reuters.com
www.reuters.com

A U.S. federal court on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs from going into effect, ruling that the president overstepped his authority by imposing across-the-board duties on imports from nations that sell more to the United States than they buy.

  • Plebcouncilman@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    118·
    4 days ago

    Despite what neoclassical economists will have you believe, many economists do believe Trumps tariffs had solid grounds. The cutting edge of economic thinking is Modern Monetary Policy. And most of the experts I have heard from that school of thought agreed with the tariffs at some level. They mostly disagree with the implementation but they agree that the principles behind them are sound.

    Just know that you cannot in one breath criticize billionaires like Musk and Bezos while defending the global neoliberal order in the other. They are one and the same thing.

    Yes there will be pain, but that pain will come for us sooner or later and I think it better come sooner rather than later when we are in a worst position to recover from it. You can let a leg fester with gangrene or you can cut it off and save the rest of the body.

      • Plebcouncilman@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        22·
        3 days ago

        It’s been mostly on podcasts, mainly 1Dime radio which has been having MMT people for a while and I highly recommend. But I believe this blog post by Bill Mitchell, who is one of the main forces behind Modern Monetary Theory enters into the rationale of why he would think the tariffs have a solid foundation:

        https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=34677

    • ExtantHuman@lemm.ee
      3·
      3 days ago

      Modern monetary policy falls apart when the globe decides to just ignore the US because it’s isolated itself from global trade through idiotic policy.

      No serious economists are claiming this implementation as anything other than absolutely insane.

      • Plebcouncilman@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        13·
        3 days ago

        Sure the implementation is fucked. But the basis of it is not necessarily bad. And I believe that even botched implement would have resulted in long term gains that would have been beneficial.

        Also economic experts are almost exclusively coming from a neoclassical vision, which is incomplete because it disregards the role of money. Modern Monetary Theory simply fixes that limitation and adds a new perspective that is more complete than the neoclassical vision.

        https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gvDcMU_ko1h5TeVjQL8UMJW9gmKY1x0zcqKIRTZQDAQ/mobilebasic

        When the experts of any given field are said that they are incorrect they tend to react with rejection, so it is no surprise that they would reject MMT, as it destroys a lot of what their work has been based on. So don’t just listen to what the experts say, they have incentives to reject revolutionary ideas in their field.

        • ExtantHuman@lemm.ee
          3·
          3 days ago

          You’re acting like “the basis of the concept of a tariff” matters when the tool is used poorly.

          Also, the long term effects of this implementation would not have been beneficial, it would only shrink US trade as it makes itself both irrelevant and an irrational unpredictable partner.

          You really sound like you have the most surface level understanding of what is happening. MMT doesn’t work when you remove your status as the reserve currency by doing this shit.

          • Plebcouncilman@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            12·
            3 days ago

            MMT doesn’t rely on being the reserve currency. In fact I think it sometimes argues against it? I’m not an expert on everything MMT yet though, so I can’t speak to that point.

            But fair point yes, the implementation as not great. That still doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t have had some very good effects for the rest of the world even at the cost of US hegemony. (Since when that became a good thing anyways?)

            • ExtantHuman@lemm.ee
              2·
              3 days ago

              MMT relies upon taking in debt.

              People have to have trust in the entity taking on the debt to give it the loan. Doing insane shit that causes the global trade to abandon the USD as the reserve currency means waaaaay less entities are willing to loan that money.

              Which means interest needs to be higher.

              Which also increases inflation more rapidly.

              Which breaks the entire concept behind MMT being a useful tool.

              • Plebcouncilman@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                04·
                3 days ago

                You do not understand MMT.

                Edit: The reason I say that is because MMT basically says the opposite of what you just wrote there. A Government that mints their own currency doesn’t need to take any loans to spend money, all they have to do is print more money.