$2,000 check for Americans floated by Trump

NTD News

President Trump says millions of Americans could soon receive $2,000 payments funded by tariff revenue. But how would it actually work—and could it help the U.S. economy?  In this in-depth interview, Daniel Lacalle, Chief Economist at Tressis and author of Freedom or Equality, joins us to break down: 👉 What makes these payments different from past stimulus checks 👉 Whether the plan could raise or lower inflation 👉 How tariff revenue could be used to reduce the national debt 👉 Who really pays for tariffs—American consumers or foreign exporters 👉 The potential impact on the stock market and U.S. growth 👉 How America’s trading partners might respond  #Trump #TariffDividend #Economy #DanielLacalle #StimulusChecks #USDebt #Inflation #StockMarket #Finance #Economics  -- 👉 Original Documentary Library:  https://vimeo.com/user109504031/vod_pages - 🍀 Support NTD: https://donorbox.org/ntd  -- © All Rights Reserved.

Transcript

00:00an influx of cash could be headed to millions of americans president trump announced plans

00:08yesterday to offer two thousand dollar payments funded by tariff revenue to people outside high

00:12income brackets trump wrote on truth social that the u.s is taking in trillions of dollars and

00:20will soon begin paying down what he called the nation's enormous debt he also highlighted what

00:25he described as record investment in new plants and factories nationwide the plan would likely

00:31require congressional approval trump first raised the idea of a two thousand dollar tariff funded

00:36dividend in early october his latest announcement came just days after the supreme court heard

00:42arguments on the legality of his global tariff strategy the president also said today that all

00:48leftover tariff revenue after two thousand dollar checks will be used to pay down national debt

00:53and to talk more about this joining us is daniel lakaya the chief economist at tresses and an

01:02international financial analyst also the author of the book freedom or equality so daniel always great

01:08to see you so can we talk about the order of payments here because you just heard uh president

01:15trump says uh he's going to pay households and then he's going to pay down the national debt

01:19well obviously i think that the plan is to first get the public accounts in order and then look for

01:28the opportunity to uh to to use part of these revenues to uh reduce uh the the challenges that

01:37some of the families in the united states are are facing no and obviously that two thousand dollar

01:43check is a is a very good idea once you take into account that the the first and foremost uh objective

01:52has to be to uh control the national debt and and the national debt is obviously uh number one priority

02:00has to be reducing the deficit to a sustainable level i think that all those efforts are being uh taking

02:08and obviously if he comes where if the the tariff revenues come to the figures that he has mentioned

02:15about a trillion dollars etc that would obviously be plenty to reduce the deficit to more than to buy

02:25less than half of what it was and at the same time uh pay these uh these two thousand dollar checks

02:31so daniel if this in fact happens where people get two thousand dollar checks do you think that's

02:38going to be a boost for the u.s economy obviously there's always a debate about these the the impact of

02:47these checks now we remember what happened with uh with the stimulus checks of the covid uh period no

02:54um i think that what they do is more to provide a certain level of relief to citizens that are either

03:03entering into too much debt or that have some financial difficulties so i personally don't care if people

03:10are going to use it for saving to put it in the stock market or to uh or to pay down debt i think that

03:16those all of those are perfectly positive outcomes now i think that what is important

03:23is that once the deficit is under control and once the level of debt of the united states to gdp is declining

03:31and obviously if the economy is growing at a 3.8 percent and it brings down the deficit to half in dollar

03:39terms what it was obviously that would be the case then that would be a boost to the economy but we cannot

03:46expect a a massive increase in consumption i i am uh always uh aware uh that a tremendous number of

03:55people are going to be using it to pay down credit card debt which is perfectly fine with me or uh or to

04:02invest in the stock market which is also perfectly fine with me uh i think that what is important is

04:07that those revenues that are coming from the trade agreement are used at to the best uh uh the best

04:15possible solution no so on the one hand if you think about this bringing down the deficit means

04:23that the tax cuts that have been implemented can be increased so that is a positive for citizens and

04:30their and their uh and their affordability no and number two if they on top of that get a stimulus check

04:37that can certainly be a relief but i would consider it from that perspective first uh bringing down the

04:44deficit second obviously looking at what to do with these with these enormous absolutely a much higher

04:51than expected to be fairly honest uh revenues coming from tariffs so you raised the issue of stimulus checks

04:59um so how is this different from the stimulus checks that we got during the pandemic that actually

05:07fueled inflation oh absolutely different you it's a great question because a lot of people say oh this

05:15is going to drive inflation higher no because the stimulus checks were paid with newly created money

05:21with new deficit with more money printing more government spending more debt okay so and this is something

05:29that is that is that is sharing with citizens an external revenue so this is not newly created money this is not

05:38inflationary uh and and it's a huge difference here big difference to uh print money to provide a stimulus

05:47that obviously then backlashes and and give and boomerangs into inflationary effects than to use revenues that are coming

05:57from abroad to to relieve uh those citizens that are in a in a more difficult position

06:03so daniel can you explain a little bit to us a bit more i know you talked about this in the past but who

06:10pays for tariffs if american companies uh some of them do in fact pay for these tariffs and then the money is then

06:17given back to americans uh would some people argue that this is wealth redistribution

06:22uh well it's not wealth redistribution first i think it's pretty evident that the tariffs are not paid by american

06:33consumers i think it's it's very simple if uh tariffs were paid by american consumers no country in the world

06:42would have raised their eyes and and and and lifted their hands to reach a trade agreement they would have just said

06:48come on let's go and let's send our products at a much higher price it is pretty evident that global supply chains

06:56have enormous levels of overcapacity and that tariffs are being absorbed throughout the highest level of

07:03overcapacity in those chains however even if you have some uh companies that have experience an increase in cost

07:14because of tariffs then the the tariff is is not going into maintaining margins it's maybe eroding a little

07:24bit their margins but it's good ultimately that some consumers receive the revenues from from tariffs

07:32ultimately every single measure of a stimulus plan or any every single measure of of payment to the

07:41disadvantage is in is a measure of redistribution but this is not redistribution american companies are

07:49doing phenomenally american companies are not paying higher prices when you look at the ism prices paid

07:57it is in line with the last 12 months the only thing that the united states truly needs to deal with

08:04in order to bring down inflation and the cost of living is to reduce government spending which means

08:10reducing the amount of money in the system reducing newly created money which is what creates inflation

08:18which is obviously not inflation is not the increase in prices inflation is the reduction in the purchase and

08:25power of the currency so i think that ultimately the vast majority of the u.s economy benefits from

08:33receiving uh more revenues from tariffs getting a level playing field in trade that allows american

08:41companies to trade in a more uh well logical and just way with the rest of the world and if there is

08:51a control of the deficit and a control of the spending as i expect to happen in 25 26 obviously to get a

09:00stimulus check of this of this so daniel how do you think american trading partners will feel about

09:08uh tariffs being given to u.s households and keeping in mind um these americans that are getting the checks

09:15potentially uh you know are voters right so how do you think uh our trading partners might feel about

09:21that well let's think how the american people are thinking about the enormity of tariffs that the

09:28united states companies uh are suffering from the european union they are then used to massively

09:36bloat government spending and entitlement spending in france or in germany ultimately we're talking about

09:45management of public finances and it is i don't think that you can actually go to any of the u.s trade

09:53and partners from china to the european union to the uk and think that this is an unfair way of using

10:01tariff revenues when the european union is using its gigantic trade surplus with the united states

10:09to finance its enormous enormous level of government spending and of uh different social programs

10:19the same as the uk and nobody seems to be saying that americans are paying for french pensions or that

10:27americans are paying for uk uh roads no no question uh daniel and you mentioned the stock market earlier uh like

10:38potentially people might invest in it uh if they do if they put the two thousand dollars into the stock

10:44stock market do you think it could uh benefit um the stock market in terms of it uh rising further

10:51yeah absolutely it does absolutely it does but more importantly it allows a lot of people that are

10:58not invested in the in the in the u.s stock market to benefit from the improvement in profits and the

11:06improvement of uh the of the economy i think that ultimately when you look at all of this what uh what

11:13the trump administration is trying to achieve is pretty much what the uk tried to do in the late

11:2170s what the united states also did in the early 80s which is to make the benefits of the strength of

11:31corporations of the american economy of all of the different aspects that generate wealth available to

11:38all citizens if they want to invest in the stock market or in bitcoin for that matter it doesn't

11:44matter it is always a positive and it's a much and it is a much better way of making the people

11:52understand that this is a positive for them than to uh finance enormous government stimulus packages

12:02like the build back better or the inflation reduction act that don't build and don't reduce inflation

12:08well okay daniel it's always uh enjoyable to hear your valuable insight thank you very much for speaking

12:15with us thank you very much don have a great day

12:18thank you very much

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