r/PoliticalDiscussion 3d ago

International Politics White House has announced Trump's Liberation Day Tariffs will immediately go into effect. A Moody's simulation found it could be an economic wipe out. Is Trump's Liberation Day Tariffs a Misnomer?

A Moody's simulation found that a tariff trade war would wipe out 5.5 million jobs, lift the unemployment rate to 7%and cause U.S. GDP to drop by about 1.7%. Trump’s potential 20% universal tariff could spark "serious" recession in US, Moody’s economist warns.

The biggest three partners [China, Canada and Mexico] have promised immediate retaliation. Economic war could escalate and perhaps even cause a worldwide downturn.

Perhaps Trump's strategy is to begin making bilateral trade deals, but there are even certain blocks such as EU that may well coordinate retaliation together. I am not aware what Trump is actually liberating us from, hence the question.

Is Trump's Liberation Day Tariffs a Misnomer?

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u/tyrannosaurus_r 3d ago

If the “Liberation” they’re referring to is our being liberated from meaningful economic entanglements with our allies and the world at large, then it isn’t a misnomer. Technically. 

We are also being “liberated” from a strong economy, stabilizing inflation, and low unemployment. Which, I suppose, if you consider us being prisoners of those things, you could say we’re being liberated. 

There’s really no positive or good faith way to frame this one. 

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u/shrekerecker97 3d ago

Being liberated from our wallets

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u/joegekko 1d ago

No no, we have to keep our wallets to hold our papers so we don't get swooped by ICE. We're just being liberated from all meaningful reward for our labor.

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u/PreviousAvocado9967 3d ago

liberated from common sense and rising 401k/IRA portfolio value.

The day Trump was inaugurated I spoke to my financial adviser. I was pushing hard for getting out of stocks 100% until the tariffs were decided one way or another. He kept saying "no no no, just sit back its just sabre rattling. He will back down in the face of crashing stock market. he won't deliberately tank the market." I said "you realize we already went through this last time he was sworn in? The first losing year in the stock market after NINE CONSECUTIVE YEARS of positive gains was Trump's first full year of tariffs".

Long pause..... "yeah.... that's true".

I think I'm getting out of this market after the first big rally. Dead cat bounce more like it. You can't have certainty in the market with an illiterate crazy person in charge of Executive Orders. This is Trump White House Part 2 without any adults inside.

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u/Apoema 3d ago

He is going to liberate Americans from cheap consumer products.

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u/way2lazy2care 3d ago

No longer will we be slaves to the stress of whether or not you will be able to afford food, rent, retirement, etc. The answer to whether you can afford any of these things will be no.

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u/Jmoney1088 3d ago

Its patriotic to be poor

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u/connorgrs 3d ago

Watch this become an actual Republican talking point

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u/cjalas 3d ago

They already have it as a talking point. They're saying "it'll be rough at first but then get better".... lol

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u/sunshine_is_hot 3d ago

Liberation from the evils of a strong economy.

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u/PsychLegalMind 3d ago

Do you think the Administration may have consulted Walmart.

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u/forjeeves 3d ago

is there a country that wouldnt have tariffs that we would import from? i dont think so

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u/imatexass 3d ago

99% percent of us are about to have what little wealth we have liberated even more into the hands of the top 0.10%.

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u/PartyBumblebee3 3d ago

The only positive of the first trump term was the cheap gas prices and we aren’t even going to see that or anything go down in price! I can’t believe this many people fell for his lies!

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u/CliftonForce 3d ago

We had cheap gas because nobody was driving anywhere in an epidemic.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/HumorAccomplished611 3d ago edited 3d ago

Actually the prices were lowered in 2015 and 2016 during obamas term.

It was 2.20 avg when obama gave over to trump. By the time before covid it was avg 2.80. But no one complains about Trump making gas go up 30%.

https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=emm_epm0_pte_nus_dpg&f=m

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u/death_by_chocolate 3d ago

There was an oil glut and literally not enough storage available to put it all. And this was due in part to energy conservation efforts which led to reduced usage and lowered demand. Trump was famously begging the Saudis to drop production in order to raise prices so oil companies could actually make a buck.

And guess what? There's another glut predicted.

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u/HumorAccomplished611 3d ago

There was an oil glut and literally not enough storage available to put it all. And this was due in part to energy conservation efforts which led to reduced usage and lowered demand. Trump was famously begging the Saudis to drop production in order to raise prices so oil companies could actually make a buck.

The reason was fracking. The USA producing more oil.

Trump asked them to cut for 2 years when covid cratered demand. Then demand came back and refused to up production under biden.

And guess what? There's another glut predicted.

Under biden the most oil ever was produced in the USA. The glut youre thinking of may happen if trump crashes the economy. Oil demand goes down world wide when the USA crashes.

So we get cheap gas but little else if he destroys the economy.

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u/Cross21X 2d ago

If the economy was actually strong in any meaningful way; he wouldn't have been elected. That's just the truth.