39 Comments
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Deirdre Browner's avatar

Very smart and helpful in understanding the likely economic impact of the Trump tariffs. I hope that Paul is right in his estimation of the percentage of Americans that knowingly voted for this, that only every third person in the country is authoritarian instead of half. Either is mind boggling to me, but I live in a blue part of California. Do we wait to see how quickly and how much Trump's approval ratings fall? Any predictions on a tipping point?

The Bulwark is now a part of my daily read/listen and I very much appreciate what you do.

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Mary Susan Hunter's avatar

I tend to lean towards Paul’s analysis of the electorate which although grim is a little bit less grim than JVL’s. Interesting point that many of the western democracies have a certain percent of their electorate with autocratic tendencies, but because of the multi-party systems that exist in most of them it is easier to define about what percentage as opposed to our two party system that many people, including myself are often frustrated with.

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Christopher Barden's avatar

Really appreciate JVL's journalism.

My first real impression of the Bulwark team was watching a discussion between JVL and Tim regarding Trump's pre-inauguration crypto scam. At first, I misinterpreted JVL's remarks about people who bought the Trump memecoin and wrote an email to Bulwark about it. Got a very thoughtful response and winded up buying a subscription. (Good work, Jim.)

Now a bona fide JVL fan and appreciate the fact that despite his informed pessimism about what is currently happening in our country, the Bulwark team continues to get out informative interviews and news at such a fast pace.

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Oregon Larry's avatar

It's late and I haven't read the comments below, but THAT WAS AWESOME! And I subscribe to Paul's column and read it daily. Two geniuses melding their minds. Thank you, both JVL and Paul.. I am a better person!

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Scott Smith's avatar

The only people who can be described as having revealed a preference for authoritarianism are the people who voted for Trump on the primary, when the alternative was a non- or anti-authoritarian Republican. Others might simply see authoritarianism as the lesser of two evils compared to a Democrat.

Instead of banging your head over such voters not getting that actually whatever wrong headed policy package the Democrat might advance is the lesser of two evils compared to authoritarianism, consider that a different voting system might make that preference irrelevant. If Democratic voters' preferences among Republicans would be counted, any nontrivial portion of Republicans opposing authoritarianism would combine with Democrats' preferences for anti-authoritarian Republicans over authoritarian Republicans to ensure that no authoritarian would ever win.

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Lalla Ward's avatar

Terrific. Illuminating. Clear. Terrifying.

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Albert Akhmetov's avatar

Hello JVL,

I don't want to be alarmist, but I've seen this post on Twitter.

https://x.com/Justin_Halford_/status/1912031133140664623

And I wonder if it's time to demand proof of life of Abrego Garcia and Hernandez Romeo

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Jackie Banks's avatar

Headlines: TRUMP MAKES SMUGGLING GREAT AGAIN!!!!

Since trump has made following the law “optional” why should anyone acknowledge the tariffs? Who is even available to determine whether or not these tariffs are paid????

The rest of the world should just unite and isolate the US until it reigns in it’s corrupt chaos causing narcissistic “strongman”!!!

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Aviva Patt's avatar

I’m not concerned with whether we can come back to the center or normality. I’m 100% certain that we will. My concern is all the people who will suffer, perhaps die, before the nation wakes up to what is going on. How much irreparable damage will be done to some people’s lives before we gat back to normal?

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Mirabelle's avatar

We're already seeing a rise in investments in other currencies. How many people can pay higher prices, instead of curtailing spending which contributes to a recession?

Trump supporters will more likely respond to a damaged economy more than the deportations, since they don't believe they could happen to them, where a worsened economy affects them immediately.

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Terence Rafferty's avatar

When Trump tries to shut down peaceful public protest against him …

let’s all just make damn sure we keep protesting.

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Debra K's avatar

💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯

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Katinka's avatar

Really great interview, I loved hearing from Paul Krugman on this crisis. And the clear articulation of low negative results, medium and high I think could probably prove very prescient.

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DanceThisMessAround's avatar

This was so good and thank you to Mr. Krugman for calling out the challenges in operationalizing the tariffs. I commented before that I know of two boutique customs brokers that are giving up and shutting down. They cannot retool to support the requirements. This means smaller businesses will suffer as they require more attention, the big guns will charge more and take longer to process.

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Christine's avatar

As a country that operates largely on credit, antagonizing the nation that holds our debt doesn’t seem like a brilliant idea.

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Democracy Lover's avatar

Could cryptocurrency become the world’s currency? Now that Trump is a crypto billionaire, couldn’t that be a goal of his?

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Stephanie Bourne's avatar

Seems crypto threads all over the place between different powerbrokers who want just that -- Don Jr, Musk and the usual Techbros, definitely Vance, dictators like Bukele, etc.

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Kentuckistan's avatar

oh ya

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Nathan Gervais's avatar

"will we have 2026 midterms?" is the question I keep asking.

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Anne Logan's avatar

And if we even have midterms, will they be meaningless?

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