It’s the economy stupid

This is a great episode. It summarizes the havoc of global tariff-based trade war:

There’s a crystalized observation midway through where PJ Vogt asks the guest Brendan Greeley (professor of history, economy) about the nature of our national debt. Currently Europe and Asia own 30% of it; it would take us 7 years in current tax rates to pay back 1 year of that debt. But here’s the kicker:

“Why would we now choose to go to (economic) war with our lien-holder?”

How stable-genius of a decision is that really? Regardless of how much we’ve allegedly been “ripped off” by said countries. In retaliation, those countries have begun selling off our treasury bonds, cratering the yield for the first time in like 50 years.

When Greeley says (and other experts, generally) he’s worried about worldwide market collapse, I believe him.

Ostensibly, the thought on everyone’s mind in Washington lately is deficit. It’s what the president ran on. It’s what his DOGE team of chaotic, traumatizing, and largely illegal team of misfits sought to attack across multiple agencies, privacy rights be damned. It’s also what his “big beautiful bill” pays lip service to, though it will add a tremendous amount of debt to our country in the form of permanent tax cuts that benefit the top 1% the most, while cutting services like healthcare to the majority of people that need it the most.

Sure, “it’s the economy, stupid.” Seems that George was talking in a mirror.