Donald Trump Maelstrom May Make U.S. Economic Pattern Unrecognized | Heather Stewart

dOnald Trump observed last week that he might need to “relax” some trade deals if his precious tariff regime is knocked down by the U.S. Supreme Court as he announced “Liberation Day” In April.

It’s a reminder, as if it’s needed, that there’s nothing about Trump’s economic policy. The aging president not only changed his demands, but it was unclear to what extent he was capable of keeping them on.

Yet even the “reciprocity” tariffs first announced on April 2 have backed down, and they are just one aspect of a broader attack on the last remains once known as the “Washington Consensus.”

To name just a few of Trump’s recent interventions, he Take 10% of the government shares At the American technology company Intel, 15% of the income required NVIDIA’s bargaining sales to China and advises Goldman Sachs CEO Should go.

This is the same as bringing the sledgehammer to the Fed’s independence lobbing insult On the chair, Jerome Powell and Trying to fire Lisa chef From the Central Bank Board.

Head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Deleted by Trump After a series of bad work data; Jennifer Abruzzo, head of the National Labor and Industrial Relations Commission, Also fired.

Tech brothers who support Trump Hate NLRB For example, its role in safeguarding workers’ rights – for example, conducting union votes in Amazon warehouses.

Trump’s approach is systematic at the same time, determined to smash existing norms and be totally confused. It’s hard to classify: For example, by intentionally undermining environmental and labor standards, U.S. companies are releasing and imposing heels.

Left Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders welcomes Trump’s efforts Equity in Intel For example, as a government grant – Things he advocated in the Guardian in 2022 – Although some Republicans have condemned this approach (the forbidden of heaven) “socialism.”

Partly because it matches the AI-type stock boom, which promotes the value of tech companies into the stratosphere, so the market’s response to this status quo is modest.

No matter what has emerged from the other three and a half years in the vortex, neither as the American economic model in recent decades, it is identifiable.

Its destruction did not happen overnight. When the U.S.’s undisputed economic superpower can export free markets, global financialism capitalism, the U.S. is over.

After the collapse of 2008, the conditions created in the Wall Street boardroom were required to provide an economic example to any moral or actual claim that evaporates other countries.

Laissez-Faire’s lies were put on hold as the turmoil broke out through the global economy and the U.S. government responded by bailing out most of its financial sector.

The crisis also exposed the risks of turbocharged capitalism to countries outside the United States (especially in the former Soviet bloc), which recommended the model wholesale.

As Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes said, their debate failed.

Meanwhile, like the UK, returning home to the United States, people think that banks have been bailed, and the galaxy brain behind the crisis has no Scots, sowing a corrosive sense of injustice.

Likewise, even before the crash, the idea of ​​expanding free trade brought about challenges to the fact that, even in general, it brought about deindustrialization and unemployment for workers across the U.S. rust belt, just as it did in the UK’s former manufacturing heartland.

This is a fertile ground for Trump’s populist economic information. his The first phase of China’s tariffs As he saw, in hindsight, his stab wound was relatively small and would tilt competitively towards the United States.

Joe Biden has not abandoned those geopolitical-related tariffs, because any hope that economic liberalization will plunge China into a democracy is destroyed, while President Xi Jinping’s regime has adopted an increasingly authoritarian bend.

Biden has also taken a muscular approach to address the state’s role in the economy, with billions of dollars allocated under the Inflation Reduction Act related to national priorities for reducing carbon emissions and job creation.

So, the unchallenged free market of American capitalism is misleading until Trump arrives on the scene, but his speed at which he smashes its remaining norms is extraordinary.

There are enough reasons for legitimate differences here: taxpayers of strategic companies, for example, are more common in European economies. Trump may shed light on the path the U.S. government may follow for future priorities.

Given that he is not even aware of the economic way he is working on, the current overwhelming significance is fundamental uncertainty. Friday US salary data is weakWith the unemployment rate approaching four years, it is recommended that companies may respond cautiously.

Investors seem to have decided to avoid eyes for the time being and are inspired by the prospect of the Federal Reserve’s tax cuts and the big returns of tech companies. But with every messy week of experience, the risk must increase – as Britain learned after the collapse of Liz Truss, economic credibility is faster than reconstruction.