S2 Ep1015: Bill Kristol: The High Cost of Stupidity
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What is causing turmoil in the Trump administration and markets?
Hallo und willkommen zu The Bulwark Podcast. Ich bin euer Host Tim Miller. Trouble inside the Trump Administration. Big trouble in the markets, trouble in the world. It's a bloodbath, in particular in the S&P, which is now at its worst three-day performance since 1987, as Trump refuses to back off his moronic tariff regime. Here to discuss that and much more, it's Monday, so it's Bulwark Editor-at-Large Bill Kristol. Hey Bill, what's up? Hanging in there, Tim. How are you? I was just talking to your pal Stan Voyger. He's an economist over at AEI, who's been one of the ones who's been stalwart in opposition to Trump's excesses, particularly on the economic side of things and his stupid trade wars.
Why are Trump's tariffs considered a failure?
People can check out over on YouTube on the Bulwark Takes feed about his paper about how stupid these tariffs are. They didn't even do their own math right. And we were joking at the end that... You know, the schadenfreude of watching all the terrible people be wrong and lose money is nice. It's not exactly going to pay for kids' college fund or the retirement home. You know, so it's mixed feelings.
It would be nice if Trump could discredit himself without ruining the country. I mean, this is the... Ja.
Ich meine, Vorges' Sache ist unglaublich, weil, wie er gesagt hat, er ist sowieso Anti-Tarif, er ist ein Freetrader, aber wenn du es tun würdest, sie sehen es so aus, als ob sie es in der stupestesten, am schädigendsten möglichen Weise gemacht hätten, including the math errors and the kind of insanity of how they calculate this country by country tariff. So it's really, it is like, let's have a bad policy and then execute it horribly, you know.
You hate to hand it to Elon Musk, but it's not just the AEI. It's not just us at the bulwark. It's not just the Democrats. Even the shadow president is starting to have some concerns about the policy. Are you ready to side with Elon Musk for a second here, Bill? He was subtweeting the president this morning. Some issues on the home front with the shadow president subtweeting the president. He just posted the video of this classic free market fundamentalist text, The Pencil. I want to get your former Republican muscles pumping this morning, so I want to play a little bit from the pencil.
How do market reactions reflect on Trump's policies?
There's not a single person in the world who could make this pencil. Remarkable statement? Not at all. The wood from which it's made, for all I know, comes from a tree that was cut down in the state of Washington. To cut down that tree, it took a saw. To make the saw, it took steel. To make the steel, it took iron ore. Dieses schwarze Zentrum, wir nennen es Leid, aber es ist wirklich Graphite, kompresster Graphite. Ich weiß nicht, woher es kommt, aber ich denke, es kommt aus einigen Miningen in Südamerika. Dieser rote Top hier, der Ersatz, ein bisschen Rubber, kommt wahrscheinlich aus Malaya, wo der Rubbertree nicht mal nativ ist. Es wurde von Südamerika importiert, von einigen Geschäftsmann, mit der Hilfe des britischen Governments. Es war die Magie des Preissystems. The impersonal operation of prices that brought them together and got them to cooperate to make this pencil so that you could have it for a trifling sum.
Schön. Bilton Friedman, die Simplizität. Fühlen Sie sich gut? Fühlen Sie sich wie Straussian wieder, Bill? Wie fühlt sich das an?
Das war so ein fundamentalistischer Freemarkt. Vor Friedman, ich denke, Friedman narrierte es, aber ich denke, es war in den 50er oder 60er Jahren. Es gab eine Organisation, die mich verletzt hat, die wirklich populäre Bildung in Freemarkten promotierte. Das wird er korrigieren. all the errors of the due deal and of democratic socialism and stuff. Hey, don't get our listeners mad about the pencil.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is causing turmoil in the Trump administration and markets?
0:28–1:10
2
Why are Trump's tariffs considered a failure?
1:10–2:56
3
How do market reactions reflect on Trump's policies?
2:56–4:51
4
What are the criticisms against Trump's economic team?
4:51–7:25
5
How is political infighting affecting the tariff debate?
7:25–10:59
6
What role could Congress play in changing tariff policies?
10:59–57:37
Speakers
7 identifiedMore from The Bulwark Daily
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Anne Applebaum: Globalized MAGA Kleptocracy
Wright Thompson and Jesse Lehrich: Hopium and Hate
Catherine Rampell and Stephen Witt: Can We Avert Economic Disaster and the Robot Apocalypse?
Jonathan Swan: We Only Know 5%
Bill Kristol: It Always Comes Back to Trump/Russia