Most commentators have been whipsawed by the Trump tariff climbdown along with the wild stock and Treasury market moves, and so have been focusing on why Trump relented and immediate signs of disruption, such as order cancellations, container pile-ups, shipment diversions. We thought it might prove useful to highlight some issues that don’t appear to have gotten the attention they warrant.
How is this a better deal? Much noise was made in the press about how the Trump “pause” at 125% tariffs against China (functionally equivalent to his previous China raise to a total of 104%) and keeping everyone else at 10% for 90 days was a great relief.
It isn’t for American consumers:
Hello am I going insane?
A 125% tariff on EVERYTHING FROM CHINA and a 10% blanket tariff on ALL OF EARTH is not a “pause on tariffs”
— Conor Rogers (@conorjrogers) April 9, 2025
We calculated that post Trump “put” today, the tariff mix is actually worse —China exports more consumer goods to US than other countries, so boosting that (to 125%) relative to others will boost the hit to consumption goods. pic.twitter.com/Yw9QIgcXqG
— Anna Wong (@AnnaEconomist) April 9, 2025
This is before getting to the fact that pretty much everyone in corporate and consumer America buys a lots of things from China, either finished goods or items with considerable Chinese content. Some businesses will have enough China exposure that they won’t be able to find new sources fast enough and will fail or cut operations severely. Similarly, everyone will be both directly and indirectly wind up paying more for most goods, with limited exceptions like gas (cheaper thanks to recessionary conditions). Some of these will be consumables like food and drugs, so public awareness of inflationary effects will be high.
In other words, Mr. Market’s happiness is one of short-term relief (and decades of conditioning to buy dips) and not real fundamental improvement. We still have a President deeply attached to insanely bad beliefs. As the New York Times put it:
But Mr. Trump has a theory on tariffs that has been hardened over 40 years, one that’s frozen in place and is resistant to data that conflicts with his gut. Over many years, when he has been presented with statistics that don’t comport with his instincts, he demands that people find him alternative information that backs up his beliefs.
So he plowed ahead, even while his advisers found themselves struggling to communicate to the public about a policy that they didn’t fully understand. Aides held multiple meetings with Mr. Trump and his senior advisers to try to find a way to convince the public that the economic penalties were a good idea.
Trump narcissism in charge. As John Helmer said in on interview with Nima on Dialogue Works, the Russians, when the Ukraine talks looked like they were happening, had ascertained that they were negotiating with a personality cult. One of the keys for Trump aides in persuading him to retreat was the idea that he’d won because over 75 countries wanted to negotiate pronto. From Axios, with particular attention to #1:
- The move was based on three factors, according to three sources familiar with the meeting:
- Bessent and Lutnick told Trump their phones were burning up with countries calling to negotiate. One source described the message from the two as: “We’ve got all these great countries. They all want to come and talk. How do we do it?”
- The president and his advisers also agreed that China’s decision to raise tariffs on the U.S. created an opportunity for Trump to pause the tariff hikes on other countries as a token of friendship. It would be an effort to “put a ring around China, and isolate them,” an administration official said.
- After several days in which Trump steadfastly said the falling stock market didn’t bother him, the market’s continued slide, emerging problems in the bond market and the falling value of the dollar became impossible to ignore. Friendly world leaders, congressional allies, major donors and CEOs “were practically begging for a pause,” another official said.
As for isolating China, the notion that 10% tariffs with a gun to the head of worse if concessions are not made is a way to build alliances is barmy. Trump seems to treat everyone like a contractor who is to be beaten down on price. See for instance:
The “isolating China” claim suggests that US negotiators will try to wrest concessions from ASEAN members and other countries not just on bilateral relations with the US, but also on Chinese companies producing products in those countries that are sold to the US. Like India, these nations make a point of not choosing sides between the West and China; so the US acting like a prototypical colonialist who can tell its possessions what to do is not going to go over well.
Mind you, it is not as if the impact of tariffs on China won’t strain relations with other countries. The 3% of GDP that US exports represent is not chicken feed. While it may be able to stimulate domestic demand to take up some of the slack, it will almost certainly try to increase exports too. ASEAN already runs a trade deficit with China. It’s not as if they are in a position to bail out China by acting as buyer of the last resort.
Emerging market crises are a wild card. As we have pointed out, former UN economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram has been writing for at least the last 18 months about how Western policies are pushing developing countries towards a crisis. When they hit, investors are not discriminating. They yank hot money out and ask questions later. So one decent-sized country, unless there really are unique, will create runs in many others, pushing them towards or into crisis.
The tariff shock is going to hit smaller and less developed countries. Central America looks vulnerable. A meltdown there may have repercussions for the US due to proximity and possible exposure of US financial institutions.
However, there is also risk in Asia. The Indonesian rupiah was in trouble before the tariff row started. For an article to appear in the Bangkok Post on crisis risk says it is an open secret.
Countries in an actual or near crisis are not good export markets, so they would be buying even less from China under that scenario.
On top of that, in the 1997 Asian Crisis, the IMF rode in and administered its usual painful rescues. The BRICS Kazan declaration reaffirmed the role of the IMF as bailouter in chief. So at most, BRICS countries see themselves as participating in an IMF-led drill. But the IMF is also dominated by Europe and the US. With Trump out to pick fights with Europe to show he’s the boss, might the US try to sandbag IMF programs?
China is not backing down. Trump clearly derives satisfaction from country leaders calling him to get relief. China has made clear it’s not making that call. The onus is on the US to make any move to break the impasse. From the latest daily briefing by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs
AFP: President Donald Trump has paused tariffs now on most countries but has raised duties on China to 125 percent. He also said China has shown a lack of respect and what is China’s response to this treatment? And will China announce further rises in its own tariffs on U.S. imports?
Lin Jian: The U.S. uses tariff as a weapon to exert maximum pressure for its own selfish gains, which severely hurts the legitimate rights and interests of all countries, violates the WTO rules, sabotages the rules-based multilateral trading regime, and destabilizes the global economic order. The U.S., in defiance of global criticism, is pitching itself against the rest of the world. China has taken necessary countermeasures against the U.S.’s bullying acts in order to safeguard its own sovereignty, security and development interests, and more importantly, to uphold international fairness and justice and the multilateral trading regime, and protect the common interests of the international community. A just cause enjoys the support of many. America’s move that goes against the trend of the times will find no support and end up in failure.
Let me stress once again that tariff and trade wars have no winner. China does not want to fight these wars but is not scared of them. We will not sit idly by when the Chinese people’s legitimate rights and interests are denied or when the international trade rules and the multilateral trading regime are undermined. If the U.S. is determined to fight a tariff and trade war, China’s response will continue to the end. If the U.S. puts its own interests over the public good of the international community and sacrifices all countries’ legitimate interests for its own hegemony, it will for sure meet stronger opposition from the international community….
Anadolu Agency: About the tariff issue, U.S. President Donald Trump said China wants to have a deal but they don’t know how quite to go about it. What do you think that means? And are there any contacts between the U.S. and China on the issue? (A similar question was asked by Reuters.)
Lin Jian: The U.S. is still abusing tariffs on China. China firmly rejects and will never accept such hegemonic and bullying move. Intimidation, threat and blackmail are not the right way to engage with China. If the U.S. truly wants to talk, it should let people see that they’re ready to treat others with equality, respect and mutual benefit. If the U.S. decides not to care about the interests of the U.S. itself, China and the rest of the world, and is determined to fight a tariff and trade war, China’s response will continue to the end.
US concerns have made themselves vulnerable by putting their own operations in China. Punctilious enforcement of regulations, stringent tax audits, and expulsions of foreign managers on dimly plausible ground could be crippling.
And for comic relief, from the Financial Times:
The renminbi weakened to its lowest level since 2007 in the latest sign Beijing is willing to tolerate gradual depreciation in response to US tariffs…
US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday warned China against a currency devaluation.
As if the US can seriously administer additional punishments? Is Bessant about to take a page from Ursula von der Leyen, who if memory serves correctly, is now up to her 16th sanctions package against Russia?
Why China probably wins. It may seem radical to suggest that the US, with declining pretty much everything, educational attainment, patent output, health levels, investment, even has a hope of coming out of this row OK. But as PlutoniumKun, who has made an extensive study of development economics, explained long-form in comments yesterday, trade surplus countries usually suffer much more in a trade war than trade deficit nations.
One reason things might be different now is the extreme specialization of labor and production. A trade deficit country, unless it was terribly resource poor, could move toward a greater measure of self-sufficiency. It’s hard to see the US doing that to a great degree absent a big fall in living standards. Subsistence farming, anyone?
But at least two things work in China’s favor. First, US leadership, both in government and in the private sector, are so diseased, incompetent, and corrupt, that even allowing for a gap between China hype and reality, it’s hard to see the US managing its way out of a paper bag, let alone a crisis.
Second, external enemies increase internal cohesion and commitment. And the US is a perfect bad guy, trying to cut China down to size precisely because it has been so successful.
Trump is THE KING!
He announced that onTruth Social on President’s Day and there is nothing more important than the dignity of THE KING!
So, you are saying that he is Elvis?
(I got an interesting flash vision of Trump in rhinestone suit microphone in hand)
He’s a better Dr. Evil. He just needs a white cat.
More like Norton the second, without the Gravitas or good taste.
My great, local cutler charges $9 sharpen a pair of pruners out of the back of his van.
Pre-tariffs at Temu for $5.99, I got a pair of new pruners that are decent enough and remained decently sharp for most of the summer—free 10-day shipping from China if I ordered >$20.
How whack is that? The pre-tariffs situation is the bizarro world combination of a Rube Goldberg machine in the form of a Gordian Knot. I hope that the West Wing (Trump’s only hope to salvage his term are the Keystone Cops in Bessent, Lutnick) finally gets that you can’t hack the Gordian Knot—-it’s a load-bearing pillar.
I had to check my 25€ Fiskars pruners to make sure, and yes of course. I’m addicted to the orange and black though.
Fiskars used to be made in Taiwan for a while…..even when Taiwan stopped being the sweatshop of the world.
and (maybe I’m imagining it) the made-on-the-mainland Fiskars pruners don’t seem to last as long as the Taiwanese ones. Content cutting?
which is why I decided to just say “F—it,” I might as well try the generic/factory-direct brand.
and of course, even Fiskars is a publicly traded company (in Finland, i think).
Some years ago I began looking at “where made” on apparently high-quality tools just for laughs. I suppose I was expecting Fiskars to say “made in Finland” like it had used to do.
Instead, it said ” made in China for Fiskars”.
I looked at some Fiskars hedge-shears just a few days ago and they said ” made in Vietnam for Fiskars”.
Ordered Kung Pao chicken from my favorite little hole in the wall Chinese restaurant yesterday. The price hasn’t changed yet but it was essentially a vegetarian dish–just two itty bitty pieces of chicken.
As for the cost of sharpening your pruners vs. buying new for less—if only we could rid ourselves of our troublesome rentiers, our labor could be more reasonably priced.
“if only we could rid ourselves of our troublesome rentiers, our labor could be more reasonably priced.”
This is the way …
Thanks. Don’t think it’s a secret that I like to shop at Walmart and even sometimes at even lower rung stores like Dollartree (never Dollar General though).
And in these budget stores–particularly Dollartree–everything comes from China. So people in heartland America, which is saturated with such stores, are acutely aware of how bargain stores help them out in their otherwise diminished lifestyles.
And for the snobs I’ll just point out that there were plenty of Everything’s a Dollar stores in Manhattan back in the day. For the poor it’s always about price whereas “quality” can be as much about marketing as the bottom line. In a machine age the machines mostly make the inexpensive goods as well as the deluxe.
It’s likely that Trump has a lot less leash with his MAGA than he thinks. The polls may shortly tell him that.
I like Dollar Tree too, but it is now Dollar and a Quarter Tree. They will try to keep their prices low by making the product sizes smaller.
How many of the people ( or nowadays their parents and/or grandparents) who only have “everything’s from China” stores to buy from used to make things in America their own selves, before all the basic thingmaking was outsourced and overseased? And were paid enough to buy other things made by other Americans at American-wage prices?
I don’t avoid the nearby Dollar General but could just be me. I can usually get in and get out quickly and without undue hassle. Honestly it seem quite likely that eating out for meals, breakfast for lunch and or dinner should catch on again. Making those egg purchases go further! ( mild sarcasm ).
I’ll check to confirm but I’m certain the little cups of soup ( Ramen noodles! ) are not imported. Added thought I’ll stay long on the volatility from a generally unpredictable administration. One day it’s blue skies and the next it’s like September to October 2008 all over again. Interviews this entire week on the business network CNBC have been highly informative if not somewhat entertaining theater. Performative even.
I can confirm that the Maruchan brand of noodles has a plant just 5 miles from my house on Whitepine Road here in Chesterfield, VA. They were one of the loudest local companies arguing against COVID restrictions in the workplace in 2020.
It smells oddly delicious to pass by the plant at times when they are venting.
Utterly insane take that Walmart offering cheap goods from abroad is now a good, pro worker force
Perhaps you should ask some actual workers (who don’t work at Walmart) what they think. Walmart is the egg, not the chicken. And as eggs go it could be a lot worse. Those who think all evil comes out of Bentonville don’t have a very clear eyed view of what small town America is really like. What came before were downtown dime stores that were miniature versions of the discount stores that followed–not twee Vermont villages full of friendly boutiques. Perhaps one reason the undesirable Trump is now president would be the coastals telling the public what they should want as opposed to what they really want.
Me, I’m just buying what I need, not making a life defining moral statement every time I do so.
Not ever? Not even once?
It’s just a store. If people want to boycott something I have a country to suggest.
BTW Walmart bigwigs come out with their attitude which is that they survived Trump one and plan to do so during Trump two by gaining market share with their clout.
https://www.ft.com/content/8815b91b-980a-4005-851d-9c7f7f5983a1
In other words market share is job one as it always has been for this bunch. Look out dollar stores although the grocery competitors like Aldi will be far more difficult targets.
When I was well enough to go shopping, I often shopped at Dollar stores. Back then, the prices were really a dollar! Rarely was anything there made in the USA. But my favorite places to shop were garage sales and local charity thrift stores (not Goodwill, which is a national corporation that treats its employees like dirt). The quality of secondhand items is usually far superior to what you can buy new.
My little apartment is furnished with secondhand solid wood “old brown furniture” and other items that have beauty and charm. I got them for next to nothing. Most of my clothes are secondhand too. If people are trying to save money, I highly recommend buying at garage sales and local thrift stores. You’ll also be helping neighbors who are having sales and the charities in your community. They can certainly use the money.
As someone who used many years ago to work for a government, I would simply observe that governments talk to each other the whole time. That the US government has received a lot of calls from foreign governments in itself means almost nothing.
Good point. It seemed like the “we’re getting calls…” schtick was just lipstick on a pig. Trying to figure out what kind of creature Scott Bessant is has been fascinating for me personally.
Bessant was George Soros’ #2 guy in England. One of Soros’ major moves in economic history was to short the pound; Bessant is the guy who executed those trades. This shows the entire “Republicans are against george soros” is a skit they trot out as some kind of in-group identifier, not because it’s true.
It’s the same as the trope a few posts above asserting Trump is some kind of Guy For The Little People… however, because the reality is Trump doesn’t pay any bill he gets from a working man, it should be hard to tell yourself “Trump supports the working man.” Trump’s working for billionaires, same as it ever was for Republicans.
“Trump’s working for billionaires, same as it ever was for Republicans.”
Sadly for American citizens, since Clinton that’s who the Democrats work for too …
“Second, external enemies increase internal cohesion and commitment.”
A certain lobby has the government of the USA treating its own people like the enemy and business execs are still butt-hurt that a bit of money was distributed to people during the pandemic that gave them some short-lived bargaining power.
Just watched a segment on CNBC where corporate bond issuance was mentioned, as in, it has completely stopped. The guest said if this goes on the real economy will suffer fast, can’t go on like this for a month without damage.
That’s a good point to highlight, I only caught pieces earlier in the week and just before the “Great Tariff Pause Dead Cat Bounced” on machinations in the highly linked UST and government securities markets. I used to follow these activities more closely but it’s only best to summarize, that even I could surmise that something bad was lurking if a Steve Leisman or Mr. Cramer were entertaining what we could not know in real time.
Seems like a deleveraging has been taken place post April 1…Liberation Day is seemingly not the best description. Warren and Berkshire moved large dollars into cash and short term several months prior, the man or his team were ahead of their peers.
As brought up in comments on another post…
Sun Tzu, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
In today’s America the elite believe they know the enemy and America, yet the reality is we almost never understand the enemy and the elite are clueless about the real America. And it probably explains every foreign policy mistake made in the last 50+ years.
The best translation of The Art of War is by Victor Mair. He translates that passage as:
Immediately before that passage is this nugget:
Yesterday, Yves and other readers had some opposition to PlutoniumKun quoting the first passage in reference to Trump’s ability to read Sun Tzu. The assertion that he can read is a laughable proposition, but if the opponent is poor and working class Americans, then the oligarchic billionaires have done a great job using current and past presidents to destroy things and encourage looting for the wealthy. In theory, the political and ruling class could recognize that the insatiable greed of the wealthy financial class is going to ruin all of us and defang the thousand or so super-creditor/predator billionaires. But as Yves would say, “na ga happen.” Even I wish I could do something about the state of things today, but my medical problems are so severe that I usually don’t even leave the house.
Seems like a trade war- and a victory in said war- would be a great boon to Chinese nationalism, especially with such a cartoonish antagonist. Even if they get fairly bruised in the process, there may be a consolidation of national identity which will be very hard to fight against.
Who wins?
Perhaps the ghouls who hate humans, all this sturm and drang is a a handily discardible mask for crippling the already hobbled idea of social security.
Which is directly and inversely regarded as a drag on national security, a rather risible concept these days.
Those who would trade social security for national security deserve neither, but then the few that do will never require the former.
That’s what they get from their sugar daddies.
1. China’s not really a conventional surplus country. A lot of what they’re selling to the US is production capability, where there really isn’t an alternative as flexible/good. When you go to China increasingly what you get is better access to raw commodities, unmatched industrial/engineering expertise and the most advanced production facilities.
2. Most US production depends heavily on Chinese products. A lot of that stuff is hard to replace with alternatives – and doing so will be very disruptive.
3. The US is more dependent upon China, than China is on the US. This will hurt China, but they don’t need the US. Whether the US realizes it or not, they need China.
4. About 1/3 of China lives at western standards. That leaves about 2/3s of the country that could consume a lot more. Or about 1 billion people.
5. China practices industrial policy, and has a state that has no problems intervening if it has to. The US is allergic to this, and will just let the chips fall where they will.
I just saw this little note about a story at a “stocks” subreddit . . . titled : ” PRESIDENT TRUMP JUST ASKED THE SUPREME COURT FOR THE AUTHORITY TO FIRE FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR JEROME POWELL “.
The note/post itself links to an article at Bloomberg News ( from which I myself am paywalled). Here is the link. https://www.reddit.com/r/stocks/comments/1jvzroz/president_trump_just_asked_the_supreme_court_for/
I confidently predict that John Leo’s Supreme Shyster Court will find a way to give Trump the authority to fire the Fed Chairman and every other Agency/Bureau/etc. head that Trump likes. If I am confidently wrong about that, then my prediction credibility will go down by “just that much”.
Ron Paul in interview just called The Federal Reserve ‘the head of the hydra’.
What a coincidence…I just saw an article on SCOTUS blog that addresses this very issue…the Humphrey’s Executor case and why the Fed may keep the court from overturning it.
https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/04/will-the-court-overturn-a-1930s-precedent-to-expand-presidential-power-again/
Again, I have to ask…whose interest or what is so urgent that it can’t wait until May 2026? Powell’s term ends. Hmmm….
Or is it just that important to set the precedent for firing?
Gold just notched another record high. The market knows that Trump will cut interest rates to zero causing the dollar to lose value faster than you can say tariffs.
Does the smart crowd invest in Treasuries earning almost 5%, essentially picking up Nickels in front of an out of control steamroller?
“There’s no gold in Fort Knox” might just be the next shoe to drop. Or maybe gold is rising because they are refilling Fort Knox as we speak.
June 12th is the next Z1 flow of funds report but it won’t show the present turmoil. That will probably show by September. They could lean on the Fed not to publish of course, or more probably make them change to less reports a year like they have so many other things. Should tell us a lot.
Stephen Miran outlined a strategy for restructuring global trade in a paper last November, which seems to be the basis for Trump’s tariff moves. The plan requires cooperation from the Fed on foreign exchange intervention. Powell may believe this to be outside of the Fed’s purview. Miran suggested waiting for turnover at the Fed to achieve voluntary accommodation.
Trump apparently doesn’t want to wait. I’m sure he feels pressure from the stock market rout and bond market volatility (not predicted by Miran) and wants assurances on rate cuts.
It’s a high-risk plan and I hope there is a Team B working working back channels to get Xi to the negotiating table when the bullying China-hawks fail.
https://www.hudsonbaycapital.com/documents/FG/hudsonbay/research/638199_A_Users_Guide_to_Restructuring_the_Global_Trading_System.pdf
“Subsistence farming, anyone?”
I prefer “Yeoman Farmer”,lol.
and, if ya got a spot of dirt, its a viable hedge against uncertainty.
yesterday, my youngest…at texas tech, currently…called to ask “what is all this trump/musk chaos gonna do to me going forward?”.
(Amfortas beams with pride)
so i held forth, as he expected/wanted…including the adage:”if i hadnt been gearing up for just such a happening for the last 30 or so years, i’d be starving right now”.
which is true….still cant produce bacon, lard, olive oil, flour, etc…but i get them in bulk when i have $.
fruits and veg and the rest of my meat, are from right here.
and i lean towards storeable veggies to get through winter.
once this kitchen at the wilderness bar is finished, i’ll be able to can all manner of things(i could do this now, but kitchen in house is not really suited for efficient workflow)
and im a broke cripple guy, doing 90% of the work by myself.
but i have land, and a water well, and no HOA or city busybodies pesterin me.
and even half-a$$in the farming since Tam died…what with all the infrastructure construction, and such….i still produce enough surplus to sell…or give away(i give away a lot to my neighbors and Wife’s Familia).
so it can be done, given the right circumstances and the will.
Amfortas,
As long as I’ve been seeing your comments I have wondered if you are one of those with a way to share what you work on there. Neighbors follow youtubers for tips etc. on how to create what you seem to have, and I can always glean something applicable for my own dry land garden situation. If you do please share it here, I’m hoping our gracious host would allow!
He has some videos on youtube. Like the one about growing earthworms…
thats not me,lol.
i can barely download a pic or vid from fone to laptop…and then cant figger out compression(sic) to get it into an email.
(ask lambert,lol)
i obtained a youtube channel about a year ago…and they immediately banned/canceled me for violating community standards(i mean, it aint like i know how to upload anything…i just signed up).
cousin has indicated he wants to get me one of those go-pro samsung camera things that are good for that…i just hope hell be offering instructions.
but even then, it’ll be onlyfans for radical yeoman farmers…because apparently youtube thinks im trouble.
everybody and their dog has been on me for years to do that kinda thing.
the stuff i get up to out here needs to be disseminated widely.
from building with trash(Landfill Chic) to putting diapers(even used) under yer newly planted fruit trees to building the house as a heat engine for airflow…on and on.
but i find it difficult to use the android fone for this(i walk with a stick, mostly…and how do ya do that while carrying a fone and a rake or whatever?…of course, a nubile farm chick/assistant would solve that problem,lol…room and board. daisy dukes> are dress code)
I’m not Amfortas, but one good source for permaculture-like designs is Gaia’s Garden by now-deceased Toby Hemenway. Gabe Brown’s book Dirt to Soil deals with much larger scale projects but is a useful guide to regenerative gardening via building the soil. He has you-tube videos explaining what he did with his family farm in North Dakota, and it’s astonishing, to say the least. Over to the right side of the page we are on, under the heading Topics, there is one labeled Permaculture which also might shed some light.
Bill Mollison, Chris Smadje(sp-2), “Five acres and independence”, Virgil’s Gorgias, Hesiod’s “Works and Days”.
and 50 years of Mother Earth News.
oh…and Wendell Berry.
and that Solviva woman…cant remember her name, atm.
she was a large influence on what the Big Greenhouse will eventually be reborn as.
…Anna Edey(sp-2).
due to the state of my skeleton, a major focus for me is limiting the arduous labor…for instance, mom insists on hoeing long neat rows…that i then have difficulty walking down to weed, etc.
besides hoeing is likely my least favorite labor,lol.
so i do French Intensive, close planting, with abundant covercrops…dig a hole in the vetch-mat, plant a tomato plant, and surround it with oak leaves, etc.
i use surveyor flags to mark where i direct seed things like my various vine squash/pumpkins,,,which i train to grow up into trees(no powdery mildew issues for me)…so i dont accidentally string trim them.
all the lettuce, carrots radishes etc are in those lick tubs…which i find much easier to weed.
i planted 30 toms this am….another 40 or so in little greenhouse yet to get up to size(late freezes)…and bits of shredded shade cloth tented over them to help get them established.
pole beans interplanted…as well as chickpeas and blackeyed peas and even peanuts…all legumes, and innocculated with that fungi to fix N.
its pretty crazy, i suppose.
i’ll have a jungle in short order.
pick pumpkins with a pole saw and a big fishnet.
and Observation and becoming intimate with your place and its environs…listening to the old timers, and such.
ive been watering a lot, lately.
everythings getting established or germinating…and today, ive been hearing at least 3 kinds of frogs happily singing all day long.
frogs are very susceptible to pollutants(and herbicides, etc)…and are thus an indicator species that one is doing something right.
tonight, given the warm weather(finally! havent worn clothes since monday!) i expect all the crickets and tree frogs to come forth and sing to me.
the dog and i(Osa) are having grilled goat ribchops that i cut, and half-a$$ed Frenched, right over there at that table…and a can of ranch style beans(recently noticed they dont say “Husband Pleasin'” any more,lol)…on green mesquite that i cut today(leavins from mom’s pasture killin activities. waste not…)
with a salad i picked today that needs no dressing.
i encourage folks to eat it right out of the bag, like tater chips.
if i could figger out the sending pics and vids, i’d be happy to write up the occasional sitrep…postcard from the wilderness bar….for Yves.
if y’all are innerested.
but for an unemployed disabled guy, i stay rather busy,lol.
plant by the moon, and all…so my schedule is not a schedule, at all, by contemporary standards.
I like Mollison’s sidekick David Holmgren, too. For using heavy equipment (!!) to carve out a permaculture mountainside, you can’t beat Sep Holzer’s Permaculture. For a more Zen feel to gardening and lovely prose to boot, Masanobu Fukuoka’s One Straw Revolution is a joy to read. (I know, I’m kinda wandering)
Paul Wheaton in Missoula, MT, runs Permies.com, a website chock full of permaculture ideas. I’ve met him years ago, and he’s quite the character.
And, You’re soaking in it!, you’re now soaking in it!
i remember that commercial,lol.
i suppose i am.
ive become more than the sum of my parts.
long ago…i mustve been 10…2001 a space odyssey came on broadcats tv, and my dad(who worked at JSC/Nasa) made us all sit there and watch it.
and i became obsessed with the music(esp Strauss’ Zarathustra and Gayane’s Adagio)…and then pestered the librarian about who this Zarathustra was.
so i read Nietzsche at 10, and was hooked…and ever after aspired to be a philosopher, living on a mountain and wearing robes.
so i suppose that i am a raging success,lol.
because i live next to what we call “The Mountain”, and wear a bathrobe, if i wear anything at all, while doin my thing out here.(in the noncold months, at least)
in our current dispensation, of course, i am rather a raging failure…a useless eater, even.
but frell those people.
Uncle Friedreich taught me that i get to define myself.
Thank you, and you 2 judy! gives me a lot to run off of.
If I were pitching all this to a movie producer, it would tell him that its all about a clown car, the Dunning Kruger effect, and a mix of attention deficit disorder and Adderall.
Doctor Google gives some background:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adderall
If I were pitching all this to a movie producer….
At the risk of stating the obvious, that movie has already been made and it’s called ‘Idiocracy.’
But ‘Idiocracy’ featured a smarter-than-the-general-society accidental leader. Who is the smarter-than-the-general-society accidental real-life movie we are living? I don’t see one anywhere in leadership. ( No fair pointing to a foreign country. That’s not the movie we are living).
closer to renn and stimpy, methinks…
“I am not a mouse … hairless Mexican Chihuahua” trying to take over the world …
Say what you will about MAGA rule, it’s certainly entertaining. Ive been getting a kick out of listening to distraught talking heads and shameless cute hoorishness from the politicians in charge.
What’s astonishing to me is just how much this President, and the last President act the same. Trump could have just walked away from Ukraine but did not. Biden made noises about some sort of conflict with China, and now we have a trade war. And we still have a potential conflict with Iran hanging over all of it.
Both of these guys are acting like it’s 1991 rather than 2025. What is so hard about accepting just what kind of shape the country is in? Trump at least had America First and MAGA so there seems to be some recognition of reality, but instead of getting out of wars and conflicts (including trade wars) and concentrating on fixing America we get this song and dance that the whole rest of the world is to blame. Dude, I’m sorry but it was American CEOs and Wall St that de-industrialize America. Why go out of your way to piss off what’s left of “the West” coalition by [family blogging] your closets allies like Canada and Mexico? The companies that created the trade imbalance with those countries are mostly American companies moved there by American CEOs as part of NAFTA (and NAFTA 2.0).
Ah, whatever. It’s really hard for any of the American elites to admit that the way they have been running their country for forty years has wrecked the country. (Well, they’re all billionaires so the wrecking was very, very good for them.)
Maybe they did it on purpose with well-informed malice aforethought. And they have plans to take the money and run when there is no more money for them to harvest here.
Trump is just doing what Roy Cohn, Trump’s own parents, etc. brought him up and taught him to do.
“Trump at least had America First and MAGA so there seems to be some recognition of reality”
I’m sorry, Glen, but the reality that Trump recognized was an opportunity to con people desperate for a change, and he shaped his whole narrative around their grievances. That’s it. All talk, bluster, and bombast but no concrete material benefits for the little people, just for the rich. This type of bait and switch act has been going on for a long, long time.
And please let’s not forget the genocide in Gaza, supported by both presidents and both parties. War is a racket and it’s quite profitable.
I couldn’t agree more, judy2shoes. Very well said. Thank you.
Thank you, Lena. It really upsets me that people are still falling for this…garbage. Especially young people who don’t know the history of the two corporate parties, along with all the political shenanigans. The thing is, once you recognize the con, it’s very difficult to unsee it. Glen’s comment made me sad.
I haven’t voted for the uniparty for President for over fifteen years, but I don’t really blame people for voting for either party based on what they say they will do. You can clearly see that average Americans are desperate for change and just vote elites out rather than vote elites in, an endless round of maybe the next elite will actually do something good.
The people who are truly delusional about the state of America are the American elites and oligarchs. They do live in a separate world than the rest of us, and are surrounded by people catering to their every whim. They make even the fevered hopes of their believers look somewhat sane in comparison. Most of those folks are living the reality that the country is going the wrong way.
for forty years….the ills of vile social media platforms, disinformation bots… trivial distractions, the virtual displacement of actual appraisal with the effusion of outrage.
us adolescents with lower eyes for a decade, innocent of nuance…or pretentious implications of societal
anomie. Ugh.
I think little serious attention, or at least from what I have seen, takes China’s history and high social cohesion into account.
I can easily see the Chinese populace putting up with a fair amount of economic hardship and endure whatever economic weapons the US throws at China. Add to this the relations between China and the West over the last 200 odd years, and you have a receipt for US failure. The Chinese might even see this as an existential crisis.
On the flip side, there is no way the US would be able to handle similar economic hardships. What unity this country had in the past is dead and gone.
I agree. Whether it’s partisan politics or other factors, I do not think the US is an internally unified as China is. Then again, if Xi started tariffing the crap out of everyone and acting as openly crooked as Trump, I imagine the Chinese public would turn on him on a dime. Trump only maintains loyalty because a lot of people bought into his message, and it is extremely psychologically painful to admit “I was wrong, this guy is a clown.” So things will have to get a lot worse before his base starts to revolt.
I’m thinking here that Trump does not care at all about the effects of sanction on ordinary Americans and his view is reflected by Fox News that tells Americans that we are in a war now so suck it up – though the presenter that said that was not working for minimum wages. It has been said that people in Trump’s class only listen to people that wear Rolexes which seemed funny to read at the time though perhaps there is an element of truth here. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, for example, wears a $50,000 18-karat gold Rolex watch so you know that she is an important person. So Trump won’t help ordinary people but will expect them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps even as he cuts any sort of government help or support for those very same people. It’s a bad brew and there is a very long road ahead. God save us from ideologues. Old Joe wrecked things with his obsession over the Ukraine & Russia and now Trump is going to wreck things on a global scale through his obsession with his view of what America should look like. Americans have been trying to vote in a reformer President (Hope & Change) the past twenty years and all they get is the opposite and a doubling down of the way things are. Trump really is just more of the same.
Thank you, Rev. What we are witnessing, in my view, is pure, vicious, naked capitalism (h/t Yves & crew), with all the masks ripped off. It’s almost as if Trump1 was foreshadowing this by his very often saying the quiet part out loud. I don’t know how long it will take before the u.s. finally collapses, but most of the rest of the world will breathe a sigh of relief at that point. My heart goes out to all the people here who will have to suffer so much more before we get to the other side.
>My heart goes out to all the people here who will have to suffer so much more before we get to the other side.
I’ve often thought the same thing but have come to the realization that a huge portion of people are already suffering very badly as a mile marker so to speak, and with a spouse that works in the field of helping those in housing crisis, it’s shocking to think of how it’s going to get so much worse.
Alway appreciate all of your comments.
Another good Nima interview with Michael Hudson and Richard Wolff on Trump’s tariffs ~66 mins:
China Strikes Back as Trump Ignites New Tariff War!
I have my skepticism of the 75 countries calling Trump – its not as if literal truth is important to Trump. For example, Trump says he is going to cut defense and Trump says he is going to increase defense. Hmmm.
The listed countries are not impressive, though – getting medieval on your vassals is unimpressive.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2025/04/10/will-trump-negotiate-tariffs-countries-start-using-90-day-pause-to-reach-deals-with-white-house/
Hegseth said the other day that the Pentagon will be soon passing the first trillion dollar budget. They need it if they are going to back China into a corner.
Hah! Time to get out the popcorn!
Meanwhile, most of that budget will find its way into all the ‘right’ pockets. You know, kinda like 100MM or so that Zelensky can’t account for, on a much larger scale.
According to this Hegseth still has a mortgage whose value is as much as 5 million USD. Who knows, perhaps the DoD will classify his pad as a strategic national resource and act accordingly?
Huh? You come off like a bigot, to be blunt. India, Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam are not vassals. Bibi’s emergency trip to see Trump was reportedly about tariffs. It’s in the Bangkok Post that the Prime Minister has suspended an economic initiative because negotiating the tariffs is now the top priority.
This is too big to fit on a bumper sticker, but it would be a great one.
During wars, the major contenders do not depend on their enemies to sell them things. It may happen around the edges but dependencies = weakness.
America has declared war on China. If China accepts that they are in a war it could and would simply hunker down to feed and clothe its citizens and not ship anything to America.
They would also offer Taiwan the options of joining China or getting bombed. What is America going to threaten that would let America pretend to be a winner?
Dramatic actions like Trump’s once a millennium tariffs bring clarity.
Let’s hope a maker arises to take the baton from the world’s greatest breaker. That’s meant as a complement to Trump.
The national parties needed breaking. Now that job’s done, we need our beloved breaker to accept that his tool has served its purpose and let makers take the wheel.
Here’s the background on the bond move:
https://deanblundell.substack.com/p/breaking-canadian-prime-minister
Sorry, wrong article (above)
Here’s the one that explains the bond move by Mark Carney:
by John Tard on facebook:
·
WHY WE SHOULD NOT ONLY VOTE FOR MARK CARNEY WE SHOULD THANK HIM.
You have heard all the name calling and criticizing from the Conservative camp about Mark Carney not being a politician which makes him unworthy of being our Prime Minister. This coming from a career politician that has accomplished absolutely nothing in his twenty years of doing it. What they arent saying is they are absolutely terrified of Mark Carney. He knows all the right people and I mean powerful people. They were also screaming and yelling that his first trip as PM was to Europe. That trip was the first steps in Mark Carneys brain on how to deal with Trump. He met with all the heavyweights in person and by phone. He started it all. He started it all to protect Canada and by protecting Canada he needed some strong backup which he got. But by protecting Canada he was protecting them as well. He is an absolute genius and we are lucky to have him so so lucky. John Tard
This is why Trump did a complete turn around on tariffs.
Mark Carney: The Brilliant Move That Put Trump on Notice
Remember when Mark Carney increased Canada’s holdings of U.S. Treasury Bonds while the world braced for Trump’s trade wars and annexation talk?
Might have missed it — boring news, really… except it wasn’t boring at all.
This wasn’t just about safeguarding Canada’s economy.
It was strategy. Leverage. Precision.
A masterclass in financial diplomacy that went mostly unnoticed.
While most headlines missed it, Carney was in the EU, not for optics, but strategy. Quiet meetings. Big players. Plans laid.
If things went off the rails, Canada was ready — and wouldn’t act alone.
A coordinated, calm off-loading of U.S. Treasury Bonds.
Not a panic. A precision strike.
The kind of move that makes the markets listen.
Then came the Carney–Trump call. And the message landed:
Hurt us, and we’ll hurt you — economically.
Dumping U.S. debt? Canada could start it. Others would follow.
The U.S. dollar? Sinks like a rock.
And suddenly, Trump knew how to say “Prime Minister.”
That’s not noise.
That’s financial deterrence.
That’s how global respect is earned.
So while Trump was yelling about Canada being “delinquent” on NATO payments, here’s what he left out:
Countries like Canada, Japan, and China are financing the U.S. government — including its military.
As of early 2025:
• Foreign countries hold $8.53 trillion in U.S. debt
• Canada holds over $350 billion
So… who’s really getting the free ride?
Carney didn’t just buy bonds. He gave Canada a seat at the power table — and a grip on the lever that could shift global economics.
Trump talks tough.
Mark Carney moves markets.
Then Mark Carney and Trump finally spoke and I believe Carney laid it out clearly to Trump:
If Canada dumps its U.S. bonds, we won’t be alone.
Others will follow — and the US dollar will drop like a rock! 🪨🇺🇸
Basically: HURT US AND WE WILL HURT YOU! That’s not noise. That’s financial deterrence. That’s global respect.
After that call Trump learned how to say “Prime Minister” ( He had been calling Justin Trudeau Governor )which has me thinking Mark Carney indeed handed Trump a trump card!
So, as Trump was busy yelling that NATO allies like Canada were “delinquent” — he was ignoring the fact that Canada, along with Japan, China, France, and others, is literally financing the U.S. government, including its trillion-dollar military.
As of early 2025:
Foreign countries hold $8.53 trillion in U.S. debt.
Canada alone holds over $350 billion of it.
So tell me again — who’s really getting the free ride?
Carney didn’t just issue US bonds and go on a publicity tour in Europe.
He gave Canada a seat at the grown-ups’ table — and a hand on the lever that could shake the global economy if it came to that.
Trump may talk tough but he is sinking the market.
Mark Carney has the skill to move markets.
Sorry, wrong article (above). Here’s the facebook post by John Tard explaining the bond move:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/407886918530422/posts/667468842572227/
If Trump were trying to destroy US consumer and investor confidence, he has succeeded brilliantly Who would want to do business or sign a contract with the US, unless with a gun at their cranium. The problem is how much more damage can Trump do? Start a war with Iran or initiate a government default. If international Treasury buyers quit buying, who will fund the US? How will the US pay to expand the military or a vanity birthday parade for the POTUS? Start stealing from US oligarchs? Interesting in how Biden and Trump are similar. The former thought he could sanction Russia into submission. Trump thinks that he can outwit China by sanctioning the US into utter isolation. If there was any doubt, Trump has removed it. China (and Russia) will have to assume that the US is out to destrioy their countries. And if a war of attrition is prosecuted, exactly how will the US prevail against a multitude of countries which possess strategic depth?
Even a “gun at their cranium” was still not enough to make Ukrainians sign a contract with the US about becoming a colony de jure.
Removal of any doubt is why Russians have been playing it soft all this time. They knew US is out to destrioy their country, but the rest of the world needed convincing in order to pick a side.