Trump LOSES CONTROL of WAR and CRASHES MARKETS!!!

Donald Trump's catastrophic escalation. of this already disastrous war in Iran. is tanking our economy. Let me show you. some of the most recent metrics. Oil is. back over $100 as Steve Rattner. explains, gas is above $4. I think the. price of crude will be $150 a barrel at. this rate and gas will be on average $5, $6 a gallon. Brutal numbers for. inflation. Under Donald Trump, the debt. held by the federal government has now.

officially surpassed 100% of GDP. By. 2030, it'll shoot past its all-time. record of World War II. Great work. there, Donald. Trump's draconian cuts to. healthcare, education, and foreign aid. The chainsaw that was DOJ destroying the. federal government and destroying. critical programs. It was rationalized. that it would balance the budget as. Steve Rattner explains. Take a look at. charts like Rattner. We're chart geeks.

here at the Midas Touch. Thanks to his. tax cuts for the rich, the deficit is on. track to hit almost 7% of GDP by 2036. Trump claimed his tariffs would bring. about a golden age of American. manufacturing. Yet, since his. re-election, we've lost 75,000. manufacturing jobs. Over the same period. of time, former President Biden created. 625,000. jobs. Donald Trump losing jobs, Biden.

massively creating manufacturing jobs. Now, the Trump regime clearly has its. short traders out there. They seem to be. working with Treasury Secretary Bessent. in order to try to short and manipulate. the market for crude. That's why we've. been talking a lot about crack spreads, the delta or difference between the. price of crude and the refinery price. But, the crack spreads are increasing, the price of crude is increasing, the. price of the pump is dramatically. increasing, and the attempts to short.

ain't working like they used to. You. take a look at the 30-year fixed-rate. mortgage, 6.85%. That'll be over 7% in. no time. But, Donald Trump made a lot of. money compared with the amount of money. Donald Trump's made in the past year and. a half, personally made $4.2 billion. It's not even close to any former. president. No one even is in the realm. It won't even register on a graph. What. other president No one did what he did. He's a crook. He's corrupt. He's a.

criminal. Literally, he's actually a felon. Um but, his point with everything though. still, after it's clear that tariffs. have had this catastrophic effect, after. it is clear that Donald Trump escalating. the war, no one wants to be involved, and what does he do? More tariffs. More. war. It's like dystopian Oprah, although. she brought us Dr. Phil, so pretty. freaking dystopian in and of itself. And. and Oz. Uh so, pretty dystopian in. itself. But, Donald Trump, over the past.

week and a half, 25% tariffs basically. on anything coming from Brazil because. Donald Trump wants to head help the. insurrectionist former President Jair. Bolsonaro's. uh kid, Flavio Bolsonaro, beat President. Lula and take away Brazil's sovereignty. So, Donald Trump's using tariffs as a. way to try to extort the people of. Brazil to vote Bolsonaro. Donald Trump. has imposed 50% tariffs on a subclass of. products from Canada.

Um hockey sticks and other stuff. Lots. of exceptions, but 50% tariffs there. And then, on Friday or Thursday night, Donald Trump announced so-called Section. 301 tariffs against 60 economies. throughout the world, Australia, UK, more on Canada, European Union, all. these. uh places and economic blocks. Donald. Trump says that they are supporting. involuntary servitude and that as a. result of promoting forced labor and. slave labor, uh the United States is.

going to sit in judgment of the European. Union, Canada, Australia, UK, all of. these countries. But the Trump regime. says, "We don't do it. They do it." But. Donald Trump in the section 301 tariffs. doesn't specifically make a finding that. they do. He says, "Because these. countries have not proven the negative. that they don't, we find them guilty. under a section 301 investigation. because they don't prove that they don't. get stuff from forced labor. So now. we're going to put tariffs 10 to 12 and.

1/2% across all of these products." And. all these countries are like, "What the. hell are you talking about? You you. think we do anything. do do anything different than the United. States is? We have living wages here. We. have free healthcare here. Employees. take breaks and vacations and have um. paternity and maternity. Like we have a. whole system here and you're accusing us. of forced The United States is calling. us forced labor in the European Union, in Canada, in Australia. What the hell. are you talking about?" And here's.

Donald Trump asked about the explosive. diarrhea going around in lettuce uh. right now. And he's asked, "So can. people eat lettuce?" Trump's like, "It's. Mexico's fault. It's Canada's fault with. the wildfires. Mexico's fault with the. diarrhea lettuce." Even though it's not. Mexico's fault. I mean, it's They're. covering up what's really happening in. my opinion here. But Donald "I'm going. to tariff them. I'm going to have to. tariff them." Like like okay, that's the. dumbest thing ever. What do you mean. you're going to tariff them? That's your. solution to everything here. Play this.

clip. >> There's this nasty parasite that is. giving people in nine states explosive. diarrhea. When is it going to be safe to eat. lettuce again? >> I don't know. I haven't thought about. it. It's the first time I've been asked. that question. Are you eating lettuce. recently? >> I should always have more lettuce. >> I like it, Peter. >> [clears throat]. >> Now, it's a very interesting question. from you. I didn't think you'd ask that. kind of a question. Nobody wants to ask. that question, but. Well, it's exciting. >> There's this There's this food coming.

in, I guess from Mexico. It's tainted. It's making a lot of people sick. That. is the CDC's terminology. >> I think what we're going to do is we're. going to put a major tariff on Texas on. Mexico because of the lettuce. And we're. going to put a big tariff on Canada. because of the smoke. All right? We'll get a combat. Which. would you have? The the lettuce or the. smoke? I think I'll take the smoke. >> Uh yeah, the smoke uh wrecked my. daughter's swim meet. >> Well, it throws up a lot of country. I've told Canada they have to do.

something about it. You know, we've. never had this problem. All of a sudden. we have this problem with Canada. So, uh we'll have to talk to them about. that. >> I want to bring in Justin Wolfers right. now. My interview with Justin. He is the. chief economist at the Midas Touch. Network. He's got Platypus Economics. That's his platform. Let's bring in my. interview with Justin Wolfers. I want to bring in now Justin Wolfers, chief economist over at the Midas Touch. Network and founder of Platypus. Economics. Make sure you subscribe to.

Justin Wolfers' YouTube channel at. Platypus Economics. Justin, great to see. you as always. Last weekend you and I. discussed the Trump regime putting. tariffs on Brazil, putting tariffs. uh earlier this week we talked about on. Canada. And now there are these sweeping. tariffs against 60 economies throughout. the world reportedly under a section of. the 1974. uh Act Trade Act uh section 301. And. it's saying that all of these 60. economies in one way or another engaged.

in uh forced uh involuntary servitude. and forced labor. And so, the United. States is saying, for example, the. European Union and the UK support forced. labor in somehow a way that the United. States doesn't and therefore there needs. to be 10, 12. 12 and 1/2% tariffs on these countries. This of course as this catastrophic war. is escalating and now we're back in. tariff everybody mode while the cost of. living is going up as a result of the.

catastrophic war. It seems like the. perfect storm, Justin. >> At least it seems like a good. opportunity for you and me to chat. It doesn't seem like a good idea. There's ways to get into this so. first of all, let me just put together. the two stories that you just started. with there, Ben and then we can really. get into this set of tariffs cuz there's. a lot to understand here. Um normally when the economy goes up and. down it's because of waves of optimism. and pessimism, what economists call. demand shocks. If we all go shopping all.

at once then we produce a lot but we may. find it hard to produce enough and that. causes inflation to go up. So. or everyone gets pessimistic, they don't. spend enough and therefore that causes. inflation to go down and our. unemployment to go up. The thing I want. you to notice is normally we only get. one bad flavor, either inflation or. unemployment. The thing that's that brings the Iran. war together with tariffs is that what. economists call a supply shock. In both. cases, both of these shocks make it more. difficult, more expensive for Americans.

to do business. As a result, you end up getting higher. inflation and because it's more. difficult, more costly to do business, higher unemployment. So we get both bad. flavors at the same time. So that's the thing I want folks to. understand, there's actually a deep. analytic similarity between these two. The bad part of this is not only do we. get two bad flavors. the Fed can't fix this. because the Fed can either raise rates. which will bring down inflation but. raise unemployment or lower rates which. will do the opposite. It can't fix it.

when two bad things are going on at the. same time. And there's one more thing I. want to make sure we we highlight here. is these two supply shocks are the. dominant shocks hitting the American and. indeed global economy right now. It's. what everyone's talking about. They are both coming from inside the. house, the White House that is. Normally, the art of economics is the world throws. you curve balls and you try to get out. of the way of them. This time we're. throwing them at our own heads. These.

are economic shocks that come directly. from the White House and are raising. both the cost of living and making it. harder for folks to do business. >> Think about the global economy as the. ocean and there are waves and tides and. this is why often economists say you. really can't blame a specific president. often if you happen to get that. generational tsunami that happens. It's. actually been building before then. We. do judge how the president reacts to. that, but what we're seeing now, you. know, to play this metaphor further is.

kind of dropping a nuclear bomb in the. middle of the ocean and then creating. the tsunamis that are very predictable. and then doing it again and doing it. again and then trying to blame the past. administrations for the kind of the the. current actions and it's and and like. from a perspective of an economist, very. rarely have you seen and this is what. you're saying, someone in office affirmatively. manufacture. the tsunami. It often, I don't mean.

natural in the sense of, you know, it. develops the way and nature does, but. these things develop based on, you know, the human behavior. Um, and and and that. now it's actually happening because the. human behavior of of a man is out there. doing these deranged things with the. most powerful economy in the world. >> Yeah, absolutely. And um, look, man, I'm. just going to tell you as an economist. it hurts my heart. >> [clears throat]. >> Um, we're not meant to like, first of all, let me stick on your analytic point.

first. Your analytic point is. for nine out of the last 10. presidencies, if you'd had me on and. said, "Justin, how much should we blame. the president for what's going on with. the economy right now?" I would have. said exactly what you just said, which. is the president is just one factor of. many. Um the financial crisis wasn't due to. one president, COVID wasn't due to one. president, um the 1970s oil price shocks. were not due to one president. Um people. in Washington tell tend to tell too. simple of a story that the bloke in the. White House holds all the levers.

That's what I would have said nine out. of 10 times. This is the 10th time. The. 10th time is this is a bloke whose. explicit policies There's literally no. question about the cause of the current. oil price spike. It is that we decided. to go to war in Iran on an open-ended, ill-defined mission, and we're not quite. sure what to do. The Iranians took over. the Strait of Hormuz, and now the global. economy is substantially fractured, and. global markets global energy markets are. in disarray. No question what the cause. of that was. We know that because we.

actually saw things get a little bit. better in June during the ceasefire, but. those happy days are behind us. Also no question that tariffs are a. complete own goal. They've They've led. to higher prices paid for by Americans. And that I think explains why if you. look right now compared to our trading. partners, the group of seven Sorry, compared to our peers, the G7, which. just think of these as other economies. that kind of like if the US economy had. mates, this is who they'd be. Uh comparable large industrialized.

economies, the United States right now. has higher inflation than any of them. We're number one, but it's not one of. those good number ones. And let me just add it really does hurt. my heart because we know how not to. screw things up. Any economics textbook, anyone who's taken introductory. economics. would know that there are large economic. costs to be paid as a result of going to. war. They would know that starting a. global trade war without any way of in a. chaotic and incoherent fashion is all.

downside, no upside. And so, I'm going to end with a compliment here, Ben. That's what I love about Midas. Touch, which is we want to teach people. economics. And if folks out there really understand. it a little better, then you at home, you're a whole lot smarter than. President Trump, and hopefully we can. avoid. these painful mistakes in the future. >> You know, in science we talk about. control groups and variable groups, and. very rarely have we had such a control. and variable. Because you've seen for.

the brief period of time where there was. an MOU, what happened with inflation? It. was still year-over-year up. significantly, but we had a. cooler-than-expected. reading because of the memorandum of. understanding. As soon as you go back to. war, the prices go up right away. >> Well, I just want to say, how does a. lawyer like you keep all these facts in. your mind? Because I can keep the. economic ones, but then you're talking. about all these other things all day, and I don't know how you do it, mate. >> Well, I think that when it. punches your audience and your community.

in the face, and you start to say, I. never wanted to be an expert in the 10, 20, or 30-year Treasury note yields. I. never really I never wanted to know. about these things. Perhaps I should. have, but I knew that I had people like. Justin Wolfers out there, you know, who. were in positions of government and in. power, who were looking I don't have to. When I go on an airplane, I don't go, "You know what? I got to learn how to. fly this airplane." I expect that the. captain, you know, is going to fly the. airplane. But what I increasingly feel.

right now, and I know the community. feels this way, is that the people. flying the airplane don't know how to. fly the airplane. So, it does feel a bit. existential. And if I don't learn how to. fly it, if I don't know the 10, the 20, and the 30-year yields, if I don't. understand. um what's happening with oil and the. difference between WTI and Brent and. this and that, I worry that uh the I. don't that's one of the problems with. this regime is that. in many ways it's made us more educated,

but it's because of the catastrophic and. cataclysmic impact. That's that's why. >> Yeah, mate. Um look, I I think I prefer. to tell a sunnier story, so I'm going to. give you the the upside, which is. this too will pass, and at the end of. this we're all going to be a lot. smarter, and um I think that is actually. going to be what saves American. democracy. >> And I think that's why we talk about. generational projects here. >> Yeah. >> You know, in in our book WTF America, I. say, "We've been around for 6 years. The.

forces of disinformation, 60 years." So, it's it's we got to play catch-up, and. then we got to exceed. Before we go. though, I just want to drill down. quickly on. >> Yeah. >> on the specifics of these of these. Section 301 stuff, because you have the. Trump regime now, you know, the the. Supreme Court said you can't do these. tariffs, and they tried to do another. version of tariffs, you can't do that. And so, now they come up with these 301. investigations, where they make these. findings that are ridiculous, you know, Canada is exploiting us this way, and.

it's very unfair. They're Canada. discrimination, uh and then Europe and all these other. countries now are engaged in forced. labor, which if you were concerned about. that maybe you wouldn't do nuclear. enrichment deals with Saudi Arabia, and. then do give all our classified. semi-conductor technology to the United. Arab Emirates. >> You are a troublemaker, my friend, but. um look, this is my chance to prove to. my lawyer friend I know a bit of law. here, because what's going on here is. actually really important that people.

understand it. Ben's exactly right. First set of tariffs, liberation day. tariffs, unconstitutional, get rid of. them. Second set, maybe they were. constitutional, maybe they weren't, it's. still being litigated, but if they were. legal, they're only legal for 6 months. They had an automatic sunset, that. sunset was last night. So, now we're up. to the third attempt to try to get. tariffs. And. by the way, there's a very easy way of. doing this. If tariffs were a good idea, the Republican president could go to the. Republican house and suggest to the. Republican house they pass a tariff. bill. And then, if it was a good idea,

it would get through the Republican. Senate. You'll notice not once has the. president done that. He hasn't used uh. either the House or Senate once. It's. that he wants control to be centralized. with him and his White House. And in. fact, the Republican House and Senate. would not endorse what he's doing. Which. means that the president's now rifling. around the back of the couch trying to. find a legal excuse that allows him to. take these actions even when Congress. doesn't want it. And it turns out. there's a way of saying, "Oh, the other. side, they're being unfair, so I want to.

retaliate.". Okay, they found that rule. Now, they. need to find a way of saying, "How is it. the rest of the world's being unfair to. America?". What they've done is they've said, "Well, we in America" and I love that. president has discovered this. He's. like, "We in America, we hate forced. labor. We hate slavery. We hate it when. the the world's poor and downtrodden and. oppressed." I mean, I love the chutzpah. of this guy, but um And he said, "So, therefore, we are going to put a tariff. on anyone who can't prove that they. don't use forced labor." This is real.

countries like Australia and Canada and. the United Kingdom. And so, these new tariffs, they're not. saying these countries do those things. They're saying those countries can't. certify that every single thing that. they that they consume didn't come from. a country that uses forced labor. And as a result, we American workers who. could be selling stuff to your country, they might be competing with forced. labor from some other country instead. So, the president pretends he cares. about forced labor and puts a tariff of.

10 to 12 and 1/2% on each of these. different countries. So, you're going to. hear this called a forced labor tariff. But it's not. One more thing. The president has said time and again. that what he wants is tariffs because he. wants to do deals. This power doesn't. let him do that. You'll notice he's put. effectively the same tariff on every. country around the world. Effectively. the same tariff on every industry. He. can't call the leader of China and say, "Do a deal with me and I'll drop these. tariffs.".

Because China is as bad on this issue. according to this investigation as every. other country. So, these give him his tariffs, but they. don't give him what he wanted to use the. tariffs for, which is bargaining power. So, if you. thought Trump tariffs part one was dumb, this is dumber. This gets us still all. the costs of tariffs, but almost none of. the benefits. >> Or Donald Trump personally gets benefits. cuz he feels tough and then he says he. dangles it over [clears throat] their. head and I don't know, seems like a.

Trump business from the past that went. bankrupt and we're all non-consensual. shareholders sadly in this in this. thing, but I'll end it on your positive. note and take your This too shall pass. And I do think though, I I agree with. you. And this is fundamentally what we. talk about is that we need to get out of. this loop. We're in a We're in a bad. loop of, you know, this leader to that. leader to this leader, blame blame, you. know, and then it just it doesn't work. This This back and forth seesaw is not.

working for the economy, for the. country. And so, there really has to be. a generational outlook of. we we we we have to aspire to something. better and deeper and and more firmly. rooted in the truth. That's what we're. going to be doing our best or small part. to build and I know you're doing that. over in Platypus. So, everybody, subscribe to Platypus Economics on. YouTube. As soon as this video ends, on. YouTube search Platypus Economics. Justin has new videos every day. You can. also see the hits that he does on the. various news networks that he posts.

there. And then in the comments, tell. Justin that Ben sent you and that Ben. says hello. Thanks, Justin. Love you, man. Everybody hit subscribe. >> Want to stay plugged in? Become a. subscriber to our Substack at. midasplus.com. You'll get daily [music]. recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free. episodes of our podcast, and more. exclusive content only available at. [music] midasplus.com.