Dropping a Deuce

“White House trade adviser Peter Navarro predicted ’90 deals in 90 days.’ Administration officials declared that other countries were desperate to make concessions to avoid the massive import taxes – tariffs — that Trump was threatening to plaster on their products starting July 9. But the 90 days have come and gone. And the tally of trade deals stands at two.” Trump’s trade blitz produces few deals but lots of uncertainty. It’s notable that market is reacting less and less to financially damaging tariff announcements because the market doesn’t believe the threats anymore. Either that, or the market is in denial.

+ None of this is to suggest that the tariffs aren’t having very big impacts, especially on very small countries where citizens are on the receiving end of misinformation-fueled cruelty for cruelty’s sake. Trump tariffs create national disaster for tiny Lesotho. “When Limpho Lefalatsa first learned she had lost her job at a Lesotho garment factory after 12 years due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to hit her tiny African homeland with a crippling tariff on its exports, she was in shock. ‘I thought I was going insane. It made no sense.'” (We know the feeling.)