Best Of

I didn’t follow the news around what Trump said he was going to do regarding tariffs, but if it was known that he intended to hit every country with them, why didn’t the world and his wife short the companies that were likely to be affected, o as well as the FTSE etc?

I don't think even the pessimists expected anything quite as bananas as what Trump came up with.
And the "I regard any trade deficit as a loss" is so batshit it makes any realistic negotiation with him impossible.

A 10% tariff across the board, for example, might have encouraged, over time, onshoring of production at the margin, and would have raised a shitload of tax, while provoking only a fraction of the current response.
While a lot of people (including me) would have argued against it, it wouldn't have been regarded as utterly irrational.

As it is, we're dealing with a man who has completely lost what little sense he had.

(FWIW, I did actually predict that he might crater the world economy with tariffs, before the election.
Which was labelled TDS by some.)

Oh indeed:

The real Trump Derangement Sydrome, it turns out, was thinking that he wouldn't act in a batshit crazy way.

We knew Trump was going to surprise on the downside the minute our Leon started wibbling on about precisely the opposite.

I didn’t follow the news around what Trump said he was going to do regarding tariffs, but if it was known that he intended to hit every country with them, why didn’t the world and his wife short the companies that were likely to be affected, o as well as the FTSE etc?

I don't think even the pessimists expected anything quite as bananas as what Trump came up with.
And the "I regard any trade deficit as a loss" is so batshit it makes any realistic negotiation with him impossible.

A 10% tariff across the board, for example, might have encouraged, over time, onshoring of production at the margin, and would have raised a shitload of tax, while provoking only a fraction of the current response.
While a lot of people (including me) would have argued against it, it wouldn't have been regarded as utterly irrational.

As it is, we're dealing with a man who has completely lost what little sense he had.

(FWIW, I did actually predict that he might crater the world economy with tariffs, before the election.
Which was labelled TDS by some.)

I didn’t follow the news around what Trump said he was going to do regarding tariffs, but if it was known that he intended to hit every country with them, why didn’t the world and his wife short the companies that were likely to be affected, o as well as the FTSE etc?

I don't think even the pessimists expected anything quite as bananas as what Trump came up with.
And the "I regard any trade deficit as a loss" is so batshit it makes any realistic negotiation with him impossible.

A 10% tariff across the board, for example, might have encouraged, over time, onshoring of production at the margin, and would have raised a shitload of tax, while provoking only a fraction of the current response.
While a lot of people (including me) would have argued against it, it wouldn't have been regarded as utterly irrational.

As it is, we're dealing with a man who has completely lost what little sense he had.

(FWIW, I did actually predict that he might crater the world economy with tariffs, before the election.
Which was labelled TDS by some.)

Oh indeed:

The real Trump Derangement Sydrome, it turns out, was thinking that he wouldn't act in a batshit crazy way.

This week is key. It appears that the trade war is heating up, not cooling down. MAGA claims to have dozens of countries now negotiating with the US. Really? And a negotiation that will go to the US position?

America voted for this. I hope they enjoy Gilead. Because we know where this is going. The US vs ROW trade war makes Murica even more insulated. One of the free speech things they are trying to ram down our throats is the "christian" right funding anti-Abortion campaigners here. As the US closes its borders to the world, with illegal aliens being rounded up out of their homes and workplaces, the womenfolk are next.

As the rout continues this week I hope that global consumers apply even more pressure as Canadian ones have done.

The war on women has been going on for some time now.

There's no reasoning with economic illiterates like Trump. The deficit he complains about would disappear if we all stopped buying US goods. So we'd better get on with doing just that and rebuild a trading area that ignores the US.

As for US people who have lost money I couldn't care less about them, They voted for this nonsense. I didn't and have lost out. So no to any trade deal with an untrustworthy country intent on causing harm.

Donald vs. Devon: lady in the local garage as I was paying for fuel.

"Oh - I'm not sure we should be buying American Coca Cola now should we?"

She put it back.

This Trumpy thing has cut through to loads of people in the UK who take no interest in news, don't engage at all with politics, and especially take no interest in news or politics in abroadland. There are millions of these.

I think a precipitating feature is the threat to Canada. Non political types like Canada. They know someone who has an aunt there. It is an icon of harmlessness and generalised decency.

More locally, in Cumbria, where I have lived for decades, there is a strong quiet aversion to people who big themselves up and draw attention to themselves. Trump scores a bit sub-optimally there too. He is begining to get a quiet mention here and there as not altogether a satisfactory person. It's even been mentioned in church, ('he isn't always very nice is he?') though not yet to the extent of knocking the coffee rota off prime spot.

‪@washingtonpost.com‬

A second child has died of measles amid an outbreak in west Texas, sparking a rare rebuke of the Trump administration’s top health officials from a Republican senator on Sunday.

https://bsky.app/profile/washingtonpost.com/post/3lm62afvrm22w

RFK should really be locked up for criminal negligence. That is just awful.

He has been in post since Jan. These kids will have been unvaccinated for a lot longer than that and often for stupid sky fairy reasons. There’s a lot to lay at his door, but these deaths are probably not the thing, unless they contracted it at an RFK themed measles party.

He's culpable for the people hurt by vit. A overdoses: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/25/health/measles-kennedy-vitamin-a.html

To an extent but people also need to do their own research. Perhaps ask a health care professional?

For the educated middle classes, fine, but for red neck trailer dwellers they are likely to be more reliant on advice given by the Surgeon General.

A bit condescending, no?

What’s condescending given there’s a strong correlation between thick trailer trash who think God will save them and those not vaccinating their children . Those people aren’t interested in doing their own research , they’ll just swallow any old conspiracy theories .

The assumption that someone who lives in a trailer is thick. Would you say the same about a U.K. council house resident?

That's a strange conversation, and assumes that "educated middle class" aren't thick (stupid is perhaps a better word).

It's the educated middle classes who sit under Blue Pyramids chanting "OM", and attend wellness seminars organised by Russell Brand, spend £££ on crystals, and think that driving an Audi SUV is commendable.

Plus ... Liz Truss is an Oxbridge Graduate.