Brad Gerstner

But basically, the Trump administration is calculating an effective tariff, if you will, for each and every other country, which may not be the explicit tariff.

Well, yeah. I mean, at a high level, I'm a believer in open markets, free trade, and comparative advantage. Yeah. That's been studied for a very long time. There are very solid mathematical arguments why if you pull up the trade walls between multiple countries that you're going to hurt the efficiency of both of them.

Well, yeah. I mean, at a high level, I'm a believer in open markets, free trade, and comparative advantage. Yeah. That's been studied for a very long time. There are very solid mathematical arguments why if you pull up the trade walls between multiple countries that you're going to hurt the efficiency of both of them.

Well, yeah. I mean, at a high level, I'm a believer in open markets, free trade, and comparative advantage. Yeah. That's been studied for a very long time. There are very solid mathematical arguments why if you pull up the trade walls between multiple countries that you're going to hurt the efficiency of both of them.

In the long run, and I, you know, at least from a theoretical perspective, I'm a believer in that. I think there's another issue for the markets and for the CEOs, which has to do with both the slow pace at which they could realistically respond to this, and then the amount of ambiguity that's been out there.

In the long run, and I, you know, at least from a theoretical perspective, I'm a believer in that. I think there's another issue for the markets and for the CEOs, which has to do with both the slow pace at which they could realistically respond to this, and then the amount of ambiguity that's been out there.

In the long run, and I, you know, at least from a theoretical perspective, I'm a believer in that. I think there's another issue for the markets and for the CEOs, which has to do with both the slow pace at which they could realistically respond to this, and then the amount of ambiguity that's been out there.

And so let's say what the administration wants to encourage is for you to relocate a factory that you have or let's call it production that you have in Thailand and put it on the American shores. That's not a quick process. And if you start that process today, it might take three years before you'd have the type of volume to be capable of bringing that back and probably at a higher cost.

And so let's say what the administration wants to encourage is for you to relocate a factory that you have or let's call it production that you have in Thailand and put it on the American shores. That's not a quick process. And if you start that process today, it might take three years before you'd have the type of volume to be capable of bringing that back and probably at a higher cost.

And so let's say what the administration wants to encourage is for you to relocate a factory that you have or let's call it production that you have in Thailand and put it on the American shores. That's not a quick process. And if you start that process today, it might take three years before you'd have the type of volume to be capable of bringing that back and probably at a higher cost.

I mean, one of the things that I've said over and over again, I don't think our labor is globally competitive, nor do I think it wants to be. And so even bringing it back, you're going to have a higher cost of production because we're going to have a higher cost of labor.

I mean, one of the things that I've said over and over again, I don't think our labor is globally competitive, nor do I think it wants to be. And so even bringing it back, you're going to have a higher cost of production because we're going to have a higher cost of labor.

I mean, one of the things that I've said over and over again, I don't think our labor is globally competitive, nor do I think it wants to be. And so even bringing it back, you're going to have a higher cost of production because we're going to have a higher cost of labor.

That being said, you know, this ambiguity, you know, there's a lot of people even going right into this announcement that didn't know what percentage of it was real versus bluster. And there's, I think at this point, just reading the papers, not making my own assessment, the administration has a reputation of Maybe some of this is for negotiation. Maybe some of it's not real.

That being said, you know, this ambiguity, you know, there's a lot of people even going right into this announcement that didn't know what percentage of it was real versus bluster. And there's, I think at this point, just reading the papers, not making my own assessment, the administration has a reputation of Maybe some of this is for negotiation. Maybe some of it's not real.

That being said, you know, this ambiguity, you know, there's a lot of people even going right into this announcement that didn't know what percentage of it was real versus bluster. And there's, I think at this point, just reading the papers, not making my own assessment, the administration has a reputation of Maybe some of this is for negotiation. Maybe some of it's not real.

And so you're left not knowing what's going to be the policy three months from now, six months from now, 12 months from now, which makes it very hard to allocate CapEx in any meaningful way whatsoever.

And so you're left not knowing what's going to be the policy three months from now, six months from now, 12 months from now, which makes it very hard to allocate CapEx in any meaningful way whatsoever.

And so you're left not knowing what's going to be the policy three months from now, six months from now, 12 months from now, which makes it very hard to allocate CapEx in any meaningful way whatsoever.

If you're unsure about things like this, you're not going to hire a bunch of people, for example. You're probably going to pause hiring because you don't know how much earnings you're going to have. So those kind of things can proliferate downward and affect unemployment and eventually affect consumer spending just by freezing nearly everything in the economy.