{"id":16157,"date":"2025-01-21T16:53:17","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T16:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=16157"},"modified":"2025-01-21T16:53:18","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T16:53:18","slug":"why-wall-street-found-trumps-first-day-reassuring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=16157","title":{"rendered":"Why Wall Street found Trump\u2019s first day reassuring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to put a tariff of between 10 percent and 20 percent on all imports to the United States, along with a 60 percent tariff on Chinese goods and a 25 percent import surcharge on Canadian and Mexican wares \u2014 at least, until our neighbors choke off the flow of all migrants<\/a> and drugs across America\u2019s northern and southern borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This protectionist agenda is far more radical than anything Trump attempted during his first term. It threatens to hamper American tech companies by increasing the cost of semiconductors<\/a>, depress stock valuations by reducing economic growth<\/a> and fueling a global trade war<\/a>, and disrupt the US auto industry<\/a>, whose supply chains were built around the presumption of duty-free trade with Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, American investors, executives, and entrepreneurs watched Trump\u2019s first day in office with bated breath: Would his inaugural address and initial executive orders prioritize corporate America\u2019s financial interest in relatively free global exchange \u2014 or his own ideological fixation on trade deficits?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s Day 1 actions did not fully clarify his priorities on this front. In his inaugural speech<\/a>, the president reiterated his broad commitment to protectionism. Meanwhile, his administration prepared to launch<\/a> federal investigations into America\u2019s trade deficit in general, as well as the trade practices of China, Mexico, and Canada in particular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, Trump did not actually establish any new tariffs on his first day in office, as his administration\u2019s arch-protectionists had hoped that he would.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investors interpreted Trump\u2019s caution as a sign that he would be heeding his advisers\u2019 push<\/a> for a more limited and incremental tariff policy; stocks rose<\/a> Monday while the US dollar fell<\/a> (stiff tariffs would increase the value of America\u2019s currency).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wall Street\u2019s relief may be premature. Trump appears as ideologically perturbed by America\u2019s trade deficit as ever.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Imposing even a 10 percent tariff on all imported goods would not only harm various business interests, but would also likely increase costs for consumers<\/a>. Thus, such a duty would harm both Trump\u2019s donors and voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Trump\u2019s first term is any guide, his universal tariff would not even redound to the benefit of American manufacturers<\/a>, who would be vulnerable to higher costs and retaliatory tariffs from foreign nations. Generally speaking, presidents seek to avoid enacting policies that harm the bulk of their coalition, to the benefit of a narrow band of ideologues. And this is what implementing Trump\u2019s grandest visions for trade policy would likely entail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, the imposition of a universal tariff would roil stock markets. During Trump\u2019s first term in office, he monitored<\/a> the markets\u2019 performance obsessively, tweeting about it incessantly and suggesting that stock values were a barometer of sound policy, warning in 2018, \u201cIf Democrats take over Congress, the stock market will plummet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, Trump has recently shown some sensitivity to the interests of his newfound friends in tech, even when those interests conflict with the tenets of rightwing nationalism. Over the holidays, Elon Musk feuded<\/a> with their co-partisans over the desirability of high-skill immigration and the H-1B visa, which help American tech companies to hire foreign talent. Trump ultimately expressed support for Musk\u2019s position.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/395829\/trump-tariffs-executive-orders-inauguration-stocks-trade-policy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to put a tariff of between 10 percent and 20 percent on all imports to the United States, along with a 60 percent tariff on Chinese goods and a 25 percent import surcharge on Canadian and Mexican wares \u2014 at least, until our neighbors choke off the flow of all migrants and drugs across America\u2019s northern and southern borders.
\nThis protectionist agenda is far more radical than anything Trump attempted during his first term. It threatens to hamper American tech companies by increasing the cost of semiconductors, depress stock valuations by reducing economic growth and fueling a global trade war, and disrupt the US auto industry, whose supply chains were built around the presumption of duty-free trade with Mexico.<\/p>\n

Thus, American investors, executives, and entrepreneurs watched Trump\u2019s first day in office with bated breath: Would his inaugural address and initial executive orders prioritize corporate America\u2019s financial interest in relatively free global exchange \u2014 or his own ideological fixation on trade deficits?<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s Day 1 actions did not fully clarify his priorities on this front. In his inaugural speech, the president reiterated his broad commitment to protectionism. Meanwhile, his administration prepared to launch federal investigations into America\u2019s trade deficit in general, as well as the trade practices of China, Mexico, and Canada in particular.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Trump did not actually establish any new tariffs on his first day in office, as his administration\u2019s arch-protectionists had hoped that he would.<\/p>\n

Investors interpreted Trump\u2019s caution as a sign that he would be heeding his advisers\u2019 push for a more limited and incremental tariff policy; stocks rose Monday while the US dollar fell (stiff tariffs would increase the value of America\u2019s currency).<\/p>\n

Wall Street\u2019s relief may be premature. Trump appears as ideologically perturbed by America\u2019s trade deficit as ever.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Imposing even a 10 percent tariff on all imported goods would not only harm various business interests, but would also likely increase costs for consumers. Thus, such a duty would harm both Trump\u2019s donors and voters.<\/p>\n

If Trump\u2019s first term is any guide, his universal tariff would not even redound to the benefit of American manufacturers, who would be vulnerable to higher costs and retaliatory tariffs from foreign nations. Generally speaking, presidents seek to avoid enacting policies that harm the bulk of their coalition, to the benefit of a narrow band of ideologues. And this is what implementing Trump\u2019s grandest visions for trade policy would likely entail.<\/p>\n

Second, the imposition of a universal tariff would roil stock markets. During Trump\u2019s first term in office, he monitored the markets\u2019 performance obsessively, tweeting about it incessantly and suggesting that stock values were a barometer of sound policy, warning in 2018, \u201cIf Democrats take over Congress, the stock market will plummet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Trump has recently shown some sensitivity to the interests of his newfound friends in tech, even when those interests conflict with the tenets of rightwing nationalism. Over the holidays, Elon Musk feuded with their co-partisans over the desirability of high-skill immigration and the H-1B visa, which help American tech companies to hire foreign talent. Trump ultimately expressed support for Musk\u2019s position.” <\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/395829\/trump-tariffs-executive-orders-inauguration-stocks-trade-policy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[798,221,217,165,797,377,411,495,2152,208,141,226,170],"class_list":["post-16157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-business","tag-donald-trump","tag-economics","tag-economy","tag-industry","tag-manufacturing","tag-policy","tag-stock-market","tag-stocks","tag-tariffs","tag-taxes","tag-trade","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16158,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16157\/revisions\/16158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}