🔥 "They Want the Robber Barons Back": ASU Economist Exposes Trump's Tariff Deception
ASU economist reveals how 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada will add $10,000 to new homes and spike food prices, while University of Arizona water expert warns of coming catastrophes.
Based on the Buckmaster Show for 3/4/25.
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
Imagine if someone told you they were going to make your friend pay for your 🍕 lunch, but actually took the money from your own 💰 pocket instead. That's basically what's happening with tariffs – the president says 🇲🇽 Mexico and 🇨🇦 Canada will pay, but it's really Americans who will see higher prices 💸. Experts on the Buckmaster Show explained how these new taxes will make everything from 🏠 houses to 🥦 vegetables more expensive in Arizona. At the same time, money that was supposed to help save 💧 water in our rivers has been stopped, which is scary 😱 because we're in the driest period ever recorded. The experts warn that these decisions will hurt regular families 👨👩👧👦 while mainly helping already-rich company owners 💼.
🗝️ Takeaways
🚨 Tariffs on Mexico and Canada are taxes paid by American consumers, not foreign governments, adding approximately $10,000 to new home construction costs.
💸 The stock market has "lost every point of gain since the election day," and consumer confidence has dropped by nearly 10%.
🏦 Trump's economic policies aim to recreate the Gilded Age (1890-1914) when "unbridled corporate power" operated with minimal regulation.
🌊 $12 billion in critical water infrastructure funding for the West has been frozen, threatening Arizona's water security during the driest period since record-keeping began in 1895.
🌮 Arizonans should expect immediate price increases on fruits and vegetables imported from Mexico.
📉 Experts warn these policies could lead to a recession before the next election cycle.
Tariffs and Turmoil: How Trump's Economic Warfare is Crushing Arizona's Working Class
In the latest episode of the Buckmaster Show, host Bill Buckmaster assembled a panel of experts who didn't just discuss economics – they sounded the alarm on a developing crisis that threatens to empty the wallets of everyday Arizonans while filling the coffers of America's modern-day robber barons. As the tariff tsunami begins to crash against our desert shores, the economic forecast ranges from "brace yourself" to "abandon all hope."
So this is what "winning" looks like? Economic pain for the many, yachts for the few. Shocking.
Professor Hoffman: Exposing the Great Tariff Con Game
The show opened with Dr. Dennis Hoffman, Professor of Economics and Director of the Office of the University Economist at Arizona State University, who tore the veil off the tariff fantasy with the precision of a surgeon removing a malignant growth.
"Absolutely, big and negative," Hoffman declared when asked about the impact of Trump's 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico. With the clinical clarity of someone who's been forecasting Arizona's economic future since 1982, he dismantled the dangerous fiction that tariffs somehow extract payment from foreign governments rather than from American consumers' pockets.
"If you've got issues, go to diplomacy, deal with them, don't tax each other's citizens effectively," Hoffman advised, highlighting the housing market – already on life support due to high interest rates – would now see an additional $10,000 price increase on new construction from skyrocketing lumber and sheetrock costs.
Because what first-time homebuyers really needed was ANOTHER financial barrier to the American Dream. Perfect.
The professor exposed the fundamental ignorance (or perhaps calculated deception) at the heart of Trump's tariff obsession: "He truly believes tariffs are a good thing. He truly believes that they're paid by foreign governments and that China's government, Canada's government, Mexico's government somehow pays for these things."
In what would prove to be the most immediately practical advice of the day, Hoffman warned listeners: "Stop on your way home and get fruits and vegetables because they're going up tomorrow and the next day."
A sobering reminder that abstract economic policies translate directly into higher grocery bills for families already stretched thin by persistent inflation.
Shelley Fishman: Following the Money to the Original Gilded Era
Financial advisor Shelley Fishman delivered the day's most blistering reality check, cutting through the administration's rhetorical fog with a machete of truth: "Do not listen to what Trump says. Watch what he does."
With the confidence of someone who understands the real game being played, Fishman pulled back the curtain on the administration's true agenda: "What the Trump administration is trying to do here is return us to a period of time when unbridled corporate power and unbridled, essentially corporate richness, riches were unregulated and could essentially write all the rules."
When Buckmaster connected this vision to the notorious Gilded Age of 1890-1914 – immortalized in Edith Wharton's "Age of Innocence" – Fishman didn't hesitate: "When he says 'make America great again,' that's the greatness that he's referring to."
Ah yes, the idyllic era of child labor, company towns, and workers dying in factory fires. Truly the pinnacle of American greatness.
Fishman continued his historical illumination by connecting dots that should terrify anyone with even a passing knowledge of economic history, pointing out that the original Gilded Age was plagued by "one recession after another, and finally collapsed entirely into the Great Depression." And what precipitated that final collapse? "Tariffs, smooth holly, tariffs."
The financial expert's assessment of Trump's true priorities was unflinching: "He wants the robber barons back. I mean, he puts them in front of his cabinet at the inauguration. What he wants is for corporations to be unregulated, that they can invest as much as they want wherever they want, and that things like the effect of labor and the effect of the middle class all of those things are secondary or not at all in his consideration."
For investors hoping the market would continue its post-election rally, Fishman's outlook was equally stark, noting the market has already "lost every point of gain since the election day" and consumer confidence has taken a nearly 10% plunge. The specter of entering "the next election cycle in a recession" now hangs over economic forecasts like a guillotine.
"It's not about taking waste and abuse out of the government," Fishman concluded. "It's about destroying the government."
But at least the stock portfolio of billionaires will recover... eventually. That's what matters, right?
Dr. Jeff Silvertooth: Water Wars and Resource Robbery
The second half of the show shifted focus to our most vital desert resource—water—with Dr. Jeff Silvertooth, a professor and extension specialist in agronomy and soil science at the University of Arizona, explaining how the administration's funding freezes jeopardize the very infrastructure that sustains Arizona's habitability.
Silvertooth detailed how approximately $12 billion directed to Western states for critical water infrastructure support has been frozen, potentially derailing essential conservation efforts along the Colorado River. "We need every drop of water conserved in these rivers and conduits, water conduits that we have," he emphasized with the urgency of someone who understands the existential threat posed by water scarcity in the Southwest.
The professor explained that the freeze affects funds that Senators Sinema and Kelly had secured specifically for the West. "When you cut this funding off here, and you realize how much the federal government is in partnership with states, with other agencies, with other aspects of our country, including cities and counties like right here where we are in Tucson," he explained, "you can just already begin to see these ripple effects that are shooting out across the industry."
Cut funding to water infrastructure in a desert during a historic drought. What could possibly go wrong?
Silvertooth also shared a disturbing climatic update: the period between August and this first week of March is now the driest since records began in 1895. "It's dry throughout the entire region," he warned, explaining that persistent high-pressure systems combined with La Niña conditions would likely accelerate temperature increases and water loss, exacerbating the 25-year drought already stressing the Southwest.
"If this pattern, these patterns can persist, and the weather service suggests that they very well may, it's going to get hot fast out here," Silvertooth cautioned. "So it's going to exacerbate our water loss out of this environment even faster."
The Corporate Coup: Connecting the Catastrophic Dots
What emerged from these expert conversations wasn't merely a series of policy disagreements but a portrait of systemic economic warfare being waged against working Americans in favor of corporate interests and the ultra-wealthy.
The tariffs function as a regressive tax, primarily hurting lower—and middle-income families. The freezing of critical infrastructure funding threatens our most basic resources. The gutting of regulatory frameworks opens the door to environmental degradation and worker exploitation.
As evidence of this emerging catastrophe, Fishman noted that voters in even the reddest districts are beginning to experience the painful disconnect between campaign promises and policy realities: "We're seeing constituents screaming at their Republican representatives in very red, very districts where people voted overwhelmingly for Trump."
Turns out economic pain is bipartisan, even if the policies causing it aren't.
"They're not getting what they were promised," Fishman explained. "They're not getting a reduction in prices. They're not getting new job opportunities."
The immediate future promises more pain, with Hoffman predicting a chain reaction affecting everything from housing to agriculture. These policies will be particularly devastating for Arizona, where our proximity to Mexico makes cross-border trade and labor critical to our economic ecosystem.
We built an economy dependent on international trade, then elected a president determined to destroy it. Genius.
A Call to Action: Reclaiming Our Economic Future
As Arizonans face this gathering storm of economic policies designed to enrich the few at the expense of the many, passive acceptance is not an option. The experts on the Buckmaster Show didn't just diagnose our economic illness – they implicitly prescribed the cure: informed resistance.
Professor Silvertooth, despite the gloomy forecast, modeled the resilience that will be necessary: "I try to be optimistic with what we have to deal with... There's always next year, and we'll try to do a little better."
But hoping for next year isn't enough. Arizonans, particularly those in working-class and agricultural communities likely to bear the brunt of these policies, must recognize that their economic suffering isn't inevitable or necessary – it's a choice being made by an administration prioritizing corporate profits over people's prosperity.
The true power rests not with those implementing these harmful policies but with citizens who understand their real-world implications and demand better. Knowledge is the first step toward accountability, and accountability is the pathway to change.
The tariffs and troubles of today need not define our tomorrow if we refuse to accept the corporate colonization of our economy and our future. As we watch prices rise at the grocery store and water levels fall in our reservoirs, remember: this pain isn't accidental – it's by design. And what's designed by human hands can be redesigned by human will.
What do you think about the impacts these tariffs will have on Arizona's economy? Are you already seeing price increases at your local stores? Share your experiences in the comments below.
Quotes:
"He truly believes tariffs are a good thing. He truly believes that they're paid by foreign governments and that China's government, Canada's government, and Mexico's government somehow pay for these things." - Dr. Dennis Hoffman, explaining Trump's fundamental misunderstanding of tariff economics.
"Do not listen to what Trump says. Watch what he does." - Shelley Fishman, cutting through the administration's rhetoric to reveal its true agenda.
"When he says 'make America great again,' that's the greatness that he's referring to." - Shelley Fishman, explaining that Trump's vision of American greatness refers to the Gilded Age of the 1890s-1910s.
"The Gilded Age was pestered by one recession after another and finally collapsed entirely into the Great Depression. And guess what promulgated that final collapse? Tariffs." - Shelley Fishman, drawing historical parallels to today's economic policies.
"It's not about taking waste and abuse out of the government. It's about destroying the government." - Shelley Fishman, on the administration's true objective.
"Stop on your way home and get fruits and vegetables because they're going up tomorrow and the next day." - Dr. Dennis Hoffman, giving practical advice to listeners about imminent price increases.
"The period between August and this week, the first week of March, is now the driest period since records have been kept since 1895 in Tucson." - Bill Buckmaster, contextualizing the severity of current drought conditions.
People Mentioned and Notable Quotes:
Bill Buckmaster - Host of the Buckmaster Show, who moderated the discussions and expressed concern about the impacts of tariffs on Arizona: "I'm not an economist, but what possible advantage does the Trump administration think this is going to do for our country?"
Dr. Dennis Hoffman - Professor of Economics and Director of the Office of the University Economist at Arizona State University: "If you've got issues, go to diplomacy, deal with them, don't tax each other's citizens effectively."
Shelley Fishman - Financial advisor and business consultant: "He wants the robber barons back. I mean, he puts them in front of his cabinet at the inauguration."
Dr. Jeff Silvertooth - Professor and extension specialist in agronomy and soil science at the University of Arizona, says, "We need every drop of water conserved in these rivers and conduits."
Donald Trump - 47th President of the United States, referred to as imposing 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and having a fundamental misunderstanding of tariffs: "He truly believes that they're paid by foreign governments."
Ronald Reagan - Former President, mentioned as being criticized by Trump for not using tariffs: "He even went after Ronald Reagan this week saying that Ronald Reagan gave away the store."
Tom Buschatzke - Director of Arizona Department of Water Resources, mentioned as a principal negotiator on the Colorado River for the lower basin states.
J.B. Hamby - Commissioner for California's Colorado River Commission, was mentioned alongside Buschatzke as leading negotiations.
Senators Sinema and Kelly - Arizona Senators mentioned as having secured approximately $12 billion in infrastructure funding for the West that has now been frozen.
A thorough presentation.