BRACE YOURSELF FOR THE TRADE WARS, ETC., STARTING TODAY! By Gene W. Edwards. Posted 2/3/2025.

You’ll first notice the effect of the trade wars today, Monday 2/3/2025, a Trump 25% tariff on Canada and on Mexico. Tariffs on China as well. When I woke up very early this morning, NASDAQ futures were down 700 points and are now down 484.75 points. It may be a long day, and a good day to do make no trades in the financial markets. NASDAQ is again courting a 1,000-points-down day, soon if not today.

China and many other countries, if not all, will also soon be experiencing our trade war. Make no mistake, a tariff is a tax, an import tax. Prior to 1913 and the income tax, the USA financed circa 90% of its entire budget via import taxes. This is not unlike England’s tea tax export to the American colonies, a tax benefitting Britain. The tax was allegedly unbearably high. Maybe that’s when we started drinking coffee instead.

In our case, our government will keep — add to its treasury — the 25% tariff tax and then the importer will be forced to add that tax to the price of its imports or lose money. Can you spell inflation? It is spelled “i m p o r t t a x”. If you thought we had inflation before, brace yourself for the hangover the morning after. As for the exporter country selling products here, demand for its products will diminish by no small percentage. My take: people will buy less, buy used, make do (buy nothing), or buy American-made products instead, which is Trump’s goal. Trump’s unspoken goal is also to buoy up our…