Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman
“I’m much more worried about the threat Trump poses to democracy than his bad economic policies. And even in purely economic terms, self-inflicted damage from tariffs and deportations, plus explicit foreign retaliation, are probably more important than the costs imposed by foreign loss of trust. Yet those costs are real. One way to think about this is to say that Trump is doing to America what Elon Musk is doing to Tesla, destroying a valuable brand through erratic behavior and repulsive ideology. … Trump’s belief that America holds all the cards, that the rest of the world needs access to our markets but we don’t need them, is all wrong. We are rapidly losing the world’s trust, and part of the cost will be financial.” (03/17/25)