poptart wrote:What has taken place over the past week was all about getting to where we are right now, where a 90 day *pause* has been established on the draconian tariffs Trump rolled out, and countries will need to "come to Trump (kiss his @ss, as he says) and make deals on trade?
I will @ss ume that Sam will concede that what has taken place over the past week was completely unnecessary, as well as damaging on multiple fronts.
But maybe Sam would have disappointed me, and not made such a concession.
At any rate, I will respond to Sam's link...
The gist of the link is that now countries will line up over the next 90 days to make trade deals with the U.S., and this will be very good for the U.S.
My response...
When negotiating, it is advantageous to deal from a position of strength.
Trump had initially placed a 37% tariff on Serbia.
Now it is a 10% tariff on Serbia.
Rhetorical question...
When negotiating with Serbia, wouldn't it be a stronger negotiating position to have a 37% tariff in place, and negotiate from there, rather than having a 10% tariff in place, and negotiating from there?
Everyone (countries around the world) saw Trump cave on his initial draconian tariff positions.
They can plainly see that he caved because his people informed him that the U.S. bond market was beginning to crater, and it would a full-blown economic crisis.
The effect is that Donald has clearly
weakened his negotiating position, because the U.S. is facing serious economic pressure due to the original course Don set forth on.
Everyone (countries around the world) can also see that this U.S. President is making things up as he goes, and is surrounded by lemming yes-men who roll out and prop up every insane idea the president decides upon.
Confidence is shot, and nobody (countries around the world) can predict with any certainty at all what the environment will be like in 90 days, or before 90 days.
Manufacturing is not coming back in this environment, and deals will also not be happening.
Why would countries deal in good faith with an individual such as D. Trump?
The simple answer is, they won't.
War is what will be happening.