Waving a big chart as a prop in the White House Rose Garden, Donald Trump suggested his new tariff plan was simple: “Reciprocal – that means they do it to us, and we do it to them. Very simple. Can’t get simpler than that.”
Perhaps a bit too simple. The method used to calculate the most important numbers in international trade, politics and economics has left some of the world’s leading experts shocked.
For each country, the White House looked up its trade in goods deficit for 2024, then divided that by the total value of imports. Trump, to be “kind”, said he would, however, offer a discount, so halved that figure. The calculation was even distilled into a formula.
This is nonsense that gets spread way too often. The wealthy benefited from Covid, but they did not benefit from the Great Depression. Billionaires are shortsighted hoarders who can't help but screw themselves over in their race to the top end. They really are so fucking stupid and greedy that they will crash the economy by accident, AGAIN.
The economists are only “stunned” because they’re used to dealing with logic, reason, and numbers that make sense. You have to throw those things out the window when dealing with Mango Mussolini, folks!
Republicans have been confidently and fully wrong about economics for like a hundred years now dude, a republican making up economic bullshit that will hurt the American people should not be a surprise.
Whoever did those calculations (and it wasn't Trump, since he's innumerate as well as illiterate) based these crude calculations on the assumption that the US economy should have a pairwise zero current-account balance with every country in the world. That's beyond imbecilic.
The reason the numbers are idiotic is because they don’t need to make sense. There is no point to these tariffs other than to crash the US economy so that fat cat rich scum can buy everything and create corporate feudalism.
“[It is] quite an extraordinary calculation after months of work behind the scenes,” said Jim Reid, the global head of macro research at Deutsche Bank. “[It] didn’t add much confidence on there being an in-depth strategic implementation plan.”
lol. First of all Deutsche Bank, how are you still operating, and secondly it's your fucking fault the demented rapist is even here (thanks to Justice Kennedy's son). Thirdly, anyone who thinks a trump administration effort is going to have an "in-depth strategic plan" is smoking crack. (Those of you arguing 'project 2025' remember that came from outside the administration)
He absolutely believes he's a genius who has thought of this solution to our economic problems that NOBODY else has ever considered, because nobody is as smart as he is. All this talk of how wrong it is only proves to him how much smarter he is. His tariffs are so innovative, even the most intelligent economists don't get it.
But he does, because he's the most intelligent human to ever exist, and he is thinking way above them.
Odd (not at all) that Russia is not included. I know that we lot do about $3.5 billion in trade with them but some places that we hit with tariffs are not even inhabited.
He barely passed an undergrad econ degree at Wharton. Wharton's MBA program is well-regarded, its undergrad program was, at that time, barely selective.