New Delhi, April 15 -- A line often mis-attributed to Vladimir Lenin goes: "There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen." Last week was one such momentous one as the 'tariff tantrums' of US President Donald Trump first created chaos and uncertainty and were then paused. A 90-day suspension of country-specific reciprocal tariffs was announced on 9 April, excluding those on China. Was this a Trump victory or a case of his winging it until things got difficult?

Before 9 April, the Trump administration claimed that it wasn't bothered about stock prices falling, with Trump even posting a video saying that he was crashing the market "on purpose."

What was the purpose? Tariffs would lead investors to sell ...