Trump offers trade war as reward for strong job numbers

As it ran on the front

You get a strong jobs report, the numbers say Americans are working, the White House should be celebrating. But instead, the next move is a threat: if the Fed doesn't cut rates, Trump says he'll halt some trade—another way to say 'trade war.'

The sequence is all upside down: usually you threaten trade wars when things are bad, not as a reward for good news. But that's the leverage—use the good numbers as a reason to squeeze something else out of the system. The carrot is a stick, and the stick is more sticks. The real message is that the tools of economic policy are bargaining chips for whoever's holding the microphone, not safety nets for the people working the jobs.…