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I always loved bookstores, coffee shops, music, old movies, foreign languages, travelling, design. Those are the things that I never stopped loving in my life so far. So, I decided to make a blog and put them all together... For me it's magic❗❗✨ All photos belong to their rightful owners. I do not own any of the content I post. Please Note: Blank profiles, Spam or Suspicious Accounts will be BLOCKED AND REPORTED. Copyright © 2014–2025 Just for Books - All rights reserved
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Trump’s ‘liberation day’ could mean recession in the US and pain worldwide

The US president’s tariffs are vengeful and impetuous – and will have immense costs with no clear goal

With the huge and painful tariffs that Donald Trump announced on Thursday, “Tariff Man” is acting like a paranoid 12-year-old bully who is convinced that everyone has wronged him, and he wants revenge. But the president’s instrument of revenge – massive tariffs – is going to do serious damage to the US and global economies. Stock market investors are convinced that’s the case, with Wall Street and world stock markets losing trillions of dollars in value in recent days as a result of Trump’s obsession.

The president has escalated his risky, vengeful trade war even though the US economy was in strong shape when he took office – the jobless rate was just 4.1%, inflation was below 3% and US economic growth was the strongest in the industrial world, with its stock market at record levels. So it’s unclear whether the US economy needed the shock treatment that Trump is inflicting. The price increases resulting from his tariffs – which are a tax on imports – will cost the average American family $3,800 a year, according to the Budget Lab at Yale.

Trump is right that the number of manufacturing jobs is down substantially from decades ago, and he is intent on getting that number back up. But he’s taking a very high-stakes bet that he can significantly increase the number of factory jobs, even as many economists say the horses have left that barn, and it is too late or will be too painful to do much about it. In 1979, the US had a record 19.5m factory jobs. That number fell to 17m in 2001 and to 12.7m today (having risen by 600,000 during Joe Biden’s presidency).

Trump’s new tariffs result from a combination of impulsiveness, impetuousness and ignorance, although some economists say that idiocy and economic illiteracy also play a big part. Paul Krugman says that Trump’s tariffs reflect the “whims of a mad king”, adding that the administration’s case for tariffs is “completely incoherent”, as it insists that the tariffs won’t raise prices but will still raise hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue.

The tariffs that Trump announced on Thursday are staggering – 50% on tiny Lesotho, 49% on Cambodia, 46% on Vietnam, 34% on China, 32% on Taiwan, 24% on Japan and 20% on European Union countries. These percentages were arrived at not by careful, probing analysis that took months, but by some slapdash, Keystone Kops math.

It would be generous to say it’s the one-eyed leading the blind. Rather, it’s an economically blind, impetuous president leading a mum, intimidated Republican-controlled Congress. One of the tragedies here is that many congressional Republicans see the grievous damage Trump is doing, but they’re too craven to speak out and risk Trump’s and Elon Musk’s social media wrath.

Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, is predicting disaster. He says that as a result of Trump’s tariffs a recession “will hit imminently and extend until next year”. Zandi says that economic growth could fall by 2 percentage points, while the jobless rate could leap to a very painful 7.5%. On Friday, the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, also sounded the alarm, saying that Trump’s tariffs could cause even slower economic growth and higher inflation than originally expected.

With Trump’s 50% tariff rate on Lesotho, 46% on Vietnam and 37% on Bangladesh, those countries – with their export-dependent apparel industries – will suffer terribly. There will be huge layoffs and no doubt an increase in hunger and immiseration – just as Trump-Musk’s tremendous foreign aid cuts at USAID have already resulted in increased hunger and deaths. And one has to wonder: by pummeling poor, apparel-producing countries such as Lesotho, Cambodia, Vietnam and Bangladesh, what is Trump trying to achieve? Does he want to bring back to the US low-paying, garment-industry jobs making jeans and sneakers?

Carefully crafted tariffs can be helpful. They can be used to help build important industries or prevent the wholesale destruction of industries due to other countries’ bad behavior, like China’s improperly subsidizing its industries or dumping goods on the world market far below the cost of production. Unfortunately, Trump’s so-called “liberation day” tariffs are not a scalpel designed to help specific industries, but rather a blunderbuss mess, hitting everyone and everything, including US consumers and industries. Let’s not forget that the tariffs will raise costs at many US manufacturers and make them less competitive by, for instance, greatly increasing the price of imported steel and auto parts.

The tariffs that Trump is imposing are even greater than the infamous Smoot-Hawley tariffs, which are widely seen as having worsened the Great Depression. Krugman noted that Trump’s tariffs could also do serious damage because “imports as a share of the [US] economy are three times what they were in the 1920s”.

Even if Trump’s tariffs were to do what he hopes – create another million or two factory jobs – the cost would be immense. A recession. Millions of families hurt by higher prices. Trillions and trillions in lost stock market value. Far worse relations with our close allies and other countries. Opening the door to Trump’s adversary, China, significantly improving its trade and economic relations with other countries. Plus, a severe economic shock to many poorer nations.

And it’s not at all certain that Trump’s tariffs will create a million or more manufacturing jobs: US economic growth and jobs will be hurt by a possible tariff-induced recession, trade retaliation from other countries, a long-term loss of markets as traditional trading partners turn away from the US, and a possible long-term decline in US industrial competitiveness as tariff protections enable inefficient companies to succeed.

Trump’s big hope is that corporations will build new factories and create more factory jobs in the US, but corporate executives won’t do that unless they’re convinced that there’s economic stability and predictability. They’re not blind to how capricious and unpredictable Trump is, and they know that he loves to play master dealmaker and win concessions from other countries and then immediately slash their tariffs. Trump’s team says these tariffs will be here for the long haul, but can corporate CEOs count on those claims when they’re deciding to spend $400m on a new factory?

In announcing his huge new tariffs last Thursday, Trump proclaimed: “April 2, 2025 will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to make America wealthy again.” As usual, Trump failed to note some extremely important things.

Although he won’t admit it, the US is already very wealthy. If he were truly serious about fixing the economy and making it fairer, he wouldn’t be rushing to give massive tax cuts to the ultra-rich and sparking fears of vast cuts Medicaid and food stamps that struggling American families rely on.

What Trump and his team will never admit is that April 2, 2025 may for ever be remembered as the day the US economy took a grievous, Trump-induced tumble toward recession and higher prices. And not that Trump cares, but April 2, 2025 may also be remembered overseas for creating tremendous pain for struggling workers from Bangladesh to Lesotho to Honduras.

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#just for books#Trump administration#Opinion#Tariffs#US politics#Donald Trump#US economy#message from the editor
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Μέγας είσαι κύριε..., Και θαυμαστά τα έργα σου 😲 👀 🙏
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Η Μαρία Αντωνά δημοσίευσε στον προσωπικό της λογαριασμό στο Instagram, την Κυριακή 6 Απριλίου, φωτογραφίες, με την ίδια να στέκεται στα σκαλιά του Ιερού Ναού της Ευαγγελίστριας στην Τήνο, φορώντας μια μίνι μαύρη φούστα και ασορτί σακάκι. Σεμνή κ ξεβράκωτη 😲 😅 😂 🤣 Αμήν!

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Are Trump’s tariffs for real or an AI hallucination? I’m afraid the answer is both

Amid claims that a chatbot helped shape the key calculations, the president is now off playing golf. He’ll find the world economy in a bunker

There’s a scene in the very first episode of Yellowstone where the casino-owning Native American chief explains the basic financial logic of all casinos to an uncomfortable politician: “The gamblers’ money is like a river – flowing one way. Our way.” Oh no, hang on, wait … Not all casinos. In fact, it could be that when all is said and done, the historians looking for that one key fact to illustrate the eventual legacy of Donald Trump will not go with his two stunning presidential election wins. Instead, they’ll point out that in the 90s, he literally managed to bankrupt casinos. To repeat: this is a man who somehow contrived to bankrupt multiple casinos. Is he the guy to reshape the entire global economic order of the past century? Let’s find out! Either way, only 45 months of his presidency left to go.

Anyway: tariffs. Rather than using actual tariff data, the United States of America this week appeared to have genuinely used a basic ChatGPT-style model to calculate the tariffs it would immediately impose on friends/foes/arctic wildlife. This was called either “liberation day”, or the “declaration of economic independence” (sadly not abbreviated – yet – to DEI).

It was hosted in the White House Rose Garden by ancient gameshow MC Donald Trump, who was accidentally wearing his indoors makeup outdoors. Like many, I’ve tried to mentally detach from the fact that we live in a time when the US defence secretary has a neck tattoo or whatever, but it makes me feel at least partially alive that the presidential paint job still occasionally retains the power to horrify. Trump leered his way through his tariff presentation while appearing to have been made up by the technique that provided the climax to Joe Wilkinson’s RNLI speech on Last One Laughing (If you saw it, you know). It’s not so much foundation any more as cosmetic bukkake.

Forgive me, back to the economics. We know that Trump has always been obsessed with starkly simple numbers. Network TV ratings. The overall trade balance in goods (not services). And – before this week – the stock market. But now, like Bruno, we don’t talk about the stock market, no no no … Certainly not since it dropped 1,679 points in one day alone (the day after Trump announced the tariffs). Although please enjoy the pure hilarious happenstance of scheduling which meant that that day’s opening bell to signal the start of trading on Wall Street had been rung by the staff of wingnut media outlet Newsmax and Rudy Giuliani. Ding, dong – now just watch those stocks crap the bed. Seriously, Rudy – everything you touch! Then again we do have to remember that it was Trump himself who last year declared that “stock markets are crashing, jobs numbers are terrible, we are heading to World War III and we have two of the most incompetent ‘leaders’ in history. This is not good!!!”

Is he still marking presidencies on the same metrics? Alas, reporters are going to need to shout that inquiry over the fairways, as Trump has now repaired to one of his Floridian golf courses to host the first domestic event of 2025 on the Saudi-owned LIV Golf tour. It’s called class: look it up. And no doubt it’ll be fun discussing falling oil prices with whoever is over from Riyadh for the event.

Trump did offer one last comment on the tariffs before donning his big-boy golf pants. “The operation is over,” he said. “The patient lived, and is healing. The prognosis is that the patient will be far stronger, bigger, better and more resilient than ever before.” A speech I am positive I have heard delivered word-for-word on The Simpsons by ultra-shady physician Dr Nick. Meanwhile, in the back of shot, a Frankenfigure with a fish’s head grafted to a man’s body sits bolt upright, convulses wildly and dies within three foot of the operating table. Listen, you can’t save ‘em all.

Incidentally, Trump is not the only one reaching for medical metaphors. Take the chief economist at UBS Global Wealth Management, who this morning observed mildly: “We often hear that when the US sneezes the global economy catches cold. This is not the US sneezing. This is the US cutting off its own arm. The self-inflicted economic cost naturally weakens the dollar.” Mm. One indication that an economic plan is going badly is that there’s no one responding to the above by going “ooh, but is cutting off your arm even a bad thing?”. Different circumstances, of course, but there was a similar mood in the air in the UK after Liz Truss’s “mini-budget”.

Speaking of Blighty, Keir Starmer seems to have continued his policy of not poking the bear, and indeed to pretend to really enjoy it when the bear pokes you really hard somewhere really painful. According to Trump, Starmer is “very happy” about the 10% tariff kick he just took up the UK’s backside.

Still, perhaps there are already signs of slight directional pivots in the West Wing. Having watched global markets tumble while the White House absolutely insisted that the tariffs were not lazy ChatGPT-assisted gambits to provoke immediate trade negotiations, it wasn’t too long before Trump’s son Eric was venturing on to X with a take. “I wouldn’t want to be the last country that tries to negotiate a trade deal with @realDonaldTrump,” gibbered Trump minor. “The first to negotiate will win – the last will absolutely lose,” he continued. “I have seen this movie my entire life …” Weird, because I don’t remember this particular scene in the aforementioned Trump casino movie – or indeed several epic flops in the franchise.

Yet this was also a week where we were reminded that life is not just about the adult sons with whom we are saddled, but the adult sons we choose. Fire up the elegy muzak, then, for there is sadness in the air. Reports – hotly denied, which means nothing – suggest that Elon Musk will fairly soon be leaving his post at the “department of government efficiency” and returning to the private sector. Yeah, let that sink out. And then try to picture his Doge leaving party. “Sorry boys, tariffs mean we can only afford US beer. And, unfortunately, we eliminated spending on paper cups. On the plus side, the president’s makeup artist is just going to spray Bud Light in the general directions of your mouths, and she has a 30% accurate aim. Open wide, victors!”

All of which would seem to conclude this week’s look at Trump’s river, which a) is a river of effluent and b) only flows one way. Our way. What can I tell you? Buy shares in paddles today.

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#just for books#Donald Trump#Opinion#US politics#Tariffs#Trump tariffs#Elon Musk#message from the editor
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«Φανταζόσουν ότι θα έβγαινες στη σύνταξη ως τρομοκράτης;»

Το μυθιστόρημα «Το Σαββατοκύριακο» του Μπέρνχαρντ Σλινκ εξετάζει τις ηθικές και ιδεολογικές συνέπειες της πολιτικής βίας και της τρομοκρατίας, αναδεικνύοντας τις αμφιλεγόμενες αντιπαραθέσεις γύρω από το παρελθόν και το παρόν.

«Άραγε το είχες σκεφτεί ότι μπορεί να πας φυλακή; Το είχες λογαριάσει όπως ο υπάλληλος την απόλυση ή ο γιατρός μια μόλυνση; Επαγγελματικός κίνδυνος; Ή φανταζόσουν ότι θα συνέχιζες για πάντα και θα έβγαινες στη σύνταξη ως τρομοκράτης και θα σε φρόντιζαν στο γηροκομείο οι νεαροί ζηλωτές;» Οι ερωτήσεις πέφτουν σαν το χαλάζι και ο Γιοργκ, μέλος της Φράξιας Κόκκινος Στρατός, με είκοσι χρόνια σκληρής κάθειρξης πίσω του και άρτι ευεργετηθείς με προεδρική χάρη, αρκείται στο να ρίχνει αμήχανες ματιές στους πάλαι ποτέ φίλους του, συνδαιτημόνες του τώρα στο πρώτο ελεύθερο γεύμα του. Κι όσο το σφυροκόπημα συνεχίζεται –«Πώς ήταν ο πρώτος σου φόνος, Γιοργκ; Πού ήσουν όταν τον έκανες; Πήρες απ’ αυτόν κάποιο μάθημα για τη ζωή σου;»– τόσο πιο εύθραυστος και μπερδεμένος εμφανίζεται ο ίδιος…

Ο Γιοργκ δεν είναι άλλος από τον κεντρικό ήρωα του μυθιστορήματος «Το Σαββατοκύριακο» του Μπέρνχαρντ Σλινκ (μτφρ. Αλέξανδρος Κάιμπελ, εκδόσεις Κριτική, 2009). Ο Γερμανός συγγραφέας του «Διαβάζοντας στη Χάνα», πανεπιστημιακός καθηγητής Δημοσίου Δικαίου και Φιλοσοφίας του Δικαίου και δικαστής, επιχειρώντας γι’ άλλη μια φορά να σκαλίσει πληγές της πρόσφατης ιστορίας της πατρίδας του, καταπιάνεται εδώ με το ζήτημα της ένοπλης πάλης που κατέληξε σε τρομοκρατική υστερία, αποφασισμένος να ντύσει τον σχετικό κοινωνικό διάλογο με μυθιστορηματική πλοκή.

Η δράση στο «Σαββατοκύριακο» διαρκεί όσο κι ο τίτλος του βιβλίου και εκτυλίσσεται μέσα σ’ ένα παραδεισένιο, εξοχικό τοπίο, στη φθαρμένη από τον χρόνο έπαυλη όπου έχουν συγκεντρωθεί οι παλιοί φίλοι του πρωταγωνιστή. Η πρωτοβουλία της μάζωξης ανήκει στην αδελφή του Γιοργκ και οι αποδέκτες της πρόσκλησης –συμπαθούντες του αγώνα κάποτε, αν και για διαφορετικούς λόγους ο καθένας– συγκροτούν πια μια ανομοιογενή ομάδα βολεμένων αστών: ένας καταξιωμένος δημοσιογράφος, ένας δικηγόρος, μια μελίρρυτη επίσκοπος, μια δασκάλα που ονειρεύεται να γίνει συγγραφέας, ένας επιχειρηματίας-οδοντεχνικός.

Ανάμεσά τους, εντελώς απροσδόκητα, θα έρθει να προστεθεί κι ένας νεαρός, η ταυτότητα του οποίου θ’ αποκαλυφθεί με καθυστέρηση, ενώ «παρών» δηλώνει κι ένας σύγχρονος αντιεξουσιαστής, ο Μάρκο, που προσκολλάται σαν βδέλλα πάνω στον Γιοργκ για να του αποσπάσει μια δήλωση προς όσους «εξακολουθούν να τον πιστεύουν και να τον περιμένουν», ενώ αντιμάχονται τον παγκοσμιοποιημένο καπιταλισμό.

Άλλοι από τους προσκεκλημένους περιβάλλουν τον Γιοργκ με την αγάπη τους, άλλοι προσπαθούν να ικανοποιήσουν την περιέργειά τους, άλλοι αρπάζουν την ευκαιρία για ένα νοσταλγικό ταξίδι στο παρελθόν. Με εξαίρεση, όμως, τον Μάρκο, όλοι κρατούν τις αποστάσεις τους από τον παλιό τους σύντροφο, καθώς έχουν συμφιλιωθεί με την κοινωνία που ήθελαν στα νιάτα τους να καταστρέψουν κι έχουν αποδεχτεί το αδιέξοδο του φανατισμού και των δολοφονιών. Ο Μπέρνχαρντ Σλινκ μεταμορφώνει με την πένα του τους παραπάνω σ’ ένα ιδιότυπο σώμα ενόρκων και, πατώντας πάνω σε μάλλον σχηματικές δραματουργικές εντάσεις, αναδεικνύει τις ιδεολογικές αντιπαραθέσεις γύρω από το φαινόμενο της βίας – και της επαναστατικής αλλά και της κρατικής. Εκείνο που προτάσσει, όμως, είναι οι αξίες της μετάνοιας, της ατομικής ευθύνης και της συγγνώμης, σαν να λέει ότι δίχως αυτές δεν νοείται καμιά καινούργια αρχή.

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#just for books#Bernhard Schlink#Το Σαββατοκύριακο#book review
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