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Steve Rattner explained all the intricacies of Trump’s tariffs. Most importantly, what must be done going forward to prevent the further destruction of the economy.
The inconvenient truth about tariffs.
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Podcasts (Video — Audio)
Summary
The video critiques the harmful effects of tariffs on the American working class, highlighting how both neoliberal Democrats and conservatives enabled the offshoring of jobs and manufacturing. It underscores that regressive tariff policies, especially under Trump, hurt workers domestically and globally while enriching corporations and shielding the powerful. Steve Rattner’s analysis screams for progressive alternatives to rebuild the economy from the bottom up.
Key Bullet Points:
- Tariffs disproportionately harm working-class Americans by raising prices and failing to bring back lost jobs.
- Both major parties enabled offshoring and deindustrialization through neoliberal economic policies.
- Trump’s trade war caused significant financial damage, including $6+ trillion lost in stock market value.
- Poor countries like Bangladesh and South Africa face devastating tariff rates, exposing the cruelty and incoherence of current policy.
- Progressive solutions proposed include public investment, price controls, and a worker-centered manufacturing policy.
This video lays bare the bipartisan betrayal of the American worker and the cynical scapegoating that fuels regressive trade policy. Instead of punitive tariffs and empty nationalism, progressives must lead with bold, equitable solutions that rebuild domestic capacity, prioritize labor over capital, and extend solidarity beyond U.S. borders.
Premium Content (Complimentary)
Tariffs have long been sold to the American public as a tool for protecting domestic industry, restoring lost manufacturing jobs, and punishing so-called “cheaters” in global trade. But beneath the populist rhetoric and surface-level appeal lies an inconvenient truth: Tariffs, particularly as wielded by demagogues like Donald Trump, are blunt instruments that inflict disproportionate pain on the working class while shielding the powerful. They serve as a form of economic theater—rich in political posturing but poor in delivering sustainable progress for working people.
Steve Rattner’s breakdown of the consequences of Trump’s tariff-driven trade war underscores a painful reality. The idea that the U.S. can impose tariffs to bring back a golden era of American manufacturing is not only economically naïve—it’s dangerous. As Rattner notes, the economic damage is tangible and quantifiable: $6 trillion in lost stock market value since the onset of Trump’s economic policies and tariff threats, with the U.S. projected to suffer the worst long-term GDP impact among major trading nations. These policies, far from bringing jobs back home, are escalating prices for everyday Americans while disrupting global supply chains in ways that primarily harm workers and the poor both here and abroad.
Tariffs are often marketed as patriotic, but they are rarely deployed in a way that genuinely prioritizes national or human interests. Instead, they become another means of serving the elite while dressing up exploitation in the flag. Historically, America’s political and economic elite—Republican and Democrat alike—have presided over a bipartisan neoliberal consensus that has offshored jobs, busted unions, and gutted the social safety net, all while preaching the gospel of “free markets.” And when the predictable backlash arrived, figures like Trump stepped into the breach with the illusion of populist economic nationalism. But it’s a scam. As Rattner points out, Trump’s tariffs are not only economically ruinous but morally reprehensible, targeting some of the poorest countries in the world—Bangladesh at 37%, South Africa at 30% —under a pseudoscientific rationale based on trade deficits, not equity or fairness.
Let’s be clear: Trade deficits are not inherently bad and are certainly not proof of exploitation or cheating. They are complex reflections of a globalized economy that cannot be meaningfully reshaped by punitive measures alone. Yet Trump’s administration and many misguided centrists continue to rely on outdated, nationalist logic rather than invest in structural transformation.
Progressives must champion an alternative vision. One that acknowledges the neoliberal betrayal of the working class but goes beyond finger-pointing. We must call for an industrial policy that puts people before profits, investing in green manufacturing, cooperative ownership models, and unionized jobs with living wages. The state must play a proactive role in this transformation. That means publicly financing the reindustrialization of key sectors, from renewable energy to semiconductors, with strict labor standards and community oversight.
Instead of giving tax breaks to corporations that have spent decades abandoning American workers, the government must offer capital to worker-owned enterprises, leverage federal purchasing power to support domestic suppliers, and implement price controls to prevent profiteering during the transition. As the video suggests, if corporations refuse to build factories and reinvest in the U.S., the public sector should do it. The American people, organized through democratic institutions, must be empowered to produce, distribute, and benefit from the wealth they create.
Moreover, we must resist the neoliberal framing that suggests globalization is irreversible simply because “the genie is out of the bottle.” The truth is that globalization, as it currently exists, is not some natural phenomenon—it is the result of political choices made by elites. It can and must be reshaped by new choices: by a Green New Deal that retools supply chains around sustainability and justice; by trade agreements that prioritize workers’ rights and environmental protections rather than corporate IP enforcement; and by solidarity with the Global South, not economic warfare against it.
What’s needed is political will. As the host rightly argues, the American government will not act unless we, the people, force it to. That requires a mass movement rooted in labor, climate justice, racial justice, and economic democracy, pushing for a bold agenda that leaves neoliberalism and nationalist reaction behind.
The real scandal isn’t that tariffs don’t work. It’s that leaders continue to rely on them instead of pursuing the systemic changes that the moment demands. America doesn’t need more economic brinkmanship. It requires a transformative vision grounded in solidarity, justice, and collective power.
In this time of economic uncertainty and global instability, we must resist the siren call of economic nationalism and instead focus on building an inclusive, equitable economy—one that benefits the many rather than the few.
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