Trump says planned April 2 tariffs will 'start with all countries'

[Bluetus]

18. This ain't 1965

In 1965, the US dominated in many of the industries of the 20th century, including military hardware, computer technology, and pharmaceuticals. And we manufactured almost all of that here.

In 2025, the USA has slipped to secondary status on innovation in the technologies vital in the 21st century. And worse, even if the US led in innovation, the manufacturing is mostly in Asia now, or at least under the control of Asian companies.

That is to say, even if a tariff-driven national competitiveness strategy might have worked in 1965, we have lost most of the leverage. The main impacts we will see here are instability, inflation, and exponentially more crony capitalism.