A brief note, because not only am I not an economist, I am deeply confused about tariffs. Not what they are, mind you — they’re a tax on the price of consumer goods, regardless of what Trump labels them; rather, I am no longer certain anymore when and where we are deploying them. Trump threatened Colombia with 25 percent tariffs for approximately half an hour earlier this week, and then those disappeared into the ether once they fell into line.

So when Donald Trump claims that America’s brave and bold new tariff regime — a 10 percent tax on all goods from China and a whopping 25 percent tariff placed upon exports from Mexico and our primary geopolitical foe Canada — is going into effect today, I don’t know what that means or whether it even means today. Trump has offered no specifics on how the duties are going to be collected and only the barest explanation of why they are being imposed either. We are apparently due more details this weekend, but I will only repeat what I wrote on January 20, the day Trump took office: If he actually succeeds in getting his way on tariffs — a lifelong obsession of his — he seems more likely to destroy his own presidency (along with the economy) than any of our rivals.

(That said, there is nothing wrong with quietly rooting for the ruination of Canada.)