Hi, Kevin. Hi, Kevin.
I guess I'm not the only early bird.
Do you have a second to chat with us?
Yes, of course I do.
Thank you. Thank you.
Sure.
How are you?
I think I'm the only New Englander with all those heavy coats you guys are wearing.
I wanted to ask you, you know, the Treasury secretary was saying that this isn't a trade war with China, but what else would you call it?
I think it's the beginning of hopefully a very fruitful negotiation.
And can you clarify if Amazon is canceling orders for products made in China?
I -- I haven't been reading on Amazon's specific moves right now. I did go around online websites last night. You might have noticed that some of my conversations before I love to shop and look at prices. It's one of the things as an economist I like to do. I've been going to grocery stores and looking at online places and haven't seen price changes as of last night for the things I usually get.
Did President Trump secure any concessions from any country or is the pause solely based on, you know, good faith conversation?
The -- the pause was based on good faith conversation. I was on a call with the president -- the president of Switzerland yesterday morning. It was a -- incredibly congenial, and USTR has informed us that there may be 15 countries now that have made explicit offers that we're studying and considering and you know, deciding whether they're good enough to present to the president.
And we're setting up with the chief of staff's office, a very orderly process to prioritize countries and to make sure that the countries that are most important for getting this to the finish line are the countries that we bring in first. We could do negotiations a number of ways. We would expect that there'll be quite a bit of movement of world leaders into the White House in the next three to four weeks.
But yes, this -- this is a really, really fast process now that's not beginning today or yesterday. It began long before. One of the options that the president was considering before he decided to go the way he did yesterday was to announce some deals that are already so far along that we could pretty much finish them up and make them public.
But in the end, he decided that a more general announcement, the one that he made yesterday, was the best way to let everybody understand that he's 100 percent serious about putting American workers first and making the trade deals happen as fast as possible.
Can you talk more about the process and the meeting that's happening today?
No. It's a -- it's a White House internal deliberations. So.
But -- but how are you setting up, I mean --
It's the -- the chief of staff's office has asked all the principals that have, you know, skin in the game to come and discuss what their views are about how this should go. And that's what the purpose of the meeting is. Yes.
Treasury Secretary Bessent said yesterday that one idea for trying to deal with China on this is to get together and -- and strike deals with allies in the region like South Korea, Japan and then approach China as a group. Is that something that's being seriously considered?
These are the kind of things that will be discussed in -- in meetings today and -- and thereafter. So, yes.
Kevin, what's your response to Democrats who are accusing the president of market manipulation with that post that now is the time to buy?
I think the president's policy has gotten us to a very successful place where we've got countries all around the world lining up to come up with policy changes that are going to make America great again. And I don't think that he ever had any other intent other than to get people to the table with, you know, serious policies on our part that we're going to go into place to be permanent if people didn't change their negative ways.
So, who was that message for then, "Now was the time to buy"? Was it not for Americans who might be considering stocks?
Well -- well, I don't think that I ever give stock advice about now, but I think every day is a good day to buy if you believe in the future of America, and every day is a good day to hold as well.
You can confidently say he wasn't trying to control what happened in the market?
He -- he believes in the long run future of America and I think everybody who sees the clarity -- with clarity how strong these policies are should agree as well.
But what about the impact on Americans in the meantime over this last week? I know some Democrats are also saying many Americans were impacted over that. What about that for -- while the president was waiting to change his mind on this?
I think that Americans are looking at where they are right now and seeing that all the world's countries are lining up to come to America to make deals that are better for ordinary Americans. And meanwhile, markets are celebrating. Should be pretty happy about the outcome of the week. So, with that, I thank you guys.
I got to run. Thanks.
Thank you, Kevin. Thank you. Thank you. Good question. Oh, thank you.