The Trump Depression

[Tansy_Gold]

Donald Trump is on track to be the first president to deliberately engineer a severe depression.

by Robert Kuttner

March 5, 2025

https://prospect.org/economy/2025-03-05-trump-depression/

His economic policy is internally inconsistent, and totally at odds with his political need to tame inflation. He is on track to have the kind of stagflation that did in Jimmy Carter, only far worse—and self-inflicted.

Live by bullshit, perish by bullshit.

. . .

In a couple of weeks, the budget talks will reach the point of an increasingly likely government shutdown. Closing the government will be even more of a hit to total demand and consumer and investor confidence.

In agreeing to reopen the government, Democrats are in a good position to demand that Trump reopen the whole government, starting with the parts that Musk has illegally shut down. In the meantime, this engineered crisis is entirely Trump’s.

Emphasis mine.

[dweller]

1. Apparently, the International Chamber of Commerce agrees (WSJ)

The world economy could face a crash similar to the Great Depression of the 1930s unless the U.S. rows back on its plans to impose steep tariffs on imports, a senior official at the International Chamber of Commerce warned.
“Our deep concern is that this could be the start of a downward spiral that puts us in 1930s trade-war territory,” said Andrew Wilson, deputy secretary-general of the ICC, which promotes global business and trade. High tariffs on foreign goods imported into the U.S. in that decade contributed to a damaging global recession. The downturn plunged nearly a third of the global workforce into unemployment and slashed production at heavyweight industrial economies Germany and the U.S. by half, according to research from the International Monetary Fund.
The likelihood of a similarly severe blow to the global economy is high, Wilson said in an interview Tuesday. “Right now it’s a coin-flip,” he said. “It comes down to whether the U.S. administration is willing to rethink the utility of tariffs.”
His comments come after tariffs of 25% on imports from Canada and Mexico came into effect in the U.S., stymieing hopes of an eleventh-hour reprieve. Fresh duties were also added to Chinese goods sold to the country. Trump has promised to impose similar tariffs on European goods, raising the prospect of retaliation in kind and a global trade war.

https://archive.is/ORDiU



✌🏻

[AntiFascist]

2. Japanese isolationist 'Keiretsu' business structures didn't work out so well in the 90s...

Trump has to learn the hard way that everyone will suffer under tariff wars.

[Native]

3. history has shown us that he won't learn anything

[Tansy_Gold]

4. Because he doesn't care. n/t

[Native]

5. he cares enough to lie, deflect and lay blame elsewhere,

but that's about it.