Economic Expert: China is laughing all the way to the bank on Trump’s tariff policy

I’m going to say this at the risk of my job,

senior economics reporter Steve Liesman told business network anchor Kelly Evans regarding Trump’s volatile on-again-off-again tariffs and tariff threats

We need massive amounts of capital if we want to fund our deficits, pay for the things we want to pay for, sell our bonds and have high stock prices, and it seems as if this administration is doing everything it can to chase the foreign capital away.”

He also warned

That is insane. There is just no other way of describing it,

Liesman emphasized

I’m saying manufacturing is that you can make it happen. And when you get angry, and when you kind of lose your temper, and you get mad ... it gets people nervous and upset,

He warned ... he added, referring to Trump

If President Trump does what he says he is going to do, yes, I do think we're going to have something that's close to the end of the modern era of globalization,

Setser said

I don't think the goals that this administration has set out are clear yet,

Setser said

Allen Craigformer USCBC President

They're to raise revenue, tariffs can also be used for retribution. … Tariffs can be used for reciprocity to encourage other countries to lower their tariffs for perceived harms,

Allen said

In 2017, Chinese imports into the US as a percentage of our total imports peaked at a little bit above 21 percent,

he said

If you do 50, 60 percent tariffs on China, standard economic analysis would say the trade between the US and China, the direct part, will go to zero. If you put 25 percent tariffs on the entire world or 20 percent tariffs on the entire world, the US will import less. We'll also export less,

he said

Nearly everyone in the economy is struggling to comprehend wild swings in Washington policies, and their implications for everyday decisions,

said Stephen Dover, chief market strategist at asset manager Franklin Templeton

For now, we are hoping there are solutions that will lead to a sensible tariff regime between regions,

Porsche CFO Jochen Breckner said on a press call

No reasonable auto executive can make such investments if the expected returns can be wiped out at the stroke of a pen,

Dover said

Some of my suppliers can be affected and we are starting to see some disruption, ... We are in a trade war and when a trade war begins, it tends to sustain itself and feed itself.”

he said, adding

Every member of the Trump administration is playing from the same playbook—President Trump’s playbook—to enact an America First agenda of tariffs, tax cuts, deregulation, and the unleashing of American energy,

White House spokesperson Kush Desai told the paper

Secretary Lutnick’s long and immensely successful private sector career makes him an integral addition to the Trump administration’s trade and economic team,

Desai told The Journal

In the first Trump administration, there was this widespread belief that downturns in the stock market that came from federal policies would encourage President Trump to reconsider those policies. That's a change we're seeing because even with the recent downturn in markets, President Trump has continued on his pace of adding new tariffs, defending the tariffs, layering them one on top of each other."

Ryan Monarch, a professor of economics at Syracuse University, previously toldNewsweek

Chris Larkinbrother

There are always multiple forces at work in the market, but right now, almost all of them are taking a back seat to tariffs."

Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing at E*Trade, told the Associated Press

As U.S. assistance fades, countries like Germany have already announced significant boosts in defense budgets. The shift toward nationalism in the U.S. has also pushed other nations to ramp up their spending, no longer viewing the U.S. as a reliable partner,

he added

For investors, the key is staying diversified and not making moves based on perception. Sometimes, there's nothing wrong with sitting in money markets or 4 percent-plus-yielding treasuries while the dust settles,

he said

Stick to your long-term vision. Markets climb a wall of worry, but historically, they reward patience. Stay diversified and avoid investing money you need in the short term,

he said