Tax Americana

I've been doing my best to channel The Dude and abide as Trump smashes the china shop with massive and widespread tariffs, because it's been nigh-on impossible to know with certainty what his end game is. Notorious for saying wild stuff that he doesn't even acknowledge, let alone honor, later, Trump keeps everyone guessing.

Two months ago, I offered some possibilities. Today, I repeat and expand.

• Tariffs as leverage to pry open foreign markets.

• Tariffs as a means of distorting markets in favor of domestic production.

• Tariffs as a revenue stream.

• Tariffs as a foreign policy cudgel, meant to prompt certain behaviors from other nations.

I've been abiding, even as my stock portfolio lost a year's worth of gains, and as tariff chaos threatens the global economy.

Then a friend offered a one-word observation, and the uncertainties diminished substantially.