So .. Dow Jones down 4%, S&P 500 down 5%, Nasdaq down 6% today.
One would think there was another 9/11 or October 7 terrorist attack somewhere in the world, or a new and frightful pandemic breaking out.
But no, it’s just the President of the United States— foisting his kindergartner-level understanding of tariffs and international trade, on America’s financial markets, and the world at large.
What substantive harm has tiny, land-locked and impoverished Lesotho ever done to the United States? Its modest economy is going to be decimated (hit with 50% tariffs, see below).
31% for South Africa. 50% for Lesotho (the dark dot inside South Africa).
From Aljazeera.com:
The Trump administration has imposed a steep 50 percent tariff on Lesotho, a small, impoverished African nation of two million people – the highest tariff levied on any country. The measure delivers a severe blow to Lesotho’s economy, which relies heavily on exports for its modest $2bn gross domestic product (GDP). United States President Donald Trump, who mocked Lesotho last month as a country “nobody has ever heard of”, announced it as part of a sweeping set of “reciprocal tariffs” laid out on Thursday. Trump’s new tariffs were calculated based on the US trade deficit with each country, divided by the total value of imports from that nation. As a result, smaller economies with limited imports from the US – such as Lesotho and Madagascar – were hit hardest. Lesotho’s trade surplus with the US is largely driven by diamond and textile exports, including Levi’s jeans. In 2024, its exports to the US totalled $237m, accounting for more than 10 percent of its GDP, according to Oxford Economics.
(a high of 55 °F/ 13°C here in the city).