Quote Originally Posted by Med Pie View Post
Trump wants a weak $$$$ to make imports cheaper but, he will penalise imports by levying massive tariffs, said to be, to encourage people to buy American so I suppose it could work on two levels.

Cheap imports where massive tariff is collected - win

Discourages importation and creates a demand for home produced goods which will create jobs - win

He can probably get away with holding the value of the $ down to some extent because most Americans don't travel abroad. I read a stat that said 85% of Americans don't even have a passport.

What do I know.
Weak dollar will make imports more expensive. Tariffs will make everything more expensive (= inflation).

Tariffs also protect weak industries from competition and stimulate uncompetitive investments. They are always counterproductive in the long term.

Creating jobs in industries your country isn't competitive in is a road to nowhere. It will never result in higher exports (you can't compete so nobody will be buying your stuff) so it just makes those products and services more expensive locally while the rest of the world pays less - and so becomes more competitive than you in other places (cost of living and cost of business is lower for them).

It's just bad economics. Investment should go into industries where the US can be competitive, same as every other country.