The Trump Administration Economic Plan
By One of my big questions about the slashing and burning of the government is what the slashers and burners see as the eventual equilibrium. What kind of government do they want to see?
Ezra Klein interviews Gillian Tett, who is very helpful on that question. (gift link)
She’s an economics columnist at the Financial Times and a member of its editorial board. Tett has always had a very interesting approach because she doesn’t come at it just from the perspective of economics — she has a Ph.D. in anthropology, which I think is useful for understanding the Trump administration and geopolitics right now.
Apparently the economics types in the Trump administration have a theory behind the slash and burn. They want to upend the current economic order and substitute something I don’t understand well, and it sounds like they haven’t fully worked it out either. It seems to be a mixture of raw power and mercantilism. Which may be a justification of Donald Trump’s delusions or something beyond that.
But it’s not their guys who are on the ground slashing and burning, but rather Elon Musk’s, who are more driven by hatred of DEI and the idea that Nazis are good, actually. They’ve also, like Trump, indulged in the fallacy of the last move on tariffs and are currently being surprised that other nations would do such a dastardly thing!
That’s a quick overview. I might have some things wrong, and I definitely need some time to think out some of the arguments. But I don’t have time to do that right now, and I wanted to get this article out to you. I hope I can get to it over the weekend.