Trump's tariffs are a sales tax wrapped in the flag.

Posted by: Figleaf23 | May 13 2025 16:39 utc | 1

If Krugman agrees, make sure to do just the opposite.......

Posted by: Simple J. Malarkey | May 13 2025 16:52 utc | 2

Tariffs are an admission that the county's productive capacity is either inefficient or not competitive? Tariffs are like a handicap in golf.. the world has to make allowances for the inefficient and non productive country.

To MAGA it is necessary to engage in real competition. all industry empires all monopoly powers must be removed ( no patents, no copyrights, no government franchises, no industry monopolies) just bare hard core productive competition.. That is the only thing that will MAGA. the sooner Trump realizes that the better will be his domestic policies. and the less interest he will have in out of the country activities.

Trump needs to tell the school book economist to kiss his ass
and embark on his promise to MAGA. We are all waiting.

Posted by: snake | May 13 2025 16:54 utc | 3

6D chess moves by the chosen one, that's what it is. The guy's a genius, wait till you see!!
Or maybe he's a total dumb fuck who'll destroy everything.
Trump will go down in history for sure, and for sure, that's all he really cares about.

Posted by: Ogre | May 13 2025 16:55 utc | 4

"[Trump's] retreat probably hasn’t come soon enough to avoid high prices and empty shelves..." - Paul Krugman

Notice that Krugman, a NYTimes disinformation specialist, using "clever-wording" to attribute a preexisting-condition with something that just occurred. Inflation is down from it's heights but, prices remain high. One terms describes the rate of change, the term other the steady-state-condition. You'd have to mathematically illiterate...no change that, arithmetically-challenged, to accept this misdirection.

Posted by: S Brennan | May 13 2025 16:56 utc | 5

I agree 100% with b and with the news articles. What was Trump doing?
Well, the US is economically weak, sinking, and this has been apparent for at least a couple decades. Our main strategy has been destroy our competitors and sell war toys. Trump has been cutting our war involvement, great, less spent on that. But our manufacturing of everyday goods and cars is gone. Our mass transit is practically non-existent. Trump is cutting war costs, great. But then he tries to get goods we can afford by making money on tariffs? Not working. Yes, it hurts them but maybe hurts us more.
It will take a long time for the US to build mass transit and manufacturing at home. For one thing, our education is inadequate. Trump has found problems, good. He doesn't have solutions yet.
But at least he sees how dumb and wasteful it is to wage war. The US will save themselves and the world a whole lot if they stop fighting.

Posted by: HelenB | May 13 2025 16:57 utc | 6

Can someone explain to me in a very clear way why China would agree to this *instead of* letting the American economy suffer irreparable damage??

I mean, wouldn't it make more sense to let someone who tries to screw you screw himself worse -- and in a permanent way, too????

Sure China also suffers but it would be still standing fairly strong while the U.S. would have undergone a major depression from which it would have likely took at least a decade to dig out of...unless maybe America threatened an actual shooting war, you can think?

I'm just trying to understand why the Chinese wouldn't just begon economically neutering the Americans already; this was a golden opportunity to cut their balls off while not looking like the bad guy for a change!

Posted by: Perplexed | May 13 2025 16:58 utc | 7

Posted by: snake | May 13 2025 16:54 utc | 4

Autarchy. No foreign entanglements. Gold backed currency. I doubt it will happen.

Posted by: lex talionis | May 13 2025 17:00 utc | 8

IMHO, Global-Minus-One has been kicked off one way or another. It will speed up should amerikkka stays on its current course. The question is what the "one" includes. Is it just "simply one" or "one block" that contains the "one" and its vassals of the willing.

China has a summit with the countries from Latin America and Caribbean that produced China-LAC Beijing Declaration and the action plan for 2025-27 (both in Chinese). The heads of Brazil, Chile, and Columbia attended the summit.

Posted by: LuRenJia | May 13 2025 17:02 utc | 9

Trump is desperately trying to raise money, trying to use tariffs to forestall insolvency:,

Interest cost of federal debt as percentage of federal revenues:

Actual
~2% 2019
~9% 2022
~18% 2024
Projected
~24% 2025
~xx% 2026
~xx% 2027

My back of the envelope shows 30% in 2026 and 34% in 2027. If that’s true, then the Federal Gov‘t will face an insolvency crisis.

Federal Revenues are roughly $5 trillion.

Posted by: Exile | May 13 2025 17:07 utc | 10

What I said on the Open Thread yesterday
"
The most important thing to say about the China/US tariff agreement is that is continues major economic uncertainty for another 90 days, at least.

That economic uncertainty will be harder on the US than China, IMO.

Posted by: psychohistorian | May 13 2025 2:45 utc | 133
"

Scott Ritter called Trump a man-child today which fits his behavior but I think Trump intends on crashing the world economies while empire still has the Reserve Currency to wield as a weapon.....we have yet to come to that scene in our civilization war movie.....acts of desperation to stall the inevitable move away from barbarism/unbridled exceptionalism.

Posted by: psychohistorian | May 13 2025 17:16 utc | 11

It is not even clear to me that a project of decoupling with PRC is definitely off the table. Such a gargantuan project, if that were the ultimate goal, would benefit politically from pauses, pretenses, alleged Chinese provocations, going back and forth as cover, all to gain time.

The ultimate effects of such decoupling, whether consciously achieved in full or unconsciously achieved in part, would I think amount to a de facto shrinking of the entire world economy. Shrinking world economy is in effect a world recession/depression. People who seem to think this is a good idea seem to have a perspective of dividing the world up into enemy blocs, ultimately for war. That's why I suspect some people who don't forthrightly avow this program nevertheless have the goal? But maybe that's paranoia?

Now as to whether the short-term effect is a burst of inflation depends not just on the tariffs. Despite tariffs prices and volume of sales will generally stagnate/drop during a recession. (Plus, I don't think the Fed controls money supply the way it likes to think, but whatever it does will have some effect, intended or not.) If the economic chaos interacts with previous trends to weakness to induce an American recession, the tariffs will not I suspect necessarily cause inflation. Given that inflation is generally deemed much, much worse than deflation by conservatives, this may be political cover for Trump? The main animus rising against Trump now is about this inflation, so far as I can tell. But quite aside from the fact that any effects from Liberation Day are lagging by months, the rest of the story is that presidents, not including Trump, control the currency's value. (Again, I don't think the Fed has the control it wants to imagine it does. If there was a free market in gold that might be obvious. But I don't think there can be, not effectively, production is too concentrated, nearly as bad as diamonds, even worse than oil.)

There is also the issue of Treasury securities and their sale. It is not at all clear to me how an effectively shrinking world economy will break the imperial money. The role of T-bills as liquidity must be replaced by some other government's securities, or the world economy freezes up financially. There are no candidates. Also if decoupling destabilizes world economy, some refuge is even more needed. As against that, if world financial chaos was bad enough, T-bills would have to be sold at any price to cover firms unwinding markets. Even if there was to be a massive sell-off in Treasury securities, whether for preference for the as-yet nonexistent new reserve currency or to avoid bankruptcy, it's not clear to me that the US would find it's military role much impaired. I do not find historically that countries stop wars when they start losing money. It seems to be, they lose war, then their money becomes worthless.

Posted by: steven t johnson | May 13 2025 17:19 utc | 12

If Liberation Day has been repudiated, does that mean that America has become enslaved by other countries again?

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 17:20 utc | 13

As I’ve said many times, Republicans are great a calling out problems…then doing everything they can to make matters worse. Trump takes this ridiculousness to new heights.

Meanwhile the “root causes” get ignored, most notably by mainstream economists like Krugman, whose main goal is to maintain the status quo—the exorbitant, debt fuelled privilege of the dollar, which overvalues the dollar and results in massive, unsustainable trade deficits.

Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Münchau discuss this along with possible outcomes (none pretty) from a European perspective. https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2025/05/11/unherds-freddie-sayers-interviews-y-varoufakis-w-munchau-on-europes-prospects-in-the-era-of-trump/

Michael Hudson and Richard Wolff also discuss the problem regularly.

Posted by: JohnH | May 13 2025 17:22 utc | 14

but I think Trump intends on crashing the world economies

Posted by: psychohistorian | May 13 2025 17:16 utc | 12

I don't think Trump intends to do anything. He just does things.

I agree he is going to crash the world economy, but I very much doubt it is to any plan, just the effects of a Mad King doing mad things, 'cause, USA! USA! USA!, We're #1!

The Joker takes office. "I’m like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn’t know what to do if I caught one, you know, I just do…things"

Fits, no?

Posted by: saner | May 13 2025 17:24 utc | 15

Posted by: saner | May 13 2025 17:24 utc | 15

#######

I think he has ambitions, but he is also allergic to hard work and planning (which includes planning for problems, failure, etc).

Coupled with a minuscule attention span, that manifests as chaos.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 17:30 utc | 16

US tariffs on imported goods and services are just an excellent idea, and long overdue too.

Past US POTUS's have been WEC/EU globalist free trade enuchs.....not this POTUS.

We have seen whole industrial regions like the Great Lakes basin sold out to foreign imported low cost steel, aluminum, coke and iron. Numerous industrial centers have been destroyed in detail, such as, South Chicago, Gary, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Homestead, Johnstown, Bethlehem, Lackawanna, South Buffalo, Youngstown, Altoona, Toledo, etc., etc.

No longer will India, China, Brazil. and the EU be allowed to dump low cost goods on the US markets and destroy American jobs and towns and villages.

Over 12 million American manufacturing jobs have been lost in the last two decades to the free trade nonsense, and most likely another 12 million before that........that will not continue.

We need Jeffersonian self sufficiency and DJT will provide that........high tariffs are just excellent....

Posted by: tobias cole | May 13 2025 17:31 utc | 17

The US needs to get back on the gold standard and quickly too, and make the use of gold coins legal again too. End the socialist madness.............burn coal live better and warmer too........

Posted by: tobias cole | May 13 2025 17:33 utc | 18

If the 10% each +20%”because fentanyl” hold it’s a trump win (when us first said 30%, china said 32%)

And might be about right for the desired effect…

And Vietnam and other “not” made in china , were closed with higher ones.

If, and it’s a big if, in the next weeks I see the us dropping the fentanyl part I’ll call it achina win….

Posted by: Newbie | May 13 2025 17:34 utc | 19

Posted by: snake | May 13 2025 16:54 utc | 4 There's no evidence I know of that Trump is opposed to IP in services. (Which by the way usually balance of trade in services favors the US.) MAGA means nothing, but I can say I've never heard of some MAGA saying America stopped being great when the Constitution had a patents clause inserted into it.

Posted by: HelenB | May 13 2025 16:57 utc | 7 And the military budget positively refutes the notion that Trump is anti-war. Plus, regardless of how unpopular the idea is, economic warfare is still warfare.

Posted by: S Brennan | May 13 2025 16:56 utc | 6 This is typically confused (that's the charitable interpretation.) "High prices and empty shelves" are neither a pre-existing condition nor something that just occurred. "High prices and empty shelves" are Krugman's prediction. We'll see.

Posted by: LuRenJia | May 13 2025 17:02 utc | 10 I think the phrase Global-minus-one is not just an allusion to Godzilla Minus One (good movie, by the way,) but a tag for a decoupled US/PRC. The question of who would be in the US block is interesting. But in my view, PRC stete relations with Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua are ultimately far more important than Chinese firms' business relations with Brazi, Colombia and Chile.

Posted by: steven t johnson | May 13 2025 17:39 utc | 20

Tariffs were never going to fix American economy let alone bring back manufacturing. Trump if he really wanted to bring back manufacturing should’ve held a town hall with the sp500 CEO’s and said bring back manufacturing or else we raise taxes, at least that would have a fighting chance of working

Posted by: Ggersh | May 13 2025 17:40 utc | 21

Is the effect of financialization on the economic growth potential of American “reshoring” a stumbling block?

ChatGPT said:

Yes, financialization poses a significant stumbling block to the economic growth potential of American reshoring (the effort to bring manufacturing back to the U.S.). Here’s why:

1. Financialization Prioritizes Short-Term Gains Over Long-Term Industrial Investment

Corporate decision-making is dominated by financial metrics, such as stock prices, dividends, and share buybacks, rather than long-term investment in domestic production.

Instead of using profits to rebuild U.S. factories and invest in new technologies, many firms engage in stock buybacks and financial engineering to boost executive bonuses and shareholder returns.

Example: From 2010 to 2020, U.S. companies spent trillions on stock buybacks, often at the expense of reinvesting in domestic production and R&D.

Result: Reshoring is underfunded because financialized firms prefer short-term speculative gains over long-term industrial expansion.

2. Private Equity and Corporate Debt Prevent Industrial Renewal

Private equity firms and leveraged buyouts (LBOs) have saddled many manufacturing firms with crippling debt, limiting their ability to invest in reshoring.

Debt-driven acquisitions often lead to cost-cutting, layoffs, and outsourcing, further undermining U.S. manufacturing capacity.

Example: When private equity takes over an industrial firm, the priority is often to extract wealth rather than reinvest in productive assets.

Result: High levels of corporate debt reduce the ability of U.S. companies to invest in new factories, automation, and skilled labor.

3. The U.S. Dollar’s Role in Financialized Globalization Undermines Reshoring

The strong U.S. dollar, maintained by financialization and global capital flows, makes American exports more expensive and foreign imports cheaper.

Since many U.S. firms are more focused on financial markets than production, they outsource to low-wage economies instead of absorbing higher domestic labor costs.

Example: Even with government incentives for reshoring, firms often continue offshoring to Asia and Latin America because financial structures favor it.

Result: The U.S. dollar’s role as the global reserve currency makes reshoring less competitive compared to continued offshoring.

4. Wall Street Pressures Companies to Keep Supply Chains Offshore

Investors, hedge funds, and corporate boards often oppose reshoring efforts because they increase short-term costs (higher wages, new factory expenses, and supply chain restructuring).

Many executives are rewarded based on quarterly earnings, meaning long-term investments in reshoring are disincentivized.

Example: When companies like Intel announce plans to build U.S. semiconductor plants, they face shareholder pressure to justify higher capital expenditures rather than keeping costs low with overseas production.

Result: Companies face a dilemma — reshoring requires upfront investment, but Wall Street penalizes firms that sacrifice short-term profits.

5. Financialization Weakens Workforce Development and Industrial Policy

Unlike China and Germany, which integrate finance with industrial policy, the U.S. financial sector largely ignores investment in workforce development and manufacturing innovation.

The shift toward a services-based, debt-driven economy has weakened the manufacturing workforce, making it harder to scale reshoring efforts.

Example: The decline of vocational training and apprenticeships in the U.S. has left a shortage of skilled manufacturing workers.

Result: Financialization has discouraged the kind of public-private investment needed to rebuild a strong industrial base.

Conclusion: Financialization Is a Major Barrier to Reshoring

Instead of supporting industrial revitalization, financialized capitalism diverts resources into speculation, debt, and short-term profits, making reshoring more difficult and less attractive.

For reshoring to succeed, the U.S. would need to reverse financial incentives that prioritize rent-seeking behavior over productive investment.

This would require industrial policy reforms, investment incentives, and changes to Wall Street’s short-termist culture.

From THE DEVIL AND J.D. VANCE

Posted by: kana | May 13 2025 17:41 utc | 22

Paul Krugman's ONLY claim to fame is his nose. Nothing else!

Posted by: Truth be told | May 13 2025 17:44 utc | 23

We need Jeffersonian self sufficiency and DJT will provide that........high tariffs are just excellent....

Posted by: tobias cole | May 13 2025 17:31 utc | 17

######

Under Jefferson, America was agrarian.

America needs to tackle its social problems and bring the banks and finance to heel, the way the Chinese, and to a lesser degree, Russia, have.

Until the parasite of financialization is addressed, America's best days will remain in the distant past.

The future always punishes anachronisms. There is no going back to an idealized past as the ROW is moving forward. The gap is already widening, chasing after 18th-century solutions heading into the 21st century is a surefire way to become (relatively) third world.

There are enormous benefits to network effects. "Fortress America" is such a bad idea for America. It would probably be great for the ROW.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 17:54 utc | 24

If, and it’s a big if, in the next weeks I see the us dropping the fentanyl part I’ll call it achina win….

Posted by: Newbie | May 13 2025 17:34 utc | 19

Mmhmm. China has warehouses absolutely bursting with consumer goods, of course, and they might even take minor losses just to get rid of the unneeded supply. But they went with a 30% tariff? What a victory! If the Chinese position was that strong, they would have simply walked away from the table and let the USA scramble to source Wal-Mart and CVS.

So let's review:
1) Chinese banks continue to obey American sanctions against the major Chinese ally.
2) The Chinese impose 10% tariffs on American goods in the face of 30% tariffs on Chinese exports.
3) China clearly hasn't found profitable alternate markets, or they would never have agreed to unbalanced tariffs.

But sure, America ran to China for trade talks. I suppose they must have, if such favorable terms could be locked in!

Posted by: They Call Me Mister | May 13 2025 18:00 utc | 25

If the Chinese position was that strong, they would have simply walked away from the table and let the USA scramble to source Wal-Mart and CVS.

Posted by: They Call Me Mister | May 13 2025 18:00 utc | 25

########

I believe you would find an understanding of Confucianism useful in your China analysis.

Chinese strategy and goals are radically different than Western ones.

In the West, we want everything now. We don't think about the next century. The Chinese are always thinking about the future.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 18:03 utc | 26

B, you're quickly destroying whatever credibility you might have once had.

You crafted a simple, yet effective means of correctly assessing the truth about Ukraine by merely countering each and every propaganda piece published in the NYT + MSM.

But now you're doing a complete 180 by embracing the likes of the Wall street journal, Krugman, et al, quoting and referencing them as if they are now unimpeachable fountains of truth.

I can only surmise you're relying on your readership's lack of knowledge regarding the US press. Honestly, its pretty transparent, but even moreso downright pathetic.

What's your game and motivation? To display for all the world some kind of weird personality disorder masked as analysis?

Posted by: Markw | May 13 2025 18:05 utc | 27

Off-topic, but disturbing enough to discuss.

https://sam.gov/opp/c7d386040a2d429fbfea44e442280316/view

That's right. The US military is openly soliciting American firms to pursue $900M worth of construction work in Israel. That's in addition to the money our taxpayer base ostensibly sends them in "aid" every year. Highly fucking offensive, and I've been tracking this market for MANY years. This is a Trump initiative, 100%. Trump may have "sidelined" Nutty Yahoo, but that's obviously just a personality thing.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 13 2025 18:06 utc | 28

Assuming the best intentions, the tariff ploy seems designed to bring yesterday's economy back to the USA when we should be trying to build an environment that allows the unknown future's economy to flourish in America.

USA, "the land of the free", is one of the most heavily taxed (not even counting hidden inflation taxes, mandatory health premiums, etc.) and regulated economies in the world, and Trump's answer is to dramatically raise taxes?!?! How in the world can the innovations - most of which we don't even know we need yet - arise in such a highly regulated environment, where regulators can only allow incremental changes to the status quo?

If the rulers of the world were serious about implementing true democracy, they'd start with democratizing the money, removing the power of the money from the rulers. None of them are interested in this because even if they have good intentions (very unlikely), they're all as corruptible as Isildur.

So many of the idiocracy think that the mega governments can be tamed, made to work for the people's benefit - b.s. I'm sure each of us can think of a deal-killer that should have resulted in the disbandment/death penalty of the USA if we were a moral people (lying into wars, assassinations, medical experiments on the unaware, etc.), but we make excuses for it even though what we know is surely the tip of the iceberg.

I bet many of bootlickers fully supported the death penalty for corporate malfeasance when it came to Worldcom, Enron, and undeservedly, Arthur Andersen.

Posted by: HB Brian | May 13 2025 18:06 utc | 29

When I was a kid in the mid-70s, my father invited a bigwig from Eastman Kodak to dinner. Bigwig was also an economic advisor to the US president. During dinner, Bigwig told us that the decision had already been made, nationally, to send US manufacturing overseas. The US was to become a "service economy." He was incensed when I asked if that meant Americans were just going to sell things to each other that others made. Even I could see the problem. I used to think the problem was just the endless greed of the corporatocracy. Now I'm inclined to think the US, like the rest of the "Western" nations, are being dismantled. Trump's flailing is to give the appearance of positive action while doing nothing. Maybe they even let him think he's helping.

Posted by: NoOneYouKnowNow | May 13 2025 18:07 utc | 30

While I agree with this piece, I ADVISE anyone who wants to be taken seriously about ANYTHING to avoid quoting Krugman…!!!

Posted by: Liberator | May 13 2025 18:12 utc | 31

The US is a train going over the edge of a cliff - criticising Trump for steering badly is moot.

Watch the carnage and ask how the US got here later, but the crash is happening whatever.

And note first carriage has to be Israel - that is happening too.

Posted by: Michael Droy | May 13 2025 18:13 utc | 32

Comments here criticize the presidents use of tariffs yet they themselves know nothing about the proper employment of tariffs. The young US republic used them to protect fledgling industry, manufacturing, and agriculture. But most of all to protect the most precious resources,our fostering of scientific research and technological progress. Pres. Trumps intentions were obviously manipulated by pinhead economic experts.Tariffs should never be weaponized. Besides the US economy is stagnated. There is nothing to protect from anyone especially China. China knew what the Achilles heel was of Wall Street and that's all it took for Trump to back up. Oh my, the shaken billionaires could not afford those nice luxury cars anymore. The Brits and Germans screamed out in pain. Plus Pres. Trump thinking he was following in the path as McKinley was also seriously flawed. But not to worry folks as Alexander Hamilton is on his way to DC.

Posted by: wtbaker | May 13 2025 18:20 utc | 33

Posted by: Markw | May 13 2025 18:05 utc | 27

#######

b is doing what good website operators and community leaders do. He's starting the conversation so that we can debate it.

Don't depend on him to be an absolute authority. That is the thinking of a follower.

IMO, b is daring people to lead, not to follow.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 18:26 utc | 34

The tariffs (and threat of tariffs) are working. US stock markets soaring. Basically, erasing all the losses from the previous months.

Posted by: bored | May 13 2025 18:36 utc | 35

Mark Blyth and Yanis Varoufakis are economists worth following. Krugman is much better now that has escaped the editors at the NYT. There's always Richard D. Wolf and Michael Hudson.

Trump is dumb enough to think he alone can turn this around, but this is not a real estate deal, but a market with lots of moving parts (a long time ago) but is now a casino (and Trump managed to sink a couple of those golden gooses).

Posted by: azeclecticdog | May 13 2025 18:40 utc | 36

Krugman blames the trial-and-error strategy with the tariffs on Trump's ignorance.

As if the discipline of which he is a representative is very knowledgeable and Trump and his team are ignoring that profound source of knowledge.

But in fact it is Economy as a profession and a schorlarly discipline the one that fails under the weight of so much ideology and calculations to benefit the richest 0.01%.

Macroeconomic and trade theory "predicts" that all trade between nations will end up balanced after a few years.
Lol!
As if that ever happened to the (until recently) largest economy of the world in its trade with other nations, or to any other nation for that matter.

So what can Trump and his team do given that economic theory is rubbish with respect to trade and its impact on macroeconomic processes?
Well, what do you do when there is no valid theory to develop a robust methodology to achieve a result?
You do trial and error, carefully, advancing and retreating as info comes in.

If nothing is done to revert American de-industrialization, under current worldwide economic trends, the collapse of the American economy is certain. Exile has his calculation leading to 2027, I agree perhaps with different calculations.

Trump and his team are checking what works and what doesn't given the poverty of economic theory and the absence of models for out of equilibrium conditions of international trade and domestic macro variables.

Unfair to blame Trump and his team for the poverty of Economy as a pseudo-science.

Posted by: Johan Kaspar | May 13 2025 18:42 utc | 37

China has no incentive to collapse the global financial by engaging in an economic emasculation of DJT's tariff's quandary. No nation would be untouched by such a thing, so jaw-jaw engagement & wheelin' & dealin' was indeed the way to go.

Right now, the U.S. controls the plumbing of the global financial system, the world currency reserve and boasts a sprawling military stationed on bases across the planet---280 in all?.

Any country country who defies the U.S. risks economic sanctions, capricious trade disruptions (hello-tariffs!), espionage & regime-change oriented civil destabilization: insurgent wreckage.

The global financial system, revolving around the hegemonic U.S. is as illusory as professional wrestling. The vassalized countries receive their scripts; the vassalized countries play their prescribed roles.

It is particularly fitting that we have a Showman-in-Chief right now who has occasionally thrown down outside the ring.

DJT is going to have a tough time w/ the debt ceiling, however---so that drama awaits us domestically. Maybe Dana White can hire a script-doctor for that-?

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 13 2025 18:43 utc | 38

Posted by: Exile | May 13 2025 17:07 utc | 10

Trump is desperately trying to raise money, .. to forestall insolvency

<= IMO, Its so easy to fix the deficit an 12 year old could do it.. revert the American tax system to its 1949 law.. money woes would be over in one tax cycle.. and the rich would pay their fair share.

If 1949 tax rates are any guide, the economy would be on fire.

For the tax year 1949, the individual income tax rates were as follows:
______________if single_____if married filing joint
0%____________to $2,000_____0% $3,000
20% $2,000____to $4,000_____20% $3,000 _to $6,000
22% $4,000 ___to $6,000_____22% $6,000 _to $9,000
26% $6,000____to $10,000____26% $9,000 _to $14,000
30% $10,000___to $20,000____30% $14,000 to $20,000
34% $20,000___to $40,000____34% $20,000 to $40,000
38% $40,000___to $60,000____38% $40,000 to $60,000
39% $60,000 ..

For the tax year 1949, the maximum individual income tax rate in the United States was 91%. This rate applied to income over $200,000 for single filers and over $400,000 for married couples filing jointly.

Corporate Income Tax Rates
For corporations, a graduated scale that applied to different levels of income. In the tax year 1949, the maximum corporate income tax rate in the United States was 50%. This rate applied to corporate income over $25,000.

Estate and Trust Tax Rates
estates and trusts in 1949 were as follows:

0% on income up to $ 1,000
20% on income over $ 1,000 up to $2,500
22% on income over $ 2,500 up to $5,000
26% on income over $ 5,000 up to $10,000
30% on income over $10,000 up to $20,000
34% on income over $20,000

estates of decedents who died in 1949:

0% on the first $40,000 of the taxable estate
1% on the next $40,000 (from $40,001 to $80,000)
2% on the next $40,000 (from $80,001 to $120,000)
3% on the next $40,000 (from $120,001 to $160,000)
4% on the next $40,000 (from $160,001 to $200,000)
5% on the next $40,000 (from $200,001 to $240,000)
....continues in increments of $40,000
16% on the next $40,000 (from $640,001 to $680,000)
17% on the next $40,000 (from $680,001 to $720,000)
18% on the next $40,000 (from $720,001 to $760,000)
19% on the next $40,000 (from $760,001 to $800,000)
20% on the amount over $800,000
continues to 77%
The maximum estate tax rate was 77% on estates exceeding $10 million.

All one need do is remove all exemptions all what ifs and economist derived bull shit deductions from the tax law..
apply rates without floor or politically encouraged deductions. To compute the tax due, Just determine the income deduct nothing and apply the rate. In the case of corporations or businesses deduct only actual business cost, and make both advertising costs and charitable gifts non deductible to everyone: individuals, corporations, estates, trust, and apply the max tax rate to all foreign entities, persons, or persons with dual citizenship doing business in the USA to 90% for their American based incomes.. (a hell of a lot more productive than trying to penalize
suppliers and competitors with tariffs). After all it does not make a difference if the source of the revenue to the government is tax or tariff, both come from the taxpayers pockets.

to alert Americans to USA federal spending: make tax rates a % of the actual federal expenditures for each tax year. Taxpayers would constrain congressional budgets because
they could see just how much their pockets were being raped by the size of the federal budget.

these numbers came from conversations with AI..it took some doing to get AI to tell the max. tax rates. you had to insist on them. 'I have not compared them to my 1949 tax rate schedule.. its in the warehouse.

Posted by: snake | May 13 2025 18:49 utc | 39

So no one knows why China didn't just let the US go into long-term depression for long-term geopolitical advantage??

I'm looking for details, please.

Posted by: Perplexed | May 13 2025 18:52 utc | 40

In the West, we want everything now. We don't think about the next century. The Chinese are always thinking about the future.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 18:03 utc | 26

10-30 was trump's move start of april

China replied 34-30

If the 20% of fentanyl excuse drop in a couple of weeks, 10-10, I'll say china win, not before

Posted by: Newbie | May 13 2025 18:52 utc | 41

@v LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 18:03 utc | 26
re: "In the West, we want everything now. We don't think about the next century. The Chinese are always thinking about the future."

Exactly, which is why Xi is gathering lots of support for how he responded to Trump's 'a change now and we do this, and maybe later maybe that.' . . . Five thousand years China has been around.

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 13 2025 18:53 utc | 42

Analogy: the U.S. is a bakery which coerces customers [the vassals] into buying its baguettes & buns. As long as there are customers to coerce, the bakery can show a *profit* in its ledger and stay in business: look how many baguettes & buns we’re selling-!

But if the bakery’s customers balk @ buying the baguettes & buns, the bakery will have to buy them itself—in order to continue showing a faux profit.

The U.S. has been in this *faux profit* mode for sometime, and of course it predates DJT’s time in the White House by decades.

Let’s un-analogize the baguettes & buns and turn them into U.S. Treasury Bonds…

China & other traditional purchasers are no longer snarfing up the bonds {read: debt] and are in fact dumping them. At some point, even the vassals will shun the purchase of U.S. Treasuries [debt.]

China has begun cashing bonds in the market @ predictable intervals and in predictable sums. This is leading to a point-of-no-return, where the Western financial system has no way out, no further quick *saves* like Quantitative Easing as it had before [like in 2008 and then also in 2021 during the pandemic.]

With Quantitative Easing, the Third-Time is never the charm. The Western financial system has Quantitatively Eased its way right into a cul de sac.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 13 2025 18:57 utc | 43

IMO, b is daring people to lead, not to follow.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 18:26 utc | 34

So a different B was running the site in 2020?

Posted by: Mr. House | May 13 2025 18:58 utc | 44

snake @ 3 Trump doesn't know how to make America great again, thus the delusional chaos. My entire working career was making America great. Trump has never worked a day in his life, much less in industry and manufacturing. He grew up in privilege, with a hundred million dollar real estate inheritance. He has no concept of industrial process, much less policy.

Posted by: an old machinist | May 13 2025 19:04 utc | 45

As yet another example of the reaction to the many problems being created by Governor Trump, I present the Hobby Industry Coalition:

https://www.hobbycoalition.org/

Most of the members are model railroad manufacturers, but the tariffs will also impact other small hobby and craft businesses that rely on Chinese production, especially in small run injection moulding and assembly, which can no longer be done affordably in the USA.

This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as small business reliance on China for products that are too expensive or simply no longer possible to produce in the USA. Sports apparel is another area, recently noted in a BBC feature on tariffs, so the effect is widespread and will cause many small businesses to fold.

The problem for these businesses is that they simply cannot relocate to the USA. They already operate on very thin margins and in many cases rely on pre-orders with lead times of up to a year before receiving sufficient interest to proceed to manufacturing a product.

This may not be as serious an issue as a ban on rare earth elements exports for example, but undermining small businesses is a serious matter when you consider the extent of the unemployment this will cause. Jobs such as retail sales, while not skilled labour, are an essential part of the process of bringing young people into the workforce where they gain experience and a sense of responsibility towards their customers and employers. Not a good thing if your aim is to make America great again.

Posted by: ebear | May 13 2025 19:06 utc | 46

Analogy: the U.S. is a bakery which coerces customers [the vassals] into buying its baguettes & buns. As long as there are customers to coerce, the bakery can show a *profit* in its ledger and stay in business: look how many baguettes & buns we’re selling-!

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 13 2025 18:57 utc | 43

More like, as long as it looks good it gets CREDIT

Posted by: Newbie | May 13 2025 19:10 utc | 47

Giscard d’Estaing, the Foreign Minister to Charles DeGaulle, spoke of the “exorbitant privilege” of the U.S. dollar: how its value relies naturally on the artificial suppression of other competing currencies.

Recall that when the U.S. went off the gold standard in 1971, it installed a fiat currency—the dollar—as the token of international reserve.

The *exorbitant privilege* is responsible for American exceptionalism, military & economic indispensability & the unchecked capacity to print limitless money.

Nota Bene: the U.S.’s national debt is *not* actually a debt for American taxpayers to assume but a historical record, a balance sheet if you like, of the *number* of dollars the U.S. federal government has printed.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 13 2025 19:11 utc | 48

Posted by: Newbie | May 13 2025 19:10 utc | 47
RE: as long as the bakery *looks good* it gets CREDIT
<<

Some of those baguettes & buns have freezer burn by now, they've been stashed away w/ no buyers for so long.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 13 2025 19:14 utc | 49

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 13, 2025 at 19:14
RE: baguettes & buns
<<

Day old and a dollar short, I might add.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 13 2025 19:14 utc | 50

Posted by: Exile | May 13 2025 17:07 utc | 10

You are on the right track.

Trump and his team are trying.

They may fail, but at least they see what's coming and they are trying to avoid it.

I think we differ in that I want America to succeed in her attempted turn-around.

A world where America is solvent and prosperous by exporting and competing in worldwide markets for consumer products is a peaceful and productive America and a source of innovation and progress.

At the end of the 80s America was the largest creditor nation of the world. After 3 decades of neoliberalism America became the largest debtor nation in the world. America's entire standing depends on other nations creating demand for her fiat currency to do trade.

That's not sustainable and creates enormous malicious incentives for politicians to go and bully the world to satisfy their malformed egos.

Hey, 34 US$ million to kill one Taliban, geee we can print it. Hundred billions to a cheap fascistic satrapy to slow Russia's capitalist developent. Uh that serious but we can print more and ukrops are dying for our print-outs. Permanent annualized billions to a Judeo-Fascistic apartheid state committing a genocide, hey what's the problem we can print all that.

A peaceful and productive re-industrialized America is good for all of us.

Posted by: Johan Kaspar | May 13 2025 19:15 utc | 51

A peaceful and productive re-industrialized America is good for all of us.

Posted by: Johan Kaspar | May 13 2025 19:15 utc | 51

########

"All of us" means Western people pursuing European lifestyles.

A powerful America has never been good for the Global South, aka the Global Majority.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 19:20 utc | 52

If the 20% of fentanyl excuse drop in a couple of weeks, 10-10, I'll say china win, not before

Posted by: Newbie | May 13 2025 18:52 utc | 41

##########

Looking at the tariff rates is the wrong filter, IMO.

You should be looking at China's balance of trade, inflation, and foreign reserves.

China's economy is still growing. The US, not so much.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 19:29 utc | 53

Weirdly, the U.S. is really a faraway island completely locked off from its most critical suppliers & interests w/ maritime shipping routes exposed & vulnerable [think: *sinkable* aircraft carriers; think quite literally of Red Sea & Suez Canal container ships as sitting-ducks for Ansar Allah.] The U.S. has compliant vassals to its north & south and fish to its east & west.

The U.S. is a *captured state* whose elites do not serve the people and are in fact traitors who pay obeisance to global interests [ WEF, Davos, Bilderberg, the Israel Lobby, the Trilateral Commission ] and who control the populace through various apparati, like climate change alarmism as a means of mesmerizing the citizens into a docile state of societal lock-down.

Perhaps this was more nakedly evident during Collective Biden, where the people’s interests and those of elites did not align.

Whether it involves Standing With Ukraine or whether supporting Israel *unwaveringly* in the Dresdenization of Gaza, the elites of the collective West are forced to take actions & assume policies they believe will stave off the future disintegration of the hegemony they are hell-bent on protecting.

This is the kind of animal which, if caught in trap, will gnaw through its own leg.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 13 2025 19:29 utc | 54

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 13 2025 19:11 utc | 48
The USA has never had a gold standard. It did use a silver standard at various times when silver certificates were used as currency but no gold certificate was ever issued for general use. The treasury did operate a gold discount window that acted as a commodity peg to gold but that is not a gold standard and has a different mechanism and effect. When dealing with things that are numerated the mechanism used leads to different emergent functions in a dynamic system.

Posted by: Badjoke | May 13 2025 19:34 utc | 55

@ wtbaker | May 13 2025 18:20 utc | 33

I am confused by your first sentence --

"Comments here criticize the presidents use of tariffs yet they themselves know nothing about the proper employment of tariffs."

-- and precisely because, as you note, apparently approvingly, "[t]he young US republic used them to protect fledgling industry, manufacturing, and agriculture. But most of all to protect the most precious resources,our fostering of scientific research and technological progress." But to the extent that industry has up and left for China, Vietnam, and other countries, there's no industry to protect by means of tariffs. The USA does still produce a lot of GMO, cattle untested for BSE, gangsta rap, and boom-boom action flicks, but I'm not seeing anything in the Trump agenda that will inspire those industries to return (and produce products Americans would be able to afford), let alone foster scientific research and technological progress beyond those kinds immediately profitable to the likes of Elon Musk and Alex Karp.

So perhaps your sentence should read

"Comments here praise the president's use of tariffs yet they themselves know nothing about the proper employment of tariffs."

Posted by: malenkov | May 13 2025 19:36 utc | 56

Posted by: Mr. House | May 13 2025 18:58 utc | 44

########

Perhaps you can help me.

I have always wondered if people who cannot give grace for the growth of others lack compassion, are secure, or frozen in their development.

Which do you think is more likely?

I wasn't born perfect and have made many poor choices and will (hopefully) make many more. That's how most people learn. If b has positively changed in any way, you should celebrate that for him, and for us.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 19:38 utc | 57

Should have been "insecure"

I have always wondered if people who cannot give grace for the growth of others lack compassion, are insecure, or frozen in their development.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 19:39 utc | 58

This may not be as serious an issue as a ban on rare earth elements exports for example, but undermining small businesses is a serious matter when you consider the extent of the unemployment this will cause. Jobs such as retail sales, while not skilled labour, are an essential part of the process of bringing young people into the workforce where they gain experience and a sense of responsibility towards their customers and employers. Not a good thing if your aim is to make America great again.

Posted by: ebear | May 13 2025 19:06 utc | 46

_______

One has to wonder whether the continued destruction of small businesses and the creation of an ever more desperate pool of the unemployed isn't actually the plan.

Posted by: malenkov | May 13 2025 19:39 utc | 59

Posted by: ebear | May 13 2025 19:06 utc | 46

_______

One has to wonder whether the continued destruction of small businesses and the creation of an ever more desperate pool of the unemployed isn't actually the plan.

Posted by: malenkov | May 13 2025 19:39 utc | 59

The issue are the thousands (millions) of critical small components

if gone...

Posted by: Newbie | May 13 2025 19:49 utc | 60

Paul Krugman has never been right on anything. Those living in the United States who actually know who he is consider him a laughing stock and treat him as the butt-end of every joke.

No acknowledgement of the fact that at the same time Trump was climbing down from his tariffs, China was also climbing down from their tariffs. No acknowledgement either of the recent disclosure that China dispatched a secret trade delegation to the US last month, which secretly met with its US counterparts in the basement of the IMF's headquarters. This, despite China publicly claiming they were not going to negotiate the tariffs; only accept an American reversion to the status quo antebellum.

Its not a stretch to imagine that meeting was what led to the second, public meeting in Geneva between Bessent and his Chinese counterparts, which ended with Bessent walking away with with a thirty-percent tariff on Chinese imports in exchange for a ten percent tariffs on all American goods China imports.

Posted by: Monos | May 13 2025 19:56 utc | 61

The USA does still produce a lot of GMO, cattle untested for BSE, gangsta rap, and boom-boom action flicks

LOL, but you missed out one; Col. Sanders very own secret recipe for Kentucky Chlorinated Chicken...

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | May 13 2025 20:04 utc | 62

People turn this into stuff it isn't really about and then argue over the details of who is the most right or wrong.

No.

The main economic change is a permanent increase in the production of US AbsurdiumBS™ far higher than the decreasing global demand and this forces the world to disengage from the US.

Look forward to even higher levels of production within 90 days.

This is why China doesn't care too much, they knew from the start it won't last and won't matter. They couldn't care less about the lost US trade which is still lost at 30%. They know the US will continue to create trouble no matter what.

China is ready.

Global baseline tariff of 10% is a hell of a lot and isn't going to fly no matter what governments pretend; it is a 10% punishment for having anything to do with the US. Anyone will look for better deals elsewhere.

Everyone in the world now knows the US is a bunch of assholes. Do you really want some US BBQ sauce with that?

The US does not in any way control the global financial system (consisting of a bazillion competing entities).

Global actual use of USD can be replaced by mutual agreement in absolutely everything in several different ways according to the whims of those involved.

Maybe someone would need USD to trade with US companies but if demand falls far enough the US will have to accept being paid in whatever the customer wants to pay in. I suggest glass beads.

Then there is the issue of many US companies and franchises being involved in genocide. The owners of stocks in those companies are also supporting genocide and this puts their personal freedom and all their other assets at risk.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | May 13 2025 20:07 utc | 63

Let's remember our political economy. US manufacturers outsourced and offshored because it was cheaper, because it reverse the declining trend of profitability in productive investment. That trend hasn't gotten any better for capital. Tariffs will erode real wage gains, reducing consumption, and impose new blocks on profitability.

Why isn't US investment very profitable outside of finance, which sponges up the world's US dollar reserves? Because US workers demand too high a standard of living. That might be fine, if the capitalist class didn't have to take its cut.

Tariffs won't result in reshoring until the US working class is sufficiently immiserated. Living in pods, eating bugs, that sort of deal. Trump is carrying through the WEF's "Great Reset", at least what the conspiracy theorists and Alex Jones types were thinking it was. Goodbye, lifted pick-up trucks. Goodbye, boat ownership. Goodbye, lake house. The US worker is about to get shafted harder than they've been in living memory.

Posted by: fnord | May 13 2025 20:10 utc | 64

Perhaps you can help me.

I have always wondered if people who cannot give grace for the growth of others lack compassion, are secure, or frozen in their development.

Which do you think is more likely?

I wasn't born perfect and have made many poor choices and will (hopefully) make many more. That's how most people learn. If b has positively changed in any way, you should celebrate that for him, and for us.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 19:38 utc | 57

A sign of growth would be an apology for being 100% wrong in probably the biggest event to most peoples personal lives in the last 40 years. So who isn't growing? But your comment makes me think, what did you learn in 2020? People who can't admit they were very very wrong, are not growing.

Posted by: Mr. House | May 13 2025 20:11 utc | 65

“Paul Krugman agrees”
That means the truth is 180 degrees opposite to whatever Mr Krugman agrees to.

Posted by: anonymousl | May 13 2025 20:21 utc | 66

Posted by: fnord | May 13 2025 20:10 utc | 64

Nice comment. And one that frames the issue correctly.

For a brief moment, markets shat themselves because it looked like Trump was serious about the tariffs, and corporate profit margins were going to take a big a hit.

Then, Trump started caving, first with electronics and microchips, then with lies about "yuuuge dealz" that never materialized (the UK doesn't count because it's irrelevant.)

And finally, a total reversal that Annalena "360" would be proud of.

Without cheap labor in offshore markets, along with no environmental and regulatory state to hamstring them, profitable investments are few. We've been on a 30-40 year arc of increased globalization that hit a wall sometime around 2019 or so. Governments used COVID to print their way around the problem, then that money ran out.

There is no reverse gear to go back to 1971. America is a financialized, consumer economy that depends on increasing the poverty of the third world, while creating a facsimile of wealth using financialization.

The issue now is that we're back to square one - backed into a corner. Globalization ran out of road.

Posted by: Ghost of Zanon | May 13 2025 20:22 utc | 67

Posted by: Mr. House | May 13 2025 20:11 utc | 65

#######

Why would someone owe you an apology? Did you follow their advice?

And if you did, surely you would bear some culpability.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 20:29 utc | 68

Perplexed | May 13 2025 16:58 utc | 7--

It's not as simple as it seems. China understands that despite the chaos the Outlaw US Empire generates it still needs to remain a stable actor give it still has great weight globally. China's ability to redirect its manufactures at the flick of a switch doesn't exist--it can do a certain percentage but not all; to do all would take many months. And that condition applies to all major exporters. The Chinese media has some contrasting views of what happened Sunday: some see it as a victory, a win, while others take the longer view and caution uncertainty remains very high and much remains unresolved. For example, the lead article at Guancha riffs on an item by The Atlantic: "The Atlantic Monthly published an article: Don't be bluffed by Trump, China has made an example." Of course, The Atlantic is 100% adversarial to Trump yet also verified the correctness of China's policy to stand up and confront the bully, which helped many other nations follow suit.

Furthermore to your POV, for the Global Majority of 7 Billion people, China isn't seen as "the bad guy." It demands the Empire obey the law as does the RoW, and sets an example by also obeying trade laws. China was very correct to embargo certain classes of dual-use products turning the tables on the Empire's policy of declaring national security as its excuse for almost every punitive policy decision it's made going back to Obama, and that policy is more powerful than any tariff and remains in force.

What Trump has done again is to accelerate the advent of a Multipolar World that at the moment is more tripolar: The Outlaw US Empire; EU/NATO Nazis; BRICS/SCO. Today a very big event is happening in China--the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the China-CELAC Forum. Here's the closing paragraph from a report on the Forum:

"All in all, not only China, but also Latin American countries and other countries in the Global South have increasingly disregarded the United States in their major agenda-setting, and have even taken the initiative to "de-Americanize" and promote bilateral and multilateral cooperation without the participation of the United States, and the United States has changed from a constructive symbol to a destructive symbol. The world, with the exception of the United States, is working together to turn it into a dispensable symbol. This historic process has been launched and has accumulated tremendous energy and inertia. Even if the United States changes its attitude, or has some expedient measures, it will be difficult to win the trust of the world. Even if the nail is pulled out, the hole will be there. In other words, the importance of the United States is declining because of its irresponsible unilateralism, hegemonism, and the limited nature of its power, and a new world is about to emerge."

That new world is already emerging. When it will be declared fully born is now the question.

Posted by: karlof1 | May 13 2025 20:37 utc | 69

Why would someone owe you an apology? Did you follow their advice?

And if you did, surely you would bear some culpability.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 20:29 utc | 68

Good job evading, just like B did in 2020 via censorship to anyone who didn't agree with the dominate story those in power were telling the public so they could print money to bail themselves out again. YVES SMITH, WOLF RICHTER and B were rude and wrong. Generally in life when you're that wrong you should at the bare min. be fired. Seems more like they're hoping people will forget.

https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/a-self-fulfilling-prophecy-systemic-collapse-and-pandemic-simulation/

Posted by: Mr. House | May 13 2025 20:38 utc | 70

NoOneYouKnowNow 30 - Exactly, this was the Clinton matra.

America to become a service, intellectual economy, and let manufacturing go overseas, spoken by a man who never had a real job in his entire life.

This nonsense was adopted by Congress when in the 1990's when they passed NAFTA and China MFN legislation. All brought off by the Chamber of Commerce and Clintonites who could care less that corporations like Kodak were devastated (I remember well when Kodak employed tens of thousands of workers in the Rochester area). The nearby Buffalo/Lackawanna region lost 150,000 jobs alone when the steel and auto and relates subcontracting plants downsized or closed completely.

The Clintonian philosophy was a betrayal of the American manufacturing worker, whether that was in steel, auto, coke, aluminum, iron, glass or many other industries.

That era is over........thank goodness...

Posted by: tobias cole | May 13 2025 20:45 utc | 71

This is a very disappointing piece. It completely misses the point.

The real issue is the utter worthlessness of the scum in Congress. Yes, I know, we "vote" for them -- and in the usual places, we vote early & often & even if we are dead. Congress does not represent the people of the United States. Those worthless scum represent whoever is giving them the biggest donations, whether it is the MIC or Big Law or the Chinese government.

Congress fails to balance the budget and authorizes unelected bureaucrats to issue job-destroying regulations. Individual CongressScum have grown rich over the past quarter-century in "public service" while the US industrial base has been destroyed.

What's a President to do? He can't pass appropriate laws -- that is Congress's job, and Congress won't do it. But he can threaten tariffs to try to get negotiations going to reduce the unsustainable Trade Deficit and bring jobs back for US workers. You would think that the Democrats would be strongly supporting this effort to benefit the working class -- but all those elitists care about is getting males into female bathrooms.

Congress needs to be thrown out and reformed!

Posted by: Gavin Longmuir | May 13 2025 20:48 utc | 72

Posted by: Mr. House | May 13 2025 20:38 utc | 70

#########

How do you fire someone who doesn't work for you?

Friend, are you ok? Blink twice if you need help.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 20:48 utc | 73

Agreeing with Krugman.

You are not authorised to steal our schtick.

This returns your analytical skills to their covid level.

0/10

Posted by: The Onion | May 13 2025 20:52 utc | 74

Posted by: Gavin Longmuir | May 13 2025 20:48 utc | 72

#######

The American system is completely unfit for the modern world. It was ok for a collection of small, pre-industrial, racially homogeneous states. It's not suitable for a global hegemon in the nuclear and digital ages.

The old Constitution must be discarded and a new one created from scratch. All politicians and bureaucrats have to start over from zero. Such dramatic changes only happen when there is an event like the collapse of the USSR.

As you can imagine, most Americans won't willingly sign up for such a pronounced period of transformation.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 20:53 utc | 75

The Krugman group were oh so successful.......a $36 T national debt, massive trade deficit.....oopss I forgot......

Posted by: tobias cole | May 13 2025 20:56 utc | 76

Sorry B. Have to disagree. If Krugman states something, the opposite likely the truth. Guess we will see.

Posted by: Pick | May 13 2025 21:00 utc | 77

@ Posted by: Markw | May 13 2025 18:05 utc | 27

B doesn’t claim to be perfect. Analysis is not an exact science. Even propaganda sources like Krugman say true things sometimes. No need to be an ass. Remember : this is a friendly establishment, that means barflies too.

Posted by: Featherless | May 13 2025 21:02 utc | 78

Manufacturing has been in decline in the U.S. since 1979, but has been especially more sharply in decline since 2001, the year China joined the World Trade Organization.
Chinese labor could produce goods & textiles more cheaply than U.S. labor: end of story. Off-shoring became an American way of life.

Containerization decreased the expense of shipping, for instance, from China. The U.S. began to rely on China for common over-the-counter drugs like Ibuprofen. Labor is expensive in the U.S.—salary plus benefits—-so it is not feasible to try to restart a pharmaceutical industry which churns out high-utility over-the-counter products like Ibuprofen.

Re-industrialization won’t work, because bringing back *on-shore* all those *off-shore* manufacturers would result in the most expensive goods [to produce and to sell] on earth; there’d be no way to compete: no market.

About the re-industrialization of the U.S.: manufacturing isn't something like Hamburger Helper where you stir the ingredients together, heat it a bit and then voila-! Manufacturing is as much a mind-set and a work ethic as it is a way to create jobs.

Factories are not increasing production in the U.S. They are not adding that 2nd shift, let alone a 3rd. Factories are not creating new *great jobs* for Americans. Moreover, Americans are not drawn to factory work.

Consequently, the U.S. has lost manufacturing skills over the past 40 years. Manual labor relies on a cultivated skill-set. Millennials & Gen Zers are gravitate to the managerial class, the FIRE sector——finance, insurance, real estate, electronics. They are never going to opt for a tool & die shop in robust enough numbers to launch an industry.

Floor managers are gone, their institutional knowledge dying with them. Engineers have preferred jobs in software and AI and computer science. The Ukraine war exposed the paucity of know-how in munitions production. Even the Scranton, Pennsylvania 155mm shell plant is not longer state-of-the-art. Nobody is making the kind of precision equipment needed to produce the munitions. In fact, some of the work is so labor intensive it is done by hand.

The ratio of ammo & equipment consumption by the AFU can only be sustained by a large-scale whole-of-society industrial base, which the U.S. lacks.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 13 2025 21:04 utc | 79

No disrespect to our host was intended. Krugman is a Globalist mouthpiece.

Posted by: Pick | May 13 2025 21:06 utc | 80

Perplexed | May 13 2025 18:52 utc | 40--

Again, China's aim isn't "longterm geopolitical advantage." China's overall policy goal is to bring humanity into harmony; and harmony means no nation exercising geopolitical advantage, otherwise known as hegemony.

Chinese and Russian intentions are viewed by the West through their Imperialistic Lens, so they automatically see those intentions as being hegemonic. China and Russia have tried to persuade the West that they don't have any such intentions. But since the West is constantly dishonest, it also thinks that's the norm for other nations, so they don't trust anyone's intentions. And as some are beginning to learn, the BigLies run very deep and infect the longest lasting of Western institutions that unfortunately happen to be extremely influential.

Posted by: karlof1 | May 13 2025 21:07 utc | 81

An interesting piece by b. Trump's tariffs coupled with a repeated threat of annexation resulted in the election of the former central bankster Mark Carney leading a strong Liberal minority government. Today he announced his cabinet choices:

Prime Minister Carney Uveils Major Cabinet Overhaul With 2 Dozen New Faces

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/carney-cabinet-revealed-today-1.7532951

"Chrystia Freeland, Trudeau's former deputy, will stay on as transport and internal trade minister, a role she got when Carney announced his first interim cabinet in March. [*Freeland, a staunch Russophobe and Ukrainian ultranationalist, was also a WEF trustee, as was Carney, who is also the godfather of Freeland's son]."

Tim Hodgson, a seasoned Toronto-area business executive who also worked with Carney during his tenure at the Bank of Canada, will serve as the minister of natural resources and energy. [*Hodgson, like Carney, is also a former Goldman-Sachs bankster.]"

Francois-Phillippe Champagne stays on as finance minister, while adding national revenue to his portfolio, a sign the longtime minister has earned the trust of the economically focused Carney. [*Both men are also Bilderbergers.]..."

#############################################

The Socialist Response to the Breakdown in Canada - US Relations

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/05/13/iulw-m13.html

"In so far as Carney or any of the political representatives of the ruling class oppose Trump, it is solely from the standpoint of defending the Canadian ruling class' profits, global geostrategic interests and first right to exploit the workers of Canada and its abundant resources.

Even now, far and away the preferred option of the Canadian bourgeoisie is to secure a duly recognized role as a junior partner of Washington and Wall Street in a Trump-led Fortress North America aimed at securing US global hegemony against China and all comers.

Workers are in for a rude awakening. The Carney Liberal government will quickly prove to be the most right-wing in Canadian history. It will be a government of austerity, rearmament and war..."

Posted by: JohnGilberts | May 13 2025 21:20 utc | 82

If Trump was serious about reshoring manufacturing there would be a raft of government initiatives to do so. From investment in infrastructure to demanding that US corporations do certain things. Since none of that is even discussed, we can be sure that he’s not serious. It would be a worthwhile project, far better than $1T+ to the military so it can lose to the Houthis.

The argument that it wouldn’t be profitable is bullshit. Corporate profits might not be what they are today and maybe the stock market would need to function as a way of allocating capital investment rather than a casino, but it’s doable. Other changes might include a rational, national healthcare system and actual corporate taxes.

Note that when tax rates were very high many of the people and corporations weren’t paying those rates. They got out of them by actually reinvesting in the businesses instead of concentrating on stock buybacks and executive compensation.

Nothing that would actually make America great again is going to be done because that isn’t the point. It’s just a marketing slogan.

Posted by: Lex | May 13 2025 21:23 utc | 83

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 13 2025 21:04 utc | 79

Necessity could change a lot of equations. My daughter is in her early 20s here in LA. I know quite a few of her friends, and the guys especially are rethinking a lot of things. A few are becoming plumber's assistants. Others are going into or are in STEM professions. Most of them are weirdo artists. And they're of all flavors on the spectrum. I am fortunate to know the kids. I wish them all luck! And us, too.

Sham 69 - If The Kids Are United (1978)

Posted by: lex talionis | May 13 2025 21:23 utc | 84

Oh b. Stick with geopolitics, your views on economics are jejeune.

Quoting Krugpot?? JFC dude

Posted by: observer | May 13 2025 21:39 utc | 85

Any truth to the rumour that Trump is introducing a new line of red MAGA flip flops ?

Posted by: ScreamingMonk | May 13 2025 21:40 utc | 86

@ Mr. House | May 13 2025 20:38 utc | 70

If you don’t like it here, Go somewhere else !

Posted by: Featherless | May 13 2025 21:49 utc | 87

US 10 yr 4.47

UK 10 yr 4.67

Posted by: Don Firineach | May 13 2025 21:52 utc | 88

@perplexed 40

Why do china, Russia and Africa not formally boycott America and england-two most evil nations in the world?
Being victim one by one is worse than uniting to kill Anglo machinations . Of ourselves clueless putin would be disaster for Russia -his idiotic grin will be his only legacy. But other nations if the global south(excludes treacherous India) get together to boycott Bankrupt America then as Anglo empire will be finished in one month

Posted by: Sam | May 13 2025 21:55 utc | 89

As a Marxist I don't have much love for Krugman, who is an arch Keynesian and anti-communist. But the hate that people have for him on the right is asinine. Put aside his old quote about the internet (which, by the way, is everywhere but in the productivity statistics). Krugman is correct here. The volatility introduced in the productive economy by tariff and trade war threats are counter-productive to re-shoring efforts. Why would US capital, which is already globalized, re-shore to where the President operates on the basis of arbitrary whim, potentially throwing companies' inter-annual plans into chaos any given day of the week? Modern manufacturing means dealing with globalized supply chains. There's simply no way around this if one wants to be globally competitive.

But then again, it seems like we're entering into an era of imperialist decadence, where the reigning imperialist power, the United States, is seeing a relative decline in its global stature. Ultimately the situation will devolve into an imperialist war, likely with the US as the aggressor. This is extremely dangerous and if China can pull out a victory over the US militarily without either nation getting nuked, it will be nothing short of a miracle.

Either way, it's socialism or barbarism. We are at the limits of capitalist accumulation. There are no new frontiers to conquer. Humanity either progresses to communism, or we all die in a nuclear war.

Posted by: fnord | May 13 2025 21:58 utc | 90

The Runaway Train Ran Down the Hill And She Blew

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | May 13 2025 21:59 utc | 91

Posted by: ScreamingMonk | May 13 2025 21:40 utc | 86

#######

The campaign promised flip-flops, and they are turning out to be the best flip-flops ever.

"So much you may even get tired of flip-flopping and you'll say please, please it's too much flip-flopping we can't take it anymore, Mister President, it's too much."

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 22:00 utc | 92

Posted by: fnord | May 13 2025 21:58 utc | 90
Krugman is not a Keynesian. He never studied Keynes and his claim to fame, DSGE, is core classical liberal nonsense.

Posted by: Badjoke | May 13 2025 22:05 utc | 93

How do you fire someone who doesn't work for you?

Friend, are you ok? Blink twice if you need help.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 20:48 utc | 73

I don't know, you don't work for B but you seem to really want to defend him. I don't think you learned anything from 2020, but by your logic, why do you hate the west? It's not perfect, just forgive bro. Nice try trying to make it personal ;)

Posted by: Mr. House | May 13 2025 22:19 utc | 94

How do you fire someone who doesn't work for you?

Friend, are you ok? Blink twice if you need help.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | May 13 2025 20:48 utc | 73

I don't know, you don't work for B but you seem to really want to defend him. I don't think you learned anything from 2020, but by your logic, why do you hate the west? It's not perfect, just forgive bro. Nice try trying to make it personal ;)

Posted by: Mr. House | May 13 2025 22:19 utc | 95

@Perplexed | May 13 2025 18:52 utc | 40

The Chinese like to roast their pigs very slowly ... more time to savour the aroma and to whet the taste buds before the final communal feast of delicious pork.

A sudden crash of the US economy leads to global depression and its tsunami also severely damages China and its BRICS partners. Resource wars would also spring up all over - not in China's interest. Hence, the slow roast.

Posted by: Don Firineach | May 13 2025 22:24 utc | 96

Posted by: lex talionis | May 13 2025 21:23 utc | 84
RE: these trade-oriented guys
<<

In a jam today, Team Tyler commandeered the *visioneering* of a household project. Tyler has been an electrician since age 18, and he is now 30 years of age.

The guy has great creativity in finagling electrical solutions, something we all appreciate when necessity calls for it.

There will always be men like Tyler. Their creativity manifests in ways that track along the pragmatics---plus they constantly have to deal w/ real Physics, real Math, real reality.

Even in a hollowed-out U.S. ecosystem that does not in any way privilege the Trades or manufacturing, we will always produce a notable population of our people who don't want to attend college but who want to exercise their skills in non-academic ways.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | May 13 2025 22:29 utc | 97

You should keep your posts to issues of war and peace. Leave the trade discussions to someone else especially if you are to reference the little Ukrainian Paul Krugman.

Posted by: Wj03 | May 13 2025 22:37 utc | 98

Trump shouldn't be called POTUS, IMPOTUS is more correct.

He's like the guy that brags about how many women he has had but in reality can't get it up.

Posted by: George | May 13 2025 23:03 utc | 99

This would require industrial policy reforms, investment incentives, and changes to Wall Street’s short-termist culture.

From THE DEVIL AND J.D. VANCE

Posted by: kana | May 13 2025 17:41 utc | 22

This post is correct, the US economy can never recover manufacturing till Wall St and financialization are removed from the equation, the host can never thrive while infected with a parasite. However those that own the banking system are the same as those that buy and corrupt government, they are not going anywhere.

Trump is playing around the edges, somewhat like Pharma, deal with a few symptoms that later causes new symptoms whilst the actual problem remains. Of course fools like Krugman will never provide an answer as they are there to simply create misdirection. Quoting Krugman on economics is like quoting Fauci on covid.

Like foreign policy, it's all theatre, entertainment for the unwashed.

Posted by: Organic | May 13 2025 23:15 utc | 100