I'm sensing a theme building at CNBC this morning

 

Danny Moses of ‘The Big Short’ says market is underestimating DOGE’s negative impact on the economy

 

Accenture is DOGE’s first corporate casualty as shares dive on warning that contracts will be cut

 

Nike expects sales will plunge in current quarter as it faces tariffs, sliding consumer confidence

 

DOGE cuts and tariffs hit Accenture and Nike hard

 

Tesla owners are trading in their EVs at record levels, Edmunds says

 

Loop Capital downgrades FedEx, says it’s a ‘really bad recession stock’

 

Damage from tariffs and DOGE cuts is growing visible  

Tariff fears raising construction costs by up to 20%, says Related Group CEO

Blink and you'll miss it: Gold made yet another new high Thursday, the 16th this year

$3,057.21

-- CNBC

... the April 2 deadline draws near for the next wave of U.S. tariffs ...

Mad King Ludwig flies into a rage all because a judge told him Nay Nay

Ordinarily after successfully pulling off such a deportation coup, which may or may not be legal, you would think Trump would be gloating, but you would be wrong.

Nothing is ever good enough. He is never satisfied. He is never secure.

"He who is the real tyrant," said Plato, "whatever men may think, is the real slave, and is obliged to practise the greatest adulation and servility, and to be the flatterer of the vilest of mankind."

 

 

 

"He has desires which he is utterly unable to satisfy, and has more wants than any one, and is truly poor, if you know how to inspect the whole soul of him: all his life long he is beset with fear and is full of convulsions, and distractions, even as the State which he resembles."

 

The United States consumed 20.25 million barrels of oil per day in 2023, 3.88 million of which come from Canada and 3.38 million from Alberta lol

 

  What could possibly go wrong?

... Canada is the fourth largest oil producer in the world and Alberta is the country’s biggest producer. Some 97% of the country’s 4 million bpd of oil exports went to the U.S. in 2023 with several European nations and Hong Kong taking the remainder, according to Canada’s energy regulator. Alberta supplied 87% of the oil exported from Canada to the U.S. in 2023. ...

[Alberta Premier Danielle] Smith said Canada is looking at three different pipeline proposals to its West Coast, at least one pipeline into the Northwest Territories, one into Manitoba, one to the Hudson Bay, and one into Eastern Canada.

“Those are conversations we were not having three months ago,” [provincial energy minister Brian] Jean said of the pipelines. ...

More.

War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength, tariffs are tax cuts

 

It's catching on

 

Mad King Trump's Tariff Disaster

Ryan Cooper, The American Prospect

 

 

‘At Risk Of My Job’: CNBC Reporter Sounds Alarm On 'Insane' Donald Trump Move

 

The White House says Ludwig's tariffs are a tax cut for the American people

 

Mad King Ludwig escalates trade war with Canada, imposes 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum

 Trump raises Canadian steel, aluminum tariffs to 50% in retaliation for Ontario energy duties

Ontario's Doug Ford slaps 25% tariff on electricity bound for Minnesota, Michigan, and New York, threatens total cut-off

 

Ontario slaps 25% tax increase on electricity exports to U.S. in response to Trump’s trade war 

 

... “I will not hesitate to increase this charge. If the United State escalates, I will not hesitate to shut the electricity off completely,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said at a news conference in Toronto. “Believe me when I say I do not want to do this. I feel terrible for the American people who didn’t start this trade war. It’s one person who is responsible, it’s President Trump.” ...

Quebec is also considering taking similar measures with electricity exports to the U.S. ...

Ford estimated it will add about CA$100 ($69) a month to the bills of each American affected. “It needs to end. Until these tariffs are off the table, until the threat of tariffs is gone for good, Ontario will not relent,”  Ford said. ...

Ford’s Progressive Conservative government just won reelection by standing up for Canada against Trump. ...

The king exercises his power, won't remove tariffs, markets sink

 He's reveling in the moment.

 

"I'm going to reduce interest rates by crashing the stock market with tariffs"

Bessent says Trump is focused on the 10-year Treasury yield and won't push the Fed to cut rates

 

Andrew Sullivan: The point is the abuse, whether it's Canada's Trudeau, Mexico's Sheinbaum, Germany's Scholz, Ukraine's Zelensky, or the S&P 500

 

Trump doesn't really believe in the tariffs, that they'll do anything one way or another. They are simply the readiest instruments which demonstrate his power, and the daily reminder to all and sundry that he is the king, Mad King Ludwig II of Bavaria reincarnate.

 

Trump says he’s not even looking at stock market, tariffs will make U.S. ‘very strong’ 

Trump ‘an agent of chaos and confusion,’ economists say — but a U.S. recession isn’t in the cards yet

So long, Trump bump: Tech stocks wipe out last of post-election gains 

 

Trump rejects pleas from business for more clarity on tariffs: ‘They always say that’ 

 

... Bartiromo interjected: “That’s not clarity.” ...

 

The Bully In His Pulpit

 

... Canada and Mexico are best understood as the baby in the playpen [whom Trump pelted with stones when he was five or six]. Trump himself re-negotiated a trade agreement with both in his first term. Have they violated that deal? No. Have they refused to cooperate on fentanyl and illegal migrants? No. Has Mexico reduced the pressure on the Southern border to almost nothing. Dramatically. Is there anything they can or could do to please Trump? No. The point is the abuse. And like all abusers, Trump constantly shifts what he is demanding, gaslights, threatens, charms, attacks … so that you begin to realize there is nothing you can do except wait for his mood to change. Welcome to monarchy. ...

Trump Treasury Secretary says "Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream" after imposing tariffs which will make them more expensive

They think you are stupid.

 

 

 

The Paper Tiger is back, but he makes you call him and grovel

 Trump grants automakers one-month exemption from tariffs

... Spokespeople with the three companies as well as other automakers did not immediately respond for comment on the delay, which comes only a day after the tariffs went into effect.

Leavitt said the president is “open” to hearing requests from other industries seeking exemptions as well.

Leavitt also confirmed the “Big 3” Detroit automakers requested the Tuesday call with Trump, who mentioned it during his address to Congress later in the day. ...

Gold hits record high as investors flock to safe-haven amid tariff war

 Spot gold gained 1.1% to $2,843.06 per ounce after hitting a record high of $2,845.14 earlier in the session. ... Spot silver rose 1.9% to $32.15 per ounce.

-- CNBC

Just a reminder that theatre is exactly what this is, starring Mexico, Canada, and Donald Trump

 Sound familiar?

More tariff theatre: Trump announces 25% tariffs on Canada on Saturday, reverses himself before dinner on Monday lol

 

Trump pauses tariffs on Canada imports for 30 days after doing the same for Mexico

... Trudeau said Canada had made new commitments “to appoint a Fentanyl Czar.” 😉😉

“Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion border plan — reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl,” the prime minister wrote. “Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border.” ...

In 2024, more than 21,100 pounds of fentanyl was seized by U.S. authorities on the border with Mexico, compared to only about 43 pounds seized at the Canadian border. ...

Gold hits record high as Trump tariffs spur safe-haven buying

  Spot gold rose 0.6% to $2,816.53 per ounce by 09:38 a.m. ET, after hitting a record of $2,818.58 earlier in the session.     

More.

Later in the day gold hit $2,830.49.

Trump announces 25% tariffs on Mexico on Saturday, reverses himself before lunch on Monday lol

 

 Stocks that got hit the most from Trump’s tariffs before the Mexico reprieve

... Shares of companies spanning the auto, industrial, retail and beverage industries with international supply chains were hit particularly hard. ... The president said Monday that he’s pausing the Mexico tariffs for one month after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to immediately send 10,000 soldiers to her country’s border to prevent drug trafficking.

The country which can't stop the drug cartels from operating unchecked within its own borders is going to stop drug traffic to the USA because it puts its troops closer to our border?

Phony baloney plastic banana good time rock 'n rolla.

Trump's tariff gambit has little to do with fentanyl but everything to do with increasing revenues on the backs of consumers so that he can pass his temporary tax cut package and not increase deficits

 It's complete madness. It's Donald Trump: "Everything will cost more but I'm cutting your taxes!"

 Wolfgang Munchau, here:

Economically, his tariff war will act like a tax on US consumers. The increased costs are inevitably borne by the consumers. But, as a form of rebalancing, it will raise a lot of revenue for the US treasury and together with the shrinking of the federal government, may well end up lowering the budget deficit and strengthening the US current account balance. Of course, there will be repercussions that could push in the other direction: the dollar might rise; the world might plunge into recession. But the truth is we have no experience of what happens when the largest economy on earth, with the dominating global reserve currency, imposes massive tariffs on its trading partners.

Munchau thinks Trump will win his tariff war. I do not. Munchau overestimates Trump's political support at home, and underestimates the fickleness of the US electorate. Continued inflation will throw sand into the gears of this gambit and sow discontent.

Control of the US House is everything, and Trump barely has it. He has two years and is already blowing it.