The Trade Wars: You Are Not Prepared
We all know the ancient Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times!
Oh, OK, it’s not ancient and it’s not Chinese, but it’s a good curse, nonetheless. And it’s hard to think of a more apt description of 2025 than “interesting.”
It seems like every day this year there’s been a new, blockbuster story to displace yesterday’s blockbuster story from the 24/7 doomscroll feed.
Israel is preparing a “Hell Plan” for Gaza.
The EU is creating its own army and setting up its own nuclear deterrence.
A 108-year-old Japanese woman has just been recognized as the world’s oldest female barber.
Truly, we are living in world-historical times.
Given all of these amazing events, it would be easy to overlook the decidedly less sexy story about tariffs and trade disputes. But if we do ignore the global trade war that is currently brewing, we run the risk of overlooking one of the most important stories of all.
As we shall see, the trade war isn’t just a spat over the flow of fentanyl or the price of aluminum. It’s about the future of the global economy, and, ultimately, the next Great Powers war. In other words, the future of you, your family and civilization itself is on the line here.
Today, let’s explore what’s happening, why it’s happening and what you can do about it.
THE TRADE WAR STARTS
Oh, what a difference a week makes!
Just last week, the stock markets were riding high, the banksters were predicting solid global economic growth in 2025 and Canadians and Americans thought some booing at a hockey game was about as vicious as things were going to get between the two countries this year.
Cut to this past Thursday: the Dow Jones was down 1,300 points, banksters were slashing their economic predictions and Canadians had already started boycotting Kentucky bourbon and threatening to cut off energy exports to their neighbour to the south.
So, what happened? A trade war happened, that’s what.
Specifically, the deep state that operates the puppet known as Donald Trump enacted a 25% tariff on Canadian and Mexican goods and a 20% tariff on Chinese goods because of . . . *checks notes* . . . fentanyl? . . . or dairy? . . . or cars? . . . or something. The point is, Canada and Mexico have been taking advantage of Uncle Sam, and it’s about time they pay! What idiot signed this horrible Canada-US-Mexico trade agreement, anyway?
Oh, right.
Well, never mind all that! The war is over! Trump’s deep state handlers have promised (another) one month pause on (some of) the tariffs!
. . . Nah, just kidding! The war continues. Less than 24 hours after announcing the pause comes the threat that Uncle Sam will be hitting Canadian dairy and lumber with new tariffs today. (Or maybe Tuesday.)
Regardless of which tariffs do or don’t kick in on which particular dates, we’re about to learn a funny thing about trade wars: you can start them with a simple declaration but you can’t end them the same way. The US may or may not be “pausing” its tariffs, but Canada is keeping its first wave of retaliatory tariffs in place and renewing its threat of a second round of tariffs in April. China, meanwhile, is vowing to fight back even harder after accusing the US of “two-faced acts” and of “meeting good with evil.”
And that war is expanding. After Trump’s threats last month to levy 25% tariffs on products from the EU, the EUreaucrats have fired back, mulling a number of countermeasures, including “block[ing] agricultural products containing pesticides banned in the region.” (But relax, everyone! The “Make America Healthy Again” administration is going to get rid of all those poisonous pesticides anyway, right?!)
Now China is hitting back . . . at Canada? Tha
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LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
