ARTICLE AD BOX
"Trump’s current tariff policy is also erratic, ill-defined, and incoherent. Its justification swings between the mutually exclusive goals of protecting industries through import-exclusion from abroad on one hand, and raising tax revenue from the very same imports as part of a scheme to replace income tax on the other....
"When Trump bluffs then retracts a tariff threat to attain diplomatic concessions, tariffs are merely a negotiating device.
"When he pulls the tariff trigger on the same nation a few days later, we’re told that it’s to address a national-security 'emergency' on the border or part of a plan to somehow offset Chinese steel production by taxing Canadian steel.
"When the markets crash, it’s all part of an elaborate four-dimensional chess game to restructure the global economy.
"Administration talking points about the dangers of a tariff-induced recession change by the hour, ranging from denying any threat of economic turmoil to insinuating that some purposeful economic “reset” of the global trading system is afoot. ...
"The implementation this time around has been pure chaos. ...
"This confusion is the result of an ideological battle being fought inside the White House...."
~ Phil Magness from his article 'The Nonsense of the “Tariff Men”'
English (US) ·