"The advantage that the elephant in the room has is that it sleeps wherever it wants to. It can get away with things that the bears and racoons can't. They just have to work around it."

It's also big and slow and can't turn around so easily. That's why these tariffs are mind numbing- they won't bring manufacturing back. Our labour market is not conducive to low-mid end manufacturing (unless you used illegal aliens), we have have shifted to a services economy dependent on a strong consumer and we were benefiting from the low end production we were getting from Asia. look, I'm all for doing what you can to have a strong manufacturing base but it's not like tariffs are the only way this can be achieved. Tax credits, deregulation and cooperation with other countries (not just USMCA but meaningful cooperation between countries that lowers inputs that are a roadblock to making goods) all can lead to a better manufacturing base for the US.

Instead what we have now is an insane zero sum game that not only calls for no cooperation but hoists a middle finger to everyone everywhere. How is that good? How is that productive? If you acted this way in the regular business world people will stop trading with you, like what is happening with Tesla right now.

No one likes a bully and in the end the bully usually gets what it's asking for. It is a dark path we are going down and at some point there needs to be a check and balance. I was encouraged to see the senate take back some of the power it had on trying to limit tariffs but that is only a start. Wake up America, we need you!!