Trump’s tariffs: I see the pain; where’s the gain?

Published 1:30 am Friday, April 11, 2025

The Trump administration’s whiz-bang tariff plan described by Paul Krugman as, “the biggest trade policy change in history, hastily and sloppily thrown together at the last minute,” has certainly imploded the markets.

The argument “short term pain for long term gain” has lived up to the first clause, and I am thinking that there is now an inordinate amount of pressure on the latter part. This reader would be far more hopeful of a good outcome if the folks running the show didn’t quite so much resemble the Keystone Cops.

The president might want to work on a coherent message before amplifying the “short term pain” part..

Tony Smith

Snohomish