Trump's tariffs make no sense, and will backfire hard on the US economy

In what he called "Liberation Day", Donald Trump imposed heavy tariffs on countries around the world, falsely claiming they were "reciprocal". In reality, the taxes on imports were based on the US trade deficit with other nations. Ben Norton explains how the Trump administration's economic policies are contradictory and will backfire hard on the US economy, fueling inflation while failing to re-industrialize. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv5ZkxQvsz8 Topics 0:00 Trump imposes heavy tariffs 0:27 (CLIP) Trump's "Liberation Day" 0:52 Trump's global trade war 1:18 (CLIP) Tariff is most beautiful world 1:41 New tariff rates 3:20 Backfiring 4:04 How the tariffs were calculated 7:08 Retaliation 8:45 Role of US dollar dominance 9:30 (CLIP) Trump on de-dollarization 9:48 (CLIP) Trump threatens BRICS 10:17 US balance of payments 12:37 Alternative to US dollar 13:14 Dumbest trade war in history 13:42 Reindustrialization 14:32 Financialization 17:53 Inflation 20:00 Coffee, fruit, & vegetables 22:06 Imports from China 24:02 Imports from Vietnam 25:26 Imports of electronics 27:51 Industrial policy 33:41 Moving tax burden from rich to poor 37:02 Outro

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager who worked for George Soros, insists, “Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream”. The Donald Trump administration knows its tariffs will result in higher inflation. Products will become more expensive as the US tries to economically decouple from China. Ben Norton explains. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DOCZjS_MVc Topics 0:00 Inflation is coming back 0:41 US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent 1:57 Billionaires 2:34 (CLIP) Bessent: no more cheap goods 2:49 Stagnant real wages 3:54 How China exported deflation 6:20 Myth of the "American Dream" 6:55 End of income mobility in USA 8:04 US life expectancy falls 9:13 Trump's billionaire-filled administration 9:39 Inflation rises 10:11 Richest 10% drive US economy 11:07 Corruption 11:35 Scapegoating 12:15 Recession risks 13:39 Housing is unaffordable 15:40 Elon Musk 16:13 Blackstone 17:13 Fake populism 18:00 Outro

How is the US impacting Canada's elections, as Donald Trump imposes tariffs and even threatens to annex the country? Who is the banker turned Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney? To discuss, political economist Radhika Desai is joined by Dimitri Lascaris, host of the independent media outlet Reason2Resist. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZweNi7ycKM You can follow Dimitri Lascaris' channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@reason2resist This is part of the program Geopolitical Economy Hour. You can watch other episodes of the show here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDAi0NdlN8hMl9DkPLikDDGccibhYHnDP

Donald Trump is portrayed as a "populist" committed to average working-class people, but his policies benefit wealthy elites at the expense of everyone else. His administration includes 13 billionaires -- including Elon Musk, the world's richest oligarch -- and he is cutting taxes on the rich and corporations while imposing a consumption tax on the poor through tariffs. Ben Norton explains how Trump is waging a class war. VIDEO with charts here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL8cg-wWBO8 Check out our related video on JD Vance's speech on reindustrializing the US: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywmpea6vvOE Why Donald Trump won the US election: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2024/11/08/donald-trump-us-election-kamala-harris-economy/ Topics 0:00 Intro 0:09 (CLIP) Trump at McDonald's 0:33 Billionaires in Trump admin 1:36 Big Tech oligarchs 2:36 Corruption and bribery 3:17 Trump meme coin 4:20 Tax cuts for the rich 5:20 Tariffs are a tax 6:45 Trump's tax law benefited rich 8:25 Billionaires avoid taxes 10:01 Historical tax rates 11:44 Corporate tax rate 12:50 Progressive taxation 15:02 Why Trump won: inflation 16:43 Election turnout 18:02 Trump's low approval rating 20:20 Why people are angry 21:03 (CLIP) Obama on Wall Street 21:19 BlackRock CEO 21:48 Elon Musk 22:12 (CLIP) Trump on Tesla 22:21 US economy relies on rich 24:05 Unemployment rate is misleading 25:36 Stagnant real wages 29:34 Inflation is sticky 30:31 No more cheap goods 31:14 Scott Bessent & George Soros 33:25 (CLIP) Scott Bessent on American Dream 33:40 Cheap goods & China 36:51 Tariffs & reindustrialization 38:22 Myth of American Dream 40:07 US life expectancy is falling 41:17 Scapegoating 43:37 Recession warnings 45:01 Housing 47:02 Elon Musk buys White House position 47:35 Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman 48:34 Trump's fake "populism" 49:22 Hopeful examples 50:15 Mexico: AMLO 51:43 Mexico: Claudia Sheinbaum 53:11 Learning from Mexico 54:50 China's poverty reduction 57:54 US oligarchy 58:37 Outro

US Vice President JD Vance gave a speech about globalization that inadvertently revealed the truth about the US empire, the goal behind the new cold war on China, the economics of imperialism, and how the Trump administration is serving billionaire Big Tech oligarchs in Silicon Valley at the expense of the working class. Ben Norton explains. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywmpea6vvOE US Big Tech CEOs admit they want AI monopoly: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2025/02/03/us-ai-monopoly-unipolar-world-china/ Topics 0:00 (CLIP) JD Vance excerpt 0:38 US vice president speech 1:03 Preparing for war on China 3:15 Summary of Vance's speech 3:56 (CLIP) Marco Rubio on China "threat" 4:39 Deindustrialization 5:02 (CLIP) JD Vance vows "industrial comeback" 5:41 Uniting billionaires and "populists" 6:26 Neoliberalism 7:01 JD Vance's patron Peter Thiel 8:22 Trump recruits Big Tech billionaires 9:34 For monopoly, against competition 10:21 (CLIP) Peter Thiel loves monopolies 10:35 Elon Musk and Trump 11:05 Billionaire Marc Andreessen 11:47 (CLIP) Trump admin loves Silicon Valley 12:08 Trump coalition: billionaires & workers? 13:37 (CLIP) Techno-optimists vs populists? 14:21 Big Tech manifesto 15:56 Scapegoating China 17:13 (CLIP) JD Vance scapegoats China 17:34 JD Vance calls China "biggest threat" 18:53 (CLIP) JD Vance scapegoats China 19:12 Neoliberal globalization 20:07 (CLIP) JD Vance on globalization 21:18 Neoliberal globalization 22:07 Imperialism & dependency theory 24:11 China's development 24:35 US bans Chinese competitors 26:15 (CLIP) JD Vance on China's AI 26:40 US Big Tech monopolies 27:23 (CLIP) "Competition is for losers" 27:38 Trump's tariffs 28:36 Jake Sullivan's industrial policy speech 29:16 (CLIP) Jake Sullivan on Washington Consensus 31:36 Industrial policy 32:45 Tech war on China 33:31 Trump's strategy 34:01 (CLIP) JD Vance on US shipbuilding 34:53 China's Shipbuilding 35:46 State-owned enterprises 38:07 US government-owned factories 40:32 Industrial policy 43:41 (CLIP) Tax cuts on rich & deregulation 44:07 Reaganism 2.0 44:28 Historical tax rates on rich 45:48 Oligarchs avoid taxes 46:52 Trump boosts deficit & debt 47:38 Fake industrial policy 49:09 (CLIP) JD Vance is "fan" of Big Tech 49:28 Andreessen Horowitz investments 50:30 S&P 500 stock buybacks & dividends 51:03 Reaganomics 51:59 Trumponomics 53:21 Tariffs & wealth transfer 53:55 Outro

Donald Trump has threatened to colonize Greenland and make it a US territory, even though 85% of people there oppose this. Ben Norton explains the geopolitical and economic reasons: the USA wants to block China from the Arctic region and to profit from the territory's natural resources, especially critical minerals. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjXzhd4GVzE Topics 0:00 Greenlanders don't want to join USA 0:58 (CLIP) Trump threatens Greenland 1:10 Targeting China 1:58 Natural resources 2:59 Independence from Denmark 3:40 Why they oppose US annexation 4:32 Protests in Greenland 5:57 Greenlandic political parties 7:25 (CLIP) Trump threatens Greenland again 7:59 Imperialism 8:44 (CLIP) Trump's Manifest Destiny 9:16 Expand US territory 9:29 (CLIP) Trump wants to "enlarge" US 9:59 Monroe Doctrine 10:45 Geopolitics of the Arctic 11:32 Map distortions 12:44 Geopolitics of Arctic Circle 13:52 (CLIP) Trump: divide Russia & China 14:15 (CLIP) Marco Rubio on China "threat" 14:41 China 15:25 (CLIP) Trump on Greenland 16:02 (CLIP) NATO chief Mark Rutte 16:21 NATO imperialism 17:48 (CLIP) Trump on US troops 18:41 NATO imperialism 19:00 JD Vance 19:16 (CLIP) Vance on China 19:45 US war with China 20:58 Supply chains 21:37 Ukraine's minerals 22:11 Greenland's minerals 22:29 (CLIP) Vance on natural resources 22:50 (CLIP) Vance on Greenland 23:20 Greenland's critical minerals 24:28 Red, White, and Blueland 25:11 US imperialism 26:51 Outro

The United States is the biggest arms dealer on Earth, responsible for 43% of the world’s weapons exports from 2020 to 2024. The US transferred seven times more than China, and five times more than Russia. Ben Norton explains how the military-industrial complex profits from war. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVFvEmhey_k Sources and links here: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2025/03/13/us-top-weapons-exports-china-russia/ Credit to Stephen Semler for some charts: https://www.stephensemler.com Topics 0:00 China "threat" claims 0:43 US military spending 1:34 US foreign interventions 2:40 USA is no. 1 arms dealer 3:57 Top weapons exporters 5:08 Growth in arms exports 5:56 Israel's suppliers 6:23 Top weapons importers 7:16 Europe doubles arms imports 8:32 Trump demands more NATO spending 10:47 Replacing welfare with warfare 12:56 Top military spenders 14:39 Real US military budget 15:40 DOGE ignores Pentagon fraud 17:00 Outro

Can the Donald Trump administration really end the Ukraine war? What is Russia's view? Why did the US fuel the conflict in the first place? These issues are discussed by political economist Radhika Desai, Russia expert Richard Sakwa, and China-based economic geographer Mick Dunford. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR3_KKf6kUY This is part of the program Geopolitical Economy Hour. You can watch other episodes of the show here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDAi0NdlN8hMl9DkPLikDDGccibhYHnDP Topics 0:00 Intro 7:08 Historical moment 9:39 NATO 13:30 Multipolarity 15:00 Imperialism & rent extraction 19:03 West lost Ukraine war 20:12 Can Trump end the war? 22:50 Russian view 26:03 Divide Russia and China 28:44 Trump's strategy 32:22 Isolationism 34:39 Russia-China alignment 37:16 Reverse Nixon 38:16 Root causes 40:07 Geopolitical shift 43:37 Trump is symbol of crisis 45:14 Dollar system 46:01 European politics 46:42 Trump's vision 47:44 US-Russia relations 48:29 ASEAN spirit 50:02 Europe's warfare state 54:18 Europe's deindustrialization 58:56 Western double standards 1:00:31 Russia's perspective 1:03:18 Russia's demands 1:06:12 Ukraine's civil war 1:07:40 Outro

Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is a self-declared “crusader” who believes the USA is in a “holy war” against China, the left, and Islam. “Communist China will fall”, he vowed in his 2020 book “American Crusade”, promising, “Israel and America will form an even tighter bond, fighting the scourge of Islamism and international leftism that will never fully abate”. Ben Norton reports on his extremist record. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOg-dqGd6Jk Sources and links here: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2025/03/07/us-defense-secretary-hegseth-overthrow-china-crusade/ Topics 0:00 Trump's cabinet of hawks 0:42 Pete Hegseth's "American Crusade" 2:02 Hegseth: "Communist China will fall" 3:26 Make the Crusades Great Again 4:38 Fox News 6:10 (CLIP) US "prepared" for war with China 7:02 Fearmongering about China 7:29 (CLIP) Trump on China "threat" 7:37 Fearmongering about China 8:42 (CLIP) CIA lies, cheats, & steals 8:58 Fearmongering about China 11:31 US military is "most lethal" 12:04 (CLIP) Hegseth: "most lethal" military 12:10 Culture war 13:23 (CLIP) Hegseth on "lethality" 13:28 Conservative identity politics 13:45 (CLIP) Hegseth's "warfighters" 13:59 Media pundit criticizes media 14:20 (CLIP) Hegseth on the media 14:36 (CLIP) Hegseth on Fox News 15:14 Israel 18:17 Hegseth wants war on Iran 18:44 (CLIP) Hegseth calls to bomb Iran 19:55 War with Iran? 20:39 (CLIP) Trump: US will "own" Gaza 20:46 War with Iran? 21:03 Pete Hegseth's elite background 21:41 (CLIP) Hegseth Harvard diploma stunt 22:30 Wall Street 22:55 Neocon 23:35 Guantanamo Bay 24:43 Book "American Crusade" 25:45 Hegseth declares "holy war" 26:33 US Civil War II? 31:05 War on secularism 33:18 (CLIP) Trump on the Bible 33:53 War on secularism 34:16 Hegseth's war on Islam 37:44 Extremist loses friends 38:52 Outro

BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, is buying the ports on both sides of the Panama Canal, after Donald Trump threatened the Latin American country and forced it to pressure a Hong Kong company to sell its stake. Ben Norton discusses how the US government is trying to weaken China -- and strengthen Wall Street oligarchs. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANqHCejgUTM Check out our related video on Trump's attempt to divide Russia and China: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRJIymzuRGU Topics 0:00 Goals of US foreign policy 1:08 BlackRock buys Panama Canal ports 2:08 (CLIP) Trump threatens Panama 2:32 BlackRock 3:26 US empire fears China 4:03 (CLIP) Marco Rubio on China "threat" 4:46 CIA targets China 5:42 (CLIP) CIA director on China 6:34 CIA threats 6:50 Trump attacks China 7:06 (CLIP) Trump on Panama Canal 7:17 BlackRock takeover 7:43 Monroe Doctrine 8:40 Greenland 9:27 Marco Rubio 11:09 (CLIP) Rubio on US "backyard" 11:46 (CLIP) Rubio on "dangerous" China 12:24 (CLIP) Rubio on Taiwan 12:56 New cold war 13:39 Panama Canal geopolitics 14:59 BlackRock buys ports around world 15:54 Biden's infrastructure scheme 16:09 Belt and Road Initiative 16:33 Partnership for Global Infrastructure 17:53 BlackRock, Microsoft, and AI 18:06 Stargate Project with OpenAI 18:26 USA is an oligarchy 19:39 G7 summit starred BlackRock 20:16 (CLIP) CEO Larry Fink at G7 summit 21:11 BlackRock backs both US parties 22:15 Asset managers invest $128 trillion 23:06 Blackstone: Largest US landlord 24:33 USA: best "democracy" money can buy 25:13 Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman 26:45 Elon Musk: biggest US donor 27:51 Trump's trickle-down economics 31:37 Class war 33:24 Trump's Russia strategy 33:51 Outro