cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/19241243
Waving a big chart as a prop in the White House Rose Garden, Donald Trump suggested his new tariff plan was simple: “Reciprocal – that means they do it to us, and we do it to them. Very simple. Can’t get simpler than that.”
Perhaps a bit too simple. The method used to calculate the most important numbers in international trade, politics and economics has left some of the world’s leading experts shocked.
For each country, the White House looked up its trade in goods deficit for 2024, then divided that by the total value of imports. Trump, to be “kind”, said he would, however, offer a discount, so halved that figure. The calculation was even distilled into a formula.
Someone made it in excel in 10 minutes.
at $87,000 per minute.
Possibly using ChatGPT or another LLM.
Excel at least uses some sort of organizational schema. Those charts are thrown together completely at random.
No, there’s a formula. It’s just a transparently stupid one based on fallacious zero-sun thinking.