Stephen Colbert hosts Michael Lewis on Tariffs

[MaineNative]

This was so good! I paraphrased the discussion below. I've never heard anyone explain the orange pustule so perfectly.

Michael Lewis, author of Who is Government, The Fifth Risk, Moneyball, The Big Short, to name a few.

When asked by Stephen Colbert, “What is (DJT) doing right now?” The response was the most succinct I’ve ever heard.

His response, and I am summarizing – “you kinda gotta to ask him. Because I think the answer is that his mind doesn’t work like your mind or my mind; he’s different. And one of the ways he’s different is he frames everything as a zero-sum interaction.

Like, I don’t think he actually understands the benefit of trade, like trade is a win-win kind of thing, I think he sees, when he looks at the world, he sees if you are getting something out of this, then it is coming out of my pocket.

So, it's an expression of his natural talent for grievances, but it makes no sense. Like, I don’t know anybody who thinks it’s a good idea. His response in regard to any economist agreeing with this nonsense – They probably think that it’s a bad idea, but they don’t want to tell that to him. I’m not an economist, but I talk to economists, and nobody thinks it’s a good idea.

I think also he likes chaos. If I am trying to predict what Donald Trump is going to do and where he’s going to go, I mean, like one rule is to look for where there’s trust in the world, and he will try to destroy it. He’s really uncomfortable with trust.

And these trusting relationships that we have with friendly nations, that was an obvious target. The soundness of the dollar. I think there is logic to it. And the logic to it is he himself is so untrustworthy, and I don’t mean that as an insult it’s just true, right, he lies all the time, and when he says something true it’s kinda like an accident. You see it, right? He stiffs people on deals, all that. That’s the way he thinks you move through the world.

If we are in a world where we trust each other, he’s at a disadvantage. He doesn’t belong. But if he eliminates trust between people, he has leveled the playing field. He gets to a place where he’s good at it; none of us trust each other. And these trade relationships are trust relationships. And I don’t know what you do about it. Let’s say tomorrow he wakes up, and he decides that was a bad idea. But is anybody going to believe it? Is Canada going to feel the same way towards us ever again? No! And it’s hard to blame them.

[Wild blueberry]

1. Great synopsis

Thank you.

[newdeal2]

2. When I saw this the other day, it made total sense

He is breaking things because in a chaotic lawless world, what he is doing seems legit and he can win.