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April 23, 2025 18 mins
Listen on:
Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608 
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i 

Watch on: https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured

Chris delivers a fiery critique of former President Donald Trump's backtracking on tariffs, comparing his economic unpredictability to a slapstick cartoon. He slams the MAGA media's spin on Trump’s “walk back” as master strategy and breaks down the real consequences—market volatility, small business casualties, and geopolitical confusion. With shoutouts to Nassim Taleb, J.D. Vance, and Scott Bessent, this no-holds-barred episode examines what happens when ego drives economic policy and no one in the room dares to say "no" to power. www.watchdogonwallstreet.com

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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):
Captain kay Man, Oh yeah, Captain Caveman cartoon. If not familiar,
late nineteen seventies, it was Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels.
It was almost like a spin off cartoon Saturday Morning cartoon,
kind of going along with Charlie's Angels, and you had

(00:37):
this Caveman that the Teen Angels on thought he was
a superhero, had all of these powers, and it was
kind of funny. He would pull stuff out of his
beard on a regular basis. And the funny thing is,
I tease my wife I should call her Captain Caveman
because she was always able to still always able to
pull something out of her pocketbook out of nowhere. Just
what you need it up, need hand sanitizer, need a mint,

(00:59):
need go whatever it may be. My wife's got it
in her pocketbook. But anyway, we've got a new Captain
cave Man, different type of cave that's President Donald Trump. Yeah,
he caved. Listen, the the right worry, the maga sycophants

(01:20):
on television on social media are going to spin this
as some sort of genius plan three D six D chess.
How brilliant this is Fox Fox News today they had
they had the headline on Fox and Friends, the art
of the Tariff Deal. Who are you trying to kid?

(01:43):
I mean, honestly, people, you honestly believe this bull excrement
that they're pitching right now that this was the plan
all along. You understand some of the things that were
taking place behind the scenes that we told you about
on the radio show, on the podcast Farmers, Did you

(02:05):
understand how much money Trump would have had the checks
he would have had to have cut to farmers here
in the United States, because they're the stuff that they
grew and made that they were selling to various different
places like China around the globe. They weren't going to
buy it anymore. Oh yeah, remember what was it? What

(02:26):
was this original thing? Oh yeah, we're collecting two billion
dollars a day in tariffs, which was never the case,
never the case. Made that number up. Take a look
at the markets and what they've done since liberation. Ay, yes,

(02:49):
Tuesday up day. So far today up day, we're still
about five percent off, five percent off the markets based
upon where he where the president was Okay on Liberation Day,
where the markets were on Liberation Day before he had
that that ridiculous scene there on the White House lawn.

(03:14):
What a joke. Yeah, yeah, you have. I've I've expressed
the fact that I've been. You've heard the anger in
my voice. One of the rules, one of the rules
we have as money managers money managers is you never
ever ever let risk lead to ruin. Never. We have

(03:44):
have the most enviable position in the entire world because
we the dollar is the world reserve currency. It is
the most envied position to have. Why why would you

(04:06):
ever toy with that? Why would you even mess around
with that? And that's that's what he did. And what
we're looking at right now is a walk back again.

(04:27):
President came out yesterday, I'm very good relationship with Zee. Well,
if you had a very good relationship with g Okay,
you could have worked something out without having to do
all of this. I gotta be honest with you, you know,
I get that the emails. Aren't you happy? The markets
are up to being the past couple of days. No,

(04:48):
I'm not happy that the markets are moving like some
sort of damn penny stock every single day, thousand points,
this way, thousand points, it's that way, two percent, this way,
three per it's the moving like was like bitcoin. For
crying out loud that you don't want that. That's not

(05:09):
what attracts capital to the United States. Do you understand
that the type of wealth that we've built up here
in this country because of our financial markets and the
strength of our financial markets. Where do you want a list?
Used to be London? London used to have the you know,

(05:32):
UK used to have this position, g US, you get
listed in New York Stock Exchange. This is where, this
is where you want to be. Why would you mess
with any of that? Did an interview yesterday on AWT.

(05:52):
I'm doing a lot on the Catholic Network talking about
something we discussed on the podcast, all of these small
businesses around the country and how hurt they are based
upon all of this uncertainty. And to be quite honest
with you, am I relieved to see that Donald Trump

(06:17):
is caving? Yeah? Of course, Homorly, I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled.
What what scares the hell out of me is I
don't know what he is going to do tomorrow. I
don't know what he's going to do tomorrow, God willing,
God willing. You know, Scott, the scent takes the rains

(06:39):
when it comes to maybe jd Vance as well have
have the scent and Jade Vance take the reins on
this because I'm sorry. Jd Vance was never behind and
he never never been behind any of this stuff in
his entire career. He knows better, and quite frankly, you know,
I think he's probably looking at this saying, what an

(07:00):
what did I do to my political career if I'm
going to be attached to Donald Trump and his failed policies.
I was a vice president under this guy, and I've
got to go along with this again. But he's happy
that hopefully he you know, working out something with India again,
major econdoment. It still has a long way to go.

(07:21):
They're not nearly not nearly as advanced as China. I've
in the same ballpark yet, but they need to head
in that direction. Stories from around the country. Mac trucks
firing hundreds of workers in Pennsylvania. President Trump's tariffs are

(07:43):
the driving force says the CEO. The local economy is
going to lose about two hundred and sixty million dollars
a year. Again, these job losses again because all of
a sudden orders are being canceled. Businesses are certain. He basically,
the best way you want to equate what transpired over

(08:06):
the past month is that Donald Trump engineered COVID without
a virus, basically engineered a COVID type of a situation
where again you're getting stops and shutdowns. Now again, if
you remember during COVID yet you had a market sell off,
but big businesses thrived again. They shut down the mom

(08:29):
and pop stores, but hey, Target, Walmart, home Depot, Low's,
they could all stay open. And again, I wish all
of those companies well too. I want American businesses to
do well. But if you think this is going to
work well for the economy, the overall economy, the lifeblood

(08:49):
of this country's economy, quite frankly, is small business owners
all around the country. I live in a city. I
live in a city, and yeah, the city I live in, yet,
do they have a Low's, do they have a home depot?
Do they have all these things? Absolutely? You know, I
drive down in Tampa Dale, Maybury, McDill Gandy. You know

(09:12):
my neighborhood, Baya Bay, nothing but small mom and pop
stores everywhere, everywhere, and they've been hit. This is what happens.
This is what happens when again you surround yourself, you

(09:36):
surround yourself with people that kiss your ass. Shinned yourself
that the people that kiss your ass that won't tell
you no. This is again a little bit of a
jd Vance point. If you remember the whole hoothy uh
thing that took place where we started bombing them again,

(09:57):
who is the guy that was pushing back on that
was Jade Vance. You didn't understand the reason why, and
good for him. Uh. You need to be surrounded by
people that if you don't get crazy to you this way,
you know you have a true friend. And that's just
stuff stuff I teach my kids. You know you have

(10:18):
people that really care about you, That you have a
true friend, people that actually care about you and where
you are. And these are people that will put you
in your place and tell you no, and tell you
no or tell you you know what, you're being an
a hole. Cut it out, man. Don't have any of that.

(10:45):
We don't have any of that. When it comes to
the media, I mean shame they want to call a
conservative media. You can't even call it that. I don't.
People don't even understand what that word means anymore. Magan media, foxs,
maga media. Basically, whatever the president says, whatever the fantastic

(11:05):
key's great, and they will spin it in some way, shape,
matter of form. And again I've equated many of these
pundits out there to well, the profession of the world's
oldest profession. Yeah, yeah, basically prostitutes. They're well paid prostitutes
and low Ingram makes fifteen million bucks a year. Jesse

(11:26):
Water makes eight million bucks a year. Whatever, I don't.
I you know, I said, I great, good for you,
Good for you, But you're willing to answer it's a
great paycheck, it's a great paycheck, but you're willing to
go on. And again you have that type of an

(11:47):
ethical bypass at birth. You're willing to bs lie, spin
in order to make money at the expense of your
fellow countrymen, the global economy. Well, what does that say
about you? It's quite frank, this is just a much

(12:09):
more important things in life than money. And I think
we've made that perfectly clear here on the program. Gentlemen,
again that I've talked about often and if you haven't
read his books, do so. Do so. Nasa Nicholas talib
It calls his book series The Incerto, You've Got Fooled

(12:32):
by Randomness, the Black Swan, anti fragile skin in the game,
some of the best books on finance, risk management, and
philosophy all tied into one. Okay, Mike, one of the
smartest guys on the planet. He calls Trump, uh Caligilino.

(12:53):
He puts out, the problem with Caligilino Trump is that
he's surrounded by only sub amateurs. Amateur have some experience
in training. The trade and tariff calculations had to be
made by someone who called a former college roommate who
majored in economics forty years ago in a liberal arts school. Yeah,

(13:16):
echoing what we have said here on the program, this
is the the latest from the Wall Street Journal guards
what is going on? And again it's fluid. It's fluid.
Who knows what's going to happen next? The Trump administration
is considering slashing its steep tariffs on Chinese imports, in

(13:39):
some cases by more than half, in a bid to
de escalate tensions with Beijing that have royaled global trade
and investment. One senior White House official said the Chinese
tariffs were likely to come down to between roughly fifty
and sixty five percent. Administration is also considering a tiered approach,

(14:01):
similar to the one proposed by the House Committee on
China late last year, thirty five percent levees for items
the US deems not a threat to national security, at
least one hundred percent for items deemed as strategic to
America's interest. The bill proposed phasing in those levees over
five years. Here we go. This is this is where

(14:22):
it's funny. This is where they have the White House
spokespeople come out and they always say President Trump has
made it clear to stop insulting our intelligence. He hasn't
made anything clear. Okay, he hasn't again clear. Yeah, about

(14:43):
as clear as the Mohawk River for crying out loud
and upstate New Yorkers will understand that China needs to
make a deal with the United States of America. When
decisions on tariffs are made, they will come directly from
the President. Anything else is pure again. Uh, he said,

(15:06):
his tariffs on China will come down but it won't
be zero. China said that it was open to trade
talks with the United States, though it won't negotiate under
continued threats from the White House. Can you blame them?

(15:27):
I mean, can you blame where are you going to get?
You know, if someone is throwing in someone, you know
you're going to negotiate. Let's say I'm going to negotiate
a I'm gonna go negotiate a price on a car, okay,

(15:48):
and I'm going to the dealer, and the guy selling
the cars is dropping f bombs and you know, given threat,
am I gonna sit there and negotiate for the car
despite the fact that I might need that car. I
want that car now. No, it's an exercise and futility.

(16:14):
I'm gonna walk the hell out the door again. I
you know, Scott Descent is making a major speech today
actually right now as I'm doing this podcast. I will
obviously do a follow up on it probably tomorrow on
our show as well. Again, God willing, God willing that

(16:40):
they're stepping back from this, and let's hope that this
is permanent. I mean, let's you know, let's let's take
a look at the numbers right now, you know, as
far as the markets are concerned, Donald Trump put himself
into rarefied air when it came to the S and
P five hundred, off to the worst start down fourteen

(17:06):
percent than any president since the index was created in
nineteen fifty seven. And the idea that you know, pulling
back now on these tariffs is going to stave off
a recession, I don't believe that that's the case. I think,

(17:26):
you know, we're kind of heading in that direction. Do.
I think that the Federal Reserve more than likely is
going to have its hand force later on this year,
and I think we will see several rate cuts down
the road. But again, the idea out there, the idea
out there that the all clear has sounded, is just

(17:47):
not the case. I hope it is. I hope it is,
But the reality of the terrain is I would expect
more volatility moving forward. Watchdog on Wall Street dot Com
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