Tariffs Tell The World: “ We Don’t Want To Buy Your Stuff”

 Ever been at a railroad crossing where a train has stopped? A really long one, lots cars. You can’t see the engine or the end (I almost said “caboose.” Showing my age.). It sits and it sits, and then finally  you can see some sign of forward motion. Put it still takes a while to clear.

That’s the metaphor for restarting the supply chain. As if we didn’t know, from Trump’s first term.

Appearing on "State of the Union," Lutnick launched extensive explanations about the upside of Trump's tariff threats, and butted heads with the CNN host, repeatedly replying," No, no, no," when she attempted to fact-check him.

In one exchange, he asserted, "Look, we published our rates on Liberation Day, negotiate with us, bring those rates down by opening your markets to Americans who can export. So what's going to happen is we're going to have imports. Of course, our ports, we are the consumer of the world! I mean, we consume $20 trillion worth of stuff. The world wants to sell us stuff."

"But it's not happening.right now because of the president's policies," Bash interrupted.

"No, no, no, it's only stopping," Lutnick protested.

I was pretty sure the point of 145% tariffs was so countries wouldn’t sell us stuff.