Heavy Tariffs Will Mean A Black Market
Canadian David Frum, the Atlantic journalist, warns that heavy tariffs will mean a black market. A 125% increase on the prices of iPhones, digital devices, electronic goods and all the billions of dollars’ worth of made in China stuff will generate smuggling corruption on a huge scale in the United States. The Trump tariffs will turn America into the home of hotbed corruption at so many levels. Combine this with the degradation of the rule of law under the Trump regime and you have a dystopian scene reminiscent of a Blade Runner movie.
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2025/04/david-frum-show-podcast/682271
US Will Be Hotbed Of Smuggling & Black Markets
The Trump regime DOJ will likely be so busy targeting political enemies of Donald Trump that black markets will boom in popularity. It will be like black market tobacco in Australia, where governments turn a blind eye to the sale of illegal cheap ciggies to the tune of $7 billion per annum. In the US, black markets will likely be worth $7 trillion a year. Every man, woman and child will be smuggling and buying stuff from black markets to avoid paying double and triple for everything. This will reduce the amounts raised by tariffs and the likelihood of renewed manufacturing of these goods.
Trump Macro Corruption At The Top
There will be the Trump macro corruption at the top with his cronies raking in billions from dodgy deals and insider trading. Plus, this huge injection of black market smuggling at the bottom. America will be a festering sore of illegal activity thriving in a post-truth and post-rule of law world. This is how all the Americans who voted for Trump must have wanted things to be. This is because they all knew he was a crook and liar. Nobody, except the most disengaged, could claim not to know the kind of guy Trump is. The fact that heavy tariffs will mean a black market is, perhaps, the celebration of free trade Americans want to see.
Trump Pausing Foreign Corruption Act Enforcement
“Section 1. Purpose and Policy. Since its enactment in 1977, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (15 U.S.C. 78dd-1 et seq.) (FCPA) has been systematically, and to a steadily increasing degree, stretched beyond proper bounds and abused in a manner that harms the interests of the United States. Current FCPA enforcement impedes the United States’ foreign policy objectives and therefore implicates the President’s Article II authority over foreign affairs.
The President’s foreign policy authority is inextricably linked with the global economic competitiveness of American companies. American national security depends in substantial part on the United States and its companies gaining strategic business advantages whether in critical minerals, deep-water ports, or other key infrastructure or assets.
But overexpansive and unpredictable FCPA enforcement against American citizens and businesses — by our own Government — for routine business practices in other nations not only wastes limited prosecutorial resources that could be dedicated to preserving American freedoms, but actively harms American economic competitiveness and, therefore, national security. “
If you believe the above you probably believe in fairy tales and that slavery was good for African Americans. Trump and his extremist minions are crooks and they are paving the way for a festival of kleptocracy. The Trump regime will be taking their kickbacks from the criminal element and law and order will be set back decades. It is going to be a terrible America run by corrupt officials who are loyal to Trump the mob boss.
“OK so how does this play out? The price of everything goes up wildly. Isn’t that called inflation? American consumers pay out trillions of dollars in tariff taxes to the Trump regime, as the importers raise their prices to recover their increased costs. Eventually, if there are locally produced alternatives in the market they may choose to buy these instead. Some will just stop purchasing that item if that is an option. The cost of living rises substantially forcing more people into poverty. However, DOGE cut government services no longer exist to help those folk.”
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
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