The Permanent Tariff Damage

[Passages]

Trump tries to walk back his tariffs after supply chain collapse and threats of empty store shelves. But reversing course entirely may not be possible.

by David Dayen
April 24, 2025

As my colleague Bob Kuttner wrote yesterday, Donald Trump, after starting April like a lion, is going out like a lamb. He has said publicly that tariffs on China will “come down substantially,” with an unnamed aide floating rollbacks as high as 65 percent. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave a similar story at a closed-door meeting hosted by JPMorganChase (why was he delivering market-moving information in secret to bankers?), and publicly at the Institute of International Finance on Tuesday. “There is an opportunity for a big deal here” with China, Bessent said, and “if they want to rebalance [their economy], let’s do it together.”

Wall Street is certainly desperate for any note of conciliation, and Trump saying he has “no intention” of firing Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell made them even more ebullient.

But let’s get real.

SNIP
Perhaps most important, China now knows it has a paper tiger across the negotiating table, and can hold out for the best deal. That would be true even if Trump were still ranting on Truth Social every hour about breaking China’s will—because the Chinese can read the news like anyone else. More important, they can see what’s happening at their own ports.

https://prospect.org/economy/2025-04-24-permanent-tariff-damage/

[kentuck]

1. Trump must think no one except this followers read what he is posting?

Or what he is saying?

People see the stupid, arrogant bullshit that he spews out every minute of every day and they are sick of it. It is getting to the point where we have to accept as mentally ill all those that cling to his coattails.

[Initech]

2. This should have never been a thing to begin with.

Fuck Trump and the people who voted for him.

[usonian]

3. Rational nations are treating him like a deranged fool, which he is.

He's wielding a water pistol, as in "House of Games"



because his cause is his own sick and bloated ego,

https://whowhatwhy.org/culture/the-agonizing-work-of-art-that-helps-explain-trumps-america/

not the legitimate national interest, and everyone knows it except his zombie cult members.

[Irish_Dem]

4. The Chinese are eating Trump's lunch.

[Johnny2X2X]

5. This was a massive mistake that will be studied for decades

The elephant in the room that economists all kow is that our trade deals with China haven't not been all that bad. The certainly could be much much worse. And China is united, there is a lot of pride in that country about becoming the world #1 economy.There's little of the pressure from different sides you see here.

Prediction though: Trump will get a "new deal" this Summer, that's basiclly the same as the old deal, might get some tiny consession in exchange for his own. Then he'll lie about it and the media will parrot his lies that this is the greatest deal ever and we finally beat China.