Liberation Day? According to Trump, yesterday, April 2, 2025, shall always “be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed and the day that we began to make America wealthy again.” (So, America is poor?) What this comes down to, according to the ABC News report, is a “minimum baseline tariff of 10% on all trading partners and further, more targeted levies on certain countries like China, the European Union and Taiwan.” Wow. Just wow. This is going to be very bad indeed. Why? Because a protectionist policy can only benefit the working classes if it has capital controls. Meaning, if it prevents the rich from moving their money easily around the world. Without that, Liberation Day may as well be April Fools’ Day. And hardworking Americans will soon find some meaning in these words by T.S. Eliot: “April is the cruelest month.”

And here is another problem. US deficits were sustained by what the French famously called, back in the 60s, its “privilège exorbitant.” The key features of this privilege are plainly described in Yanis Varoufakis’s The Global Minotaur. What it comes down to is this: You can maintain deficits in the current account (what a country imports against what it exports) if your own currency happens to be the world currency. The upshot: If the world doesn’t buy American paper in the form of debts (the exorbitant privilege), then the US economy must face the consequences of a massive current account correction.

Trump dropped his Liberation Day video on social media.  It’s all white men. It’s as nutso as all get out:

 

 

 

Have you watched Hamilton? Yes? No? Either way, let me tell you now what the man on the ten-dollar bill was really about: infant industries. Meaning, he promoted the protection of America’s industrial development against developed competition (in his day, the UK stood as the factory of the world). This approach is also called an “industrial policy.” The Civil War was more about industrial policy than the liberation of Black labor. The North wanted tariffs to protect its nascent industries, and the South wanted to import manufactured goods and export raw ones picked by free Black labor. The North won the war, and the US became the factory of the world. An industrial policy, however, will not work without policy alignments, like infrastructure development, protective regulations, and R&D support. The government, in short, must be more active, more inventionist. But the government we see today is anything but that. It’s being stripped down to the bone by DOGE. In such a situation, tariffs cannot be a hat from which you pull out a whole rabbit. (For more on the Civil War and Hamiltonian economics, read Ha-Joon Chang’s Kicking Away the Ladder.)    

At this moment, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost over 2 percent (1,200 points) of its value. And the S&P 500 is looking at its “worst drop in 2 years.” The markets are said to have lost something like $2 trillion on this fine morning.

Back to Life, Back to Reality: Winter failed to leave our state with a serious snowpack. It is, as with last year, depressingly below average. This means Washington is facing a summer that will place a great amount of pressure on its water supplies. Does that fact give you a little climate dread? Channel that into The Stranger‘s 2025 Climate Issue.

Speaking of the Climate Issue: The one bright side to Trump’s globally historic tariffs is they will certainly increase the cost of cars. Even KOMO  sees the darkness falling on America’s automobile religion. The conservative, pro-Trump rag reports: “Dave Anderson was scouting a North Seattle car dealership when he and his wife described concern about spiked costs for car maintenance and insurance as a result of potentially boosted car prices.” But Dave, you live in a city (not the car-dependant boonies). Seattle has made a big investment in public transportation. Its light rail system is happening. It’s even smashing records. So, get out of your car and into this socialist dream. 

The weather you say? Today will be nice (high of 57 and cloudy). Tomorrow, not so nice (high of 65 and sunny). We love you Roy Ayers, and may you rest in peace; but not everybody loves the sunshine. 

One of the many things you must not do today is enter the water at Pritchard Beach.  It is, at present, not water for people and pets. It’s water for shit. Thanks to a sewage spill, the kind of viruses and bacteria that can make you sick real quick are enjoying this part of Lake Washington. Let them have their day, and be on your way. Seattle Parks hopes to reopen the beach on April 8.

Just another day in paradise? ICE raided Mount Baker Roofing in Bellingham and arrested 37 people it claimed “fraudulently represented their immigration status and submitted fraudulent documents.” The arrested were promptly sent to Northwest ICE Processing Facility in Tacoma. 

Amazon wants to buy TikTok? AP reports that the Seattle-based tech giant has put “in an eleventh-hour pitch as a U.S. ban on the platform is set to go into effect Saturday.” Apparently this offer was sent directly to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. But all of this is still nothing more than a rumor. Amazon has zipped its lips; as well as TikTok. 

For my post-colonial headz, do you remember Zippo?

The mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, will run in November’s election as an independent because, for obvious reasons, his path to re-election is closed as a Democrat. 

 

Breaking News: Mayor Eric Adams of New York City said he would not seek re-election as a Democrat, instead running as an independent in November’s election.

[image or embed]

— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) April 3, 2025 at 4:13 AM

 

Yeah, we up shit creek, but let’s chill for a minute and listen to the lead track of Hiroshi Yoshimura’s recently reissued 1987 album Flora. 

 

 

 

 

 

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...

50 replies on “Slog AM: Will Trump’s Tariffs Destroy the American Economy? Will Trump’s Tariffs Save the Planet? Will Amazon Buy TikTok?”

  1. How insane are these Trump tariffs? Oh, let me count the ways:

    * They’re illegal.

    * They’re inflationary.

    * They’re effectively a regressive tax.

    * On top of these tariffs being regressive, the GOP is counting on the tariff revenues to help pay for their tax cuts for the billionaires and mega-corporations.

    * They are an ongoing open invitation for corruption and self-dealing.

    * They are undermining the American soft power we’ve spent decades building up.

    * They are being billed as a way to revive American manufacturing, but the real effect will be to sabotage American manufacturing, what little we have left.

    Of course, the loud-mouthed MAGA motherfuckers won’t acknowledge one iota of these realities. They’ll just double-down on the fantastical and ridiculous rationalizations. Why? Because their mission is to defend the indefensible. Because they believe that their base is so stupid and gullible and incapable of thinking for themselves, there is no limit to their ability to pull the wool over their eyes. The MAGA mouthpieces believe they could be marching their base straight into the gas chambers and still their base will gleefully cheer, “Hey, look how we’re owning the libs now!”

    “Hey cressona, aren’t you a little over the top there, champ?”

    “Hey MAGA minion, thanks for addressing me on the substance.”

  2. Fascism = Liberation

    Tariffs = Lower Prices

    War = Peace

    Racism = Meritocracy

    you get the idea

    Enough of you voted for this f**ker,

    now we all pay the price

  3. Occam’s razor suggests this is Trump and co making a devil’s bargain with Putin and the hostile BRICK nations who rebuilt their economy after we imposed sanctions on Russia for the war in Ukraine. The folks at the top are following suit with tarrifs and dismantling of all national and economic security in order to get revenge and redirect our trade to their nations while punishing our allies. These are the consequences of stupidity; we are being pillaged by foreign espionage bribing our government to fuck itself for a big ol fat slice of the pie.

    The only folks who want to rob our people of their hard earned SSN and Medicare are those who have no national loyalty to the American people.

  4. “Seattle has made a big investment in public transportation. Its light rail system is happening. It’s even smashing records. So, get out of your car and into this socialist dream.”

    No, thanks. I will continue to avoid the tweakers and nut jobs on public transit and instead of walking home in the rain from the bus stop, I will drive my car to and fro from where I need to go. Enjoy your bus ride.

  6. I like how “progressives” have just run with the assumption that exploiting labor/climate of poorer countries is a necessary part of our economy! Off shoring jobs has political consequences.

  8. “Why? Because a protectionist policy can only benefit the working classes if it has capital controls. Meaning, if it prevents the rich from moving their money easily around the world.”

    Charles, do you support the wealth tax? This sounds very similar to the argument against implementing that as well.

  10. @8 to be sure waving the scarecrow of capital flight isn’t an argument against a “wealth tax”, it’s a scare tactic against taxation of the wealthy.

  14. It’s the day the plutocrats were at last liberated from the middle class. Now maybe those little worker bees will get busy clocking their fourteen-hour shifts without all this treasonous grumbling about “unions” or “bathroom breaks” and whatnot. That sound you hear is all the soon-to-be-trillionaires jizzing their pants in unison at their final triumph over representative government, economic justice, and the American Dream.

  15. Well damn, I knew the tariffs were a key part of Making America Great Again, but who expected it to happen so fast?

    Chrysler / Stellantis is pausing production of 4 models in Canada / Mexico.

    GM is increasing production of pickup trucks at their Indiana plant.

    Ford will offer it’s employee discount to all US customers.

    Thank you President Trump for protecting US manufacturing jobs!

  16. @15, thank goodness Toyota and Honda also have plants in the US and will be available tariff-free; they’re just better cars than Ford, GM, Chrysler etc.

  17. A $6 trillion tax hike that will disproportionately impact the middle class and people of lesser means so the richest man in the world can get a tax cut, in addition to all the money he’s guzzling off the taxpayers’ tit. These people already have more money than they need and it’s never enough.

  18. @16 – yes, I should have also included some appreciation for the Japanese companies who have long employed American workers in American factories. Thank you Japanese automakers. Americans love our reciprocal relationship!

  20. @16: Not so tariff-free as even if they have plants here, they’re using imported parts. Besides, in four years the Democratic president will remove all the tariffs and the global economy and sanity will return.

  23. @9 lol that explains your hyperbolic nightmare vision of public transit. I like reading books on the way to and from work, sitting under a tree or on a bench waiting for a transfer, occasionally looking up at tired drivers stealing risky peeks at their phones as their expensive crossovers and coupes sit at red light after red light.

  24. It amazes me that people don’t understand how manufacturing works. Cars assembled in the US from imported parts will still be subject to tariffs. It’s all but impossible to find products that are made entirely in the US and the production costs would surely offset any import taxes.

  25. As someone lemoning her “American” POS Jeep (fun fact: the window sticker literally says 40% of the parts came from outside of the US, which barely qualifies it as an American-made vehicle), it’s a super not fun moment in time to have to buy a new vehicle. Can’t wait to pay an extra $8-10k on a car because I’ll never buy an American brand again in my life. Thanks, Trump!

  26. @20 – Phoebe dear, JD Vance is not a Democrat. They are going to have to wait to undo Trump’s legacy until 2036 at the earliest.

    Also, for all, I forgot to congratulate ICE on their Bellingham raid. Let’s hope the roofing company CEO, HR manager, etc, are also arrested and prosecuted to the fullest. Deportations aren’t enough. We need executives in prison if we hope to protect American jobs for American workers.

  32. @21: A snail could beat it.

    @29: The fundamentals remain sound. Whenever the tariffs lift, they will rebound. Avoid selling if you can.

  33. @20, oh there will be increased costs on this if that part, for sure. And I don’t foresee a new President winding back global trust that easily, not when we (twice) elect a leader who threatens to invade other countries or unilaterally guts whole economic drivers such as research or aid. Nope, the world will move on without us.

  34. @31, I hope you’re right but it’s so much easier to break things than to put them back together again. The rest of the world will be weary to work with us if every 4 years brings the threat of an anti-democratic administration making unilateral decisions about trade, taxes, and government spending. We can always repeal the tariffs and rebuild the government agencies they’ve destroyed but the damage to our reputation and our trustworthiness will take generations to repair, if ever.

  35. “Oh John Quincy, we must protect our whale bone corset industry! Whatever shall we do?”

    “We will attach imposts to those dreaded heathen imports!”

  37. A high-tariff regime might make some sense if it were accompanied by a massive, government-incentivized reindustrialization program that the investor class as a whole is on board with (incentives are essential due in part to Trump’s own volatility as a decision-maker). Since Trump clearly has no interest in that idea or any other constructive use of government, for the average person it’s just going to mean higher prices and shortages, nothing more. I suspect the real agenda here is mainly ideological: to destroy the dollar as the world’s reserve currency and thus make domestic deficit spending virtually impossible for future Democratic administrations to sustain. It will also empower China to a staggering degree (I’ll wager no opinion as to whether that part is deliberate).

  39. Dude’s a repugnant, disgusting piece of racist trash, but damn if I don’t always get a huge kick out of listening to him speak, particularly when he’s trying to sound smart. This speech, wherein he mentions the word “reciprocal” then pauses briefly, either to insure he pronounced it correctly, or more likely just to bask in a moment of misguided self-admiration, is absolutely delightful. Upon saying it, he somehow and quite comically thinks it necessary or appropriate to define the word for us all and states “…that means they do it to us and we do it to them!”

    He’s a human ass who’s likely to have a catastrophic and devastating impact on our society, but at least he’s giving us some yuks along the way.

  40. Where to begin. OK, the Civil War was most definitely about slavery. Sure, there were other factors, but without slavery it simply wouldn’t have happened. The South doesn’t secede over tariffs — it was entirely about keeping their slaves. Without secession there is no war.

    Link is a tiny part of our transit system and because of the way they have designed it, it will always be a tiny part of our system. It has gotten better. The bus system is more of a mix. Some of the RapidRide changes are good (especially RapidRide G) but we still suffer from the cutbacks imposed by Durkan. Seattle’s Transportation Benefit District proposal passed, but it was much smaller than the previous one (https://seattletransitblog.com/2020/07/03/smaller-stbd-for-november-ballot/). As a result, a lot of buses aren’t running as often as they were (or they should be). Thus it isn’t clear at all whether the transit system in Seattle is better than it was before the pandemic. Ridership remains well below that level.

  41. @38: It’s fun to watch the monkeys through the glass while they screech and fling their poo, until you turn to leave and see that the exit is locked from the outside.

  42. @36 — I think you are giving the administration too much credit. First of all, Trump is now an idiot. I don’t think he was always an idiot, but he clearly lost a lot of cognitive function and is now an idiot.

    He is surrounded by yes men. Thus even if some of his advisors may be telling him this is a bad idea, there will be plenty that agree with him. He will govern by his gut and right now his gut tells him that tariffs are great. I think Trump truly believes that this will help the economy in the long run.

    DOGE is different. Trump is quite comfortable destroying the government but that is because he is doesn’t understand what it is Musk and the Project-2025 people are telling him. He believes the bullshit. He is basically deferring to people he trusts and those people have a radical anti-government agenda. But the tariffs — that is all Trump.

  44. @17 FTW!

    I doubt it raises $6 trillion, but however little it raises will definitely be coming out of the pockets of the poor first, making us much like Europe where they tax the poor at much steeper rates. Not something we should emulate.

  46. @39, Why should busses be running more frequently since work from home has reduced total commute trips, and transit commute trips in particular. When they are at pre-pandemic volumes and standing room only, then by all means add to transit capacity.

    Cost per mile and cost per passenger have skyrocketed, while fare revenue has fallen. Not because expenses have gone up, but because the number of riders per mile and passenger per expense dollar has fallen. The system is less cost-effective per passenger moved.

  48. @40

    Except there is no glass separating you from the monkeys. The crap is flying everywhere. It’s less entertaining when you and your friends are covered in crap.

  49. When you think about it, we’re in the cage and are there so the monkeys (billionaires) have something to fling their shit at.

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