I’m an importer. That’s what I thought when he put 10% and then later 25% section 301 tariffs on China. The market almost immediately absorbed them and repriced. People like to simplify that and make definitive statements like “consumers pay that through inflation” or, on the other side “China pays that through economy choking subsidies”. The truth is far more nuanced and is a little of both depending on the commodity. There will always be products that are advantageous to import/export and those that should be made domestically. On balance we should be moving back towards producing more domestically but that is hard to do as long as the US controls the reserve currency. The world demands dollars today and therefore needs to sell us cheap shit. It’s gunna be a wild decade as the world works towards a new equilibrium and technology disrupts existing power structures and drives deflation in opposition to central bank inflation.

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Discussion

Thanks for your thoughtful response. I hope you are right. If so, Trump will have been an important figure in a transition from the free market/free trade ideology we’ve lived under.

But if his tax cuts, tariffs, and mass deportations spike even more massive deficits, debt, inflation and even heavier printing to pay the debt payments, he’ll go down in history as a fool.

Try not to get your hopes up about Presidents. Even Abe Lincoln was a bad guy - we love him so much because he wasn't as bad as some others. Trump does the right thing once in a while, sometimes that's very important, but he's still a President, not an innocent kid.

If I’ve been unclear, I have almost no hope that the country will be better off under him. I think he’s more of a wrecking ball than builder. He’s gotten where he is by being a divider and exploiter of divisions, not a uniter.

He has been far smarter than Biden regarding Bitcoin, and we who own it are better off. I’ll grant him that much.

That's still wrong. Bitcoin owners are worse off because of him, just like everyone else.

He might do good things like pump the price of Bitcoin to buy good faith from the people he harms, but the point of buying that good faith is to maximize harm.

I don’t think we’re disagreeing very much. The Democrats have been blindingly politically stupid and way over handed regarding regulating digital assets, for no political upside. That’s changing, Gensler will be out, Elizabeth Warren will be neutered, and I think that’s all to the good.

Definitely in agreement

Yes, but we’re hedged with Bitcoin. As Lynn says, “Nothing stops this train.” 😎

Yes sir! Bitcoin is many things, including a hedge against economic chaos, poor governance, and rampant money printing.