Alex Frangos

So today we have one of the biggest exchanges where contracts connected to gold and silver get traded.

The CME raised margin requirements on traders, meaning how much money they have to put down in order to trade these contracts.

The money's there in case someone doesn't deliver on one of their contracts.

And they raised the requirement to keep the exchange safer.

And that's caused prices to reverse quite a bit.

So it's a wild ride.

I'll try. But basically what the White House has come up with is a formula not based on what the tariffs are imposed by other countries, but taking The goods trades deficit of a country and dividing it by the amount of goods that the U.S. imports from that country and getting a percentage and then chopping that in half and saying this is what our reciprocal tariff will be.

I'll try. But basically what the White House has come up with is a formula not based on what the tariffs are imposed by other countries, but taking The goods trades deficit of a country and dividing it by the amount of goods that the U.S. imports from that country and getting a percentage and then chopping that in half and saying this is what our reciprocal tariff will be.

The logic that the White House is giving for this is that the trade imbalance contains all of the various indicators. tariffs and non-tariff barriers that other countries impose that the White House sees as negative for the U.S.

The logic that the White House is giving for this is that the trade imbalance contains all of the various indicators. tariffs and non-tariff barriers that other countries impose that the White House sees as negative for the U.S.

Yeah. I mean, he sees tariffs as a revenue generator that can make up for income taxes. The question is whether that works in the modern world, because what happens when you impose a tariff is people try to avoid it. And so they don't want to pay the tax. And especially if you make the tax very, very high, like they've done with China, it just doesn't make sense to do those trades anymore.

Yeah. I mean, he sees tariffs as a revenue generator that can make up for income taxes. The question is whether that works in the modern world, because what happens when you impose a tariff is people try to avoid it. And so they don't want to pay the tax. And especially if you make the tax very, very high, like they've done with China, it just doesn't make sense to do those trades anymore.

And so the question is, will the tariffs raise as much as the White House thinks they will?

And so the question is, will the tariffs raise as much as the White House thinks they will?

Yeah, I mean, I think the number that they actually put on it was a bit lower because they said imports will decline. I mean, you can't have both things at once. The aim of these tariffs is, number one, bring manufacturing back to the U.S. Number two, raise revenue from imports. But if you're bringing manufacturing back to the U.S., you're not importing things because you're making it at home.

Yeah, I mean, I think the number that they actually put on it was a bit lower because they said imports will decline. I mean, you can't have both things at once. The aim of these tariffs is, number one, bring manufacturing back to the U.S. Number two, raise revenue from imports. But if you're bringing manufacturing back to the U.S., you're not importing things because you're making it at home.

So you kind of can't have both. The other important point here is that Trump has given a weak signal. for the reciprocal tariffs to come into effect. And people are really looking at this as an opportunity to get in there with the Trump administration from all these countries and say, look, we're going to do a whole bunch of things we promised. We promise we'll buy a bunch of U.S. goods.

So you kind of can't have both. The other important point here is that Trump has given a weak signal. for the reciprocal tariffs to come into effect. And people are really looking at this as an opportunity to get in there with the Trump administration from all these countries and say, look, we're going to do a whole bunch of things we promised. We promise we'll buy a bunch of U.S. goods.

We'll stop shipping things to you that are causing these trade deficits. Please lower our reciprocal tariff. So it's possible that this is the beginning of the negotiation or the beginning of these tariffs, not the end.

We'll stop shipping things to you that are causing these trade deficits. Please lower our reciprocal tariff. So it's possible that this is the beginning of the negotiation or the beginning of these tariffs, not the end.