Trump’s Terrifying Tariff-Taxes! The Coffee Klatch for Saturday, April 5, 2025

Friends,Today Heather and I take a look at the economic emergency Trump created this week with his gargantuan tariffs on imports. It’s the largest peacetime tax hike in American history — and one that keeps rising as other countries retaliate by raising tariffs on our exports to them. It’s all based on another Trump lie — this one, that the tariffs will cause global corporations to create good manufacturing jobs in America. But, as Heather and I discuss, the major reason our manufacturing jobs paid so well from the 1950s through the 1970s was that most manufacturing workers were in unions. That gave them bargaining power to demand high wages. This is no longer the case. Not only have unions been clobbered by Trump, Musk, and their billionaire buddies, but new AI-powered technologies will eliminate the need for most manufacturing workers to begin with. Talk about a manufactured crisis!Please pull up a chair, grab a cuppa, take our poll, and join the conversation. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertreich.substack.com/subscribe