It's been exactly one year since Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs.

The numbers are in: 89,000 manufacturing jobs lost. Trade deficit UP 2%. $166 billion in refunds ordered after the Supreme Court struck down the IEEPA tariffs. And this week? 100% tariffs on pharmaceuticals.

Mike and I have been tracking this since Episode 51, when we called out the chaos of "tariffs today, off tomorrow, paused for a month, doubled." We said mixed signals would destroy business investment. We said the fentanyl-from-Canada rationale was incoherent.

The data proved us right. But that's not satisfying — it's actually worse than we expected.

Here's what both sides get wrong: Democrats say tariffs are pure economic self-sabotage. Republicans say they're 4D chess bringing manufacturing back. The reality? Tariffs CAN work — but only with clear goals, consistent execution, and the right target. Trump had none of those. He used a lead pipe when brain surgery required a scalpel.

Episode 65 will break down what went wrong, what (if anything) tariffs actually accomplished, and what a coherent trade strategy would look like. We'll be recording this week while the retrospectives are still hot.

Episode 64 with John Abbate on AI agents and human agency is still in the pipeline. Both conversations are about the same thing: who controls the levers of power in systems we don't fully understand.

What's your verdict on Liberation Day? Reply with your take.

— Cooper & Mike

P.S. — Yeah, it's been a minute since Ep63. Appreciate you sticking around. We're back.