Just over a week ago, before the proverbial tariff fecal matter struck the rotating market object, we warned that cracks were starting to appear in the credit market…

Credit starting to crack.
Finally the Fed is about to wake up pic.twitter.com/1azfoGABPH

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 31, 2025

…a week later, things started to ‘escalate quickly’…

And while stocks have rebounded (amid utter chaos and headline roulette), credit market remain stressed and Saba Capital Management founder Boaz Weinstein warned Bloomberg that the selloff in corporate bonds accelerate by tariffs tensions could spur a wave of bankruptcies that may ramp up faster than in previous market crises… and The Fed is hamstrung from taking action (cutting rates to save the world) because of inflation fears.

“The avalanche has really just started,” Weinstein said on Friday during an interview for an upcoming Bloomberg Originals series, Bullish.

“The hit could be faster and the bankruptcy rate could spike much faster than other crises.”

Investors shouldn’t rule out the possibility of a severe recession, he added. (Click on image for link to full conversation – no embeddable link provided)

Weinstein, whose hedge fund firm is known for navigating volatile markets, added that he expected the credit selloff “to accelerate.”

“There might be something in between that stops the boulder, but I’m very concerned about a crash,” he said.

As Bloomberg reports, Weinstein joins a chorus of investors and strategists who have swiftly started revising down their economic forecasts. A JPMorgan Chase & Co. team led by Bruce Kasman hiked the odds of a global recession to 60% on Thursday.

Weinstein’s warning is that “you cannot out this genie back in the bottle”:

“Maybe it’s not a buy the dip,” Weinstein said. 

“Maybe it’s a phrase no one ever used before, a sell the dip because this is not going to get fixed tomorrow.”

Weinstein, the former co-head of credit at Deutsche Bank AG, made a now famous trade back in 2012, when he rode a bet on a bank rushing to offload risk, taking the other side of outsize wagers made by JPMorgan’s so-called London Whale.

“This is really, really major,” he said. 

“The range of outcomes is so wide here, and markets started quite expensive, credit especially, so I think we could go a lot lower.”

Returning back to where we started, if the credit markets do crack (more), then The Fed will be increasingly forced to address the uncomfortable need to cut rates in a stagflationary environment (as Trump has demanded) as Powell’s “pause” gets put on hold until markets stabilize.

Ahead of today’s closely watched 3Y auction, many were wondering if we would see the fingerprint of a Chinese treasury boycott and/or liquidation in the results from today’s sale. Well, here is the data that the Treasury released moments ago.

The sale of $58 billion in 3Y paper priced at a high yield of 3.784%, down from 3.908% last month, but massively wider than the When Issued, which at 3.760%, meant we had a 2.4bps tail. As the chart below shows, there were only two bigger tails previously: Covid, and the 2023 SVB failure/banking crisis. So yeah, superficially, this was not a good auction.

The bid to cover also tumbled, from 2.70 to 2.47, the lowest since October.

But it was the internals that everyone was paying attention to and specifically, everyone was focusing on the Indirect award to see if China would boycott today’s auction. Yet while many were expecting a big move (lower) in the indirect award, that did not happen; instead Indirects rose to 73.0%, up sharply from 62.5%. and one of the  highest on record. So nothing to worry about? Not exactly: there was a plunge in demand, but not by the Indirects who accepted $42.2BN of the $57.8BN notional (after SOMA): instead, it was plain vanilla domestic Directs, who unexpectedly collpsed to just 6.2% from 26.0% last month, which was one of the lowest on record!

So yes, there was broad aversion to today’s auction… just not where people expected it.

Bottom line: this was a very ugly auction, with just Covid and SVB 3Y auction uglier, although the silver lining is that while Direct demand collapsed, at least the foreign bid was in place for now. The question how much longer foreigners will keep funding the US budget deficit is not going away any time soon.

Update (1245ET): Stocks could not maintain joy on Tuesday after the White House confirmed that 104% additional tariffs went into effect at Noon because China refused to remove its retaliatory measures.

The new tariff will be collected beginning tomorrow, April 9th. Markets were predictably displeased.

We ran out of chart pic.twitter.com/3uuXcoNxXy

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 7, 2025

Clearly only another Ackman meltdown or Walter Bloomberg tweet can save us now.

* * *

Update (1100ET): US equity market are fading rapidly from a huge start this morning…

…the top seemed to coincide with a renewed surge lower in China’s offshore yuan…

…to a new record low against the dollar…

…further raising the specter of China trade war escalation with the possibility of a devaluation looming (as we detailed overnight).

The spread between Onshore Yuan (fixing) and offshore yuan is at its limit – something has to give.

Remember, China has three options:

China has three options:

1. Concede defeat to whatever terms Trump demands
2. Devalue the yuan by 20-40%
3. Unleash biggest fiscal stimulus in its history (talking $2-3 trillion) which will push its debt off the chart

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 4, 2025

Did that just decide to go with Option 2?

Notably the initial exuberant short-squeeze was unsustainable and has been hinting at the rally’s fragility all morning…

Finally, bear in mind that, as Goldman noted, those paying attention during the first trade war in 2018 would remember similar wording from the MOFCOM in Apr 2018 when the spokesperson also said Beijing will “fight to the end” yet the two sides entered into talks just the month after.

*  *  *

Update (1920ET): President Donald Trump sent futures accelerating to the upside on Tuesday after suggesting on Truth Social that China “wants to make a deal, badly, but they don’t know how to get it started.”

“We are waiting for their call,” Trump continued, adding “It will happen!”

The comments come after China threatened various “countermeasures” in response to US tariffs – including increasing counter-tariffs on US agricultural products, prohibiting the import of US poultry, suspending China-US cooperation on fentanyl, restricting corporate trade, banning the import of American films, and reassessing the benefit US companies have gained from intellectual property in China.

“If the US escalates its tariff measures, China will resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests,” a ministry spokesperson said on Monday. “The US threat to escalate tariffs against China is a mistake on top of a mistake, which once again exposes the US’s blackmailing nature. China will never accept this. If the US insists on going its own way, China will fight it to the end.”

“The US hegemonic move in the name of ‘reciprocity’ serves its selfish interests at the expense of other countries’ legitimate interests and puts ‘America first’ over international rules,” embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said in response to a question on the latest US move.

“China will firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” he said, without specifying any actions.

Needless to say – after China’s threats, markets are so far pleased at Trump’s response…

Wolfe Research says Monday’s sharp intraday reversal—driven by fake rumors of a 90-day tariff pause—highlights just how fragile markets are to tariff headlines right now. The firm believes the President “could stop or lessen the selloff with a single social media post,” given how…

— Wall St Engine (@wallstengine) April 8, 2025

*  *  *

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*  *  *

US Equity futures are accelerating gains following comments by US Treasury Secretary Bessent this morning that tariff negotiations are the result of massive inbound calls, not the market.

• When asked about tax with Europe, says “everything is on the table.”

• Trump will be personally involved in negotiations.

• Japan, South Korea and Taiwan may be engaged in Alaska deal (Early March, Trump said Japan, south Korea and others want to partner with US in a gigantic natural gas pipeline in Alaska).

• If they are successful, tariffs would be a melting ice cube in a way.

• Have discussed which countries to prioritize. Japan would get priority after swiftly reaching out to the US.

• If there are solid proposals, could end up with some good deals.

• As part of calculus with deals, some part of tariffs may stay on.

• Bessent was not involved in the calculations of the tariff numbers.

• Thinks escalation by China was a big mistake.

• China has chosen to isolate itself by retaliating and doubling down on previous negative behavior.

• US President Trump is committed to fixing trade imbalances.

The reaction was positive to Bessent’s comments:

Watch Bessent’s full interview here: “The President has maximum negotiating leverage. Many of our trading partners have not escalated, and they will get priority in the queue. I think it was a big mistake, this Chinese escalation.”

BESSENT: The President has maximum negotiating leverage. Many of our trading partners have not escalated, and they will get priority in the queue. I think it was a big mistake, this Chinese escalation.

pic.twitter.com/h2UgjWM9D6

— Election Wizard (@ElectionWiz) April 8, 2025

Is the short-squeeze back sustainable?

Politico reports that Bessent is having some success steering the White House tariff messaging away from permanence and toward negotiations after warning Trump of further market losses.

Elon Musk and Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro don’t like each other.

It all started on Saturday when Musk – who’s not a fan of the Trump tariffs, responded to a video on X of Navarro defending how the Trump administration calculated its tariffs on various countries’ goods (with crayons?), suggesting that Navarro’s “PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing,” adding in a now-deleted tweet that Navarro “ain’t built shit.”

A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing.

Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2025

When asked by Fox News on Sunday about the beef, Navarro said the relationship is “fine,” adding “there’s no rift here.”

FOX: Elon Musk took a shot on you on X and he’s going against the administration with respect to tariffs. Is there a rift?

PETER NAVARRO: Look, Elon when he’s in his DOGE lane is great, but we understand what’s going on here. Elon sells cars. He’s simply protecting his own… pic.twitter.com/BnbG9mPw5a

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 6, 2025

Yet, Navarro still hit back –  saying “Elon, when in his DOGE lane, is great,” adding that the billionaire “sells cars” and is “simply protecting his own interest” by opposing him and Trump’s tariffs “as any business person would do.”

Then on Monday, Navarro said “We all understand in the White House (and the American people understand) that Elon’s a car manufacturer. But he’s not a car manufacturer — He’s a car assembler,” adding “In many cases, if you go to his Texas plant, a good part of the engines that he gets (which in the EV case are the batteries) come from Japan and come from China. The electronics come from Taiwan…”

“what we want — and the difference is in our thinking and Elon’s on this — is that we want the tires made in Akron. We want the transmissions made in Indianapolis. We want the engines made in Flint and Saginaw. And we want the cars manufactured here,” Navarro continued.

To which Musk replied that Navarro is “truly a moron,” adding “What he says here is demonstrably false.”

Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 8, 2025

“Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks,” Musk continued, linking to a Kelly Blue Book report, and adding “By any definition whatsoever, Tesla is the most vertically integrated auto manufacturer in America with the highest percentage of US content.”

By any definition whatsoever, Tesla is the most vertically integrated auto manufacturer in America with the highest percentage of US content.

Navarro should ask the fake expert he invented, Ron Vara.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 8, 2025

Musk then called him “Peter Retarrdo”:

*Peter Retarrdo

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 8, 2025

While Tesla is the most ‘American’ manufactured car, Musk acknowledged last month that “The tariff impact on Tesla is still significant.”

Indeed…

NHTSA Filing:

Indeed, according to a late 2024 NHTSA filing of which vehicles contain the most North American parts, Tesla’s vehicles were found to contain the most.

Meanwhile, a Ford F-150 Lightning contains just 29% North American parts.

Via SchiffGold.com,

In Sunday’s episode of the Peter Schiff Show, Peter tackles the misguided optimism of the Federal Reserve, the dangers of escalating tariffs, and the troubling signs of entrenched stagflation. Peter takes a critical view of Jerome Powell’s policies, scrutinizes the logic behind rate cuts amidst ongoing inflation, and warns investors that Bitcoin will continue to falter in the coming economic environment as gold gains strength.

Peter begins by highlighting the alarming disconnect between economic data and Fed policy, recalling Jerome Powell’s flippant dismissal of stagflation concerns last year:

So first let me talk about the economic data, because all the economic data points to stagflation, and of course, I’ve been out in front of the stagflation scenario for a long time. I’ve been very critical of the Fed, Powell in particular, for dismissing stagflation. In fact, during his May press conference a year ago, 2024, so almost a year ago, May 1st, he was asked about stagflation, and then he kind of joked and he says, ‘I don’t know what people are talking about—I don’t see the stag, and I don’t see the inflation.’ That kind of made him laugh, and everybody else laughed. I pointed out on this podcast that it’s no laughing matter, because the Fed’s blindness to stagflation, and the comment that there’s no sign of stagflation, is going to go down like ‘subprime is contained’ and ‘inflation is transitory.’

As policy missteps compound, Peter points to the impending car tariffs as a prime example of misguided economic intervention, emphasizing that ordinary Americans will bear the brunt of higher prices:

So we got these car tariffs, which are going to significantly increase the price of cars in the United States. We’ve got these reciprocal tariffs, whatever they’re going to be, that are going to be announced on Tuesday. The market is bracing for this, but nobody is going to eat these tariffs but Americans. We’re going to be paying these higher prices. We’re going to have stagflation, and nobody is prepared for this.

The inevitable reality, he argues, will be a Fed forced into rate cuts even amid rising inflation—an environment disastrous for the U.S. dollar, but highly beneficial to gold. Peter remains consistent in his stance that Bitcoin, unlike a tried and true store of value like gold, will fail investors during this uncertain period:

Now, I think eventually they’re going to cut despite rising inflation. That’s the nail in the coffin for the dollar, and gold goes through the roof because that means real interest rates are plunging, but Bitcoin is going to go down. Like if we have a bear market in stocks, if stocks keep going down, Bitcoin is going to keep going down more. Gold is what’s going up, and just again, obliterating this whole narrative.

Explaining further, Peter warns of the unintended consequences of tariffs on inflation dynamics. Restrictions on imports don’t help the American consumer; instead, they magnify domestic inflationary pressures by reducing goods availability and leaving more money chasing fewer goods at home:

If we import less stuff from abroad because the prices go way up and we can’t afford it, the money that we used to send abroad stays here. And what does that money do? It bids up the prices of what’s here without all the goods coming in. So domestically, we have more money chasing fewer goods, and that puts upward pressure on prices, goods, and services. So domestic money supply means more of our inflation stays here, we don’t export it.

Finally, Peter voices his frustration with mainstream Republican cheerleaders who blindly praise policy moves without considering serious economic repercussions. He notes parallels between the current economic climate and the lead-up to the 2008 financial crisis, emphasizing the danger of partisan-driven cheerleading:

So much of what’s going on right now, it’s really bothering me to see all these Republicans just cheerleading everything Trump is doing, talking about how great it is. It reminds me of George Bush’s second term, you know, when they had the financial crisis, and I was going on all these shows that won’t have me on anymore. Now, I was 45 back in 2008, a much younger man. Time flies. But I remember all these guys on Kudlow and the Laffers—Stephen Moore is a friend of mine—but a lot of other people too, that were just cheerleading the Republicans. And I didn’t like it.

Make sure you check out Peter’s latest interview with mining.com!

Amazon is bringing back metal detector screenings for its 750,000 U.S. warehouse workers and will now require employees to register their phones, , according to Bloomberg. 

The policy, a return to pre-pandemic practices, aims to prevent theft. Workers must walk through metal detectors when leaving warehouses, and register their phones by providing the last six digits of the serial number to receive an ID sticker.

The rollout began this week at select test sites and will expand nationwide.

We’re sure the practice was halted at some point during the “summer of love” in 2020 because it somehow became (pick one: racist, sexist, pro-colonizer) to try and ensure your employees weren’t stealing from the company – as if it hasn’t been common practice in the world of retail for decades to “check bags” when employees leave stores that carry inventory. 

The Bloomberg report says that metal detectors were standard at Amazon warehouses before the pandemic but sparked controversy.

In 2014, workers sued for over $100 million in back pay, claiming they waited up to 25 minutes for screenings. The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled they weren’t owed compensation for that time.

Amazon also banned phones inside facilities pre-pandemic, requiring workers to leave them in cars or lockers. That rule was relaxed during COVID so employees could access urgent health updates.

Today, Amazon runs 110 U.S. warehouses, some over a million square feet, and employs 1.5 million people globally, making it the world’s second-largest company after Walmart.

“We’re always working to make our facilities more safe and secure for our employees and for all companies of all sizes that put their trust in us to store their inventory,”  the company told Bloomberg. 

Yes, and your transition to Foxconn is almost complete…

*  *  *

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But…but…we were told tariffs were almost assuredly inflationary? 

That doesn’t necessarily seem to be the case in the world of Stellantis and Jeep, where it appears at first glance the new cost of tariffs are being somewhat, if not totally, absorbed by the corporation. 

Stellantis, the automaker behind Jeep and Ram, said it will absorb some costs from President Trump’s new tariffs—one of the first signs of how the auto industry is bracing for the trade war, as was reported by Quartz.

The report says that the 25% tariff on imported vehicles, set to take effect within a month, is expected to sharply raise car prices. Stellantis, based in the Netherlands, told suppliers it would help offset the impact, though details remain unclear.

The move comes as Stellantis pauses production in Mexico and Canada and lays off U.S. workers.

There will be some sort of assessment of the criticality of the parts,” said Mitch Zajac, an auto industry attorney, but cautioned the company may walk back the support.

Recall we wrote hours ago that Deutsche Bank said automakers would share the burden of tariffs. They said in a note late last week that the directional takeaways they had for the auto industry going forward were “relatively unchanged” and the firm shared detail on where it believes tariff impact will land.

In an analysis covering virtually every model sold in the U.S., the bank did warn however that the fallout from protectionist policy won’t be limited to foreign automakers—it will ripple through the entire automotive ecosystem, from suppliers to consumers.

According to Deutsche, the cost of new tariffs will be shared across multiple layers: original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), end consumers, dealers, and Tier-1 suppliers.

Deutsche Bank notes, “OEMs will need to step in and absorb the tariffs for some suppliers… similar to the dynamics during COVID.”

Longer term, the bank sees a potential wave of announcements around onshoring, especially as companies seek political goodwill with the current administration. However, such structural changes—relocating supply chains, building new factories, and hiring en masse—could take years to materialize, especially in a politically uncertain environment.

Economists like Jim Rickards have argued that it’s a myth that tariffs cause inflation, making the point that inflation is mainly driven by an expanded money supply—something tariffs don’t affect. He called the idea of tariffs causing inflation “completely wrong” in a recent interview where he goes into detail about his reasoning. 

“Who actually pays the tariff? Well, the importer writes the check at the port of entry—you know, Port of L.A., Port of Houston—you’ve got to write the check to the Treasury Department for the amount of the tariffs. But who bears the cost economically? How does that cost get spread?” Rickards says. 

“The one place it does not go is to the consumer. Because if you’re a distributor—you’re, I don’t know, Walmart, Target, anybody—if you could raise prices, you would just do it. Why? Who cares about tariffs? You would just raise prices if you could. Everybody would. But they can’t.”

He continues: “The consumer’s tapped out. Credit card lines are used up, auto loan delinquencies are rising, unemployment’s going up. It’s not a nightmare, but it’s going up. Real wages are stagnant. You know, mortgage interest rates continue to remain high. Just a whole long list of reasons why the consumer’s tapped out. They can’t raise prices.”

“So who bears it? Well, they either push it back up the supply chain to the producer and say, ‘Hey, sorry producer, you have to lower your prices to me so that when we add the tariff, my net price is the same.’ Or the importer might bear part of it. Or the importer and the producer—the exporter and the importer, in other words—might share it. But either way, their gross revenues go down, their margins go down.”

“But the one person who does not pay it is the consumer. So it’s not inflationary. In fact, it could actually be deflationary if you’re forcing producers to lower their costs.”

The Democratic Party has been pushing a narrative that President Trump is favoring his billionaire friends while leaving Main Street in the gutter. But if that’s the case, why are some of the president’s billionaire supporters complaining about the severity of his tariffs as main equity indices tumble worldwide? 

In recent days, a video posted on TikTok and reposted on X shows Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) maneuvering around a ‘gotcha moment’ question from a journalist and pointed out how the American worker finally has a president “that has their backs – protecting their jobs and raising their wages – and someone has to fight for fair trade deals.” 

The journalist then asked Hawley: “Even though markets are falling – and the economy looks pretty concerning right now?” 

Hawley fired back: “Wall Street banks don’t like it [tariffs] – but I’m not too concerned about Wall Street. I’m concerned about working people in my state. And this is finally a chance to get a fair deal on trade.” 

Trying to get your “gotcha moment” with Josh Hawley will never yield results. pic.twitter.com/qw5jXuITWm

— The Disrespected Trucker (@DisrespectedThe) April 6, 2025

The deepening trade war has battered stocks as President Trump pushes for fair trade with key partners like China. The latest Bloomberg data shows that year-to-date losses among billionaires have been nothing short of a bloodbath.

The average net worth of the top 100 billionaires has slid since President Trump announced the “Liberation Day” tariff blitz nearly one week ago. 

Trump’s pro-worker, protectionist policies—aimed at defending American jobs, fulfilling the ‘America First’ agenda, and revitalizing U.S. manufacturing—have prompted concern from a number of billionaires, mainly because their net worth is heavily tied to the stock market. 

Citing a list from Forbes, Elon Musk, Bill Ackman, Mark Cuban, Jamie Dimon, and other billionaires have questioned Trump’s approach on the trade war:

• Elon Musk: Trump’s new right-hand-man hasn’t explicitly spoken out against the tariffs, but the Tesla CEO shared a video early Monday of economist Milton Friedman touting free trade and the benefits of importing goods. He also deleted a post from over the weekend criticizing Trump’s top trade adviser Peter Navarro for praising tariffs. Musk’s brother (and Tesla board member) Kimbal Musk also criticized the tariffs as a “permanent tax” on Americans.

• Jamie Dimon: The JPMorganChase CEO issued his annual letter to shareholders Monday morning, which expressed concerns about Trump’s tariffs, saying that while there are some “legitimate reasons” for imposing them, they “will likely increase inflation and are causing many to consider a greater probability of a recession” and expressing concerns about the continued uncertainties around Trump’s tariffs and how they will “affect America’s long-term economic alliances.”

• Bill Ackman: The hedge fund manager is a longtime Trump supporter but has turned against the president’s tariffs, railing against Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and how the Trump administration calculated the tariffs and calling for the White House to pause them, writing Sunday that if the tariffs do take effect, “We are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down.”

• Daniel Loeb: While Loeb said in February he thought Trump’s initial tariffs on Mexico and Canada wouldn’t harm the stock market, the hedge fund manager has spoken out against Trump’s more sweeping policy, most recently sharing a post Monday that noted the stock market chaos is “all in the head of 1 person. Who can change his mind at any time” and writing, “Exactly.”

• Larry Fink: The BlackRock CEO suggested at the Economic Club of New York Monday that “the economy is weakening as we speak” and the market could fall another 20% from where it is now as a result of Trump’s tariffs, CNBC reports. Fink suggested the U.S. is “probably in a recession right now,” but he still expressed some optimism about the economy’s long-term outlook, saying, “In the long run, this is actually more of a buying opportunity than a selling opportunity” and “the vitality of the United States will persist.”

Expanding more on Ackman’s comments on X earlier, he advocated for a “30, 60, or 90-day pause before the tariffs are implemented tomorrow to enable negotiations to be completed without a major global economic disruption that will harm the most vulnerable companies and citizens of our country.” 

Some have misinterpreted my thoughts on tariffs. I am totally supportive of President @realDonaldTrump using tariffs to eliminate tariffs and unfair trading practices of our trading partners, and to induce more investment and manufacturing in our country.

I am advocating for a… https://t.co/SnFt8ddv9F

— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) April 8, 2025

So, who exactly benefits from an immediate pause in the trade war? Primarily those who own large amounts of stock—billionaires like Bill Ackman—not the average worker, who owns little to nothing.

Separate from the list is billionaire Ken Griffin, who blasted Trump’s latest tariffs as a tax on the middle class, calling it a “huge policy mistake.”

“Even if the dream of jobs coming back to America plays out, that’s a 20-year dream. It’s not 20 weeks. It’s not two years. It’s decades,” Griffin said.

Maybe we should remind the billionaires about Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s comments last week, pointing out that stocks first began to sink with China’s “DeepSeek” moment earlier this year, calling the latest downturn “A MAG7 problem, not a MAGA problem.”

Which way, Wall Street? MAG7 or MAGA? 

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Footage has emerged of Anthony Fauci telling an audience at the New Orleans Book Festival, where he was hawking his COVID book, that there will be a new pandemic in the near future, and that it will be a new respiratory virus with a higher rate of morbidity than COVID.

“The next outbreak will be of a respiratory disease that’s easily transmissible, that has a significant degree of morbidity,” Fauci asserted.

The last one wasn’t an outbreak, it came out of a lab where people you funded were f*cking around with pathogens to make them more deadly to humans.

Does this guy ever stop?

🚨 NEW – Anthony Fauci says “the next outbreak will be of a respiratory disease that’s easily transmissible, that has a significant degree of morbidity” pic.twitter.com/psUrIGwB45

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) April 5, 2025

The last one wasn’t an outbreak, it came out of a lab where people you funded were f*cking around with pathogens to make them more deadly to humans.

Like some upcoming movie they’re working on

— Evil Ken (@EVIL_KEN) April 7, 2025

Does this guy ever stop?

Get this SOB off the stage, out of the public, on trial, and in jail. I’m sick of his face.

— Five Times August (@FiveTimesAugust) April 5, 2025

Aw hell no, we’re not doing this again.

When the sequel’s already written by the same guy who directed the first one.

— Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_) April 5, 2025

It sounds like a threat.

In other words, I’ll get it right, next time? Good grief.

— Jellenne 🇺🇸🌵🌞 (@jellen805) April 5, 2025

He predicted COVID two years before it happened.

Reminds me of when he “predicted” a surprise outbreak to happen during trumps first administration in 2017 pic.twitter.com/XN9gQ9fyY3

— HelioWave (@heliodown) April 5, 2025

All he does is salivate over the next pandemic.

Before these sociopaths started manipulating viruses in a lab, a severe disease came along about once a century.

And that was largely before modern hygiene.

Now they talk about the next Covid like next year’s flu season.

You cannot have enough contempt for these monsters. https://t.co/587TqvOE2v

— IT Guy (@ITGuy1959) April 5, 2025

*  *  *

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Is Trump in the process of a brilliant negotiation or attempting to permanently raise tariffs in a painful bid to restore American manufacturing? Are you willing to pay higher prices so Americans have jobs, so the U.S. is economically independent from other countries?

As that internal debate rages within his cabinet, tonight will see a free trade libertarian clash with a protectionist MAGA economist:

Visit the ZeroHedge homepage tonight at 7pm ET for our live Tariff Debate, with die-hard Austrian Peter Schiff facing off against Spencer Morrison, editor-in-chief of National Economics Editorials. The debate will be moderated by friend of ZH George Gammon, host of the Rebel Capitalist podcast.

While often allied on foreign policy, see how each camp differs on this key economic question.

The Libertarian View: Trade Benefits All

It’s not the consumer who holds the cards but the producer, and buying cheap products from other countries that specialize in making them allows Americans to live beyond their means, Schiff would argue. Plus the current regulatory environment — minimum wage, high taxes, strict labor liability laws — make it very costly to do business in the U.S. which high tariffs does not change.

Commerce Secretary @howardlutnick thinks other countries are dumping their products on the U.S. market at a loss and that foreign VATs are tariffs. He’s wrong twice. It’s dangerous having someone who knows so little about basic economics giving economic advice to the president.

— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) April 5, 2025

Tariffs harm Americans more than the countries they are aimed at, he argues. Schiff’s prediction: major pain incoming to the U.S. dollar and the American consumer.

🚨🇺🇸 PETER SCHIFF: TARIFFS HURT AMERICANS MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE — GOLD TO SOAR

“Overall, our tariffs hurt us far more than they hurt anybody else.

If China retaliates, which they did, their tariffs will do more harm in China than anywhere else.

When this thing started, gold… https://t.co/ZaNIYXxRGz pic.twitter.com/uw31YjJKbB

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) April 7, 2025

The MAGA View: We Are Being Ripped Off

We hear Trump say that other countries are “ripping us off” given the U.S. has large trade deficits and often lopsided tariffs or import regulations. The attitude from the MAGA camp — now echoed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others — is that access to the wealthy American consumer is a privilege that other countries should pay for.

Tonight’s debater Morrison, author of “Reshore”, says that “tariffs are the price foreigners must pay to sell their goods in America”.

Rather than maximizing economic efficiency, Morrison advocates that economic policy “serve the American people—our security, wellbeing, and natural environment.”

Happy Liberation Day!

Remember: tariffs are about more than economics.

We do not worship the Golden Calf. Money is not our god. Economic growth is not America’s teleological justification—it is a means to an end, not the end itself.

The economy must serve the American…

— Spencer P Morrison (@realSPMorrison) April 2, 2025

We’ll see you tonight at 7pm ET.