Pump and Dump

The folks who gloat over the about-face on tariffs this week—who say that maybe he has learned his lesson, and is chastened—have missed the point.  

It's a variation on he classic 'pump-and-dump', perfected in the days before securities regulations, to move money from investors to insiders.  There is money to be made on stocks, whether they are going up or down.  The trick is to know which way they are going, and when.  

Though sharing or receiving, and acting on, inside information for a single stock has earned high-profile individuals a few high-profile stretches in jail (Martha Stewart, for example), there isn't much in the way of precedent for going after those with inside information on the timing of tectonic shifts in the entire economy, and the timing of their reversal.  Trillions of dollars were made and lost in the recent boomerang announcements of crippling tariffs, followed by their postponement.  The opportunities for an insider for sudden wealth would be irresistible - assuming such an insider intended to resist in the first place.  The person who can pull these economic strings would be in a position to make or break fortunes, and demand loyalty from the wealthiest people on the planet.  

He has indeed learned a lesson - a lesson he intends to repeat over and over again, until he perfects it.  He has nothing to lose.  He's playing with house money.