Loading ...But then, so is my dog. And Trump’s smart enough to bring in Musk etc. Picking independent guys like that, who are not sycophants, is a very smart move.
I’ve been trying to get my head around tariffs in the 21st century. I can see why they worked in a new country, where you had no manufacturing of anything. But the stronger your economy becomes, the less revenue tariffs provide. You’ve already onshored a lot of things with foreign motor plants, steel, aluminium, oil refineries etc. etc. so your tariff revenue as a proportion of GDP and govt. spending (at least before Musk and RFK get stuck in) will be a lot less than in the early 20th century. While I think they’ve a significant part to play, they won’t be the cure-all. The best use for tariffs is to stop dumping, so they’ll be very effective in protecting, say, the electric car industry in the US from the ridiculously cheap vehicles coming out of China (or China via Mexico!). Or below cost steel. Just so long as there are no tariffs on kangaroo products, because you can’t make them yourselves.