“I’m not happy with Jay Powell, I don’t think he’s doing a good job at all”, Donald Trump told reporters, as he departed for the G-7 meeting in France late Friday in the US. “But I’ve got him”, he added.
The president was weighing in after a long, absurd day during which stocks plummeted following a series of tweets that found Trump likening Powell to Xi Jinping and “hereby” ordering US companies to find “alternatives to China” and move any production back to America.
Asked if he wanted Powell to resign, Trump said “if he did, I wouldn’t stop him”.
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Trump’s tweets, delivered hours after Beijing retaliated to his latest tariffs, were a bridge too far for markets. Investors dumped risk assets on the threat of further escalations, which the president delivered after the closing bell in the form of more tariff hikes.
Asked by reporters about the situation with China, Trump parroted the usual line about how long the Chinese have been “hurting us”.
“Look, China has been hurting our country for 30 years with the money they’ve been taking out”, he said. At this point, it’s pretty clear Trump believes his own narrative – that bilateral trade deficits represent one country “taking” money “out” from another. That isn’t what bilateral trade deficits represent. Note that Trump now says “we’re losing close to $1 trillion a year to China”. It wasn’t clear where he got that number.
“This is more important – just about – right now than anything else we’re working on”, he continued. If Friday was any indication, the administration is about to be “working on” a plan to bolster the equity market if the president continues to push the envelope.
Trump also said he’s “always open to talks”, but on Saturday, China struck a defiant tone.
Beijing “strongly opposes” the new tariffs, China’s Commerce Ministry said, in a statement, urging the US side not to “misjudge the situation”.
Trump, the ministry warned, “shouldn’t underestimate [the Chinese] people’s determination”.
There are no adults left in the WH to stop a misjudgement.
Normalized economics = good news is good news
Post GFC monitory stimulus economics = bad news is good news
Trumponomics = all news is bad news
I get the feeling that any effort by the administration to “bolster the domestic economy” will be treated as bad news. H’s theory about the trump freak out causing consumer sentiment to dive being but 1 reason why.
He’s literally scaring the economy into a recession.
As for weakening USD, terrible idea. Any country with a massive domestic consumer base and a massive trading deficit greatly benefits from a stronger currency. It’s simple math that creates significant strength for that countries domestic economy. You just don’t see it in many economic models because there is only 1 country that it applies to. This is the reason the USD economy is so strong when the rest of the world is in the brink of recession.
You are absolutely right. What a wasted opportunity. The dollar is in demand the world over for a host of reasons. A trade deficit means that China (or any exporter) sends the US goods and services that the US needs and wants, and the US gives them what?…numbers in a bank account at the Fed that cost the US nothing. Why does the US want this to change?
What needs to change, is the concentration of wealth. Since the US does not have to work in order to get some of the goods and services it needs and wants (the external sector is willing to do the work in exchange for numbers in a Fed bank account), society should share this “reduced need to work” instead of concentrating it in only 1% of the population. It is a shame we are not doing this.
Agreed, trading electronic digits for physical goods is a privilege only possessed by USA. The more Trump pushes/insists upon castrating China, and initiating a cold war w China, the more the rest of world will seek to remove our privilege and install alternate electronic digits.
So true. Instead of saying “let’s spend the work we are saving– because the Chinese are doing it for us in exchange for electronic digits–on providing productive infrastructure such as education and healthcare for our citizens,and let’s allow the average citizen more leisure time and time with family and friends, and we should do these things because we can afford to do these thing, since the “National debt” is a misnomer, it is really the “National funding of the economy”, we are complaining that the Chinese are willing to work for numbers in an account to give us the things we want…..that is just plain stupid.
Re: “That isn’t what bilateral trade deficits represent. Note that Trump now says “we’re losing close to $1 trillion a year to China”. It wasn’t clear where he got that number.”
Those numbers are from the same unknown source that said the economy would explode with jobs and YUGE GDP and that the tax cuts would pay for themselves and deficits don’t matter.
I’m confused. (Again) On one hand Trumpisaurus says China is sending us Billions because of the tariffs. Now he’s saying “we’re losing close to a trillion dollars a year to China” ?? Which is it??
I don’t know. It is sort of like the witch hunt of totally rabid Democrats that nonetheless totally and completely exonerated him. Or how the United States has the strongest economy in the history of history, but needs large and immediate interest rate cuts from the Fed in order to prevent recession. Or how we need to ban and round up illegals stealing our jobs, but not the ones that happen to work at Trump-owned properties. Or how we need a complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the country, unless they are Wahabi Sunni chauvinists that fund al-Qaeda. Or how North Korean missile tests become less dangerous and destabilizing after Pyongyang sends Trump big beautiful letters. Or how the Chief Executive responsible for appointing all Constitutional officers with the management acumen of a businessman is not responsible for the any of the incompetent people in public office, or how…
Trump is a man you can only take seriously, but not literally. Unless he is being sarcastic. Or he is lying in order to keep in practice.