Summary

U.S. CEOs and business executives are alarmed as Donald Trump remains firm on imposing high tariffs on U.S. allies, despite warnings from economists about potential economic harm.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump’s late-night social media announcements have blindsided both his advisers and business leaders, leaving them scrambling to react.

While Trump consults some advisers, like Marco Rubio and Treasury pick Scott Bessent, his unilateral approach limits their influence.

The uncertainty has left business leaders struggling to find ways to alter his stance on trade policies.

  • rc__buggy
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    40
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 day ago

    Well shit. I hoped it was just bluster, but if he’s serious it makes a lot of sense.

    The 0.1% gain wealth whenever economies crash. He is obviously going to try to crash the world economy so fat cats can buy assets for pennies on the dollar, including entire developing nations. Then the fed prints a gazillion dollars and bails it all out.

    Greedy pigs get fatter, the rest of us get leaner.

    • Kichae@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      29
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 day ago

      I hoped it was just bluster

      You understand he was president before, right? And that he did this before? Like, he’s a totally known quantity, and he’s going back to where he was in 2019.

      • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        24
        ·
        1 day ago

        this dude killed 300,000 americans and people are somehow surprised that he’s unbothered by the prospect of killing untold vast swaths of people now that it’s been demonstrated that he will never be held accountable for his actions

      • rc__buggy
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        9
        ·
        1 day ago

        No, I had no idea he was president before. Thank you.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      edit-2
      1 day ago

      Nobody in the US is going to be making money when everyone else calls Trump’s bluff and slaps a 200 percent exit tariff on goods to the US.

      So a 1,000 dollar item will be 3,000 dollars when it hits US Customs and jump to 6,000 there because of Trump’s import tariffs. They can support that all day long because they just hand the money straight back to their domestic company. As far as they’re concerned they made a 3,000 dollar sale.

      You might think we could just do without and use domestic manufacturing. But not only have we fucked domestic manufacturing in so many ways, this will apply to our food imports as well. So it’s not like we can just refuse to pay.

      • Serinus@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 day ago

        As much as the farm subsidies have been criticized, literally starving isn’t something we should have to worry much about.

        Food we can do domestically just fine, as long as you don’t care about coffee and tea. Even those I just expect we’re going to make existing grounds/leaves stretch a whole lot farther.

        I don’t think it’ll be as bad as some of Russia’s hard times, but goddamn is that a long, long way to fall.

        I’m more concerned about world politics. We’re going to cede a hell of a lot of control of the world to Russia and China. It’s likely that China claims an entire vertical slice of the Earth, standing in the way of a good chunk of world trade.

      • rc__buggy
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        1 day ago

        Nobody in the US is going to be making money when everyone else calls Trump’s bluff

        Categorically false.

        Manufacturers will not make money. Importers will not make money.

        Owners WILL make money. Mark my words.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 day ago

          The owners of what? Everything in the US is going to skyrocket in price. If they’re a domestic company then their inputs are going to kill them.

          • rc__buggy
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            21 hours ago

            The Peter Theils, the Blackrocks, various equity firms.

            Just like wall street doesn’t mirror main street, crashing economies can be quite profitable if you’re in the right industry.

            • Maggoty@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              20 hours ago

              I see you’re talking about them buying everything they can. That’s going to be kind of hard when the stock market crashes though. While it can remain irrational, it cannot ignore companies collapsing.

              • rc__buggy
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                19 hours ago

                John Pauson, Pauson & Co.

                Made billions during '07-08

                • Maggoty@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  19 hours ago

                  That’s cute that you think that was a crash. It could have been one but they stopped it. They were able to stop it because businesses were still viable under it all. These tariffs run the real risk of making the businesses non viable which takes the base of the stock market out. A true crash that wipes everything out.