Posted on 04/08/2025 9:30:49 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Billionaire investors are in an unfamiliar position, watching and cringing as tariffs roll on and the stock market reels.
Wall Street billionaires are not used to being on the outside looking in. But that is where they find themselves after President Trump ignored their appeals to call off his tariff plans which they fear could endanger the economy.
With the backdrop of rapidly mounting stock market losses, corporate titans have worked every angle — phone calls, social media and even a typically staid shareholder letter — to try to change Mr. Trump’s mind.
The day after the president announced his most sweeping round of tariffs last week, chief executives from major banks, including Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, had a private meeting with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick organized by a lobbying group in Washington. But Mr. Lutnick was not persuaded to reverse course, three people briefed on the sit-down said.
Over the weekend, megadonors to Mr. Trump’s re-election effort tried a different tack, pleading their case in calls to Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, people familiar with the calls said. Those efforts also came up empty.
By Monday, hedge fund billionaires — many of whom had been loud and proud boosters of Mr. Trump’s second term — were going public with their cries.
“The global economy is being taken down because of bad math,” the hedge fund manager William A. Ackman posted Monday morning on X. He added, “The President’s advisors need to acknowledge their error before April 9th and make a course correction before the President makes a big mistake.”
Others chimed in, calling for a stronger fight.
Andrew Hall, a billionaire oil trader who has been critical of Mr. Trump in the past, saluted Mr. Ackman on Instagram for...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The "billionaire investors" who doubled their wealth during the COVID-1984 lockdowns while small businesses and landlords were gutted and they bought their stuff up for pennies on the dollar?
Those "billionaire investors?"
Those "billionaire investors" being 'in an unfamiliar position" is what I voted for.
I thought Trump just wanted to make his billionaire buddies rich?
Can they please be more consistent on who I am supposed to hate? Thisbis all terribly confusing.
The stock market is still reeling?
For a sec I thought this was the Babylon Bee.
Ending globalism as it refers to the billionaires and super wealthy who siphoned money for years by beggaring the citizens of the US and Europe is going to make them less comfortable.
Nothing lasts forever. We can’t move forward across the world until those who hold the reins so tightly are finished.
Why aren't Bernie, AOC, Pelosi, Crockett, Booker, Schumer, et al raging against these billionaires? Because ralmost all of these billionaires vote Democrat, so the Dem Pols don't rage agains THEM. They only rage against the guy fighting corruption in the feral government.
Really. I thought Gordon Gekko was supposed to be a bad guy.
I guess that, at least, he was against Trump!
Wall Street and the billionaires have invested heavily in the foreign screwing of America. All at the expense of American workers. They hate that Trump is cutting off their balls. For us little guys Trump is the ONLY elitist that cares about us.
If ChuckU, Lieawatha, Pencil Neck Adam, Bernie, Hirono, and the other Demoncrat posters on Twixxer say it, the exact opposite is true.
I was reminded today of a similar situation that President Reagan had when he took office. Japan was selling cars in the U.S. at a fast pace. They were better built and cost less. The Reagan admin. had a meeting w/Japanese leaders stating that Tariffs would be imposed unless their cars were built in the U.S. The Honda Accord (best selling car in the world) is now manufactured in the U.S. and 95% of the materials used are sourced in the U.S. Even Dem’s didn’t bulk with the Tariff issue that much in 1981. Could it be that many politicians are getting kick backs from countries who impose high Tariffs on U.S. products? Just asking.
Its a big fish, you dont want to break your line.
Today the Left likes billionaires. Got it.
Exactly many of these billionaires are the ones who moved factories to China who loved to use slave labor and all they care about is the mighty Dollar. And then the others like Walmart home Depot Target all took advantage of the very low Chinese prices and American people could only afford to buy things made in China by slave labor. But all the while they continue to get richer and richer and America became poorer and poorer. They don’t care about America they only care about themselves.
But
Funny. Leading up to the election, these guys were making pilgrimages to Florida to suck up to Trump and render their support. They thought a Trump administration would be a godsend - cut their taxes, do away with regulations, provide subsidies, etc. Many of them had a front seat at the inauguration.
Now they’re all howling. Judging by who is doing the howling, tariffs can’t be all bad.
billionaire investors
they sound like smart guys
its a new paradigm
figure it out
The major reason for choosing Trump as president is that one doesn’t have to think about all the many things Trump actually thinks about. Then the rest of us can go about our business and lives — doing what we do best and enjoy. That’s quite different from when Biden was in charge of driving the bus — and we were all wondering if he was dead or just asleep at the wheel as we were rounding the bend.
On tariffs, I doubt that many have given as much thought to tariffs as Trump apparently have. Most of us have never given it much thought after learning about it as a reason for the American revolution. It was like when Trump appeared on Joe Rogan for two hours and talked of the many things he was intimately familiar with — including MMA, and even managed Mike Tyson in his early years. Then he went on to found the Trump premier Hotels and Towers — which was not shoddy, fake brands — after a successful career building the New York skyline. His hugely successful television show “The Apprentice” became the template for choosing worthy associates and successors to continue the momentum in the right direction. He may also be the consummate family man, etc.
So I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt — that we have the right person in charge, and the rest of us can get a bit more sleep — rather than second-guess his every move — because he is not a thoughtless person who doesn’t know what to say or think until he reads the teleprompter and consults the polls. Could Kamala or Tim Walz have done better? The choice is not between bad and perfect, but between bad and better. Leave the knee-jerk responses to the “protestors” who have no idea what the signs handed to them are saying, and haven’t bothered to read them themselves.
Trump is the first line of defense — and not the last to know what is going on now. We can breathe a sigh of relief — knowing we all dodged a nuclear bomb.
Me too.
I agree that it would be disastrous to keep adding, subtracting, raising, and lowering, tariffs for Trump's entire term. Businesses have to be able to plan with some degree of certainty. But in the topsy, turvy world of international tax policy, just as in the world of heavy rock, having a good solid piece of wood in your hand is quite often...useful.
And once you show you are prepared to put the wood to good use, you probably don't have to do it very often.
Panikans
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.