Rollercoasters

Well, after yesterdays sliver of good news, we’re back to bad news; Emperor Trump (and lets face it, any President who doesn’t have to obey the law, can pardon his allies, tax his foes, can ignore budgets passed by Congress & close federal departments - all on his personal say-so - is an Emperor) announced massive tariffs last night, on, well, just about everyone and everywhere.

Estimates say that these tariffs cover about 27 - 30% of total global economic activity and are even more extreme than the 22 - 25% Smoot-Hawley tariffs that triggered the Depression of the 1920’s & 30’s.

The reason for these tariffs are “because they’re ripping us off” – examples include “undue regulatory burdens” (apparently this is a big thing for Canada - American companies object to having to make different labels for products sold in French-speaking Quebec), “because they’re not following American laws” (so it’s a claim for global regulatory supremacy) and “because they’re taxing American companies” (so any tax, anywhere, on any American company is unacceptable). Its nonsense, pure & simple - the rambling of a demented would be tyrant, demanding that everyone do exactly as he says, or else.

I don’t know what to say, to be entirely honest. Pray that you’ve got your finances in order & that you’re in secure employment? Assuming that these remain in force then there is going to be an almighty global economic crunch as a result of the Orange Emperors demented schemes. I hope that Europe has got its act together because otherwise a total economic meltdown isn’t off the cards.

Incidentally, if you look at the tariffs, you can tell that they’ve been developed by someone with zero grasp of any subject even adjacent to economics. Why do I say that? Because the tariffs on the uninhabited areas of Antarctica and St Pierre & Miquelon show that its been randomly fire-hosed across the atlas - whilst the tariffs on the British Indian Ocean (now believed to be exclusively inhabited by American military personnel) mean that Trump is actively sanctioning Americans.

Genius, or incompetent? You decide.

Lastly, I note an interesting omission: Russia & Belarus are not included on the sanctions.

Huh. Fancy that. I wonder how that happened?