Donald Trump’s White House had grandly promised “90 deals in 90 days” after partially pausing the process of levying what the US president called “reciprocal” tariffs.
In reality, there won’t even be 9 deals done by the time we reach Trump’s first cut-off date on 9 July.
The revealing thing here, the poker “tell” if you like, is the extension of the deadline from Wednesday until 1 August, with a possibility of further extensions - or delays - to come.
I’m amazed by the number of “very serious people” I’ve met in the corporate finance world who think this man is not an idiot. It’s like a movie where aliens take over people’s bodies and I’m starting to identify them one by one. I’m talking about well educated people. It has really taken me aback.
None of them believe that crap
Turnip is a convenient scapegoat … the US government has literary been bought and sold … they placed a mascot on the driver’s seat while all the rich, wealthy and corporate owners in the background can do whatever they want and make tons of money while bankrupting the country … they don’t care if the country loses, they’ll be making billions for themselves
And when it’s all over, the rich and wealthy owners will walk away into the shadows and let the world blame everything on the orange turd.
…I think they do. I think they believe it. We’re not talking about tremendously wealthy and insulated people here.
Some “smart” people are very religious and don’t use a stove on the magic day to get to heaven.
In this case I think it’s more of a “the last economic crisis didn’t effect me so I’ll be fine or even profit if it happens again” situation. I get the sense that some of them even hope it’ll happen again to put the dregs back in their place. They don’t seem to be willing to acknowledge anything going on at a global scale to isolate the contagion of the United States economic and foreign policies. They can’t acknowledge the conventional agreed function of something as rudimentary as trade deficits, or the predictable outcomes of applying scattershot tariffs. They are totally delusional and I know they were taught this stuff in college even if they’re just PEG bros or lenders. It’s really fucking scary magical thinking that ignores some glaring lessons of history.
They graduated from one of Canada’s top business schools.
The plan? Negotiate 90 trade deals in 90 days.
Ideology will always trump education. That’s just how human brains work.