The art of the fake deal
The latest meme around the Trump tariffs is TACO: Trump Always Chickens Out. Savvy traders are buying on the TACO tariff dips and selling on the TACO caves. And those caves are popular.
“Yesterday, the Conference Board reported that in May consumer confidence surged by 12.3, the largest monthly increase in four years. Bloomberg said the surge was bigger than the estimates of any private-sector economists Bloomberg contacted for its survey. The data suggests consumer confidence was already moving up and then surged forward after Donald Trump made a series of “deals,” most notably with China, reducing the fear of tariffs or an economic slowdown tied to them. It’s important to note that these weren’t “deals” in any meaningful sense. He just agreed with the countries in questions, most importantly with China, to go back to the way things were before he introduced his tariffs, with small, continual, residual tariffs. In a way Trump is getting credit for caving. But in reality these shifts in consumer sentiment are rational reactions to Trump’s actions. The strangling tariffs were the problem. Trump decided to mostly get rid of them, at least for now. So people’s expectations about the economy improved. It makes perfect sense.
“Meanwhile Trump’s poll numbers also arrested their fall around the time he caved on the big tariffs and blipped up a small amount before stabilizing about a point higher than they’d been at their lowest level.”
TACO is popular
“Yesterday, the Conference Board reported that in May consumer confidence surged by 12.3, the largest monthly increase in four years. Bloomberg said the surge was bigger than the estimates of any private-sector economists Bloomberg contacted for its survey. The data suggests consumer confidence was already moving up and then surged forward after Donald Trump made a series of “deals,” most notably with China, reducing the fear of tariffs or an economic slowdown tied to them. It’s important to note that these weren’t “deals” in any meaningful sense. He just agreed with the countries in questions, most importantly with China, to go back to the way things were before he introduced his tariffs, with small, continual, residual tariffs. In a way Trump is getting credit for caving. But in reality these shifts in consumer sentiment are rational reactions to Trump’s actions. The strangling tariffs were the problem. Trump decided to mostly get rid of them, at least for now. So people’s expectations about the economy improved. It makes perfect sense.
“Meanwhile Trump’s poll numbers also arrested their fall around the time he caved on the big tariffs and blipped up a small amount before stabilizing about a point higher than they’d been at their lowest level.”
TACO is popular
So making jokes about TACOs may not be so funny afterall, aeh?
Doesn’t change and is really the same phenomenon as the Senate Republicans now declaring their “no” vote on the House’ Big Beautiful Poison Pill who will vote yes when it hits the floor
Maybe the joke’s not on the TACOs, aeh … ?
@Ten,
So maybe we should just say that Trump employs a certain versatility of conviction with tariffs?
A predilection to prevarication … ?
@Ten,
In Trump’s case, it’s an addiction, a lifestyle.