Scott Bessent’s Tariff Gamble Blows Up

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Treasury Secretary Scott Besson is doubling down on tariffs—even floating the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act as backup if the Supreme Court strikes Trump’s plan. Chris breaks it down:

• Why the trade deficit is 31% worse despite “historic” tariff revenue
• The rookie mistake Besson made with tariff funds
• Why America’s shipping data proves the economy isn’t as strong as claimed
• The absurd claim that “any economic model is a tax”

Tariffs were supposed to fix the deficit. But what are they doing?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
So Secretary of Treasury Scott Best, he's all in on tariffs.
He has warned the entire country he has gone on
the program saying that if the Supreme Court Supreme Court
rules against the Trump administration when it comes to tariffs, well, oh,
he's going to come up with the money to pay.
I say, he might have to pay half of this

(00:37):
back anyway. He also mentioned as well that there are
other authorities that can be used to uphold the tariffs.
One of them could be the Smoot Hawley Tariff Act. Yeah,
because that worked out like Gangbusters the last time we

(00:57):
used that one.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Right.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Oh yeah, you're not familiar what it is, go back
and watch Ferris Bueller or google it. Yeah. I'm just
saying here. You know, you're supposed to be a wizard
of smart investment guy. I get he was bragging about
on TV about how his trading acumen against Goldman Sachs. Dude,

(01:22):
you're a lightweight. I've seen your record. Okay, you're not
that good. Let's just leave it at that. He wasn't anyway,
neither here nor there. Put that aside, Scott Bessen. Scott Bessen, you,
if you're so smart, you know that this whole traff
thing was on thin ice from the get go. Okay,

(01:43):
it's an executive order, man. Maybe, just maybe maybe you
take that tariff revenue that was coming in. I don't know,
maybe put it aside, stick it and esc row to
make sure the coast was clear. But of course not. Okay,
money comes in, it must be spent immediately. Anyway, we

(02:09):
shall see. But again we will go back to the
whole tariff situation. What was originally sold. Remember that we
had to deal with our trade deficits. Yeah, let's do
the first seven months of twenty twenty four. Our trade
deficit was negative five hundred billion. The first seven months

(02:32):
of twenty twenty five, it's negative six hundred and fifty
four billion. That's thirty one percent worse. Thirty one percent worse.
And you know, you take a look at the type
of trade that's being done. US box shipments volumes of

(02:53):
basically volumes of empty packaging materials that are sold to
retailers who used to ship orders to warehousers. Well to
the lowest second quarter reading since two thousand and fifteen.
Not all sorts of strength there again. Another funny one

(03:13):
was watching Mirrn testify his confirmation hearings to be on
the Fed and the absolutely ridiculous answer he gave to
whether or not tariffs were taxes, and basically he said
that all any economic model could be considered a tax

(03:37):
i mean that was almost as good as Bill Clinton's.
It depends on what the meaning of the word is
is watchdog on Wall Street dot com