Tariffs are on! No they're off! It's almost like the idiocy is intentional

(Jake checks stock market as it opens at 8:30am. Sees DOW is down around 75, thinks little of it, goes back to other things).

(Jake checks back a half-hour later, sees this).

So I started frantically searching for headlines to explain that jump. Didn’t see much at first glance, but then I noticed this story.

The Trump administration on Tuesday said it would delay U.S. tariffs on popular electronic goods such as iPhones, Xboxes and laptops that are made in China on the same day the government reported the biggest increase ever recorded in the price of computers.

A 10% tariff was set to take effect on September on an additional $300 billion in Chinese imports that included many consumer products omitted from earlier round of U.S. duties. For the first time cell phones, computers and video-game consoles would have been subject to the tariffs.

Now those tariffs will be delayed until Dec. 15, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said Tuesday. The U.S. is also exempting certain toys, clothing and footwear until shortly before Christmas.

The White House had been under pressure from Silicon Valley to delay or rescind the tariffs, with companies saying they would have to raise prices ahead of the Christmas shopping season.

How convenient. Trump using the threat of tariffs to practically guarantee an interest rate cut at the next Fed meeting in September, and then saying “nevermind” after the stock market tanks and the threat of recession rises.

I’ve seen this routine far too many times in the last year. When the Trump Administration leaks out reports that they have some kind of trade talks with the Chinese, Wall Streeters respond by bidding up the market. When those talks inevitably fall through and/or Trump announces some other kind of trade restraint, those gains go away as the market tanks.

It’s almost like a lot of people in TrumpWorld know they can move the market and manipulate the coke fiends traders, and are using these rumors and statements to cash in on a classic “pump-and-dump” scheme. Almost….

Sounds like something Maxine Waters and the rest of the House Financial Services Committee might want to ask a few questions on.