April 2, what President Trump called, "Liberation Day" will indeed go down in history. The markets quaked. A trade war with China escalated as Beijing took strong retaliatory measures, with not only sharp rise in its tariff on US imports but imposed (more) restrictions on rare earth exports. Canada and Mexico were spared the "reciprocal tariffs,” but both made clear declarations of intent to diversify their trade and economic partners. Nixon broke the dollar's last link to gold on August 15, 1971. The dollar remained the numeraire. It still will as there is no other currency or precious metal that can rival in a ... (full story)