After the Bell: Tariffs, treasuries, turmoil, Trump — a meme macroeconomics masterclass

The stock market has been on an absolutely unique set of wild swings over the past two weeks. For everybody invested in stock markets, which is basically half the world now, and everybody affected by stock markets, which is basically almost everybody else, it’s been a crazy time. 

Several extremely important questions arise, but let’s start with the jokes. In times like these, the jokes must be at least part of the thing, surely, because the reality is so dark, one hesitates to go there. 

Let’s start with my podcast mate Mark Barnes, who pointed out that there is a reason why the word “tariffs” ends with the letters FFS. 

New York University Stern School of Business professor and well-known podcaster Scott Galloway said in his newsletter on Friday, “What happened this past week was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It was GameStop, but for the entire market. We saw $1.5-trillion added to the Magnificent Seven in one session. And the next day, a thousand-point drop. That is not a market. That is not investing. That is just chaos.”

Saturday Night Live (SNL) parodied President Donald Trump’s tariff policies in a sketch where (Trump) likened himself to Jesus, stating, “The stock market did a Jesus — it died, then on the third day it was risen”. Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel mocked the erratic nature of the tariffs, quipping, “It was another ‘tarriffying’ day on Wall Street. The Dow was down, the S&P was down. Cocaine was up.”

Well, one can laugh, sort of. But there is no gainsaying the seriousness of the situation. The co-host of Galloway’s newsletter, Ed Elson, an analyst and writer, makes the point that what is at risk is the credit-worthiness of the US. “What are the implications of our stock market becoming a meme stock? Meme stocks all have junk ratings. And now we are putting the entire economy in that position.”

Wall Street’s 'fear gauge'