"Increasingly often, [Trump] ends up backing down and simply declaring a win. His opponents appear to be catching on, sharpening their tactics based on Mr. Trump's patterns and his unapologetically transactional attitude toward diplomacy."
Aides in the White House and Trump boosters tried to present the about-face not as a cave but rather as a master class in negotiating from the man who wrote The Art of the Deal But Trump himself acknowledged that economic reality forced the new approach www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc ...
-- Jonathan Lemire (@jonlemire.bsky.social) April 10, 2025 at 10:45 AM
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OpEd: When an Arsonist Poses as a Firefighter
paulkrugman.substack.com
... Four points:
1. A 30 percent tariff is still really, really high, especially combined with the 10 percent tariff we're imposing on everyone else. The back of my envelope says that the average U.S. tariff rate will now be around 13 percent, up from around 3 percent when Trump began his trade war. Before all this drama that would have been seen as wildly protectionist.
2. This wasn't a case of both sides backing down. China only imposed its tariffs as a response to Trump's gambit, and has reduced them only because he retreated. And retreat he did. This was basically Trump running away from the killer rabbit.
3. The prohibitive tariff has been paused, not canceled. Nobody knows what will happen in 90 days. I've long argued that the uncertainty created by Trump's arbitrary, ever-changing tariffs is at least as important as the level of those tariffs. Well, the uncertainty level has arguably gone up rather than down.
4. This retreat probably hasn't come soon enough to avoid high prices and empty shelves. Even if shipments from Shanghai to Los Angeles -- which had come to a virtual halt -- were to resume tomorrow, stuff wouldn't arrive in time to avoid exhaustion of current inventories. ...
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