I read it, almost 40 years ago. There's nothing revelatory or even particularly interesting in it. I've since learnt he didn't even write it, he used a ghostwriter and slapped his name on it.zorg wrote: Fri Apr 04, 2025 8:49 pm I have not read Art of the Deal, but I expect this is in his playbook.
Dave N. wrote:Most of us are here because we’re trying to keep some spark of an idea from going out.
And it's backfiring spectacularly because Trump is a clown and no one outside the GOP is afraid of him.zorg wrote: Fri Apr 04, 2025 8:49 pmI have not read Art of the Deal, but I expect this is in his playbook. He already kind of showed his cards with waffling on the Mexican/Canada threats. I think its all just a ploy to bring everybody to the negotation table, and see if he can get a couple of accidental wins along the way. None of it truly meaningful ultimately, but it lets him grandstand and look “important.”offal wrote: Fri Apr 04, 2025 3:20 pm I've read some commentary that suggests it's partially just Trump enjoying being a bully, trying to look "strong", without any real understanding of how markets work -- and when some of the backlash inevitably gets so bad that he backpedals on some of it, he gets to look like the good guy.
In reality what the Trump administration has done to generate these figures is to divide the US trade deficit with a country by that country’s total exports to the United States, and in cases where the US has a trade surplus with a country (like the UK) they’ve applied an arbitrary 10% tariff.
In the case of Vietnam, Trump is claiming that they impose 90% tariffs on US goods which is absurd, but if we look at their exports to the US of 136.6 billion minus their imports from the US of 13.1 billion, that leaves a deficit of 123.5 billion, which is exactly the 90% on Trumps chart.
If we take Jordan as another example, they’ve been hit with a 20% tariff, one of the highest rates in the middle east, despite having been one of the first economies to sign a free trade agreement with the US in 2000.
The reason they’ve been hit with a 20% tariff isn’t because they charge the US high tariffs, it’s merely because they sell more goods to the United States than the United States sells to them.
It’s the same story across the board, the United States government is presenting their trade deficits with other countries as if they’re tariffs being applied to US goods exported there.
It’s an extraordinary display of economic illiteracy.
Dave N. wrote:Most of us are here because we’re trying to keep some spark of an idea from going out.
Good grief! It is NOT a ploy!zorg wrote: Fri Apr 04, 2025 8:49 pmI have not read Art of the Deal, but I expect this is in his playbook. He already kind of showed his cards with waffling on the Mexican/Canada threats. I think its all just a ploy to bring everybody to the negotation table, and see if he can get a couple of accidental wins along the way. None of it truly meaningful ultimately, but it lets him grandstand and look “important.”offal wrote: Fri Apr 04, 2025 3:20 pm I've read some commentary that suggests it's partially just Trump enjoying being a bully, trying to look "strong", without any real understanding of how markets work -- and when some of the backlash inevitably gets so bad that he backpedals on some of it, he gets to look like the good guy.
clocker bob may 30, 2006 wrote:I think the possibility of interbreeding between an earthly species and an extraterrestrial species is as believable as any other explanation for the existence of George W. Bush.
Yeah, where was the emergency? We were running a B+ economy. Yes, my Marxist friends, wealth inequality widening, other social burdens like a pitiful health care system have continued to be absurd/difficult, but by the typical measures a white house would rank on (employment numbers, consumer confidence etc) things were going fairly well.Gramsci wrote: Sat Apr 05, 2025 2:39 am From the outside what baffles me is these “emergency powers” he’s using to force through without congressional oversight.
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