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dave's avatar

If tariffs do in fact result in more good manufacturing jobs coming back here, I am in favor. As a practical matter though, the electorate does not focus on the long term, so if there is short term pain he will either have to retreat on the idea, or risk dealing with a Democratic House and possibly Senate for the last half of his term. That could happen anyway, but certainly will if the economy isn't strong. As for me, I am taking a wait and see approach on the tariffs, neither an advocate or a critic, yet.

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Minsky's avatar

Trump (and Musk's) problem is that they clearly don't know what they're doing--an ironic parallel to many of Biden's worst decisions. It's a persistent intellectual laziness when it comes to issues they aren't familiar with. Trump clearly doesn't understand how protectionism is supposed to work, Musk obviously doesn't know about the legal frameworks for dealing with changes in government expenditure, nor does he seem to care about reducing it in anything but a reckless fashion--it's all just shooting from the hip, and in the cases where the law is being skirted, hoping that the courts don't catch up.

Not all their ideas are bad, and the Democrats could benefit from borrowing a page from them--having a DOGE is a great idea, and smart forms of protectionism that account for the complexity of modern globalized trade networks could do some good, and indeed did do some good under Biden. The border should be kept under control. (and you don't need to go all gestapo to do it) But, populist "don't believe the elites!!!" aside, you should try to listen to people who know what they're talking about. A hard thing to do, I suppose, for the extremely rich, who are insulated from the effects of policy failures--but not impossible, given some diligence. (see: Warren Buffet, Ray Dalio)

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