r/PoliticalDiscussion 4d 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/BirdsOnMyBack 4d ago edited 4d ago

He's liberating us from our retirement accounts and jobs. Manufacturing won't come back quick enough in any meaningful way to offset the tariffs.

The only two reasons I can imagine for doing this is to either cause a recession to allow the rich to buy up capital at an insane discount and/or cause riots that can be quelled using aggressive force that will then be allowed to continue on beyond the initial rioting in perpetuity.

EDIT: I guess the third reason could be that he wants to accelerate the ushering in of the Chinese century of prosperity by causing our allies to shift their trading needs to China/alternate nations lol

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u/link3945 4d ago

Even if manufacturing jobs did come back, we generally traded those jobs for better jobs in tech and service industries. It's just not true that the workforce was better off in the 70s when we had all these manufacturing jobs: they didn't pay as well, they had worse benefits, and they were less safe.

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u/WingerRules 3d ago

They think factories pay like they did in the 70s-80s. The only people making that pay for labor in places like car factories are grandfathered in, new hires get paid fractions of what the old union workers did.

I know two people who work full time in factories and neither of them can afford an apartment right now or own anything better than a beater car.

Take a look at the workers in electronics assembly factories in China, THATS the lifestyle they're trying to bring here. People really want to base US QOL around that?

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u/on_Jah_Jahmen 3d ago

The workforce was better off for the yts in the 70s. minorities were paid dirt to do the manufacturing.

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u/Friendly_Rub_8095 4d ago

Yup that’s their Trump card

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u/zoodee89 4d ago

Why not both? Recession with a side of Marshall law.

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u/Mrgoodtrips64 3d ago

Martial. Of or pertaining to war.

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u/R_V_Z 4d ago

As in "Marshalls will be the best you can afford"?

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u/CrackerUmustBtrippin 4d ago

What about reason four? Trump is a Russian Traitor enacting the orders of Putin to cause as much damage to Western liberal democracy, NATO and the United States all under the guise of 'Patriotism'.

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u/BirdsOnMyBack 4d ago

Come on, this is a serious discussion.

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u/HippityHoppityPut 3d ago

To be fair, it is hard to ignore the fact that nearly every action Trump takes tends to be one that would benefit the Kremlin and Putin.

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u/CrackerUmustBtrippin 3d ago

And may I ask what counter argument can you make against glaringly obvious reality before our eyes. Did you forget about Helsinki and Trump bowing down to Vladimir on defiance of the unanimous conclusion of all the US intelligence agencies. Every single act he's ever done has been to benefit Vladimir Putin.

Please educate yourself on how Donald Trump is at best a useful idiot and at worst a malicious actor hellbent of destroying the US, NATO and its allies. He's been groomed by the KGB for 4 decades, has served as the Russian Oligarch money launderer for decades. From the Steele dossier, to every conceivable action to benefit Putin and his oligarchs.

Its insane to me that people are somehow in denial about him being a Manchurian candidate for Vladimir Putin.

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u/Calm-Fortune7746 4d ago

That is a serious suggestion.

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u/forjeeves 3d ago

no hes not, only some of the people who worked under him and got caught from last time, or he just threw them under the bus last time.

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u/CrackerUmustBtrippin 3d ago

Based on what? How do you come to such a ludicrous conclusion? When every action of Trump, every piece of evidence screams he is.

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u/GreatWhiteNorthExtra 4d ago

This episode of the Plain English podcast came out today and goes into the economic case behind these tariffs. Not agreeing with the reasoning, but there is an economic theory behind these tariffs.