Justin Wolfers

Oder die Art, wie wir nationale Sicherheit verteidigen, ist, dass wir eine Tarife auf Leather-Satteln legen, nicht nur auf Stahl. Or we put a tariff on bananas, which is something we're never going to grow. So Liberation Day comes, there's two parts to that. It's a 10% across the board tariff on the whole world, plus an absurd formula that yields what the administration calls reciprocal tariffs.

Oder die Art, wie wir nationale Sicherheit verteidigen, ist, dass wir eine Tarife auf Leather-Satteln legen, nicht nur auf Stahl. Or we put a tariff on bananas, which is something we're never going to grow. So Liberation Day comes, there's two parts to that. It's a 10% across the board tariff on the whole world, plus an absurd formula that yields what the administration calls reciprocal tariffs.

Oder die Art, wie wir nationale Sicherheit verteidigen, ist, dass wir eine Tarife auf Leather-Satteln legen, nicht nur auf Stahl. Or we put a tariff on bananas, which is something we're never going to grow. So Liberation Day comes, there's two parts to that. It's a 10% across the board tariff on the whole world, plus an absurd formula that yields what the administration calls reciprocal tariffs.

They've been saying, if you tariff us, we're going to tariff you. So you would think what you would do is go and measure how much other countries tariff us, but that's too much work. Literally too much work. They just never did it.

They've been saying, if you tariff us, we're going to tariff you. So you would think what you would do is go and measure how much other countries tariff us, but that's too much work. Literally too much work. They just never did it.

They've been saying, if you tariff us, we're going to tariff you. So you would think what you would do is go and measure how much other countries tariff us, but that's too much work. Literally too much work. They just never did it.

They could have asked Grock. They could have asked any number of trade economists on earth. Honestly, I would have done it for free for them in an afternoon. But they didn't. What they did instead was they looked at the bilateral trade deficit, which is the most boring, inane, uninteresting thing on earth. I'm happy to return to it.

They could have asked Grock. They could have asked any number of trade economists on earth. Honestly, I would have done it for free for them in an afternoon. But they didn't. What they did instead was they looked at the bilateral trade deficit, which is the most boring, inane, uninteresting thing on earth. I'm happy to return to it.

They could have asked Grock. They could have asked any number of trade economists on earth. Honestly, I would have done it for free for them in an afternoon. But they didn't. What they did instead was they looked at the bilateral trade deficit, which is the most boring, inane, uninteresting thing on earth. I'm happy to return to it.

Which yields this absurd formula, where we have now a 50% tariff on Lesotho, not because Lesotho has important tariffs on the United States, but because Americans like buying diamonds, and that's what they have. We have a very high tariff on Israel, which has no tariffs on the United States, and so on. A week passes, the markets crater. Everyone starts forecasting a recession.

Which yields this absurd formula, where we have now a 50% tariff on Lesotho, not because Lesotho has important tariffs on the United States, but because Americans like buying diamonds, and that's what they have. We have a very high tariff on Israel, which has no tariffs on the United States, and so on. A week passes, the markets crater. Everyone starts forecasting a recession.

Which yields this absurd formula, where we have now a 50% tariff on Lesotho, not because Lesotho has important tariffs on the United States, but because Americans like buying diamonds, and that's what they have. We have a very high tariff on Israel, which has no tariffs on the United States, and so on. A week passes, the markets crater. Everyone starts forecasting a recession.

A week passes and the president says, just kidding. The point of the tariffs was not to reduce bilateral trade deficits. And it was not an across-the-board tariff. It was to give me leverage in negotiations. 90-day pause. I'm going to negotiate with 192 countries in the next 90 days. 30 days pass and nothing happens. It becomes a bit of a drumbeat.

A week passes and the president says, just kidding. The point of the tariffs was not to reduce bilateral trade deficits. And it was not an across-the-board tariff. It was to give me leverage in negotiations. 90-day pause. I'm going to negotiate with 192 countries in the next 90 days. 30 days pass and nothing happens. It becomes a bit of a drumbeat.

A week passes and the president says, just kidding. The point of the tariffs was not to reduce bilateral trade deficits. And it was not an across-the-board tariff. It was to give me leverage in negotiations. 90-day pause. I'm going to negotiate with 192 countries in the next 90 days. 30 days pass and nothing happens. It becomes a bit of a drumbeat.

You know, guys, looks like you're not getting your work done. And so they come out and announce a special trade deal with Britain. What's utterly clear about that trade deal is they'd actually been working on it before, months before.

You know, guys, looks like you're not getting your work done. And so they come out and announce a special trade deal with Britain. What's utterly clear about that trade deal is they'd actually been working on it before, months before.

You know, guys, looks like you're not getting your work done. And so they come out and announce a special trade deal with Britain. What's utterly clear about that trade deal is they'd actually been working on it before, months before.

And it's utterly clear that what happened was the president just called Starmer and said, yeah, I know we're probably about a third of the way through this negotiation, but we're announcing tomorrow you win. We know that because Starmer actually wanted to watch the Arsenal football game on a Thursday night.

And it's utterly clear that what happened was the president just called Starmer and said, yeah, I know we're probably about a third of the way through this negotiation, but we're announcing tomorrow you win. We know that because Starmer actually wanted to watch the Arsenal football game on a Thursday night.