Trump economic adviser Cohn quits after dispute over tariffs

By Jeff Mason

 

FILE PHOTO: White House chief economic adviser Gary Cohn (L) and U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster take questions during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 23, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top White House economic adviser Gary Cohn, a Wall Street banker who opposes hefty steel and aluminium tariffs planned by U.S. President Donald Trump, said on Tuesday that he was resigning.

 

"It has been an honour to serve my country and enact pro-growth economic policies to benefit the American people, in particular the passage of historic tax reform. I am grateful to the President for giving me this opportunity and wish him and the Administration great success in the future," Cohn said in a statement issued by the White House.

 

His departure as director of the National Economic Council came after a little more than a year on the job.

 

Following the news of Cohn's departure, the U.S. dollar weakened, while an exchange-traded fund tracking the broad market S&P 500<SPY.P> dipped 1 percent.

 

Trump's announcement last week of his plans to impose the tariffs sent U.S. stock prices tumbling and came after an intense debate within the White House between Cohn and other advocates of free trade, on one side, and protectionist advisers such as Peter Navarro on the other, White House sources said.

 

Cohn, a former president and chief operating officer of investment bank Goldman Sachs <GS.N>, was seen as a bulwark within the White House against protectionist policies. Business lobbyists frequently cited Cohn as their strongest ally in the White House.

 

"Gary Cohn is one of the true Wall Street all stars behind the Trump tax plan. He will be missed. We thought he might switch mid-term and become the Treasury Secretary. He is that good," said Andrew Brenner, the head of international fixed income at NatAlliance Securities LLC.

 

(Additional reporting by Paul Simao and Jennifer Ablan; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Caren Bohan and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-03-07

Another one leaves the sinking ship. Guess Mr Trump rubs people the wrong way.

Gary Cohn was always an odd choice to be in the current administration. He is a democrat, a globalist and came from Goldman Sachs (which Donald dumped on several times during the campaign). I never understood how Cohn's global economic principles fit into the White House's protectionist ideals. How was this ever going to mix? Guess the writing was always on the wall with Cohn. It was just a matter of time before he would butt heads with the WH.

 

On brighter news, the Dow futures are tanking on the news that the Wall Street friendly WH economic adviser will be resigning. Now the real crazy protectionist economic policies from Peter Navarro can take over and drive the US economy into the ground. 

This is terrible news.

 

The tariffs are simply stupid; there is a HUGE body of knowledge that argues against doing things like that. That said, there are many ways of mitigating the stupidity.

 

However, the resignation of Cohn might end up being even more important in the long run. Already there are few really good, qualified people willing to serve in a Trump administration, and that number will dwindle further now; if Cohn couldn't serve with honour and respect, why would others think that they could? Especially the really, really good ones?

 

Both US and the world will suffer for this.

 

Stupid begets stupid begets stupid...

 

4 minutes ago, Silurian said:

Gary Cohn was always an odd choice to be in the current administration. He is a democrat, a globalist and came from Goldman Sachs (which Donald dumped on several times during the campaign). I never understood how Cohn's global economic principles fit into the White House's protectionist ideals. How was this ever going to mix? Guess the writing was always on the wall with Cohn. It was just a matter of time before he would butt heads with the WH.

 

On brighter news, the Dow futures are tanking on the news that the Wall Street friendly WH economic adviser will be resigning. Now the real crazy protectionist economic policies from Peter Navarro can take over and drive the US economy into the ground. 

 

Cohn was never there for any other reason than to get the tax cut passed. I'm sure he was looking for an exit since the day it was voted into law. This was a perfect, early opportunty to get out and make it look like it was for some other reason than the reason he was there had ended.

Edited March 6, 20188 yr by lannarebirth

Trump said on the news that "There is no chaos in the West Wing."   That's probably because they have all left.   

Throughout the years, in order to put food on the table, my job required that I explain stuff to 9-year old boys and girls. Not always successful and mistakes were made. Anyway, here is my attempt to explain tariffs to a fidgety class. 

 

First, would be a discussion on why their parents work. Eventually, it would boil down to money. Everyone needs money but some people have more than others.

 

Now, let’s say ½ of the class makes softball bats. These are made out of aluminum. We buy cheap and sell high. Cool, we are making money. But now we have to buy this metal at a higher cost. Why? Tariffs. This is what governments charge for stuff that comes from overseas. Our bats are going to cost us more money to make. This is a bad thing.

 

The good thing is that the other ½ of the class has a factory that makes aluminum. Because of the tariffs we can sell aluminum cheaper that what the tariffs are. We are going to make more money.

 

Hopefully, by the end of class these students have learned about tariffs and also a life lesson. Life is not always fair…

Edited March 7, 20188 yr by missoura

Trump is really starting to lose the plot........he needs removing from office

I imagine many who have gone to work in Trump administration had good intentions of providing neophyte with some sound real world advice, hoping they could steer Trump towards reasonable decisions. They have found out to their dismay Trump doesn't take advice, as deludes self into thinking he knows more than anyone on any subject. Will pride go before the fall?

1 hour ago, missoura said:

Throughout the years, in order to put food on the table, my job required that I explain stuff to 9-year old boys and girls. Not always successful and mistakes were made. Anyway, here is my attempt to explain tariffs to a fidgety class. 

 

First, would be a discussion on why their parents work. Eventually, it would boil down to money. Everyone needs money but some people have more than others.

 

Now, let’s say ½ of the class makes softball bats. These are made out of aluminum. We buy cheap and sell high. Cool, we are making money. But now we have to buy this metal at a higher cost. Why? Tariffs. This is what governments charge for stuff that comes from overseas. Our bats are going to cost us more money to make. This is a bad thing.

 

The good thing is that the other ½ of the class has a factory that makes aluminum. Because of the tariffs we can sell aluminum cheaper that what the tariffs are. We are going to make more money.

 

Hopefully, by the end of class these students have learned about tariffs and also a life lesson. Life is not always fair…

Except for the fact that the classroom proportions would not be 50-50. 88% of the class would be bat manufacturers and 12% would be aluminium producers.

 

Leads to a VERY different conclusion.

1 hour ago, missoura said:

Throughout the years, in order to put food on the table, my job required that I explain stuff to 9-year old boys and girls. Not always successful and mistakes were made. Anyway, here is my attempt to explain tariffs to a fidgety class. 

 

First, would be a discussion on why their parents work. Eventually, it would boil down to money. Everyone needs money but some people have more than others.

 

Now, let’s say ½ of the class makes softball bats. These are made out of aluminum. We buy cheap and sell high. Cool, we are making money. But now we have to buy this metal at a higher cost. Why? Tariffs. This is what governments charge for stuff that comes from overseas. Our bats are going to cost us more money to make. This is a bad thing.

 

The good thing is that the other ½ of the class has a factory that makes aluminum. Because of the tariffs we can sell aluminum cheaper that what the tariffs are. We are going to make more money.

 

Hopefully, by the end of class these students have learned about tariffs and also a life lesson. Life is not always fair…

Great idea. US only mines 1.3% of it's production needs. Want a trade war, revenge is sweet, don't export bauxite to the US or add huge export tariffs for US buyers

10 minutes ago, Emster23 said:

I imagine many who have gone to work in Trump administration had good intentions of providing neophyte with some sound real world advice, hoping they could steer Trump towards reasonable decisions. They have found out to their dismay Trump doesn't take advice, as deludes self into thinking he knows more than anyone on any subject. Will pride go before the fall?

 

Some went to loot the Treasury of a trillion dollars per year and when they accomplished their mission decided it was time to move on and accept the rewards that would be bestowed on them for doing so.

Edited March 7, 20188 yr by lannarebirth

Another top advisor departs the Trump swamp. Kudos to him for showing a bit of dignity, after a year working for Godzilla. Trump simply cannot attract much talent, and when he does, they are unwilling to stay once they are exposed to his crass and dictatorial style, and his gross incompetence. The ship continues to sink. 

 

Tiny DT. The art of moving America backwards, and lowering the quality of life for the average American. 

The art of I cannot make a deal to save my life. 

The art of losing talent in droves, and replacing them with sycophantic fools, devoid of talent or experience. 

The art of attempting to lead a nation, while being infected with the thinnest skin of a world leader, in history. 

The art of not having a diplomatic bone in his body, and destroying long held alliances, with hate, hubris and a horrible lack of intelligence, vision and talent.

 

Cohn was one of the few who brought sanity to an insane WH.  Especially with a topic as complicated as the world economy and the US role in it.  But this is classic Trump.  He's trying to appeal to his core base.  Unfortunately, his core base is largely ignorant nationalists who don't really understand how the world works...

 

[Trump has told advisers he likes simple policy prescriptions he can describe to voters, and he latched onto the option that effectively represented this — big, across-the-board tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, regardless of the country of origin.]

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-the-washington-establishment-is-losing-out-to-little-known-trump-advisers-on-trade/ar-BBJXBX3?ocid=wispr

 

While a protectionist policy may help one industry and only in the short term, it's going to hurt many other industries, increase the cost of goods, antagonize our global allies, and cost America a net loss in jobs.  But try explaining that to the low IQ Trump base. 

28 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Another top advisor departs the Trump swamp. Kudos to him for showing a bit of dignity, after a year working for Godzilla. Trump simply cannot attract much talent, and when he does, they are unwilling to stay once they are exposed to his crass and dictatorial style, and his gross incompetence. The ship continues to sink. 

 

 

 

That's some high praise for a bag man for the 1%. Gary Cohn is personally responsible for blowing the biggest hole in the ship so far.

1 hour ago, missoura said:

The good thing is that the other ½ of the class has a factory that makes aluminum. Because of the tariffs we can sell aluminum cheaper that what the tariffs are. We are going to make more money.

 

Why weren't you using that local source of aluminum in the first place rather than importing it?

I guess Cohen finally discovered that Trump is from the Hugo Chavez school of economics. 

5 minutes ago, attrayant said:

 

Why weren't you using that local source of aluminum in the first place rather than importing it?

In this analogy the assumption would be that the local source was not competitive on the global market and required tariffs to be competitive.

How do tariffs affect the global price of aluminum, aside from creating an oversupply (because of the tariffs, we're not buying from overseas suppliers now) and driving down the global price of the commodity?

3 minutes ago, attrayant said:

How do tariffs affect the global price of aluminum, aside from creating an oversupply (because of the tariffs, we're not buying from overseas suppliers now) and driving down the global price of the commodity?

Obviously tariffs would make local sourcing more attractive regardless of the global price.

16 minutes ago, mikebike said:

the local source was not competitive on the global market and required tariffs to be competitive

 

Followed by:

 

1 minute ago, mikebike said:

tariffs would make local sourcing more attractive regardless of the global price.

(my emphasis)

 

These two statements appear to be at odds with each other. The first says that US aluminum will become more competitive on the global market because of tariffs, which I disagree with because overseas suppliers will suddenly have a glut and be forced to lower their prices.  Because of this lowering of global prices, other international buyers will be attracted to that cheaper aluminum and but that instead of buying from the USA.  Maybe you meant to write "the local source was not competitive on the local market and required tariffs to be competitive", which makes more sense because I don't see how tariffs help American Al become competitive on the global market.

 

The second statement brings the point back to local markets being favored because of tariffs, which I agree with. 

1 minute ago, attrayant said:

 

Followed by:

 

(my emphasis)

 

These two statements appear to be at odds with each other. The first says that US aluminum will become more competitive on the global market because of tariffs, which I disagree with because overseas suppliers will suddenly have a glut and be forced to lower their prices.  Because of this lowering of global prices, other international buyers will be attracted to that cheaper aluminum and but that instead of buying from the USA.  Maybe you meant to write "the local source was not competitive on the local market and required tariffs to be competitive", which makes more sense because I don't see how tariffs help American Al become competitive on the global market.

 

The second statement brings the point back to local markets being favored because of tariffs, which I agree with. 

The first statement is a restating of the problem being addressed. Local end-users not buying from local suppliers because buying foreign product pads the local end-user's bottom line more than buying local. To make local supplier more attractive tariff legislation is applied. 

2 hours ago, missoura said:

Throughout the years, in order to put food on the table, my job required that I explain stuff to 9-year old boys and girls. Not always successful and mistakes were made. Anyway, here is my attempt to explain tariffs to a fidgety class. 

 

First, would be a discussion on why their parents work. Eventually, it would boil down to money. Everyone needs money but some people have more than others.

 

Now, let’s say ½ of the class makes softball bats. These are made out of aluminum. We buy cheap and sell high. Cool, we are making money. But now we have to buy this metal at a higher cost. Why? Tariffs. This is what governments charge for stuff that comes from overseas. Our bats are going to cost us more money to make. This is a bad thing.

 

The good thing is that the other ½ of the class has a factory that makes aluminum. Because of the tariffs we can sell aluminum cheaper that what the tariffs are. We are going to make more money.

 

Hopefully, by the end of class these students have learned about tariffs and also a life lesson. Life is not always fair…

Did you then go on to tell your kiddies that the other half of the class who have an aluminium factory won't sell their product cheaply. Because they are behind the tariff wall they'd be stupid business people to sell the alumnimum for anything less than the world price+the Trump tariff.

 

So their baseball bats are going to be more expensive, so don't expect daddy to be able to afford a new baseball bat this Christmas for them. Maybe next year, sonny. 

 

Then you'd have to tell your poor kiddies that everyone who supplies goods and services to the aluminium factory are going to see them selling their product for a higher price. Keen to cash in on the new wealth they too are going to raise their prices to them, creating inflationary pressure. I mean, you need alumina and electric (and lots off it) to make aluminium. You can't just wonder down to any ole corner store to pick up supplies. You see those 12th graders have natural monoploies in mining alumina and selling the electricity to you. They are going to pass those capital costs right through to your aluminium baseball bat factory.

 

Then you'll tell them that the central bankers down the hallway in junior high are going to see this. Fearing an outbreak of inflationary pressure, they might consider raising interest rates some.

 

They you'd have to tell your kiddies that because the nasty (yet independent) Fed kids down the hallway raised interest rates, daddy's mortgage repayments, car repayments and credit card payments are going to go up.

 

So maybe tell your kiddies not to expect a baseball bat at all, at least not an aluminium one, cause daddy can't afford it given higher costs.

 

Wooden one will be all the rage anyway as consumers substitute away from aluminium to alternate products. So the aluminium guys might actually see less aluminium being sold than they first thought under the tariff hike. Added to that, their profit margins are going to be squeezed from the inflationary pressures from suppliers.

 

Guess what? Daddy might just get laid off from the factory, cause there isn't enough work for him there.

 

So maybe no baseball bats for you after all. Life is not always fair...

This just in from Visual Capitalist: The Numbers Behind the World’s Closest Trade Relationship.  It's an interesting infographic about the trade relationship between the USA and Canada.  It's a huge graphic so I won't paste the whole thing here.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 7, 20188 yr by attrayant
added link to graphic

9 minutes ago, samran said:

Did you then go on to tell your kiddies that the other half of the class who have an aluminium factory won't sell their product cheaply. Because they are behind the tariff wall they'd be stupid business people to sell the alumnimum for anything less than the world price+the Trump tariff.

 

So their baseball bats are going to be more expensive, so don't expect daddy to be able to afford a new baseball bat this Christmas for them. Maybe next year, sonny. 

 

Then you'd have to tell your poor kiddies that everyone who supplies goods and services to the aluminium factory are going to see them selling their product for a higher price. Keen to cash in on the new wealth they too are going to raise their prices to them, creating inflationary pressure. I mean, you need alumina and electric (and lots off it) to make aluminium. You can't just wonder down to any ole corner store to pick up supplies. You see those 12th graders have natural monoploies in mining alumina and selling the electricity to you. They are going to pass those capital costs right through to your aluminium baseball bat factory.

 

Then you'll tell them that the central bankers down the hallway in junior high are going to see this. Fearing an outbreak of inflationary pressure, they might consider raising interest rates some.

 

They you'd have to tell your kiddies that because the nasty (yet independent) Fed kids down the hallway raised interest rates, daddy's mortgage repayments, car repayments and credit card payments are going to go up.

 

So maybe tell your kiddies not to expect a baseball bat at all, at least not an aluminium one, cause daddy can't afford it given higher costs.

 

Wooden one will be all the rage anyway as consumers substitute away from aluminium to alternate products. So the aluminium guys might actually see less aluminium being sold than they first thought under the tariff hike. Added to that, their profit margins are going to be squeezed from the inflationary pressures from suppliers.

 

Guess what? Daddy might just get laid off from the factory, cause there isn't enough work for him there.

 

So maybe no baseball bats for you after all. Life is not always fair...

 

Or you could tell them that aluminum and steel are strategic metals and if one allows those commodities to be dumped in your market you will no longer have those industries in your country should there ever be a national emergency.

 

You won't have the technology any longer, the infrastructure, nor the trained workforce, assuming any of that is important to a country.

Edited March 7, 20188 yr by lannarebirth

1 hour ago, lannarebirth said:

 

That's some high praise for a bag man for the 1%. Gary Cohn is personally responsible for blowing the biggest hole in the ship so far.

I am not sure where the praise is here. Just stating that he was showing a little bit of honor by leaving the sinking ship S.S. Donald. 

 

After all, this incredibly corrupt man was second in command, during these horrific periods, when Goldman Sachs was responsible for the following misdeeds and catastrophes-

 

The Malaysian Slush Fund Fraud.

Goldman Sachs raised billions of dollars for a Malaysian government investment fund — known as 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB — that wound up in a shadowy web of personal bank accounts that were used to buy high art, luxury real estate, and fund movie productions like The Wolf of Wall Street. Investigators have described it as one of the largest financial frauds in history.

 

The ABACUS Fraud.

In 2010, the firm agreed to pay $550 million to settle claims that it misled investors in a subprime mortgage product known as Abacus 2007 C-1. Goldman acknowledged as part of the settlement that its marketing materials were “incomplete” and agreed not to commit intentional fraud in the future.

 

Role In America’s Mortgage Meltdown.

The money to be made in trading mortgage-backed securities had a larger effect on Wall Street and Goldman Sachs than just creating room for the occasional fraud. It also fed the appetite for mortgage-lending that contributed to the housing bubble and later the financial crisis. And Cohn was at the center of Goldman’s big move into mortgages as the housing bubble inflated. When Cohn took over the mortgage unit in 2000, it was trading just $1 billion of securities a week, according to a 2010 story by the Wall Street Journal‘s Susanne Craig. Just three years later, it was trading $50 billion, Craig reported.

 

Cohn Gave The Financial Crisis Commission Bad Info Under Oath.

Cohn testified under oath to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in 2010 that Goldman Sachs had gone to the Fed’s discount window–its facility for providing banks with emergency funding–only once. A year later, a court ordered the Fed to release data on Fed borrowings. It was discovered that Goldman had gone to the discount window five times between the fall of 2008 and early 2010 to borrow a total of $60 million.

 

With the cranks and nationalists ascendant in Trump World, whoever replaces Mr. Cohn is unlikely to be any better than he is, and possibly quite a bit worse. No sound economist would risk his or her reputation by working in this administration. Since before even taking office, Mr. Trump has reeled from one scandal to the next. Recent weeks have brought a parade of senior officials departing, most under a cloud of suspicion. The first-year turnover among senior staff members in the Trump administration is significantly higher than for the past five presidents and is double the rate for the first year of the Reagan administration, the previous record-holder, according to the Brookings Institution.

 

 

2 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

 

Or you could tell them that aluminum and steel are strategic metals and if one allows those commodities to be dumped in your market you will no longer have those industries in your country should there ever be a national emergency.

What type of national emergency in your book justifies pushing up prices for consumers through lazy tariffs?

4 hours ago, Get Real said:

Another one leaves the sinking ship. Guess Mr Trump rubs people the wrong way.

I don't think he rubs people at all, he just walks all over them, before because he's stinking rich and now because he's the POTUS. Arrogant ba@*&ard.

8 minutes ago, samran said:

What type of national emergency in your book justifies pushing up prices for consumers through lazy tariffs?

Well, there's the perpetual war we're engaged in for one. Then there's the risk of losing those industries/jobs/technology, which really are strategically important.

 

That said, I'm not a fan of lazy tariffs. My tariff would be constructed around non renewable resource extraction taxes and differentials in environmental protections in the different manufacturing countries. If the competive advantage comes from destroying the environment I'd say that's worthy of a tariff. Probably a hefty one.

Edited March 7, 20188 yr by lannarebirth

4 hours ago, Silurian said:

Gary Cohn was always an odd choice to be in the current administration. He is a democrat, a globalist and came from Goldman Sachs (which Donald dumped on several times during the campaign).

who needs more ?