Nigeria, April 9 -- Shock is by far the easiest sentiment to register, as have markets across the world. Commodities markets continue to fall across the world, with global stock markets shedding 20 per cent and the US bond market retreating from its reputation as the haven for cash after a risk sell-off. Yet, the imposition by the US government on 2 April, of what it described as "reciprocal tariffs" on economies around the world was supposed to usher in a halcyon era, at least for America.

The arguments of the Donald Trump administration were always a stretch. That the world's biggest economy has been the hapless victim of policy choices of countries as diverse as Vietnam and Lesotho (a country which the US president claimed, "nobody ha...