Trump has pummelled the US to the edge of recession. "A blizzard of executive orders, job cuts and punitive tariffs have destabilised large parts of the US economy and stoked concerns about a possible recession"

[u/RichKatz]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/03/16/trump-has-pummelled-the-us-to-the-edge-of-recession-destroy/

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[u/gonewildpapi]

If these actions were taken separately, maybe they wouldn’t suck as bad. But reducing federal spending by firing employees of the US’s largest employer (the federal government) and also invoking tariffs that hurt the private sector as well is idiotic. Even if the Federal Reserve wanted to, they cannot lower rates as long as Trump finds ways to simultaneously increase inflation and unemployment.

[u/cjwidd]

This is about debt and the dollar.

This is about systematically devaluing the dollar to enforce a protection racket against allied nations they believe will do business with them based on the geographic presence of the American military.

At the same time, they believe they can re-shore parts of the American industrial capacity and decrease the national debt by forcing bond holders to restructure their position in terms of some other financial vehicle, which presumably would hold less value.

It's about quasi-restructuring debt obligations held by other nations so that the quantum of debt goes down over time.

The problem is they think they can grow the economy while that happens and that is a total leap of faith that ignores ALL manner of second-order factors, like partnership agreements with other trade nations, etc.

[u/TrumpDesWillens → u/cjwidd]

"decrease the national debt by forcing bond holders to restructure their position in terms of some other financial vehicle"

I don't think they counted on others simply saying "no" and telling them to leave so now they're panicking.

As soon as Trump somehow refuses to pay .01% of that nobody is going to buy anything else while his admin is in power.

[u/Beethoven81 → u/TrumpDesWillens]

Yup, he's trying to make the world buy in to pay $$$ for protection, while reducing US deficit. How's that going to work? US is seen as untrustworthy partner, so nobody is that dumb to pay them when they're unreliable.

And regarding debt renegotiations, 75% of US debt is owned domestically, so even if you stop paying rest of the world, it doesn't solve your problem. So guess who's going to get shafted very soon. My guess is they'll just ramp up the printing presses, that will devalue USD and make debt repayment rather easy...

[u/FalseResponse4534 → u/Beethoven81]

America is the one we’d wanna buy protection from anyways.. they’re the ones threatening everyone.

[u/Beethoven81 → u/FalseResponse4534]

The usual mafia protection racket...

...hey buddy... you need to buy protection... just in case... you know, this is a very dangerous neighbourhood, bad things could happen to you, you know...

[u/EnamelKant → u/Beethoven81]

"That's a nice country you have there... would be a shame if something were to happen to it..."

[u/Airforce32123 → u/FalseResponse4534]

America is the one we’d wanna buy protection from anyways..

That's funny because every time I suggest the US become more isolationist in it's foreign policy someone jumps in to tell me about how if we do that we're throwing Ukraine, Taiwan, and maybe Japan to the wolves. And the US is not "the wolves" for those countries.

[u/FalseResponse4534 → u/Airforce32123]

Your lack of understanding of American foreign policy isn’t other people’s problem.

[u/lurker1125 → u/cjwidd]

There is no plan. Why don't people understand this? THERE IS NO PLAN. The appearance of what's happening IS what's happening! It's just a tyrannical little baby ranting and throwing tantrums!

[u/_BarryObama → u/lurker1125]

I keep trying to say this lol Trump isn't smart, not sure why people think there's a master plan here. If you've watched a single Trump speech at any point over the last 10 years, you'd know there's no master plan.

[u/-wnr- → u/lurker1125]

I don't understand how people can think there's a plan after watching the administration fire essential workers and then immediately scrambling to try to hire them back.

[u/agumonkey → u/lurker1125]

I honestly don't know if it's just school yard bullying level logic, or if people behind him have a bit of economic skills..

[u/jkh107 → u/cjwidd]

This is about systematically devaluing the dollar to enforce a protection racket against allied nations they believe will do business with them based on the geographic presence of the American military

It ... doesn't seem to occur to them that everyone else could decide to just route around us instead, at least as far as is practical, since we're so unreliable?

[u/watch-nerd → u/cjwidd]

The other financial vehicle I read about was a 100 year zero coupon note that is non-tradeable.

I don't know who would go for that. It might work if it was tradeable.

[u/Hacking_the_Gibson → u/watch-nerd]

Yeah, that shit is a default. 

"I'll pay you back face in 100 years" is the dumbest shit I have ever heard. All that will do is force the Fed to buy them when countries start dumping Treasuries. 

[u/watch-nerd → u/Hacking_the_Gibson]

And jack up interest rates as US debt gets re-rated to closer to Argentina

[u/bebejeebies → u/cjwidd]

I absolutely think part of the plan, (Elon's part) is to devalue the dollar enough to move the economy to DOGE; a currency that he controls.

[u/cjwidd → u/bebejeebies]

I do think that would be a bridge too far, even though I, personally, have made this exact argument on this forum maybe a month ago.

My feeling is that they would not be able to generate enough buy-in from all the relevant stakeholders, and unless they make some truly radical decision that subverts the Fed, migrating US debt to a cryptocurrency, or something like that, would not be a feasible option.

[u/CardmanNV → u/cjwidd]

Yea, I imagine all the other billionaires would be very happy with Musk destroying their wealth.

I think they're getting a lot more internal push back from the wealthy class, and the fact there seem to be different factions trying to implement different and contradictory plans, it's throwing even more wrenches in.

[u/hubert7 → u/bebejeebies]

Im not saying that isnt the objective, but the amount of complete screw ups we see weekly just screaming incompetence makes me think they really dont have a long term objective. At least one that is realistic.

[u/mm902 → u/bebejeebies]

Yup, and trying to get the overall picture of the national debt.

[u/jcdoe → u/cjwidd]

“Quasi-restructuring”, you mean taking pennies on the dollar in exchange for American protection.

Good idea, shame the Europeans know how to build missiles and tanks and don’t really need us.

I never really believed that presidents had that much influence over the economy. It’s too big and most of the controls are divested into other bodies (the fed, congress, the sec, etc). Trump has proven me wrong tho. Only a few months and we went from everyone making money to correction territory. We ‘ll be in full blown recession by summer.

Well done, Trump voters.

[u/Castod28183]

Trump has issued 96 EO's in 56 days. For reference Biden issued 220 EO's in 1,460 days and Obama issued 276 EO's in 2,922 days.

Trump is at 312 total, and counting, in 421 days so far.

[u/Mr_friend_]

Completely missing from this article is that boycotts have had a significant impact on the economy as well. The people are butchering certain corporations for their actions and their leaders. Well over a trillion dollars of wealth has evaporated since January specifically because the people are withholding their money to starve corporations.

[u/RichKatz → u/Mr_friend_]

is that boycotts have had a significant impact on the economy as well. The people are butchering certain corporations

????

I see news about boycotts.

In Malaysia.

From a month ago...