I just asked ChatGPT if (hypothetically) doing something random that was guaranteed to tank the stock market, that I could stop doing randomly at any time, would be a good way to make money. It said yes and started babbling about insider trading and how that was bad and I shouldn't do it. Then I asked it if that could (hypothetically) make a bunch of my close friends or business contacts or people I owed money to a lot of money. It said yes again and kept babbling about insider trading and market manipulation and how that was all bad. Then I asked it what if a US president did that by randomly enacting huge destructive taxes that seemed guaranteed to destroy the stock market until they were lifted.
Now that's a spicy hypothetical was ChatGPT's response. It said that would be market manipulation on a massive global scale unprecidented in history, but that the downsides would be potential long-term economic damage that could take years or decades for the global economy to recover from. Well that's a relief it sounds like no one would be that insane or that evil. It also said not to worry, because that scenario would be a dream come true scenario for the SEC and / or FBI to jump on. That's a relief. Sounds like that would all be crazy and totally impossible for anyone in a position of power, expecially a US president. Phew.
Anyway I'm not that plugged into the news because it's stupid but it seemed really weird to me that I hadn't heard anyone throw out the idea that all this "crazy" random-seeming behavior with tariffs might be explained by some sort of lame scam. Especially when the most obvious question right now for an amateur smart phone stonk investor seems like it would be, everything's dropping so when's it gonna go back up so I know when to buy. The only dominant recurring critique I hear about these tariffs are that they're dumb and bad and are going to destroy the economy and Trump must be so stupid if he thinks these are going to work. It doesn't seem stupid to me necessarily.Unless by stupid you mean lame, and by lame you mean lame scam.
[04/07/2025]