Is Trump ‘Detoxing’ the Economy or Poisoning It?
About this episode
Tett, an FT economics columnist with a PhD in anthropology, explains the theory behind Trump's economic disruption. She describes an attempted shift from a neoliberal to a mercantilist, hegemonic-power mindset: the 'Mar-a-Lago Accord' concept — keeping the dollar dominant while weakening it, dividing countries into green/yellow/red buckets, and bullying allies into swapping Treasuries for long-term perpetual bonds. Three factions (Bannon-style national populists, Musk techno-libertarians, congressional Republicans) fight over incoherent execution, and Trump himself operates relationally, on tribute and cultural power, rather than analytically. She warns the flip-flopping tariffs may be deliberate destabilization — but they risk freezing business investment, crushing the 'Trump put' in markets, and, critically, shaking the Treasury bond market ($36 trillion in debt, fragile plumbing). She closes by invoking Keynes's 1919 warning: revenge politics and beggar-thy-neighbor policies led to the 1930s.