Thought the 4 trillion dollar loss in value was a disaster. Now it’s 11 trillion dollars.

MAGA expects a bunch of businesses to come to the US and suddenly start manufacturing? That’s not how the modern economy works. Crashing the spending capacity of consumers and breaking the supply chains manufacturing requires, is not going to attract business. The opposite is going to occur.

Historians are going to debate why the US went crazy in 2024, and voted to commit moral and economic suicide. And why the democracy failed to save itself from tyranny.

Watch Adam Mckay’s Vice to see how Cheney messed with the US laws after September 11th, 2001. I think a good order to watch his political films in are Vice, The Big Short, and then Don’t Look Up. These are films about disasters, two historical, one of them allegorical.

The USA has the 25th Amendment, which supposedly allows the VP and the Cabinet to remove the president from power by preparing a written statement to Congress. That would make J.D. Vance acting president, however, and I'm not sure that is an improvement. An acting vice-president would also be chosen at that time. There are also no snap/special elections for President. Presidential elections can only be held the first Thursday of every fourth November under the 25th Amendment, and at no other time. Vance would be acting president until 2028, at which time he would likely run unless he's such an unmitigated disaster that even he doesn't want to try or that the government or his party lets him know that it is in his best interests to not run.  And I'm guessing that besides the fact that Vance and the Cabinet are just as horrible as their boss, they're also cognizant of the fact that removing Trump from office would have every right-wing lunatic from Texas to Florida baying for their hides.

Other than that, no. There's no such thing as a "no confidence vote". Your governor-general is the proxy for your head of state (the King), while your prime minister is the head of government. In the U.S., the president is both head of state and head of government.  He can only otherwise be removed by a lengthy impeachment process where the threshold of conviction in the Senate is far too high (67 out of 100 Senators). And again, in the 0.001% chance they got a conviction, that would not trigger any kind of election until the regular presidential election in 2028. Vance would serve out the rest of Trump's term. That is part of why presidential elections have Americans at each others' throats every 4 years. You're stuck with the winner, during that time, no matter who it is, and a lot of damage can be done within 4 years.

As for your upcoming elections, I hope Australians are paying attention to the U.S. and Canada. Peter Dutton and Gina Rinehart are basically your version of Trump and Musk. I would not trust either one of them to keep any promises they make. Albo and Labor need to make that crystal clear to the Australian electorate.

Imagine willingly making this convicted felon your economic advisor.  He is literally just saying words...and nothing more. 

China on Wednesday said it would increase its reciprocal tariffs on U.S. goods to 84% from 34% previously, amid a deepening trade war between the world's two largest economies.

China to raise reciprocal tariffs on U.S. goods to 84%

But Trump told me that China was begging for a phone call and kissing his ass.

Same here in Canada. Last year was good investing after a couple slower years, finally rebounding from the pandemic. So I'm now paying (extra) taxes over the capital gains from that, while those gains have already largely evaporated since Trump started with his tarif nonsense. Guess I'll get a tax return next year for capital losses, but this year I'm basically paying double since installments are based on prior year taxes.

Bit of extra money for holiday and home improvement turned into dipping into decreasing investments to pre pay next year taxes based on gains that will be gone soon. Basically put any home improvement on pause until next year's tax return.

And likely many more people are in the same situation, either from savings declining and/or the rising cost of prices, hence recession imminent :/

This market shake up couldn't come at a worse time.

I don't have crypto at least (never will). Still got my morals.

Brussels is watching amazed, as Trump destroys the US economy. "Nobody in the Commission thought that the US government would be this stupid and self-destructive," an EU official tells me. "That they would blow up their own country by letting ChatGPT make their trade policy." 🧵

EU officials are quietly preparing brutal countermeasures — but they're in no rush.

Markets are doing the work for them. Here's what's happening behind the scenes: 📜📌

Trump's chaos is collapsing the US markets faster than any EU retaliation could.

Inside the Commission and among EU governments, the mood is: Don't give Trump an excuse to blame this on others.

Since February, the S&P 500 has dropped 20%.

European officials believe Trump's trade chaos is backfiring — and see no reason to escalate while the damage grows organically.

Inside the Commission and among EU trade ministers, the mood is calm — almost mocking.

"We'll just let them stew," another senior official says.

"If Trump doesn't blink by the end of the month, we're ready to hit hard." But for now? They'll watch him sweat.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck summed up the mood: "We're under no time pressure. The Americans are under pressure and are now in a position of weakness," he said. "The damage can get even worse — that's why we must act calmly, carefully, but decisively."

Habeck also mocked Elon Musk's call for a US-EU "zero-tariff" deal:

"It's sign of weakness and fear. If he has something to say, he should go to his President... Before we talk about zero tariffs, stop the nonsense and mess you just made in the last week."

Jakob Hanke Vela on X:

EU is going for the "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake" and watching America and China fight to the death, Lmao.

Walmart scraps quarterly operating income forecast, citing Trump’s tariffs

Delta CEO says Trump tariffs are hurting bookings as airline pulls 2025 forecast

Developments in the last 24 hours suggest we may be headed for serious financial crisis wholly induced by US government tariff policy.

Long-term interest rates are gapping up, even as the stock market moves sharply downwards. This highly unusual pattern suggests a generalized aversion to US assets in global financial markets. We are being treated by global financial markets like a problematic emerging market.

This could set off all kinds of vicious spirals, given government debts and deficits and dependence on foreign purchasers.

The only way to mitigate these risks is for the President @realDonaldTrump to back off his current path. This is the first US bout of US financial instability caused by the US government.

Lawrence H. Summers on X

Ok what’s going on here?

Yields are going up which means bond prices are going down.
Fewer buyers of the world’s safest asset.

Normally when the economy slows, there’s a flight to safety, not away from it.

Means the world may be abandoning America.

We are flirting with a true crisis.

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— Jesse Eisinger (@jeisinger.bsky.social) 9 April 2025 at 03:36

U.S. Treasuries extended heavy losses on Wednesday in a sign investors are dumping even their safest assets as a global market rout unleashed by U.S. tariffs takes an unnerving turn towards forced selling and a dash for the safety of cash."This is beyond fundamentals right now. This is about liquidity," said Jack Chambers, senior rates strategist at ANZ in Sydney.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield , the globe's benchmark safe-haven anchor, was unmoored and long bonds were the focus of intense selling from hedge funds which had borrowed money to bet on usually small gaps between cash and futures prices.

It shot higher even as traders ramped up expectations for U.S. rate cuts and, in another signal of dislocation in markets, the dollar fell against the euro and yen.

At 4.46% the 10-year yield was up 20 basis points in Asia and some 60 basis points from Monday's low.

A three-day rise of nearly 60 basis points in 30-year yields , which spiked above 5%, would mark - if sustained - the heaviest selloff since 1981. Large, but smaller rises in yield hit sovereign bonds in Japan and Australia.

Warning signals had been flashing for a few days as spreads between Treasury yields and swap rates in the interbank market collapsed under the weight of bond selling.

Hedge funds were at the heart of it because their lenders could no longer stomach the 'basis trade' - large positions betting on small differences between cash Treasuries and futures prices as markets started to swing on tariff headlines.

"When the prime broker starts tightening the screws in terms of asking for more margins or saying that I can't lend you more money, then these guys obviously will have to sell," said Mukesh Dave, chief investment officer at Aravali Asset Management, a global arbitrage fund based in Singapore.

The highest U.S. tariffs in more than a hundred years came into force on Wednesday and strategists said a broader debate about the future of Treasuries as the centre of the global financial universe was underway.

"The UST sell-off may be signaling a regime shift whereby U.S. treasuries are no longer the global fixed-income safe haven," said Ben Wiltshire, G10 rates trading desk strategist at Citi.

Global bond rout starting to sound market alarm bells | Reuters

Good to see that Europe isn't bending the knee. Great to see China retaliate.