Why America Is Still the Big Daddy for Your Dollars (China, Take Notes!) 💸🇺🇸

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Early on a Monday, like a gardener tending a stubborn patch, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent settled in front of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” ready to talk. He spun a tale of trade winds, dollar currents, and the tangled dance with China—where tariffs had started to resemble an unshakable barnacle on the hull.

Bessent went on, steady as a mule, saying the talks between the Big House and Chinese mandarins hadn’t stopped, but it’s China who’s got to loosen their grip if the storm was ever to calm. “They sell us five times the goods we ship back,” he said, sounding a bit like a farmer lamenting a lopsided harvest. Those tariffs between 125% and 145%? “No way those stand the test of time,” he said, tipping the scales for China to rethink their stubborn ways.

With President Trump flinging tariff thunderbolts so fierce they stir a hornet’s nest among investors, Bessent pointed out that America’s trying to play it fair elsewhere—shaking hands with a dozen or more partners in Asia, finding deals where the barbs might be dulled. Some of those nations, eager and probably tired of the fuss, have tossed serious proposals into the ring to lower trade walls and let goods flow freer.

Markets, jittery as a cat in a rocking chair factory, seemed to find a little calm after his words—a light edge up for stocks and Bitcoin stubbornly clutching its lofty perch near $94,000.

The Land of Opportunity, Still Playing Its Trump Card

Bessent painted a picture of America as a stubborn old ox, holding its ground as the best pasture for capital. With promises of tax certainty, cutting red tape like a farmer slashing weeds, and making trade fairer—not easy slogans but hard work behind the scenes—he declared the U.S. the place money wants to be.

He jabbed at Europe, slow-moving and tangled in thick regulation weeds, where tariffs loom like chain-link fences, hobbling growth. Not surprising that Europe’s investments have limped along with a meek 1.86% return over twenty years, while the S&P 500 struts with a spry 10% annual gait.

Bessent predicted Europe’s bankers might soon drop rates to weaken the euro, while America keeps its dollar standing tall and proud like an old frontier flag.

Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say (Even If It’s Market Gossip)

Some folks whispered about his “near-term de-escalation” comments at a fancy JPMorgan shindig, but Bessent set the record straight—nothing was said in private that he hadn’t already shouted from the public rooftops. The markets might’ve danced on missteps like a fiddler gone rogue, but the tune wasn’t new.

He reminded all that the U.S.-China relationship is a tough beast to tame, weighed down by old habits of subsidized exports. No matter the spin, such a model just can’t plow a straight furrow anymore with tariffs high and eyes wide open.

“What’s unsustainable won’t stick around,” Bessent said, his words echoing like the end of a long, hard day on the farm.

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2025-04-28 17:01