Journalist: Did the great war of tariffs begin? Or ended before starting?
Gordon Gekko: It was a combat zafarrancho. And a pure and hard Trump sample. Pleanmile, if you want to believe in what the president says, which is not highly recommended, but clearly is not the real clash.
Q.: Is the war on drugs, as Kevin Hasett and other officials say, and not (yet) the commercial war that, after all, is the most promoted Trump? Or was it simply a “Bluff”?
GG: Call it as you want. The average tariff in the US is 3%. 25% levies such as those that Trump revoked Mexico and Canada – partners of the agreement that the president himself rewritten in 2020 – are a nuclear artifact. Economies are highly integrated. Nafta was signed three decades ago, in 1994. Among them, at most, a 1%tariff governs. An elaborate product can carry supplies that cross the borders several times until its final sale.
Q.: They were not going to be applied. No, without causing considerable trauma. That’s why Trump played with the idea, but removed them before they started governing.
GG: It is his second term. It is a known style. It can criticize it, but it works. “It’s a victory,” he said. “In the war against fentanil.” And it is also a distraction. And a soft way to tax with a 10% tariff to China, thus begin hostilities, and do it without the markets altering greatly.
Q.: The reaction of markets is a topic. While it was negative, he never stopped being moderate.
GG: Taking into account what was potentially at stake, yes.
Q.: The same thing happened with Depseek, or not? It’s like it is convenient to take note, but do not believe it at all.
GG: They are not independent phenomena but aspects of the same psychological war.
Q.: Doesn’t you think that Trump wears out with these maneuvers so grandiloquent that they are later reduced to a false alarm?
GG: I think so. He thinks no. And he is the one who got the feat of being elected twice president.
Q.: How does this film continue? The taxes to Canada and Mexico formally suspended for a month …
GG: In a month the victory against fentanil will be even more forceful. And Canada will not be annexed, even if they boo the US anthem in ice hockey matches.
Q.: China, as you said, was not exonerated from paying a 10%surcharge. And he already announced reprisals. Will the conflict climb on that front?
GG: Let’s say that the confrontation is seriously not with Panama and Greenland but with Beijing. But this is a Trump who has already his jinping years treats him with cottons. I think it will rise slowly, carefully. The Deepseek was a warning that the Chinese have done their homework.
Q.: Don’t tell me there will be no commercial war?
GG: I am sure there will be an increase in tariffs. Trump will fulfill his electoral promise, although not to the letter. It is a flag that is not going to be left, but you don’t have to stick it on the forehead. When the Treasury Secretary, Scott Besent, remarkable absent so far, lends to detail attention.
Q.: Besent must be a convert. At the time, he wrote against tariffs, noting that they are inflationary.
GG: At another time, he wrote that they had to recover them for economic policy in the same tradition of Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding parents. It would not be secretary of the Treasury if its use did not militate. But, it is assumed that in a rational way. Relatively low, no more than 10%. Uniforms with the exception of the treatment dispensed to China (by geopolitical considerations). And gradual implementation to have an available negotiation tool. The idea is to reindustrialize USA (luck with that) and increase the collection to partially finance the tax decline that the president also promised. We’ll see …
Q.: The Fed looks at the crossed arms process. Surprisingly Trump said Powell did well not lowering the rate this time. Is it so patient as not to be tempted to raise it if the presidential agenda resent inflation expectations?
GG: The Fed did not eat the ame. And I would not have trimmed the rate a complete point in 2024 – maybe, half, yes – if I didn’t think Trump is a lot of noise and few nuts. But with the president you never know. And I would say that with Elon Musk, even less. But his agency – Doge – is already causing a stir where he puts his noses (and multiple judicial demands). If Trump gets out of channel, the Fed will change the communication, it will speak differently, stronger, but will prefer to endure to take a false step. It must be the markets that stop the temptation to do crazy things.
Source: Ambito
I am Pierce Boyd, a driven and ambitious professional working in the news industry. I have been writing for 24 Hours Worlds for over five years, specializing in sports section coverage. During my tenure at the publication, I have built an impressive portfolio of articles that has earned me a reputation as an experienced journalist and content creator.
