When US President Donald Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs three months ago, the spectre of world economic apocalypse looked entirely possible. From that brink to where we sit today – with equity markets hitting new highs – isn’t just one for the books. It’s unthinkable.

Trump’s unpopular, unconventional and potentially unconstitutional trade war policies rocked the world order and unleashed chaos in the markets, which soon found he would walk much of it back from most of his extreme positions.

Trump’s TACO trade turns out to be a winner.Credit: AP

The chaos-to-recovery U-turn is only one chapter in the economic fortunes of the Western world, but for now at least we can bank our positive end of financial year returns.

When someone creates havoc or danger, only to play hero or saviour, medical scientists refer to it as the hero complex – a particular branch of narcissism that aligns closely with Trump and much of his behaviour and his trade policies.

What’s known as

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