Donald J. Trump lost an auction in 1988 for a 58-key piano used in the classic film “Casablanca” to a Japanese trading company representing a collector. The following year, Mr. Trump went on television to call for a 15 percent to 20 percent tax on imports from Japan.
That was then. Fast forward forty years to now. Trump has finally has his revenge on that event. Collateral damage be damned, he got his tariffs.
Let us calculate the cost of that piano, now that we know the role it played in this debacle. I'd estimate it at about $15T.
Yes.
Donald Trump has shaved about $15T of value off world stock markets (perhaps more) because some Japanese collector outbid him at auction. For a piano.
If anything about this situation seems strange? Congratulations. You're sane. That's an increasingly rare state of mind to be in, BTW.
Try to hold onto it.
