Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“As my colleague Bob Kuttner wrote yesterday, Donald Trump, after starting April like a lion, is going out like a lamb. He has said publicly that tariffs on China will ‘come down substantially’, with an unnamed aide floating rollbacks as high as 65 percent. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave a similar story at a closed-door meeting hosted by JPMorganChase (why was he delivering market-moving information in secret to bankers?), and publicly at the Institute of International Finance on Tuesday. ‘There is an opportunity for a big deal here’ with China, Bessent said, and ‘if they want to rebalance [their economy], let’s do it together.’ Wall Street is certainly desperate for any note of conciliation, and Trump saying he has ‘no intention’ of firing Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell made them even more ebullient. But let’s get real.” [editor’s note: First step: Audit the Fed – SAT] (04/24/25)
https://prospect.org/economy/2025-04-24-permanent-tariff-damage/