musk is not "saving" anything. he's slamming the brakes on the economy

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2. There's no theoretical economic benefit from tariffs the way he's doing them

If tariffs were expected to be in place long term -- not even necessarily right now, but in the future -- then businesses could plan and build or expand u.s. manufacturing and such.

But with Donnie's on again, off again approach, why would anyone risk a capital expense that could be a money-loser depending on what mood Donnie is in down the road?

Of course, he's doing this as a shakedown. Affected industries need to kick back something to Donnie, or otherwise please him, to adjust policy. This is why he loves tariffs -- it gives him a tool to reward or punish industries or even individual businesses.

That's just businesses that were chugging along fine then tariffs came along and messed it up, so now they have to pay Donnie to fix the problem he created. Why would a business build a plant predicated on a certain tariff policy, they would be committing to being at his mercy.