By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgann.bsky.social
I may not have been the best college student, but I managed to attend enough classes to learn about the negative economic impact of tariffs in the 1890s and 1930s — the tariffs and the resulting freeze to world trade tanked the economy in both eras causing a depression.
Despite President Donald Trump claiming the the 1890s were a “golden age” — it wasn’t unless you were a robber baron. It was a miserable decade of economic depression for everyone else.
This past week’s move to inflict seemingly random tariffs were one of two things: a move of unspeakable ignorance and stupidity or a deliberate attempt to take down the world economy.
While I do see a number of people suggesting the latter as a way for the ultra rich to scoop up homes, businesses and farms at bottom-dollar pricing (and I fully expect rich vultures to continue to do so), I honestly think these moves come down to a combination of ignorance and stupidity.
I’m sure there are people in the Trump Administration who know this is a bad idea, but everyone is afraid to tell Trump anything he does not want to hear (and in fairness, anyone publicly suggesting tariffs are a disaster would be shown the door). Economists around the globe have explained this in detail, but none of this has penetrated the groupthink in the Trump universe. Even those left-wing lunatics at J.P Morgan (yes, I’m joking) say Trump’s moves have increased the likelihood of a recession to 60%.
With the stock market in free fall (checking your 401K is not for the fainthearted right now), you’d think that maybe someone would pause for a moment and suggest “maybe we need to dial this back.” Admittedly, that happened the last couple of times — but seems more unlikely after China responded with rugged tariffs and exclusions of its own.
Millions protested these and other Trump moves Saturday around the U.S. — with hundreds locally at a West Chester protest and more at smaller events around the county, such as seen in Kennett Square.
And no, these folks were not paid to protest. While Republicans like to claim Democrats use paid protesters, in decades in journalism and politics, I’ve only seen Republicans pay for people to show up at protests (and in Trump’s case, campaign rallies). People are really angry and it will not go well if they are ignored.
Doing this in combination of massive cuts of personnel and funding — you’ll note how the Chester County Food Bank lost $250,000 in food grants this past week – will further starve the economy. That ripples out to spark corporate layoffs (Whirlpool and Stellantis announced job cuts this week), which further weakens the economy. Worse, about 275,000 federal workers have been laid off (Friday’s federal jobs report would have shown a monthly net loss of jobs but officials claimed the federal workers remained on leave and had not been formally terminated).
The New York Stock Exchange lost nearly 4,000 points in two days and seems poised for deeper losses in the days to come.
Read up on the progression of events from 1929 to the late 1930s, it might seem familiar. And while it was fairly easy to cause the Great Depression, it was really difficult to turn around — without World War II, it seems like the economic downturn would have lasted well in the to the 1940s.
Trump inherited a fragile, but healthy economy. All he needed to do to maintain it was to be careful and work gradually — but instead of operating with a scalpel, he’s trying to perform surgery with a bucket loader, with predictable results.
Republicans in Congress — the body that actually is supposed to have the final say on tariffs — could stop much of the madness going on in Washington, D.C. but either agree with these policies or are afraid to speak out. If these officials are either massively misinformed or just cowards, it is clear they don’t deserve to serve in public office.
There was no reason — beyond Trump’s need for revenge — for these tariffs. Tariffs need to be used precisely and in a limited fashion, otherwise they tend to backfire badly (as we’re seeing, as other countries refuse to cave to Trump). Likewise, the massive cuts to government staffing will create a mess — and hurt a lot of people in the coming months.
Of course, the idea of invading Greenland, Canada and/or Panama is also certifiably insane — further emphasizing Trump’s clear mental incompetence.
Trump is trying very hard to break democracy and replace it with an oligarchy of his billionaire buddies, as seen in Russia, Hungary and elsewhere.
He is already failing. Saturday’s protests are just the start of the people — We The People — making it clear we will not stand for the end of democracy. The people will use their voices and pocketbooks to stop this idiocy.
It is going to be a very hot summer.
