Musk makes Hitler Salute, Twice, the Media Don’t See It

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, made a Hitler salute, twice, at a Trump inauguration rally, on the telly, in front of everyone.

The media though did not quite see it; the Anti-Defamation League described it as an awkward gesture. Two awkward gestures would be more precise. Maybe, after all, Hitler was also just making awkward gestures, waving to his stormtroopers at the back of the hall perhaps, or wanting to show everyone his armpits. It is all very vague and uncertain. Maybe it was only a Roman salute. Not that the Romans ever did this. But the Neo Nazis seem to recognize it as something for them. They alone, what a surprise, can see clearly.

What are Trump's Tariffs?

Tariffs have been put forward as an economic balm for the US by President Trump. It is not so clear what exactly he means by tariffs, or whether he will stick to this policy, but we can make a stab at an explanation.

Most economists regard tariffs as a bad thing, but they are usually short on explanations why.

Tariffs seem to be understood by the new US administration as a way to bring in money, to, in a sense, punish foreign producers who undercut US prices, and to encourage the manufacture and purchase of US made goods and services.

But tariffs are usually placed upon the importer of the foreign goods, not the exporter, and this means in this case the US side, because the exporter is a foreign market, and their prices cannot normally be set by the importing country (the US here). Tariffs are therefore imposed at the point of the local importer. This has consequences: it usually leads to a rise in prices for the imported goods, because the importer now needs to make more money to cover costs.

It is possible that this could encourage more local production and help the local competition for this market, but there are usually good reasons for the foreign produced product being cheaper which may not be able to be repeated locally, it of course depends on many factors, but in any case this is unlikely to happen quickly. So, the immediate result of tariffs would be the inflation of prices in the US.

US citizens are already complaining about high inflation and the cost of living, and this is likely to make things worse.

Tariffs can be understood as a part of economic protectionism, and so perhaps of socialism, but in the capitalist economy it cannot really be socialist unless you also subsidise the local industries that you want to support with help from the government (or go the full route and nationalize them). However, this is obviously not the policy in the current US, where the federal government is under attack for being wastefully ‘too socialist’ or ‘woke’. Trump supports the free market inside the US apparently but is not a free marketeer globally.

The hope of this government is that tariffs will help boost local US productivity, somehow left unexplained, in the context of simultaneously stimulating other aspects of the market. The big idea, not a very new one, is to give tax cuts to the rich, who are described here as the ‘wealth creators’ (not oligarchs), and hope that these invest and employ people. Mere hope is not a great policy.

Unfortunately, this is what already failed to happen, by and large, in the last economic crisis when money was printed and interest rates were held very low, and which has led us to this crisis. Investors, of course, may not invest, instead they might squirrel away their wealth, which they are likely to do if they sense a crisis and if there is market uncertainty and volatility.

Meanwhile in the US there is also a parallel attack on illegal or undocumented immigrants, the cheaper labour that the US enjoys. This attack seems to be the partner with tariffs as a mooted solution to the economic crisis. Immigrants and refugees are said by the administration to be stealing US jobs and bringing in harmful drugs and criminality. The wall of tariffs mimics Trump’s border wall supposedly keeping out the immigrants.

However, it is the ruling class that benefits from employing this cheaper and easier to manipulate labour force. And now they also benefit from deflecting any possible blame for the crisis onto these vulnerable people and the ‘weaknesses’ of those on the left who are supposed to have ‘let them in’. It is quite despicable for the rich and powerful to target these unlucky people in this way, but they do it with the help of their media.

The rich class must feel that they have especially lost out on capital since the last crises and the pandemic and wish to claw back this apparently missing wealth and are seeking someone and something to blame for the problem other than themselves and the economic system. This is also an extension of the laying of the blame for the high cost of living on other countries and other persons, old allies and old enemies alike.

The last president, Democrat Joe Biden, did not remove most of Trump’s earlier tariffs, so this policy is not only that of this administration, but of the US bourgeoisie as a whole.

Tariffs are unlikely to stay isolated to one country. Other affected countries will have to respond in some way, the most likely being with their own tariffs, leading to a freezing up of the global capitalist market. The US is the world’s biggest economy though, so perhaps the US administration sees this fact as a buffer in the sense that it is likely to hurt others more than them.

But this can mean a trade war will result. A trade war can lead to greater friction between nations politically, and even eventually to actual war. One can already notice a more aggressive US policy towards foreign parties.