Terms of Trade: A Field Guide for the Economically Baffled
(Co-authored with ChatGPT).
US President Donald Trump’s Executive Order has landed. Tariffs have snapped into place. Currency markets are shifting, trade ministers are scrambling, and most of us are left wondering what half these economic terms even mean.
Enter: Terms of Trade.
A glossary of key concepts, defined with a 0.7 dose of spark and a 0.4 measure of clarity. Because economic jargon shouldn’t get to hide behind its own smoke.
Sampled Selection
Tariff
A border tax dressed as patriotism. Claimed to protect jobs, but mostly inflates prices and tempers.
Definition: A tax imposed on imports or exports to protect domestic industries or punish foreign economies.
Arbitrage
The polite word for profiting from chaos. Arbitrageurs don’t cause the fire—they just sell the smoke.
Definition: Buying in one market and selling in another to exploit price differences.
Currency Manipulation
An accusation flung when your dollar dreams shrink. Often true, often projection.
Definition: When a country artificially alters its currency’s value to gain trade advantages.
Trade War
Diplomacy’s loud, clumsy cousin. Everyone loses eventually, but some get rich in the middle.
Definition: Escalating tariffs and trade barriers between nations in response to perceived economic injustices.
Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve
Economic doomsday prepping.
Definition: Stockpiling essential minerals like lithium or cobalt to buffer against geopolitical supply shocks.
Explore the full glossary:
The Terms of Trade Glossary is now live—a growing guide to economic and trade terms, updated as the global situation evolves.
Because if the world economy is going to collapse in riddles, we deserve subtitles.
The Auld Skald's Fudgel 