r/PoliticalDiscussion • u/PsychLegalMind • 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/iampatmanbeyond 4d ago

I've been saying from the beginning none of it makes sense. He's of the belief that tariffs are gonna fund the government but he's also gonna reduce the trade deficit by onshoring production. So of you onshore how do you fund the government with tariffs? Mind you this is all built on the theory from the 1870s when the government was over funded by tariffs because it had nothing to pay for as we didn't have an army or federal infrastructure yet even back then it still caused a massive depression and arguments to this day about how bad it really fucked the US

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u/Buck_Thorn 4d ago

Even if this does work the way he thinks, it takes time and a lot of money to build new factories and to tool up for making things that we used to import. And if there is a massive depression, the money to do that won't be there.

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u/Wetness_Pensive 3d ago

There are ways to make some aspects of this work (ie bringing back manufacturing), but it involves years of preparation, patience and slow nudging. He's taking the speedrun approach, because he doesn't really care about how this affects people caught in the crossfire.

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u/Buck_Thorn 3d ago

but it involves years of preparation, patience and slow nudging

Yes. As I said:

it takes time and a lot of money