Q & A Day!
"Let's do lunch," a new Q&A feature over at the Contrarian at noon ET today,
Here are the details:
Like it says, send questions—you can even do so with a video—to submit@contrariannews.org, the go over to the site at noon ET.
Just to get your juices flowing on this, I’ve been doing a lot of media on Trump’s trade war, and here are some of the Qs that have been coming up, with answers to follow live at noon.
Q: When will it all end?? Is there an endgame here? (“It” in this case often refers to market volatility.)
Q: Why is Trump doing this? What’s the goal?
Q: Why is everyone so upset about stock market losses? Isn’t that just where the rich go to gamble? Who cares?
Q: What’s the weird formula they used to come up with the tariffs? Is it really just random?
Q: What will be the economic fallout from the trade war? Are we really headed for a recession?
Q: Meanwhile, what’s going on with the “real” economy? The data, including the latest jobs report, seem kinda okay!
Q: Suppose the economy does go south. Can’t the Fed fix it?
And that’s just the tariffs. We should also talk fiscal policy, the R’s forthcoming budget (Q: What’s this I’m hearing about them scoring their big tax cut as not costing anything?? Can they do that?!”), inflation/prices (and what’s the difference, and whatever else you’re scratching your noggin about.
See you then!
Related to your “Can’t the Fed just fix it?” question: a financial advisor with whom I spoke yesterday suggested that the Fed would likely lower rates before the end of the year despite inflationary pressures if the economy were performing poorly. He noted that rates are already high and there was plenty of room to respond to poor economic figures. This person also believed that the concerns about stagflation were overstated because a shrinking economy would result in downward pressure on prices. My crystal ball is cracked, so what do I know; and this fellow was pretty shrewd about anticipating a downturn in the markets in 2025 even before the election—although I’m not sure whether to take an historically unprecedented “own-goal” as a mark of predictive skill. Bottom line—is he right? Will the Fed lower interest rates despite inflationary pressures?
So many questions come to mind.
Remember Trump telling Zelenskyy he "didn't have the cards."
Apparently the metaphor is still running around the White House.
Hopefully China won't play their US Treasury cards.
That Bessent is blithe about this is scary.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/08/treasury-secretary-bessent-says-chinas-escalation-was-big-mistake-country-playing-with-losing-hand.html
SO. Who is advising Trump's team about China (where losing face is a big deal) and what was the general sense about China's UST holdings among the Biden team?