Closing the tabs ...
The United States is considering offers from 15 countries on tariff agreements and is close to deals with some of them, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on Thursday after President Donald Trump lowered some of the duties in a stunning reversal.
“USTR has informed us that there are maybe 15 countries now that have made explicit offers that we’re studying and considering and deciding whether they’re good enough to present the president,” Hassett told reporters at the White House.
Ed: The stock markets all saw some profit-taking today after yesterday's big surge, which was to be expected. All of the indices are tracking significantly lower than on April 2's "Liberation Day," which means they're still pricing in the effect of the trade war with China -- as well as the uncertainty around the 90-day 'pause' on other 'reciprocal' tariffs. The sooner that real trade agreements can be reached, the more that optimism will create a rebound.
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.@SecScottBessent: "We’ve got over 75 countries that want to come in" and negotiate a trade deal. pic.twitter.com/HF5nQtHl2U
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 10, 2025
Ed: 75+ that want to negotiate, and 15 that have offers on the table. In terms of profit-taking from a political point of view, this might also be a good moment.
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And after President Trump paused many new tariffs on Wednesday, the man he calls “my Peter” may be down. But he’s not out.
Apart from Trump, no one is more associated with the tariffs rocking the globe than Peter Navarro, the scrappy trade hawk who helped design the much-maligned formula for Trump’s reciprocal levies. He has Trump’s ear and his loyalty: As the president privately reminded a group in the Oval Office recently, Navarro went to jail for him.
Navarro, 75 years old, has been an unflagging influence as markets convulse and recession fears grow, helping craft Trump’s tariff policy and protect it against moderating voices in the administration. A former college professor and California Democrat plucked from obscurity to advise the 2016 campaign on China, Navarro’s view has held sway with the president for years.
Ed: Until this week, when the reaction to Navarro's view became very clear in the bond markets. This looks like a PR effort to salvage Navarro's credibility, or perhaps just to test it. By the way, Elon Musk was at the Cabinet meeting today, along with Cabinet secretaries Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick.
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Steve Moore: ‘I’m going to side … with Musk’ in Navarro spat - The Hill
— TooSaucyMedia (@TooSaucyMedia) April 10, 2025
Steve Moore, President Trump’s former senior economic adviser, backed tech billionaire Elon Musk’s position in his public spat with White House trade adviser Peter Navarro. “I’m going to side, on this one,… pic.twitter.com/t20Gh16vKH
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Former hedge fund manager and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — the White House’s main conduit to beleaguered financial markets — is now at the helm, with populist Peter Navarro relegated to the sidelines and Wall Street punching bag Howard Lutnick recast into the role of “bad cop,” according to three people close to the White House, granted anonymity to speak frankly about internal dynamics.
The diminished roles of Lutnick, the Commerce secretary who for weeks had been the administration’s point person for foreign leaders on tariffs, and Navarro, Trump’s trade adviser, reflect this week’s turmoil over Trump’s trade policy and a shift toward the “fair trade” policies Bessent has been advocating. One of the people, who is close to both Trump and Navarro, said the trade hawk still has the ear of the president, adding that Trump respects Navarro's aggressive populism, but that “doesn’t mean he’s at the center of it.” A second person said the White House believes it can leverage Lutnick’s difficult personality in negotiations.
Ed: We'll see, but at the very least, Navarro's approach has been sidelined, even if he hasn't been. That could change, of course; Trump has a mercurial approach on policy. The big backlash from the markets seems to have sobered Trump over the last few days, though.
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🚨 CNN: "Consumer prices month-over-month, so this was actually a DROP of .1% — that's the first time we've seen that since COVID. Year-over-year, the annual inflation rate was at 2.4%. This was also BETTER THAN EXPECTED and a 6-month low, moving in the right direction." pic.twitter.com/Hwp7gawKl7
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 10, 2025
Ed: As the Zen Master said ... we'll see. A respite in the rate of rise in prices might be a sign of strength over inflation, but it could also be the result of a recession, or at least an economic slowdown that would get blamed on Trump and his tariff policies over the past week. The same is true for the recent decline in oil prices, which do not seem to have any connection to a rational expectation of higher production in the near future.
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Sarah Palin and the New York Times are headed back to a courtroom where the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate will try convincing a second jury the newspaper defamed her in an editorial about gun control.
A retrial in Palin's nearly eight-year-old lawsuit is scheduled to begin on Monday in Manhattan federal court.
Ed: Those who haven't followed this closely may be surprised to see this come back. The NYT won in 2022, but the federal appeals court threw out the verdict over rulings made by the judge in the case that tainted the outcome. Palin alleges actual malice in an editorial that blamed her campaign materials for a shooting in Phoenix, even though that claim had been widely and thoroughly debunked by the time the NYT made the argument. Reuters notes that juries have become a lot more sympathetic to defamation claims, although they blame "social media" and siloing for that rather than the media's propagandizing and narrative manipulations.
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Things got heated between Tiffany Cross and Scott Jennings on CNN tonight.
— Thomas Hern (@ThomasMHern) April 10, 2025
"You got fired from your job." pic.twitter.com/umsAtabq7G
Ed: As much as I admire Scott Jennings, I have no idea what he's doing there and what CNN thinks this adds. These panels are only a slight intellectual improvement over "The View," with Jennings himself accounting for 95% of the improvement. The ritual emoting that takes place on these CNN panels makes the old "Crossfire" look like the even older "Firing Line." CNN would get better ratings playing an hour of traffic-crash videos than they get from these discussions. It certainly would prove more enlightening than the ear-splitting grandstanding on constant display.
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.@RepMcClintock: "Where do you currently live?"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 9, 2025
DEM WITNESS: "Florida."pic.twitter.com/0ncCdFZKfo
MCCLINTOCK: "I can't say that I blame you...Where do YOU live?"
REPUBLICAN WITNESS: "Chicago."
MCCLINTOCK: "So you're living with the problems created by the policies that have…
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