“Remember tariffs are a tax, and they’re primarily a consumer tax,” Scaramucci added. It’s “a consumption tax, sort of like a VAT [value-added tax]. And that’s a regressive tax. So what ends up happening is the poor people — it eats up more of their disposable income than any other income group.”
“Tariffs are actually — we’ve had a lot of experience with them. They’re an act of war, to some degree,” Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) CEO Warren Buffett said in a new CBS News interview on Sunday.
I think you might be onto something there, still remains in favour of individual capitalists against national capital - and is usually something, the state is supposed to prevent (it’s jobs in capitalism are mostly preventing class conflict between bourgeoisie and proletariat just as much as conflict between individual capitalists hurting the economy at large).
But this now feels like 19th century economics from before understanding the nature of crises, and 19th century “sphere of influence” geopolitics all in one.
Here’s hoping they end up shooting themselves in the foot by underestimating the consequences of their actions.