Ideas are one thing, execution is another. Based on bad execution it's possible for the cure to be worse than the disease.
Tarifs are a powerful tool to product specific industries. When implemented properly (focused on specific industries) they can change behavior, support local jobs, increase national objectives.
Applied consistently, in a predictable way, across decades, they allow rational players to predict the future, and invest accordingly. If I can see that washing machines have a floor price I can invest in a washing machine factory.
When implemented broadly (like across all industries, globally, at random percentages) they achieve none of the above. All they achieve are higher prices. Tariffs on coffee serve no domestic goals since the US has no coffee industry.
The problem is not that Trumps ideas are bad. Voters love his policies. But he's lazy. It's easiest to just slap "10% on the world" than say 10% on lumber to protect the local lumber industry. Worse, there's no stability. The here-today-gone-tomorrow approach defeats the point. I'm not investing in a new lumber mill if those 50% tarifs will be gone by July.
So to answer the post higher up, Trump takes good ideas, but executes them badly. It's not a double-standard, it's just that he's good at talking but really, really bad at doing things. Doing hard things is hard, and he's lazy.
On the other hand he's a good grifter. No one grifts like he does. If his goal in getting elected was to enrich himself, then he's doing a great job.
Tarifs are a powerful tool to product specific industries. When implemented properly (focused on specific industries) they can change behavior, support local jobs, increase national objectives.
Applied consistently, in a predictable way, across decades, they allow rational players to predict the future, and invest accordingly. If I can see that washing machines have a floor price I can invest in a washing machine factory.
When implemented broadly (like across all industries, globally, at random percentages) they achieve none of the above. All they achieve are higher prices. Tariffs on coffee serve no domestic goals since the US has no coffee industry.
The problem is not that Trumps ideas are bad. Voters love his policies. But he's lazy. It's easiest to just slap "10% on the world" than say 10% on lumber to protect the local lumber industry. Worse, there's no stability. The here-today-gone-tomorrow approach defeats the point. I'm not investing in a new lumber mill if those 50% tarifs will be gone by July.
So to answer the post higher up, Trump takes good ideas, but executes them badly. It's not a double-standard, it's just that he's good at talking but really, really bad at doing things. Doing hard things is hard, and he's lazy.
On the other hand he's a good grifter. No one grifts like he does. If his goal in getting elected was to enrich himself, then he's doing a great job.