IS TRUMP ABOUT TO SURRENDER?

Paul Krugman seems to think so. In his latest Substack column, he relates some highly irregular financial decisions that have recently taken place. To wit: "Scott Bessent told a closed-door investor summit Tuesday that the tariff standoff with China cannot be sustained by both sides."

At that meeting, Bessent "declared that the enormous tariffs Trump imposed on China will soon be reversed."

Not only, Krugman suggests, does the meeting amount to "a huge ethical breach" on Bessent's part, it also represents "a capitulation equivalent to surrender." Accordingly, smart investors

will look at [Trump's] U-turns and conclude that he runs away when confronted. Why would China [cooperate with the US] now that it knows that Trump can be rolled? On the contrary, China will be  even less likely than before to make concessions. And other countries will be more willing to stand up to Trump and more likely to make deals with Beijing.

Krugman concludes, because of Trump's inability to enunciate or maintain a coherent trade policy,  “[w]e are, in short, in a worse position than we were before Trump began his tariff bluster."