Since Saturday a week ago we have recorded 5 podcasts and published 4 - one of them was out of date within minutes.
It’s all about Trump and tariffs of course. MAGA is attempting to reshape the world. But it’s not just about tariffs. Trump’s Chief Economic adviser has written about using the trade weapon to force foreign holders of US government debt to take a ‘haircut’. That’s a default in everyday language. You shouldn’t, therefore, be surprised to learn that the US has to offer debt buyers a much higher interest rate than Greece - a country that has been in sovereign default for 50% of its existence.
If that seems a bit dry, we need to remind ourselves that a default of the debt of the world’s reserve currency would make the last financial crisis look like a picnic. That’s why Trump blinked last Wednesday. And, we hope, has begun the long march backwards while declaring victory. We shall see.
‘Reshaping the world’ is the agenda of the MAGA cult’s Project 2025, the ultra conservative movement to take the US - and the rest of us - back to a (mythical) 19th century way of life where faith, family and nation are the only things that matter. Of course, these things matter to all of us. But for modern US conservatives these things translate into guns, babies and Jesus - and versions of all three things that tolerate (even encourage) deportation and violence against those that dissent, throttles free speech and treats neighbours in ways that you will not find in any catholic or protestant doctrine.
Canada is threatened as much for its way of life as for its oil and other minerals. It’s existence stands as a rebuke to MAGA - liberalism, social democracy, courtesy, cooperation, kindness and economic success cannot be tolerated. Domestic US voters might notice. For exactly the same reasons, MAGA hates the EU.
J D Vance’s repeated verbal assaults on Europe flow from a desire to show the US electorate that alternatives to the MAGA cult’s vision cannot prevail. For similar reasons, Putin needs tow wipe Ukraine off the map.
Having been seen off by the bond market, Trump may now play golf for the next 3 1/2 years and leave the rest of us alone. That’s a scenario, not a forecast.
Those 4 podcasts:
And
Don't get fooled again
The bond market did it. In any financial whodunnit, it’s always the bond market. UK bond markets were responsible for Liz Truss emulating a lettuce and US bonds (Treasuries) forced Trump to blink.
a post exploring the moment that Trump blinked
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Busy times!!
The self-inflicted damage done to the USA by Trump is probably not recoverable from and the spineless Republicans sitting in Congress and the Senate have allowed this wholly unfit man ruin a country for probably 99% of it population. Trump and his cabinet of supplicants will not be able to fix this mess as they are ideologues following a false narrative.
There are a lot of good Americans but unfortunately not enough of them voted and allowed the idiots in again.
Murdoch and his ilk have a lot to answer for.