 So we'll cover that. But we're going to start with tariffs. Today was a big deal with regard to tariffs, Donald Trump threatened tariffs on both Brazil and Argentina over steel and tariffs on France and potentially other European countries over attacks that they've imposed on technology companies that he doesn't like. And so he's going to he's going to tax them. So so let's start with the with the tax on steel that he is placing on Brazil and Argentina, because you get a I mean, it's very illustrative of the ignorance that Donald Trump has. And unfortunately, many people have towards the economy towards, you know, what happens to currencies, why currencies are expensive or cheap or and so on. So this is the argument Donald Trump is making. He's basically saying that these countries in this case, and by the way, notice that this has nothing to do with the intellectual property rights. This has nothing to do with Chinese oppression of its Muslim minority. This has nothing to do with China's oppression in Hong Kong. This is indeed has nothing zero nada to do with China. This is just Trump's opposition to trade. And it doesn't matter where it is. So all of those people who want to defend Trump because he's finally fighting back against China. And he's finally standing up to China for all the intellectual property theft. Not happening here. In this case, this is about Brazil and Argentina who are not as far as I know, stealing intellectual property from the United States. So what are they doing that upsets Donald Trump? Well, he claims that what they're doing is they're manipulating, they're manipulating their currency downwards. They are making their currency cheap. And what that means, what that means is that instead of buying American stuff, other countries, like, let's say, China, when they look to buy food, they look at the Argentinian food and the Brazilian food and they compare it to American food and they compare it. And American is much more expensive because in order to get American food, they have to convert their local currency into dollars. The dollar is very expensive right now. It's got a high value. Instead, they can convert it into a peso or a Brazilian currency and get a lot more for their yuan or for their euro or for their local currency is. And indeed, for Americans, it's very, very cheap right now to import things from Argentina and Brazil. Not that we import a lot, but let's say steel, for example, it's very cheap to import steel right now. So Trump's argument is one of the reasons the farmers are hooding is because the dollar is so expensive that other countries are now buying the food. Now, that's somewhat true, but it's all caused by primarily caused by his tariffs. I've explained one is because of the tariffs he's played on Chinese goods, the Chinese have placed tariffs on American farming on American food and have stopped buying food from the United States. He's shifted their purchases to other countries, including Argentina and Brazil. But that's because of the tariffs that Trump imposed. He caused this. Second, because of the tariffs and because of the continued desire of the Chinese to hold dollars, they are buying dollars and therefore by buying dollars, they are driving, they are driving the cost, the price of the dollar up as are people all over the world. And so the dollar is expensive partially because of tariffs. The dollar is also expensive because relative to other countries, our economy is doing okay, not good, but just okay relative to other countries. And as a consequence of the economy doing okay, the dollar is more expensive. So partially it's the relatively good economy, but mostly it's Donald Trump's tariffs that are causing the dollar to be high, which are then shifting people. From shifting people from buying American goods to buying goods from other countries. And it's completely expected. I predicted it when I talked originally about the tariffs. It's exactly what has happened. The trade deficit has expanded. It has not shrunk as a consequence of tariffs because they work in exactly the opposite way that Donald Trump works. But Donald Trump can only think at a very superficial, simplistic, concrete bound level. And economics is an abstract field that requires actual thinking and understanding. So step one is the dollar is expensive because of tariffs. Now, why are the currencies of Argentina and Brazil cheap? Well, primarily because the economies are struggling. And people don't want to hold their currencies because they're afraid they will be devalued because they're not worth that much because the economy is not doing well, particularly Argentina, which has had an awful time economically as economic disaster after economic disaster. And then they went and elected a real leftist as their next president. And now nobody wants to hold their currency. So people are net sellers, including Argentinians and buyers of foreign currency. So it's not that Argentinians are manipulating their currency. They're not indeed manipulating their currency. They've got nothing to gain by manipulating their currency. The reason the currency is cheap, it's very difficult to manipulate a currency in a world in which currencies are floating in international markets can buy and sell your currency. The reason that the Argentinian currency is so cheap is because people are afraid of the government and don't want to hold the currency because the economy is so weak and there's very little to buy. And Argentinians themselves are trying to preserve their capital, trying to get capital out of Argentina, and you do that by converting your local currency into foreign currency, again, thus reducing its value. So it has nothing to do with these countries wanting to devalue their currency. Brazil is not manipulating their currency. Its central bank has a target interest rates. Now the interest rate is very low right now, but that's because by Brazilian standards inflation is very low. But there's no considered attempt in Brazil to lower the value of the currency. Again, it is a consequence of the relatively weakness of the Brazilian economy. There is some optimism about the economy getting better, but that still has yet to be proven. And of course, what is Donald Trump constantly trying to get the Federal Reserve to do? To dramatically lower interest rates. I mean Donald Trump keeps saying he wants negative interest rates. Now what would negative interest rates do to the dollar? They would lower the price, the value of the dollar. So if anybody out there is advocating for an urging the manipulation of a currency, it's Donald Trump urging the manipulation of the US currency downwards by lowering interest rates. Now the ignorance, again, it's economic ignorance and stupidity of believing that a negative interest rate is good for you. A negative interest rate is so distortive to an economy. It is so destructive to an economy. It's one of the reasons, primary reasons, that Europe is struggling today to grow at all. Or to grow beyond a meager rate of growth. Negative interest rates means that you can't save, that people pay you to borrow money, that debt is on the rise. But to lend money, you don't get any return on lending. So the banking industry, it's a disaster for the banking industry. It's a disaster for savers. It's a disaster for investment. And it's impossible to predict long term what is going to happen. So it's a disaster for any kind of long term investment. So generally Europe is struggling today because of negative interest rates. And Donald Trump wants the US to have negative interest rates too. I mean negative interest rates are completely statist phenomena. A free market does not generate negative interest rates. Nobody lends money for nothing, for less than nothing. Pay people to borrow your money. I mean that is absurd. It is irrational. And yet that is the policy of the White House is to encourage the Federal Reserve to do exactly that. And indeed the United States manipulates its currency constantly. So it's astonishing to me that he can get away with getting on his high horse telling Argentina and Brazil that they're manipulating their currency and therefore he's going to put on tariffs. Now what are the tariffs going to do? Nothing. They're going to make steel more expensive for American manufacturers who are struggling already. I don't know if you know this because all we hear in the news is how wonderful the economy is doing. But the fact is manufacturing in the United States is contracting. It has been contracting now for four months in a row. It's, you know, manufacturing is doing particularly bad right now. And it's all a consequence, all a consequence of this time of policy, this ridiculous and absurd trade policy that Donald Trump has engaged in. We're actually seeing contraction in the manufacturing sector in spite of tax cuts in spite of marginal reductions in regulations which should spur the economy. What we're actually seeing is contraction in manufacturing and an economy growing very, very, very slowly. Now is anybody learning anything from this? No. I mean, Trump wants to double up. Now he's talking about tariffs on France, French wine, French cheese, because France has a new tax, a tax on technology on kind of the internet. And that tax is a company tax that is going to be felt primarily by American companies because American companies dominate technology. And Donald Trump says, well, wait a minute, if you're going to tax, if anybody is going to tax technology companies should be us. It should be the home country. He doesn't reject taxes. It's just this nationalist BS around who should tax. And for Trump, it's American companies should be taxed by American government, you know, and so on. So to penalize the French for having this tax, he wants to put tariffs on wine and cheese, which will just raise the cost of wine and cheese for consumers in the United States. We'll hurt the French as well, tariffs hurt both sides. And, you know, but now we're getting involved in other countries' tax policies and trying to penalize them when we don't like them. What about all our tax, ridiculous tax policies that we have in the United States? What about all the industries we subsidize? Should other countries start penalizing us for that? I mean, hopefully not because it's bad for those other countries. But here's the principle that keeps getting lost. So people tell me, and I read this again today, and I've been reading this since the whole tariff issue came on. You're on, you're delusional. You think the world this free trade. You think that other countries play by the rules. And since other countries don't play by the rules, we need to have tariffs. We need to penalize them. We need to protect our manufacturing jobs and protect our consumers and protect our currency and whatever. It's complete garbage. First, of course, I know that other countries don't play by the rules. Of course, I know that other countries don't have free trade. Of course, I know that other countries regulate tax, subsidize a variety of industries. So do we in the United States, by the way. It doesn't matter. The principle should be that the United States government leaves individual citizens to buy and sell from whomever they want, free of government taxation over those purchases and sales. All the tariff is, is a tax on an American for buying a product from country X rather than from country Y or from a domestic producer. Now, I know that China subsidizes certain industries. That means we get their stuff cheaper. I know, I mean sure, Brazil subsidizes certain of their industries. I don't like the taxes that the French have imposed. I don't think they're good. But you don't penalize American consumers for the stupidity of the French or the stupidity of the Chinese or the stupidity of the Brazilians and Argentinians. The US government should minimize the infringements on the rights of Americans, which means eliminate as many taxes, as many burdens, as many restraints on the freedom of Americans. And then if it wants, it can use the bully pulpit to tell other countries how stupid they are in their economic policies, how self-destructive they are in their economic policies. Look, the tariffs that China has, the restrictions China places on foreign investments, hoot China, the tax that the French are putting on technology, hoot the French. Now I'm fine with the American president saying, you know, it'll be good for you and good for the world if we just had free trade, zero regulations, zero subsidies and zero tariffs. But we're not going to wait until you do all that. It's not, it's not, we're not going to wait. We're going to lower tariffs in our home country to zero. We're going to reduce subsidies in our home country to zero. The idea that we will become more kind of lists in order to pressure other countries not to be more kind of list is not, it doesn't make any sense. And indeed, in Brazil and Argentina's case, they're not being more kind of list. They're just being accused by an ignorant president of currency manipulation where the real currency manipulation is done by the US. The real cause of the spike in the dollar has everything to do with the tariffs Donald Trump imposed, not on currency manipulation by the central bank in Brazil and Argentina. So again, you don't penalize your own consumers in order to try to get other countries to behave. And that assumes, that even assumes that Donald Trump for one minute or the people around Donald Trump for one minute wants zero tariffs or wants free trade. No, they don't. I mean, again, Donald Trump was against trade with Japan, had nothing to do with intellectual property, had nothing to do with anything. It was a trade deficit in Japan and he didn't like it. So that goes back to the 1980s. They weren't looking to list in particular. It was just a period where the Japanese while producing the Americans. Of course, we're looking to list while in tarot or retaliatory. That's exactly what more materialism is. And the retaliatory in a way as to protect our own industries. I don't know. I don't know how to explain this to you. Any better, right? Tariffs of violations of individual rights. You don't violate the rights of Americans in order to convince foreign countries to reduce tariffs. That is bizarre. It's anti freedom. It's anti everything we stand for. And it doesn't work. Look, the tariffs that he's placing on Brazil and Argentina, what are they? What does they go? It's it's he has to seem to be doing something because bankruptcies among farmers at an all time high. They've now, you know, not all time high. They've been higher since 2011. They're very, very high. They're up 24% from last year. Farmers are going bankrupt because of Mokantilist policies implemented by Donald Trump. Mokantilism is the attempt to protect your industry from the Mokantilist practices of your of other countries. Other countries can do what they want. It doesn't affect what the right policy is in the United States, no matter how much China subsidizes, no matter how much China raises tariffs. The United States should have zero tariffs, zero subsidies as their proper economic and moral policy. But for our pure economic policy, this doesn't make any sense. This is stupid policy. And you really need to go read up on economics. I've given you some, you know, blog sites with good economists and you won't find a single semi decent, never mind good economist who believes that tariffs and retaliation for somebody else's Mokantilism is even mildly a good idea. From an economic perspective, it's just pure economic ignorance. It is an indication of a mentality that cannot think beyond the concrete, beyond just the first level effects. Exactly what Haslitt warned us of in economics in one lesson. Economics is not the science of the first level effects. And again, this is not about intellectual property rights, you know, all the other stuff that people accused, that are problems with China, because here they are, tariffs on France, tariffs on Brazil, tariffs on Argentina have nothing to do with the violation of individual rights in China. Should other countries, by the way, raise tariffs on U.S. farm farming, because the United States massively subsidizes its farm industry. I mean, it would be suicidal for those countries. It would be stupid for those countries. By the way, and just one other point to make. Over the last 50 years, there's been a global phenomenon of declining tariffs. Every single country, including China, has systematically reduced tariffs over the last 50 years. Steadily, tariffs in China are dramatically lower today than they were 10 years ago, which is lower than 20 years ago, which is lower than 30 years ago. Not today, before Trump started this stupid trade war. For the first time, really since World War Two, for the first time since World War Two, tariffs globally are going up because of Donald Trump. So, militarism was slowly disappearing from the world. It really was. Look at the numbers. I mean, in America, it was doing a fantastic job, because we had lowered our tariffs to an average of somewhere around 3%, which is pretty close to zero. And the rest of the world was following. They were learning by example, which is the best way to learn. And tariffs globally were coming down dramatically. And then Donald Trump comes about. And instead of tariffs going down globally, they're going up now. Not just between the US and other countries. Other countries are mimicking the United States, because that's what countries do. So, this awful policy of tariffs is not just affecting the United States. It's a global phenomenon, but we will suffer for it for decades. It's not going to go away quickly. He's not going to have a big trade deal where tariffs are going to go down dramatically in other countries. They were already going down dramatically in other countries. There are all kinds of ways you could have encouraged them to accelerate that without going into a trade war. And again, it has nothing to do with economics. It has nothing to do with economic well-being. And again, there's no economist out there who suggests that this makes any sense. I understand why people upset at China for its individual rights violations. I understand why people upset at China because of their stealing intellectual property rights. But this tariffs have nothing to do with any of that. And Trump's attitude towards tariffs has nothing to do with any of that. And manufacturing jobs are not coming to the United States because actually, as I said, manufacturing over the last four months has been contracting at the fastest rate since 2011 when Obama was president. So the jobs are not coming back. They never will come back. They cannot come back. There are no jobs to come back. But what he is doing is he's managing to destroy some manufacturing jobs that are still here in the United States and all because of his trade policies. All right. I guess I'll keep having to come back to this story because people don't get it. And it's always in the news because the stupidity has no boundaries, no end to it. It just continues and continues and continues. When you say that society has no responsibility here, I think individuals have a responsibility to themselves. Is that it? I don't like the word responsibility involved here. All right. Well, what should we say then? Help me. What do I do what I wish to do? Is that your point that the more? No, do what I rationally think is right according to the right morality and help others if you can, but not as a primary obligation. And now in regard to society, there is no such thing as society. You know, it's all of us. Now, how can we have obligations which we didn't undertake? See, the parents of a child would have obligations for him up to a certain age since they brought him into the world, but they can't do what is impossible to them. So it doesn't mean that they can at any moment throw the burden on the rest of us. We're society, everybody's society, and we can't have unearned obligations and unchosen obligations. What in the iron rand civil context would be appropriate societal measures to accommodate the ungifted? They're all parents. And a chance to give their parents to earn money. If, however, their parents are poor and cannot assume it's a big, heavy burden, then you can appeal to private charity, as it was always done before welfare statism in this country. You want private charity as well for the gifted? It's necessary. They usually, in a free society, they won't need it. They'll make their own way, just so you don't stop them. But private charity cannot be done by means of tax collection, which means by force. Private charity is up to you, and if it's a worthy cause, that is, say, a subdominal child who certainly cannot help it, it's perfectly all right to help him, but not at the sacrifice of your own child. You'd probably like to get rid of HEW, then. Oh, sir. Much more than that. I'd like to get rid of it. A lot of the government, huh? Everything except the basic duties of the government, which is police, law courts, armed forces. You want less government. Well, everybody says that. It's a little hard to put that into effect when we've got a country that has such a maldistribution of wealth. You'll give me that, huh? Too few rich, too many poor. I will give you part of that, because if there is a maldistribution, it's to those who have political pull. If some of your money is made with government help and government favoritism, then I grant you that is unfair and improper and unjust. But if you made it yourself in free competition, enough people want to pay you for your services or your product, then you should keep all of it. Why shouldn't you? You made it. All right. Okay. You also think if the Middle Eastern countries want to charge, hold us up for the oil at $5 a barrel or a gallon. Excuse me, $5. Well, that day would be bad. They ought to be able to do it. It's their oil. Is that your point? No. My point is we should not have permitted, altruistically, all those nations to nationalize what we built for them. Localizing the Super Chat. And I noticed yesterday when I appealed for support for the show, many of you stepped forward and actually supported the show for the first time. So I'll do it again. Maybe we'll get some more today. If you like what you're hearing, if you appreciate what I'm doing, then I appreciate your support. 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