American Liquidation Day

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Washington Post:
"Economists say the crude formula the White House used to calculate what it’s calling “reciprocal tariffs” is too simplistic to achieve its goal of wiping out U.S. trade deficits — and, for that matter, they say that goal doesn’t make sense, either.
But the administration is defending its approach as a necessary step toward breaking apart a system that officials say is unfair to American workers and manufacturers.
President Donald Trump’s tariff plan, announced Wednesday, would impose a 10 percent baseline tariff on all imports from virtually all countries — plus an additional punitive import tax tailored for each of about 60 countries.
The math used to come up with those rates is what experts are lampooning.
A formula released by the U.S. trade representative ties those punitive taxes to the United States’ bilateral trade deficit in goods with each country — in other words, how much more the U.S. imports from those countries than it exports to them. The calculation finds the ratio between the U.S. trade deficit with a country and that country’s total exports to the U.S. It then divides the ratio in half to produce what the administration called a “discounted reciprocal tariff.”
Economists criticized the formula for its assumption that persistent trade deficits are a reflection of allegedly unfair trade practices by U.S. trading partners. They point out that the math apparently leaves out services — which make up the bulk of the U.S. economy and an important proportion of its exports — from calculations of trade deficits, which has the effect of making U.S. trade relationships look more one-sided. They also say there’s nothing “reciprocal” about the punitive tax rates because they’re disconnected from any actual barriers countries impose on U.S. imports.
“They’ve got an indefensible foundation to an indefensible policy,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the conservative American Action Forum."

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Well, DOW down 1,300 pts this morning, Nasdaq down sharply. America's pension funds & 401Ks taking a hit. CEOs are stunned, angry and speaking out.

https://www.marketwatch.com/livecoverag ... tech-lower

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Trumpland Diaries:
"THIS WEEK'S SIGN THAT TRUMP IS EVERY BIT AS SENILE AND DEMENTIA-ADDLED AS THEY ACCUSED BIDEN OF BEING
Convicted felon Donald Trump gave a rambling, lie-filled, largely incoherent, hour-long "speech" today at a White House gathering where he unveiled his global tariffs on basically every nation on earth.
The ENTIRE POINT of this gathering was for Trump to sign the Executive Order authorizing these new tariffs (Trump's favorite thing to do besides golfing and grifting is signing his name on stuff for the cameras).
I really cannot stress that last point enough–the SIGNING OF THE EO was the whole reason Trump was out on this platform. Remember that.
As soon as Trump wrapped up his speech, which included the following gem:
"But likewise, an old fashioned term that we use, 'groceries'—I used it on the campaign—it's such an old fashioned term but a beautiful term, 'groceries' it sofwesehz [sic] a bag with different things in it. Groceries went through the roof and I campaigned on that—I talked about the word 'groceries' for a lot."
...he thanked everyone for coming, stepped away from the podium—which, as you can see in the picture, was about 5 feet away from the desk that was set up FOR HIM TO SIGN THE EXECUTIVE ORDER—walked past the desk, down the steps, off the stage, and then just stood in the grass looking around confused until an aide grabbed his arm, and pointed BACK UP TO THE DESK 5 FEET FROM THE PODIUM HE JUST WANDERED OFF FROM, led him back up on stage, and then explained to Trump and the crowd that Trump was a big boy who was going to sign his name for the nice people in attendance.
It was exactly as sad and pathetic as the most senile thing Biden ever did that made conservatives everywhere say he was unfit for office."

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I'm still trying to find someone who can explain why he's put 10% tariffs on 2 uninhabited islands...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ld-islands

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How the admin came up with the tariffs is just stunning
https://bsky.app/profile/crampell.bsky. ... urlgfkhk2f

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4 Rep Senators buck Trump on Canada tariffs
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/0 ... s-00267480

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List of countries that Trump is imposing tariffs on is in the article:
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-reciproc ... rt-2054514

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Today is American Liquidation Day - take a look what the Trump tariffs will do to raise your taxes

https://bsky.app/profile/robertscotthor ... uaqth4mk2g

if you can't see the graph here's the bottom line: Poorest 20% +5.7%
2nd 20% + 5.1%
Middle 20% +4.6%
Fourth +4.1%
Next 15% +3.4%
next 4% +2.3%
Richest 1% +1.4%

you can say thankyou to the Musk/Trump presidency for this one.