6 ms·
That doesn't pass muster. If they had much interest in balancing the books, they wouldn't be ripping huge holes in revenue collection.
by thfuran 2y ago
That doesn't pass muster. If they had much interest in balancing the books, they wouldn't be ripping huge holes in revenue collection.
- throwaway48476 2y agoIf they wanted to balance the books they'd print money and distribute it to US citizens.
- bluGill 2y agoThey care about inflation too though. Trump is old enough to remember the high inflation 1970s well so he won't make that mistake. Kids today probably won't remember it other than an item from "ancient history" and might make the mistake, but Trump won't.
- throwaway48476 2y agoInflation is a tax but if there is selective redistribution it is a selective tax.
- johnnyanmac 2y agoDoes he? He really wants the Feds to lower interest rates on top of everything else. He might have gotten that wish if he did absolutely nothing with economic policy and rode off the "bidenomics" he chastised for years. There's definitely not 100% logic involved in his plans.
- matwood 2y ago> They care about inflation too though. Trump cares about inflation as a talking point to get elected and for no other reason.
- Uehreka 2y agoAny assessment of Trump’s actions that implies that he personally has a cogent strategy immediately loses credibility in my eyes. If you want to say the people around him think or feel a certain way and are influencing him based on that, fine. But he’s clearly just doing things that hit some nexus of “people around me say this will work” and “I personally, on a vibes basis, think this will be fun.”
- cutemonster 2y agoOr, "everyone is talking about this, so I want it, it's mine"
- verzali 2y agoI think he does whatever he thinks will get the most views.
- thaumasiotes 2y ago> Trump is old enough to remember the high inflation 1970s well so he won't make that mistake. He's already done it; he pioneered the strategy of sending out covid lockdown checks.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- outer_web 2y agoThe money supply figure from his first term makes me doubt this very much.
- guywithahat 2y agoI mean he's old enough to remember Biden's inflation, following his trillion dollar spending bills
- rat87 2y agoI mean these tarrifs will cause inflation. We already know that
- guywithahat 2y agoI would argue there are better and worse kinds of inflation. Wrecklessly printing more money is a worse kind of inflation than a new semi-optional tax, or inflation due to wages rising
- rat87 2y agoThe treasury department didn't print money for no reason. Stabilizing the economy during Covid is a much better reason then a pointless and stupid trade war
- rat87 2y agoIf they cared about inflation they wouldn't have instituted massive inflation causing tarrifs. Economists are saying there is a chance 70s style stagflation might come back into fashion https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-09/fed-officials-worried-over-stagflation-risk-ahead-of-tariffs https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-09/fed-offic...
- magicloop 2y agoThat's fair but I suggest that they are actually deficit hawks for the long term. In the short term, they've got financing troubles hence they care about the yield.
- Hikikomori 2y agoDidn't they just announce a 1 trillion budget for defense?
- gsanderson 2y agoYep, apparently that's in the works. They aren't going to reduce the deficit or debt. It soared during Donald's first term and will again.
- matwood 2y ago[flagged]
- fragmede 2y agoYemen Taiwan Ukraine
- outer_web 2y agoPanama Gaza California
- monkeywork 2y agoI can't tell if ppl are joking or if they actually believe statements like that when they make them. There is not going to be a war between Canada and USA.
- dullcrisp 2y agoWe can’t either.
- 2y ago
- overfeed 2y ago> If they had much interest in balancing the books, they wouldn't be ripping huge holes in revenue collection That can be explained by the fact that the cabal also doesn't like paying taxes.
- toomuchtodo 2y agoAnd that they’d use tariffs as a regressive tax to replace income tax increases.
- overfeed 2y ago2 step challenge to die downvoters: 1. Find instances where Trump or the billionaires backing him and/or in his cabinet are open to increasing tax as a solution to the deficit 2. Explain why the the administration and it's members are deadset against an effective IRS & Biden's effort to increase staffing at the IRS.
- csomar 2y agoIf your rate is 0% fixed (just a hypothetical), you can roll-over your bonds indefinitely for free. This means, in practical terms, your debt is 0.
- alabastervlog 2y agoThese "here's the actual reason they're doing this!" things rarely hold up under any amount of scrutiny. Then again, they're tempting because the things they're doing are also really bad ways to accomplish Trump's stated goals.
- miltonlost 2y agoThe "actual reason" always seems to be virtuous in the end. Like "omg Trump had such good intentions!!! He just made a lil implementation booboo". It's always giving mountains of good faith to people who have lied for decades and lie today. Nothing about the clear market manipulation or greed of the party.
- llm_nerd 2y agoI don't even think the market manipulation argument stands. That gives them too much credit. Trump's hand was forced and he had to retreat. Like the market kept having little bursts before this, based simply on the core reality that this is a trade war that the US cannot stomach without extraordinary financial damage, so everyone just kept waiting for the out. It is far more exposed and doesn't have the "cards", as Trump says, that they think they have. The guy really, really wants his tariffs, so who knows where we even are now. He will not, under any circumstance, back down. We saw that with Canada -- various pauses, then steel and aluminum tariffs, then car tariffs, then a 25% across the board tariff for non USMCA compliant goods. First he even targeted USMCA. Based upon a lie. He desperately wants these tariffs, and as the very special person he is, he has learned absolutely nothing from today and will be back at the trough when he thinks he gets another go. The most amazing thing are the Trump faithful who hold this as a win. This is quite possibly the most disastrous outcome of all -- the uncertainty. It is going to be economic calamity for the US. But maybe Trump can announce that Uganda has removed a tariff or something.
- teamonkey 2y agoHumans struggle to find meaning where there is none to find. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia
- dan_quixote 2y agoAgreed - that's a huge indicator that they don't care about fixing the deficit. But they also don't want to be seen making it vastly worse.
- marcosdumay 2y agoI don't think the GP argued they want to balance the books. In fact, if they wanted to balance the books, they wouldn't care about the interest rate. The only reason to bet your economy into reducing the interest is if you want to go deeply negative on the books.
- motorest 2y ago> That doesn't pass muster. If they had much interest in balancing the books, they wouldn't be ripping huge holes in revenue collection. It's not about balancing the books. It's about not making a problem far worse. You remember the global financial crisis of 2008? The reason most of the bailed out countries requested bailouts was their bonds spiraling out of control when they had to refinance their debt. That was the primary reason they reached out to the likes of IMF and had to undergo austerity programs. The Trump administration put the US on that path with their global tarrifs and provoking their main trading partners, specially China.
- satellite2 2y agoWhile I agree on the direction I don't think the specific argument completely holds. The countries in this situation in 2008 where European countries that forfeited their central banks. Having relatively recently switched to the Euro made this situation relatively novel and those governments not used to not have access to this last resort tool. There was also a lack of legislation at the European level to give the central bank authority to intervene. And culturally some countries where much more scared by their recent history by the inflation risk. Which led to push backs and delays in the face or urgency. It's now probably roughly sorted at the EU level. The USA don't have and never had this issue. The position of the FED is very clear: it will never let the US govt default. So the only risk for US bond holders is inflation (and price if they want to exit early).