9, 12, 10, 28, 2, 23.

This is Deep State Radio, coming to you direct from our super secret studio in the third sub-basement of the Ministry of Snark in Washington, D.C., and from other undisclosed locations across America and around the world.

Hello and welcome to DSR's Words Matter.

I'm David Rothkopf, and I'm joined as every week at this time by Norm Ornstein.

How are you today, Norm?

Well, I'm actually feeling a little bit better than I was yesterday, David.

And that seems odd since the stock market crashed today after soaring yesterday. But that's the reason. The irrational exuberance

that was displayed yesterday finally came back to ground today, and I think that's a good

thing. Yeah, well, I mean, what happened yesterday was crazy because, as Paul Krugman pointed out,

our total net tariffs at the moment with the 10% broad tariff increase and what is

actually 145% increase on China is actually above the level of the Smoot-Hawley tariffs.

So he has pulled back to a position that is equivalent to the most disastrous tariff choice

we've ever had in our history.

But you've got to love those Trumpers who, after this complete about face, going from a disastrous policy to a different disastrous policy

while leaving the door open to return to the first disastrous policy, and they're all there going,

hey, this is the art of the deal. This guy is special. Yeah. You know, yesterday at the end of the day,

I made a comment, which is,

imagine if Trump had done nothing on tariffs until yesterday, and then announced a 10% across-the-board

tariff, except for 25% for many things from Canada and Mexico, a 90-day pause where he might readjust them, most likely

upward, and 125% tariff on China. And that was the first thing said. Would the market be going up 5%?

No, it would be crashing and burning.

And, of course, because of the day.

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