Posted on 04/24/2025 5:27:36 AM PDT by karpov
President Trump continues to walk back his original tariff assault, and markets are pleased. They rose again Wednesday after Mr. Trump said he won’t fire the Federal Reserve Chairman and is likely to retreat from his highest China tariffs. Is this Mr. Trump’s François Mitterrand moment?
Readers of a certain age will recall how the French Socialist President swept into power in 1981 promising a far left agenda of government control over the private economy. The market reaction was brutal. Within a year he had put socialism on pause and by 1983 he had abandoned most of it. He went on to serve two terms.
That historic U-turn comes to mind as we watch Mr. Trump execute a reversal by stages in his tariff agenda. First he carved out space for Mexico and Canada from his reciprocal tariffs. Then he put his reciprocal tariffs on everyone except China on a 90-day pause. Then the Customs bureau gave exceptions to Apple, Nvidia and big electronics companies. Now comes word that Mr. Trump may substantially cut his 145% tariff rate on China.
That’s a long way in three weeks from the declarations by White House aide Peter Navarro and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that there would be no tariff-rate changes. It’s hard to see this as anything other than a retreat amid the harsh reaction of financial markets, worries about recession and price increases, and a sharply negative reaction from the rest of the world—friend and foe.
The good news is that at least Mr. Trump is finally listening to reality. The CEOs of Walmart, Home Depot and Target paid a visit to the White House this week and told Mr. Trump prices would soon rise and store shelves might soon be empty as the tariff impact grows.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Maybe it's just three steps forward, one step back.
I love how these morons are always putting our President down. Like he doesn’t know what he is doing . Get behind the man and make America Great!
If the big retailers (AKA purveyors of Chinese junk) don’t have enough Chinese junk to fill their shelves, why should I care?
What an idiotic editorial. I used to read the WSJ. Not anymore.
The Wall Street Journal is run by clueless idiots. Especially those who write the editorials. They don’t seem to be able to comprehend the negotiating tactic that Trump is pursuing. He asked for the maximum and then settles for less and in the end gets a great deal. They seem to think his original proposal of higher tariffs on every nation was actually his ultimate goal. Any average observer can understand this, but no, it’s just beyond the comprehension of these bozos.
Elimination diet analogy. Remove everything that could be causing problems and slowly add back,
“This seems an apples-to-oranges comparison since many countries have already agreed to renegotiate their trade with the US.”
Trust but verify.
What concessions have been negotiated and with whom? If Paraguay offers to buy more liquified natural gas, is that a “win’? How about if the EU says it will relax auto regulations at some unspecified date in the future?
We’re a decade into the Trump in politics phenomenon, and these morons still haven’t read Art of the Deal. They’re uneducable.
The Globalist Blowhard continues to publish articles against saving this country.
You might not care....I know I won’t.... but the family of five grossing $80k annually will.
The first two years of Reagan were pretty bad economically, before things started to turn around.
I think the lesson is that government doesn’t work like business.
The art of the deal doesn’t really apply when politics and political opinion are also powerful forces in the negotiation.
We have moved from a free and prosperous market economy to a failing, controlled and micromanaged socialist state NOT because of 2 or 3 significant lurches to the left. We have got here through a slow and steady march.
Conservatives and free market proponents need to think of victories in terms of 10 or 20 year projects. What pieces are they putting in place today that will get us back to the inevitable outcome of laissez faire capitalism once again years down the road?
The WSJ is a propaganda arm of the globalists. They favor open borders and an inexhaustible supply of cheap labor. They could care less about the American worker.
Why does the SEC still allow Chinese firms to be listed on the Stock Exchange without providing the required documentation?
if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs
“The first two years of Reagan were pretty bad economically, before things started to turn around.”
**********
The midterms won’t be pretty if that happens. Just saying.
Sad, but true, because Americans have no sense of history or perspective these days.
A great post there my FRiend.
The only things I would add is that (1) our ongoing cultural decline has been a factor in that slow and steady march and (2) we have long lacked a party that has the focus and determination to move us into down the road to which you speak.
A whiny, noisy, stupid article.
Trump is a big picture guy.
A nation can only survive if it PRODUCES more than it CONSUMES.
We’ve been CONSUMING more than we have been PRODUCING for TOO LONG.
The NINETY PER CENT of counties that voted for Trump CARE little about this in the weeds analysis of tariffs.
They care about the INVASION of illegals, CRIME, and PERVERTS indecently exposing themselves to their daughters and granddaughters in locker rooms.
He will lower China tariffs when they give in stupid
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