Thank God for the stock market.
The market is one of the only things that can be heard that Donald Trump listens, probably more than surveys and certainly more than his advisors, even when he does not want to hear what he is saying.
During his first term, Trump Routinely took credit for Each new high marketpointing at a time that “the reason why our stock market is so successful is For me. “When the market was well under President Biden, Trump said it was because of the expectation that he would win the next elections.
Everything makes sense, but he believes it, and wants everyone else to believe it. And that could be for the benefit of the country now, because when it was clear last week that Trump was determined to follow his threats of Cochamamie Rate, the markets fell. And on Monday, the Administration reached agreements to stop tariffs in Mexico and Canada for a month.
Many of the president's grease hangers, including his New Treasury SecretaryScott Besent – he had convinced Trump not In fact The “tariff man” describes himself. They clicks on the heels of their Ruby shoes, repeating: “It's just a negotiation tool. It's just a negotiation tool.”
No. When asked Friday night if our three largest commercial partners, Canada, Mexico and China, could do anything to avoid the implementation of their threatened tariffs, Trump said: “No, nothing. “Evó explain – Again, he believes that tariffs are valuable and desirable in their own right, not only as a means to extract concessions from any kind. “It's a pure economic measure,” he said.
The Wall Street Journal criticized the madness of the same. Business and union leaders joined public and privately, begging him not to follow this idiot.
Your answer? TO go in it strokeDeclaging in Truth Social, “anyone who is against tariff foreigners or national “.
That also makes sense, but I remain especially confused by the insinuation that it is somehow sinister or antipatriotic for “entities” “controlled” by “national companies” to oppose tariffs. Isn't that other way of saying that US companies do not want to be subject to additional taxes?
Politicians from all over the ideological spectrum have bothered financial markets for not cooperating with them. The former president Clinton was famous furious that the success of its administration could depend on the approval of the bond markets. His political guru James Carville once joked: “He used to think that if there was a reincarnation, he wanted to return as president or the Pope or as a .400 baseball batter. But now I would like to return as the bond market. You can intimidate everyone. “
And that is why we should be grateful. It is already very clear that Trump can intimidate, corrup, Steamroller or ignore attendees, legislators, donors and journalists who tell him the truth. Markets are the exception.
In fact, many Titans of Wall Street now support Trump politically. But they still buy and sell actions based on economic reality. And the economic reality is that protectionism tends to damage the economy more than it helps. As economist Henry George said a century ago, “what protection teaches us, is to make ourselves in peacetime what enemies seek to do in war.”
Protectionism also invites political corruption because companies seek, well, protection of the bad government policies. Trump loves to distribute favors and punishment in case, so it is not surprising that he enjoy a policy that allows him to choose winners and losers.
That is why so many sensible business leaders take over him and mint about the wisdom of these policies: they want to remain on their good side. But while people can flatter and congratulate it, the market does not.
Oppositors to capitalism resent the impersonal efficiency of the market. They want the economy to be an extension of politics. They confuse the amorality of economic decision making with the immorality they attribute to their political enemies.
During most of my life, those people tended to reside in the ideological left. The progressives denounced excessive concern about inflation or debt as a pretext to oppose more “generous” policies that favor their priorities or constituencies. Now many are joined in nationalist law who want business and markets to do more to put “America first.”
The good news is that our markets are strong enough and diverse to resist such moral and intellectual corruption. The free trade Republicans and the magnates of Wall Street, once, will continue to lying on Trump's economic wisdom, but the market will probably continue to tell the truth. I hope I listen.
