The Reshaping of America: What Trump’s Tariffs are All About
The Uncomfortable Transformation to Change the Focus of our Economy from Wall Street to Main Street
Forces on both sides have been in denial, but in different ways. Followers of Trump are susceptible to downplaying the true costs of what it will take to Make America Great Again, whereas rabid anti-Trump forces appear simply to be in denial about everything.
Change is rapidly occurring but we are only at the beginning.
What is the best way to describe what exactly Make America Great Again means and entails? A recent CNBC headline summarized in a nutshell what this is all about: “Treasury Secretary Bessent says the American dream is not about ‘access to cheap goods’,” published on March 6.
This article headline really nails it on the head. I think just about everyone realizes that we have too much income inequality; houses cost too much; that our economy is broken at a fundamental level by being focused on the wrong things; and that there is too much power in the hands of Wall Street. Still, many people are missing the deep point of this whole push for tariffs. If we truly want to bring power and activity back to Main Street and away from our fake, speculative economy focused on Wall Street, there needs to be major fundamental change to how we run our economy, which will require a transition period. Unfortunately, this involves some pain and as the classic saying goes, you can’t take two steps forward without taking a step back. Yes, we are very likely going to enter a painful recession but we are looking to undo bad policy decisions going back decades. Still, what the mainstream won’t tell you is that our economy was on the road to a big recession years ago but has been artificially propped up by completely unsustainable debt and money printing. The inevitable recession was delayed for years and simply ensured the economy and eventual downturn would be much worse. This included inflating the stock market to a ridiculous degree and what always happens is that bubbles eventually pop and the bigger they are inflated, the more painful the inevitable decline.
I believe in a complex and holistic view of the economy. Yes, free trade can be a good thing with proper goal posts, but the economy can’t be all about the cheapest goods from the cheapest parts of the world. We need to build back up more of a real economy with an economy focused on building tangible things that benefit cities and states. The bottom line is finding ways to protect American workers as much as possible. Arguably the most authentic and leading voice in the Democratic Party these days is UAW President Shawn Fain who happens to be a big backer of Trump’s tariff policy.
Further, I believe in the right of all countries to protect their own interests. For example, I am a strong supporter of Mexico’s ongoing fight to keep out American made GMO corn in order to protect their own small farmers and Mexico’s long history and culture around heritage seed corn. Of course, American chemical firms are suing in court under the rules of free trade to not let Mexico be able to decide what kind of food it wants in its own country. This is a perfect example of how free trade is often a principal way for unelected giant global corporations to essentially take over basic decision-making of individual countries.
You are going to hear a lot of nonsense this year that the coming recession and stock market fall is all because of Trump’s tariffs, which is complete bullshit and purposely looks at things in a very narrow way.
The bottom line, though, as the headline suggests, is if we really want to have a healthier economy at a fundamental level, we need to stop hyper focusing on having an economy of cheap goods from overseas and speculation on Wall Street and shift the spirit of our country and economy back to making tangible things that actually benefit people and communities, many at the local Main Street level to revive our local towns across the country. We are about to further separate the men from the boys in the activist community and beyond. If you think the attacks were vicious against those who dared to speak out against establishment thinking, we ain’t seen nothing yet. We need the strong to stay strong more than ever.
Our country has been in denial and delaying the inevitable for a long time, but as of now, it appears Team Trump is committed to seeing this through and starting the economic and broader societal revolution, as described in my article published a week after the election this past November (1776?).
1776?
What degree of revolutionary change will the historic Donald Trump 2.0 Presidency prove to usher in? A reporter at a press conference this week with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell helped expose it all with one very simple, direct question that has provided the perfect opportunity to analyze.
Head-driven “experts” love nothing more than to lecture the people about how they don’t understand the issues and are always explaining in their typical arrogant way that supporters of people like Donald Trump or Bobby Kennedy vote against their own interests. Yes, there will be some widespread pushback in the coming weeks to Trump’s economic policies, but pundits and so-called experts always underestimate the wisdom and ability of the people to be able to see the bigger picture by listening to their hearts and souls to understand what is ultimately right at a deep level and, thus, what truly needs to be done.
The big propaganda push that is rapidly forming this year is that the establishment will insist everything was fine with the economy until Trump pushed through with aggressive tariffs. Don’t buy into it. The rebuilding of the American dream and American economy for the better will require patients, trust, and strength. It will require fundamental policy changes that have gone unchallenged for decades. Tariff policies are just the start; nevertheless, they are a critical first step to rebuilding our Main Streets. A much bigger and broader battle will be the difficult but necessary shifting of our government’s long standing overall philosophy of having our US domestic economic policy completely shaped by our foreign policy to one where our domestic economic policy is shaped by the actual needs of local small businesses, workers, and citizens of America. Once again, the article 1776? explores these themes in more detail.
What a time to be alive and what a blessing it is right now to be able to impact so much. Ordinary people have never had a better opportunity to make real change. Via all the chaos going on right now a real and powerful path is being forged. Don’t let the naysayers bring you down, now is the time to stay strong and get involved. You have much more power than you realize during this massive transitory period we are blessed to be living in right now.