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russell b's avatar

I'm not a fan of the tariffs but for my own sanity I have to think his goal is to lower trade barriers with most of these countries. Is this the best strategy? Probably not. But apparently 50 of them have reached out to offer to drop their tariffs, many to 0, in order to negotiate a better rate with trump. If everyone goes to 0 tariffs that will be by definition deflationary. I also think a big part of this is to drive the 10 year down as low as possible before we have to refinance all the short term paper that yellen created last year. Bessent is no idiot and I can't imagine him allowing himself to be involved with this if he didn't think it made sense.

BUT then I hear idiots like Navarro on the Sunday shows saying publicly they're not looking to negotiate with anyone and talking in circles about factories that will never exist and I start to worry maybe this is the entire plan. The fact that that dude has trumps ear is frightening.

I own a small (but mighty) custom cabinet shop in Austin. I employ 8 people with families. 90% of my material comes from Canada and Vietnam. We're going to have to raise our prices if these stay in place for very long. Anecdotal, sure, but when they talk about Main Street, small us business/manufacturing, skilled tradesman etc I'm quite literally who they're referring to and I'm telling you this is not helpful at all. I'm as maga as they come but a lot of this defies logic.

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