Peter Navarro: the economist who has outsmarted Elon Musk and has the ear of Donald Trump

Elon Musk called him "dumber than a sack of bricks" but, in the raw contest for political power, Peter Navarro has outsmarted the billionaire. The tumult in global trade shows that for now it is the 75-year-old economist, not Musk, who has Donald Trump's ear in the Oval Office. Navarro is the US president's chief trade adviser and the intellectual driving force behind the global tariffs and trade war with China. The chaos and uncertainty have been too strong even for Musk, the great disrupter, but Navarro's silky mien still assures the US all is well. Even after the tech…