A microblog post by @kareem_carr saying “as soon as i saw they were using asterisks for multiplication symbols, i knew we were in trouble”, with an image from the “Office of the United States Trade Representative (Executive Office of the President)” showing the mathematical formula $\Delta \tau_i = \frac{x_i - m_i}{\varepsilon * \varphi * m_i}$. The formula show asterisks (*) instead of multiplication signs (×).
According to this article, even the value of epsilon is wrong. Epsilon stands for ‘price elasticity’, which seems to measure how much tariffs would affect the price of an item. 0.25 is the value used by the White House, but some economists have come out saying it is actually closer to 0.945, indicating that prices are affected far greater by tariffs than what these buffoons claim. But even with the correct value, the formula makes no sense.
Without the fancy shit, it’s basically (exports/imports) - 1.