Also what the fuck is a “tariff investigation”? It’s hard to believe he’s shying away from saying he’ll raise tariffs again, he’s certainly threatened it often enough, but maybe the TACO title is starting to bother him. Maybe he’s trying to figure out a way to threaten tariffs that won’t look so obvious when he inevitably backs down.
To the extent that they’re measuring anything, it’s bilateral balance of trade, though they’re fudging those numbers too based on Trump’s prejudices and grudges.
David Ricardo figured out that balancing bilateral trade flows was a stupid idea over 200 years ago. As a modern economist put it, I have a bilateral trade impalance with my barber too. So what?
Also what the fuck is a “tariff investigation”? It’s hard to believe he’s shying away from saying he’ll raise tariffs again, he’s certainly threatened it often enough, but maybe the TACO title is starting to bother him. Maybe he’s trying to figure out a way to threaten tariffs that won’t look so obvious when he inevitably backs down.
To the extent that they’re measuring anything, it’s bilateral balance of trade, though they’re fudging those numbers too based on Trump’s prejudices and grudges.
David Ricardo figured out that balancing bilateral trade flows was a stupid idea over 200 years ago. As a modern economist put it, I have a bilateral trade impalance with my barber too. So what?