'Two Thoughts on Trump's Inferno Tariffs'

[sop]

"Point one is that we should remember that Presidents have no inherent power over tariffs whatsoever. This isn’t like war powers or pardons where these are questions the Constitution assigns to the will of one person. They are entirely delegated by Congress and could be taken back at any moment. They are also explicitly reserved for emergencies. They aren’t meant to be used as to create entirely novel trade regimes. But Congress lets the President decide what constitutes an emergency. The logic of that delegation is based on the flexibility and convenience the delegation creates and the assumption that the president wouldn’t be nuts. The Republican Congress could bring this absurd gambit to a halt tonight. So it’s all on them, every one of them individually."

"Point two is what happened today in the equities markets. In a more or less immediate response to Trump’s 4 p.m. speechlet they dropped precipitously. On first blush that makes sense. These tariffs at best represent a big shock to the economy. At worst, well … at worst it’s much worse. But this is actually very, very weird. Trump wasn’t coy. These tariffs have been telegraphed weeks in advance and with increasing certainty and specificity in recent days. While the precise details were somewhat up in the air, in broad outline Trump announced exactly what he’s been saying he was going to announce for days. This suggests the equities markets are still in the grip of quite a bit of magical thinking, especially about Donald Trump."

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/two-thoughts-on-trumps-inferno-tariffs