The Worst Thing Trump Did on 4/9/25

Apologies for not having an entry yesterday.  My internet was down most of the day.

Before I get to the worst thing he did yesterday, let me explain the REAL reason Trump frantically pulled back on his tariffs yesterday.  

This was not his plan.  If it was, then he wouldn't have put the tariffs in place that night, tariffs which were active for about 10 hours before Trump quickly idled them.  This was an emergency response to the Bond Market starting to crater, and if he hadn't immediately pulled back, the US would've been spiraling into a deep Depression by late afternoon.

There is a difference between the Stock Market and the Bond Market.  The Stock Market is measuring the temperature of the business community on a day-to-day basis.  If the Stock Market tanks, it's a recession, meaning short-term economic growth is stymied due to a lack of faith in the business community.  The Bond Market (simplifying it) is a snapshot of how investors and the rest of the world think of the stability of a country. The Bond Market, particularly US bonds, immediately started reacting after midnight, when Trump's worldwide tariffs went into place.  There was a definite movement that was showing an extreme lack of faith in the US system, and the Bond Market was showing clear signs of a possible collapse. If the Bond Market Collapses, that's a Depression.

Here's another way to look at it.  Imagine you go to your bank and are told your personal account has limited funds.  This means the next month, or maybe the next few months will be lean.  Less eating out, more frugal activities.  That's a recession.

Now imagine you went to the bank and the bank said "We're out of money! The most we can give every customer is $10 and we have no idea when we are going to get any more cash." It'll be years before you and your community recover, likely with a lot of losses along the way (foreclosures, seizures, massive corporate closings, massive unemployment). That is a depression.

The Bond Market is why Trump frantically pulled back on his tariff plan, but considering the bond market, as well as the Ag Markets and Consumer Confidence, are still very much on edge right now, our country's economy is anything but safe.

The worst thing Trump did yesterday is what he did when he realized he had to undo his tariffs and the Stock Market was likely going to jump.  There are clear signs of insider trading and market manipulation in the hour and minutes before Trump's announcement.  It's clear Trump and his administration, along with their buddies, used Trump's utter incompetence in economics to their own advantage and gobbled up a lot of the low-priced stocks before his announcement which drove up the markets 2900 points, and, in turn, made a mint.

Keep in mind that the people who lost the money were the workers and middle-class investors who didn't have the resources or the time to move individual stocks around on a massive lever.  Those people are screwed, but at least Trump, his administration, Republican leaders in Congress, and the billionaires who bankrolled them all came out smelling like roses.