Carlton Supporters Club

It's difficult to know from the outside how many of his clownar$e antics are just him, and how much is advice from his team. There's no doubt that he is backed by economic advisors that are perfectly competent and know exactly what they're doing. Whether he listens to them, whether there's skullduggery involved that ultimately benefits the billionaire class, the interplay between his political objectives, economic objectives, pandering to his cultist supporter base etc, is IMO hard to know at this point.

Announcing tariffs, then walking back on them, would benefit folks with inside knowledge. Trump may also be using the tariffs as a way of extracting more money from organizations, who would then be offered special exemptions. The tariffs are divisive for the capitalist class. Some will benefit, some won't. I've read that Trump wants a recession, because a recession will drive down the prices of real estate, companies, and shares of stock, all of which will then be bought on the cheap by the billionaire class who will then enjoy the ride back up. So many different angles, it's hard to make sense of it all.

Aurangzeb’s adviser on trade and tariffs is Peter Navarro.  Navarro and Musk are slinging mud at each other and among the least offensive descriptors Musk has used is “dumber than bricks”.  I’d have to agree with Musk there; Navarro is a fraud and a charlatan who has relied on the faked research of an imaginary economist to support his economic agenda.

While we may like to think, or hope, that Aurangzeb has competent advisers, that’s not the case.  He is surrounded by unqualified, incompetent buffoons, science deniers and conspiracy theorists … and crooks; see how Marjorie Taylor Greene cashed in on the stock market crash.

Another poor day on the ASX, think LP is on the money with his insider trading talk, Trump has been encouraging investors to buy US stocks at these low prices and no doubt him and his crew have been indulging and working their portfolios to take advantage of the market falls.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/10/trump-tariffs-buy-stock-market-increase-ethics/83022916007/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax7TtJrEcKQ

For those interested, this is an interview with Yanis Varoufakis. Very good explanation of Trump's tariffs. It get into the weeds a little, and some of it goes over my head, but a good watch nevertheless IMO.

EDIT : he discusses a couple of other topics, more towards the end.

For those interested, this is an interview with Yanis Varoufakis. Very good explanation of Trump's tariffs. It get into the weeds a little, and some of it goes over my head, but a good watch nevertheless IMO.

yeah this was a great watch.  Varoufakis is a good man, but he's an idealist too.

Quote from: Thryleon – on April 11, 2025, 04:53:47 pm

yeah this was a great watch.  Varoufakis is a good man, but he's an idealist too.

Yes. We need a lot more idealists, because the "realists" or whatever they call themselves have brought us to the brink.

He ignores that Tariffs were applied to Australia, despite Australia being in deficit to the USA.

But I agree that the concept of being "In the National Interest" is a figment of peoples imagination, all that RedTrump does is about RedTrump's wallet, nothing more!

It's easy to get caught up in the politics of all this and forget the inside trader side of the debate, RedTrump can influence the stock market with a tweet, make a killing, and make the vast bulk of the residents worse off!

The employment gains in some sectors are offset by loses in others, it's a shift in balance not a overall increase.

At the last count, American taxpayers have shelled out $38M for the POTUS to play golf on his own golf courses since January.  The Muskrat should get onto that as an opportunity to cut government waste and corruption.