actuals by the Australian CSIRO, KPMG, Melbourne University and others.
It is now obvious to most governments and societies that there is no longer enough "stuff" to go around, especially energy, and we've finally got to the point where the USA has decided it's going to be the last civilisation standing (yes I know that's an oxymoron).
Whoever is behind Trump is bringing down and breaking every economy in the world in the hope that their imposition of tariffs by force will enable them alone to survive the economic holocaust. They know that if they succeed in creating economic ruin in China and collapse it's mercantile system that the Limits to Growth means it can never rise again to be the threat that is is today and neither can BRICS or indeed, anyone else.
The entire planet will be reduced to the status of vassals just as Europe has been. This is evidenced by everything the US is attempting such as the grab for Greenland and Canada and Ukraine resources and renewed focus on control of the remaining energy in the gulf states and the attempt at controlling the world's economic choke points including the Suez canal, together with the Yemen subjugation.
How they manage the Straight of Hormuz and Iran is a current problem that is being attended to by battleship USS Israel. Syria and others have been dealt with, what happens to USS Israel itself doesn't really matter much as the Israelis who count for anything who aren't currently already in the US and controlling it will certainly move there as the job is finished, Israel has never been sustainable.
The benefits to the US are obvious: less consumption and use of resources by the Rest of the World means more for them. But Russia has always been the problem. Sitting on a massive resource base it had to be brought down or now if that does fail, some sort of sharing arrangement has to be engineered for the time being to keep Putin happy while the work on the main project continues.
If all the above seems a bit fantastical then think of the alternative. From the US point of view they knew, just as we do, that they were totally stuffed. That the US is prepared to do anything and tolerate the blowback is nowhere more evident than the shucking off of UK and other allies and the Palestinian and Yemeni genocide.
The thing that really surprises me is that whoever is behind Trump had the balls and audacity to roll this incredible dice.
Posted by: Saul Goode | Apr 21 2025 22:38 utc | 75
Nope, all the Euros here are simple reactionaries who are repelled by overt, over the top US patriotism (ie exceptionalism), never thinking to consider any deeper meaning.
It's just lazy and stupid, all sound and fury signifying nothing.
Posted by: Markw | Apr 21 2025 22:13 utc | 66
Mmhmm. Not only are Europeans even more vulnerable to this than the dumbest Hannity-watching Americans, none of the likely election candidates are going to do much better. European governments have to go full authoritarian to stop anyone to the right of Meloni, and the notion of a socialist revolution is risible. All major Eurosocialist parties want higher taxes, to send the money to Ukraine.
Posted by: They Call Me Mister | Apr 21 2025 22:40 utc | 76
The thing that really surprises me is that whoever is behind Trump had the balls and audacity to roll this incredible dice.
Posted by: Saul Goode | Apr 21 2025 22:38 utc | 75
############
People making big gambles are desperate. That is a sign of weakness/fragility.
Normally TPTB are happy to execute generational plans.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 21 2025 22:41 utc | 77
Even more ironic, an amerikan whose name is redolent of a famously incompetent englander cricketer spouting trumpist tosh. I know tufnells are famed for being chinless wonders but I would have thought that would have prevented their seed spreading across the atlantic and confining itself to the village of inbred idiots that spawns them.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Apr 21 2025 20:45 utc | 42
My "name" is from the movie "This is Spinal Tap" and the lead guitarist who was playing a typical English goof who thought just changing the numbers on the knob of an amp actually changed the volume.
Now go eat some Haggis ya warty Scott orc.
Posted by: NigelTufnel11 | Apr 21 2025 22:42 utc | 78
The trouble with these underpants gnomes is that they are a bunch of eclectic misfits that came together to attract votes without any real plan that fitted all of them and the Republican party.
Trump just wanted to be the big boss, the big guy that in former times was fat, smoked a cigar and, and said: "you're fired" all the time.
It's an error to think he had any capacity to think anything nor solve any problems, because he as the leader of the underpants gnomes is way out of his depth.
Posted by: George | Apr 21 2025 22:55 utc | 79
It is now obvious to most governments and societies that there is no longer enough "stuff" to go around, especially energy, and we've finally got to the point where the USA has decided it's going to be the last civilisation standing (yes I know that's an oxymoron).
Posted by: Saul Goode | Apr 21 2025 22:38 utc | 75
That's a very interesting notion. China produces so much that Western countries call it "dumping" and are increasingly trying to restrict Chinese imports. It's not merely that the UK is a vassal state, they are moving to eliminate Chinese ownership of key industries like steel production.
America is trying to impose the same economic blockade which helped crack apart the Japanese Empire of the 1940s. Maybe it will work, maybe not. At any rate, the real change is that President Trump is breaking apart the globalist consensus in the United States, what many people call the "deep state." As the USAID scandal shows, the globalist cabal had its fingers in a lot of pies- now to see who will survive the funding cutoff.
Posted by: They Call Me Mister | Apr 21 2025 22:58 utc | 80
Schrödingers tariffs...
To be filed alongside:
- Schrödingers F-16s
- Schrödingers game-changers
- Schrödingers gold in Fort Knox
- Schrödingers Ukrainian economy
- Schrödingers Wealth
I’m sure there’s more somewhere...
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 21 2025 22:59 utc | 81
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 21 2025 22:41 utc | 77
"People making big gambles are desperate. That is a sign of weakness/fragility."
Proves the point doesn't it. :-)
res ipsa loquitur
Posted by: Saul Goode | Apr 21 2025 22:59 utc | 82
trade or economic policy of an American President.
Posted by: NigelTufnel11 | Apr 21 2025 20:00 utc | 27
That's the issue. Nobody, including the Trump administration, can articulate a coherent policy on trade or tariffs. Perhaps that IS the point, chaos and confusion, but you ask one Trump official what the policy is and you're going to get a different answer than when you ask another Trump official.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 21 2025 23:01 utc | 83
Jeremy 81
The guy sweating with two (opposite) red buttons in front of him meme is very useful these days
Posted by: E | Apr 21 2025 23:08 utc | 84
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 21 2025 23:01 utc | 83
"Nobody, including the Trump administration, can articulate a coherent policy on trade or tariffs.
If you have a gander at
Posted by: Saul Goode | Apr 21 2025 22:38 utc | 75
there does appear to be a coherent policy on trade and tariffs that is being coordinated with all the military and other activity including the US genocides, it's just that they can't really spell it out for what it is can they, MAGA is as close as you can get I suppose.
Posted by: Saul Goode | Apr 21 2025 23:08 utc | 85
What America calls dumping is China liquidating its excess supply to the American underclass via dollar stores, where increasingly people have to buy their groceries.
If not for Chinese "dumping," many Americans might starve.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 21 2025 23:10 utc | 86
Jeremy 81
The guy sweating with two (opposite) red buttons in front of him meme is very useful these days
Posted by: E | Apr 21 2025 23:08 utc | 84
In Canada it's 4 buttons but really only 1. Call it democratic redundancy. Incumbents clapped for nazi and hopefuls will clap for nazi.
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Apr 21 2025 23:14 utc | 87
A final option is that this is just the us shacking off the others and there never was a china decoupling objective, just the appearance of one. A kickback here, an advantage there, a maga signaling for internal usage and after a while everything's the same.
IF for the benefit of western investors just a maneuver to force RF and china to allow serious investment in their assets and agreement to let a portion feed the rentier system...
Anyone's guess IMHO
Posted by: Newbie | Apr 21 2025 18:52 utc | 3
Do you understand how China operates? Seriously? They are the slave factory floor of the world and the historic kleptocrats of all Intellectual Property imagined, developed and monetized in America and the West. They're slave masters and thieves. You do business in China and you are a victim of fraud or crime? Good luck, no Chinese Court available. And you people get the vapers anything China? NOTHING China does in Africa is altruistic or beneficent. They build infrastructure in resource rich African countries to OWN it eventually. Belt and Road was a way for China to use TONS of American cash to own resources in Third World Africa, South American and South Asia. China is in HUGE economic problems - 40% of their exports come to the USA? Who else has the consumer wealth and market to replace that? Their draconian murder policy of baby girls has an outcome of Millions of young men moving from the agrarian west to Coastal cities. They have no women to court or marry, and increasingly few jobs, and that is going to be REVOLUTION.
I lose my mind when I watch little Danny (How's my Proletariat denim blue work shirt looking?) Haiphong or Brian (Dr. Evil) Berletic. WTF are they on? I get Sinophile shit but the Chinese Communists have ZERO care for anyone, or anything that doesn't bow to their Global schemes.
Posted by: NigelTufnel11 | Apr 21 2025 23:15 utc | 88
Do you understand how China operates?Posted by: NigelTufnel11 | Apr 21 2025 23:15 utc | 88
Several long-time posters here have, at various times and in various threads, given detailed explanations of their lived experience in China.
It might be worth your while to ‘lurk moar’, though I can quite understand that your exceptionalist entitlement to your manifest destiny gets in the way...
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 21 2025 23:25 utc | 89
@ Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 21 2025 23:25 utc | 89
projection is a powerful tool, isn't it?? if they are not being brainwashed, they are projecting their own dark side onto everyone else..
Posted by: james | Apr 21 2025 23:27 utc | 90
Saul
Heard of the limits to growth before, had a gander again… a computer model from 1972 is pretty outdated and I doubt it is being used for much policy/tactics by anyone presently… satoshis’ computer model is much more interesting, practical and relevant ( its’ proven monetary policy literally mimics a finite, physically-constrained earth)
Posted by: E | Apr 21 2025 23:28 utc | 91
Trump doesn’t do complex plans, so everyone assuming there are deep, moving parts to this are mistaken. Navarro is a big fan of tariffs and Trump has believed in them since the 80’s. It doesn’t matter why, or whether his beliefs are correct or incorrect. He believes in them so putting him in Navarro’s earshot is what got us here. Except that Navarro doesn’t actually know what he’s talking about. His book on China is full of made up quotes from an “expert” on China that doesn’t exist.
The reactionary old men like Trump are mad that the play against China didn’t work. Both sides made their money over the last 40ish years but one side wasted theirs while the other invested it. So now China is in a good position and reactionary America is mad. It’s not about lifting America up, just trying to tear China down. But the understanding of China is just as bad as the Biden admin’s understanding of Russia.
They’re not doing a controlled demolition like the the USSR in the 80’s. Not smart enough for that and it’s the entropic path the US was on anyway. The oligarchs will strip all the assets on the way down and the US’s next phase will look like Russia in the 90’s. But meaner and uglier.
Posted by: Lex | Apr 21 2025 23:28 utc | 92
…and yes, I do see LTG has had updates over the decades… the actual limit to growth is the debt-based financial system that requires ever growing debt that eventually blows sky high
Posted by: E | Apr 21 2025 23:30 utc | 93
Posted by: NigelTufnel11 | Apr 21 2025 23:15 utc | 88
########
Almost everything you wrote about China is incorrect. That is why China is eating America's lunch today. Being ignorant makes one uncompetitive.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 21 2025 23:34 utc | 94
In response to
"
Posted by: Dave Hansell | Apr 21 2025 20:51 utc | 45 who doesn't understand the nuance to my claim that Trump's tariff crazy is tanking global markets
And with Western financial intermediaries cut out of the loop, what happens to Western FIRE-based GDP?
Gone are the days of sitting on balance transfers for a couple of days, creaming off the ‘vig’ of overnight interest earnings.
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 21 2025 21:10 utc | 48
"
The God Of Mammon cult are desperate and crashing economies now will, like in war, force countries to continue their lock into the US dollar because the alternatives are new and not scaled out yet.....I am not saying they couldn't be and hope they are but this is existential war for both sides....and we get to watch.
The shit show continues util it doesn't and lets hope it flushes the worst of the greedy bastards down the toilet when it goes.....and I think this will happen because China is holding all those Treasures and has the ability to float the economies/debt of most of the RoW for a while it it assumes Reserve Currency status/plumbing with vision to evolve to BRICS+ bancor type in near future.
The God Of Mammon cult are desperate and we are going to see more perfidy, including a nuke or two I believe but want to be wrong about.
The cultural anthropologist in me wants to remind barflies that our species has denied female agency in our form of social organization for over 2K years and so we should not be surprised at the barbaric patriarchal dead end we are in.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 21 2025 23:35 utc | 95
Interesting thoughts Lex, even Trump allies agree he doesn't do complex plans for the most part.
I personally think the cabal/group around him that can't be seen has come to the conclusion the current system cannot be "saved" and has chosen to crash it and then buy it up for pennies on the dollar, this is the scenario Buffet has prepared for, notice how he is not talking. Nothing else can really explain it.....
It's the equivalent of trying to perform open heart surgery with a rusty pocket knife, the only possible outcome is failure and hence it must be concluded they are trying to kill the system at the expense of the average american.
Posted by: silverfoxes | Apr 21 2025 23:41 utc | 96
China is holding all those Treasures and has the ability to float the economies/debt of most of the RoW for a while it it assumes Reserve Currency statusPosted by: psychohistorian | Apr 21 2025 23:35 utc | 95
I genuinely don’t think that China wants to assume the position of being responsible for a global reserve currency.
Boiling things down, fundamentally all international trade needs is an commonly-recognised immutable base for exchange, a denominator; the troy ounce/gramme seems like a good idea to fulfil this; nations are free to float their currency (me not being a fixed-exchange rate idealogue h/t @SunOfAlabama) against the tr oz/g of, well, whatever metallic element can be agreed on...
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 21 2025 23:54 utc | 97
Trump is turning the World Economy from Globalism to Mercantilism.
Globalism rewards the Elites. Mercantilism rewards the People.
Trump wants 188 Bilateral Trade partners for America. With that many individual agreements and operations. Every one will "ideally" be a Win-Win. Sure beats American Hegemony where USAID either rewards or punishes the Third World for complying to their LGBTQ+, Abortion and Godless agenda.
Trump's Global Economic plan is exponentially more moral and successful than China bribing some African regime to "BUILD" a high speed railway and other infrastructure from a Rare Earth area to some Coast ... which they also built and CONTROL.
Chinese are worse of Africa than the French, Brits and Dutch were as Colonizers. They're doing a soft attack. No more, Xi!! It's on!
Posted by: NigelTufnel11 | Apr 21 2025 23:54 utc | 98
Dave Hansell | Apr 21 2025 20:51 utc | 45
Yep. Was gonna post that Canton Trade Fair vid.
10mins. All but the “nigels” will understand why Trump’s trade war is a fool’s folly.
Here’s the link again. Muh for the narration. Just watch what’s in the background.
I saw a large Turkiye representation in one-off the pavilions.
Re linked. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvKvlB5qPOg
They came after Musk. HARD. He’s an autist. But not stupid. He knew he’d reached the red line. Do Not Cross.Have I missed the results of the Fort Knox audit? Or haven’t they been published yet?... Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 21 2025 22:10 utc | 65
Posted by: Melaleuca | Apr 21 2025 23:54 utc | 99
In response to
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I genuinely don’t think that China wants to assume the position of being responsible for a global reserve currency.
Boiling things down, fundamentally all international trade needs is an commonly-recognised immutable base for exchange, a denominator; the troy ounce/gramme seems like a good idea to fulfil this; nations are free to float their currency (me not being a fixed-exchange rate idealogue h/t @SunOfAlabama) against the tr oz/g of, well, whatever metallic element can be agreed on...
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Apr 21 2025 23:54 utc | 97
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I agree that China does not want to become the new Reserve Currency which is why the God Of Mammon cult will live longer.
International trade is not as simple as you and SunofAlalbama describe it and that is where the difficulties occur......how to handle trade imbalances at any one time and over time.....same problem with debt......but we need human adults in the room to solve these problems, not the barbaristic robber barons of old/now.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 22 2025 0:16 utc | 100
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I don't even remember why I have this site as my home page anymore.
Posted by: Jans | Apr 21 2025 18:32 utc | 1