r/technology • u/DontFearTheCreaper • 1d ago

Social Media Tech CEOs who grinned behind Trump at inauguration lose billions in wake of tariffs

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-tariff-bezos-musk-zuckerberg-b2727147.html
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u/clueless_as_fuck 1d ago

It's pretty obvious at this point that this is the plan.

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u/FaultElectrical4075 1d ago

The plan for who? This is gonna hurt lots of very rich people too. The only people who aren’t going to be severely hurt by these tariffs are crypto people and people directly involved in the Trump administration.

You guys have to realize that oligarchs/the ruling class are not a monolith. They are united against the ruling class, but besides that they are constantly in competition with each other. It’s a bunch of sociopaths trying to one up each other in a desperate quest for power. Unifying behind Trump is mostly them trying to protect themselves from his line of attack.

These things only seem like they were planned after the fact, because no matter what happens there are going to be winners and losers. But society is too chaotic with too many conflicting interests for a ‘plan’ of this scale to work out except by sheer luck.

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u/roylennigan 1d ago

If you look at the history of market downturns, you'll find wealthy individuals who are able to consolidate their wealth by buying up capital that suddenly becomes cheap. When the market crashes, companies go under, and the ones that stay afloat can buy them up. If you know you can stay afloat, you're going to benefit from a market crash, even if you lose billions in the short term.

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u/DickFineman73 1d ago

Right, that's why the Vanderbilts, Carnegies, and Rockefellers survived the Great Depression and are still the wealthiest families in America.

...Wait.

The problem is that you're looking at what happened in 2008, which was abnormal for a financial crisis, and applying it to all financial crises.

In 2008, the oligarchs managed to buy up all of the depressed assets because the Federal Reserve turned on the money printer, and the US Gov handed out enormous bailouts. They used the money that was supposed to keep them afloat to buy up the assets - but they, themselves, did not have money just sitting around in coffers that enabled them to buy up the competition.

They needed stimulus money to make those purchases happen.

2020, you cite Elon Musk in a later comment - but Tesla shot to the moon. Jan 3, 2020 Tesla was trading at $29.53/share - one year later, after the government spent FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS, Tesla was worth $290/share (give or take).

Tesla didn't buy up their competition. They didn't buy up Ford, they didn't buy up Toyota, they didn't buy up Honda, they didn't buy up Chrysler.

They got government money.

That's why Donald Trump is currently screaming at JPow to lower interest rates - so that the government can turn the money printer on for as little cost as possible.

There are a bunch of fundamental problems with the idea that the oligarchs WILL (I want to be clear - I'm not saying they won't try, I'm saying they won't succeed) buy up all of the depressed assets:

1) The government money printer is already on its last legs. Federal debt is at 124% GDP, and we cannot afford to just keep printing money - interest rates being high or low not even being considered.

2) If the Trump admin forced the fed to start printing more money, inflation will skyrocket more than it's already poised to do thanks to the tariffs. There's a reason why the Fed is hesitating to cut rates this year, and it's because of Trump's tariffs.

3) The USD and American bonds that back the money printer and stimuli are more or less held aloft by a mixture of international investment (the USD being the global reserve currency) and American debt purchasing, either directly or indirectly. If foreign investors dry up and Americans can't afford to purchase bonds, the government cannot afford to loan out money.

4) Unlike in every other financial crisis, the rest of the world is more than happy to watch America crater into the ground. 2008 was fun because the entire world kind of fell into the same hole, not necessarily at the same time, but it hurt everyone and everyone mutually tried to help climb out of it. This time, the rest of the world is more than happy to go into a trade war with the United States even if it hurts them - and that further depresses the value of the dollar, tanks international investments, and deprives the American government of means of printing stimmy money.

5) The oligarchs don't control anything of value that would allow them to weather the storm. Amazon, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Tesla - they don't make anything, they don't possess real assets, so when all of this house of cards DOES crumble, they won't have anything meaningful to trade except... digital services and tech workers? Do you want to trade some Facebook user analytics for 100,000 gallons of crude?

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u/ReallyNowFellas 1d ago

Right, that's why the Vanderbilts, Carnegies, and Rockefellers survived the Great Depression and are still the wealthiest families in America.

...Wait.

Uh? I think I have some news for you about these families. How about you just google them.