Thread by @anders_aslund

Finally, the US stock market - ruled by fanatical republicans - is coming to its senses about Trump's madhat economic policies. Virtually everything is wrong from any economic point of view.

1. Trade wars are not "easy to win" but lose-lose and always wrong. Trump is bringing down with global economic by reducing global trade, which is closely related to global growth, even if the US economy might be the last shoe to fall.

2. Trump's crony capitalism of exemptions for iPhones & Barbies (Apple & Matel) in Chinese tariffs & US sanctions for Kushner friends Roman Abramovich & Alisher Usmanov makes the swamp worse.

3. Trump also floods the swamp by supporting lobbyism for agriculture to compensate for Chinese tariffs, not to mention Rusal aluminum exemptions for Kentucky Pro-Putin diehards Mitch McConnell & Rand Paul.

4. As Fred Bergsten has emphasized, Trump's tariff policy is a war on US exports.
piie.com/blogs/trade-an…

5. Trump's naming specific companies, foreign or American, in speeches & tweets for sanctions or benefits is nothing but unacceptable crony capitalism characteristic of undemocratic kleptocracies. Why does the US Congress accept that? Prohibit it!

6. The US has currently full employment with an unemployment of only 3.7% of the active labor force. This is not the time for the US to have the largest budget deficit in the developed world. This is not only unprofessional but madness. Why do former fiscal conservatives agree?

7. Having grossly mismanaged the nation's fiscal & trade policy, Trump also attacks the US Fed, the last economic institution standing, in the crudest fashion calling for its abandoning sound monetary policy as well.

8. Eventually, the basic laws of economics will prove themselves, which will be costly to the US because of the madhat policies of the Trump. It might be now or slightly later.