Posted on 03/12/2025 8:48:11 AM PDT by lasereye
Investors are trying to make sense of President Trump's willingness to shrug off market losses in recent days.
A review of the president's commentary suggests perhaps a simple answer: He just cares more about tariffs during his second go-around in the White House so far.
"Markets are going to go up, and they're going to go down, but you know what: We have to rebuild our country," he said Tuesday afternoon in a trade-focused refrain that the president has sharpened in recent days even as market pressure has mounted.
And the economic fallout is clearly in evidence with markets in correction territory, a trade war breaking out on multiple fronts, Wall Street increasingly worried about stagflation, and Trump being peppered with questions on the topic at nearly every public appearance in recent days.
Trump has pivoted on plenty of tariff specifics — including a proposed 50% tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum that lasted less than 8 hours on Tuesday — but the longtime "tariff man" has remained remarkably consistent about what he sees as his ultimate goal of significant long-term tariff revenues and a reorientation of the US trading system.
It's a tariff-first focus that is perhaps not surprising to observers of Trump who saw him prioritize tariffs above all else at nearly every campaign stop in 2024. But it clearly represents a whiplash for traders who expected the president to pivot quickly once in office in deference to the markets (as he often did during his first term).
This time around, Trump is clearly choosing tariffs so far, with markets repeatedly underestimating his pain tolerance.
In his first 50 or so days in office Trump has already enacted a tariff agenda that will dwarf the economic impact of his first term if it's simply left in place.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
I think that it might be he’s looking at Tariffs as another way to do what Volker did in the 80s with interest rates to tame inflation.
He sees increased tariffs as a way to address inflation in a targeted manner rather than across the board.
The difference is that rather than impacting 100% of everyone with interest rates, it will only impact those that buy foreign goods.
There will still be some pain - as in the early 80s, but in a short period of time things will pick back up with a vengence.
-PJ
” Trump should be credited for taking a long view.”
Exactly right. The author seems to think the president should change his policies based on the DJIA and QQQ closing prices every afternoon.
You have to laugh — the traders thought was just blowing smoke about tariffs during his campaign and would abandon them as soon as he was inaugurated. The exemplifies how smart the traders are.
At least the guy who can’t think said something.
Wall Street is basically a version of sports betting.
He can't fix 50 years of treachery in a day.
It might be that this was always the plan, to focus more on tariffs in the second term. He hoped to have the first term to stabilize the country.
“He sees increased tariffs as a way to address inflation in a targeted manner rather than across the board.”
It is not about inflation. It is about US business and security.
Short term losses will soon become long term gains. It is time to reward those who want to get inflation under control. The Stock Market relies on inflation and is rewarded thusly. They don’t like a correction, but it is badly needed.
Yeah, things like Honda building the next-generation Civic in Indiana rather than Mexico won’t have an impact for a couple of years but for that factory and its surrounding areas, that will be huge.
Multiply that by multiple areas and multiple industries, and the Golden Age that PDJT talks about can become a reality.
“Wall Street is basically a version of sports betting.”
ROTFLMAO!
If you are not a total moron or a greedy sob, see stock market can provide you a very nice nest egg.
I’ve been reading a lot of analysts saying the same thing. This is about interest rates and inflation as well.
The market made bets and took positions that Biden or Harris would win and, they chose poorly. They bet on China, Europe and a stifling WEF superstate moving peon slaves around the world. I am glad they are losing their shorts.
You are correct that some only see next quarter’s profits. “Hey, if we make it in China we’ll make more money!”
However we must re-shore a lot of our industry if the thirty some odd trillion is to be payed back.
To me it’s amazing that people didn’t expect the day would come when our debt had to be addressed.
It’s as if everyone forgot what Ross Perot was harping on a THIRD OF A CENTURY AGO.
I wish many on this forum would take a long view, because growing our economy enough to begin chipping away at trillions of dollars of debt is going to require just that.
I get that people don’t want their investments to be harmed, but if we are to succeed, there will be phases where investments are harmed.
My comment to the article:
Apparently history is a forgotten subject. The use of tariffs have been a part of American history since the earliest days of the Republic. The use of tariffs encourages and protects domestic manufacturing which by consequence promotes a stable and prosperous middle-class. In recent years the middle/working class has suffered as manufacturing has moved off-shore. With the world becoming increasingly dangerous, with threats from foreign countries, our ability to manufacture goods is becoming a National Security concern.
The use of tariffs is a historically dependable tool to rebuild our manufacturing base “and” the middle-working classes. The Author, globalist manufacturers and their investors do not care about the long-term sustainability of the markets they claim to be defending. They only care about their short-term profits while long-term profits be damned...
They are mad because now they have to rethink selling out their US employees.
Everybody makes it sound the markets are crashing like the depression. I am not saying it’s doing well, but we are still ahead of last summers DOW. Considering the benefits we will see with Uncle Don’s tariffs, I am good.
Interesting. We can shut down the whole economy over a flu, for a year at least. But now when thinking about a tariff, everyone is deeply concerned about the US economy.
Kids trading minute to minute and day to day on their phones hardest hit. They’ve never seen a real drop. Dollar cost averaging has gotten me through the various crashes.
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