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Best Buy and Target CEOs say prices are about to go up because of tariffs

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Re: Best Buy and Target CEOs say prices are about to go up because of tariffs

#81

Post by throwaway48476 »

mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #57
throwaway48476 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who pays the tariff depends on the relative elasticity of supply and demand.

Is your reasoning that the supplier has the option of eating the tariff by cutting prices, such that the price paid by the purchaser remains the same? If they had that much margin headroom available to cut prices by 20% and remain profitable, wouldn't that basically prove that they weren't dumping product in the first place?

What I stated is the textbook definition.

For suppliers with fixed costs there are strong incentives to lower prices to stimulate demand sufficient to maintain utilization where possible. The commodity NAND market is an example of this. The fabs are extremely sensitive to utilization which leads to wild profit and loss swings.

Re: Best Buy and Target CEOs say prices are about to go up because of tariffs

#82

Post by esalman »

galimalint wrote: post #72
captainkrtek wrote: post #23

Sure miss the days where there wasn’t headline generating chaos from the White House resulting in market volatility. Make Government Boring Again.

[flagged]

4 out of those 5 headlines you listed are basically empty promises. Otherwise known as clickbait.

Re: Best Buy and Target CEOs say prices are about to go up because of tariffs

#83

Post by tmpz22 »

aussieguy1234 wrote: post #41

What's the impact here on inflation, by extension interest rates and funding available to startups?

Massive wealth redistribution to the ultra-wealthy over the next 4 years. The ultra wealthy will need to find new places to invest their capital, so some form of startup funding will remain available even as research funding dries up.

Creating startups will be easier as more Americans will be looking for work, leading to depressed salaries.

Re: Best Buy and Target CEOs say prices are about to go up because of tariffs

#84

Post by toomuchtodo »

strken wrote: post #71
toomuchtodo wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We own a modest flat in Spain. I’ve moved a year’s worth of living expenses to EUR. I can have my family out of the country in 72 hours. Total cost was under $300k USD. The best time to have a plan is before you need it. If you wait until you need it, you’re too late. (n=1, ymmv)

How much does this cost you on an ongoing basis, if you don't mind me asking?

<€4k/pa. That’s everything including utilities. No mortgage.

Re: Best Buy and Target CEOs say prices are about to go up because of tariffs

#85

Post by esalman »

neilv wrote: post #80
captainkrtek wrote: post #23

Sure miss the days where there wasn’t headline generating chaos from the White House resulting in market volatility. Make Government Boring Again.

Is the market actually disciplining? Or are Wall Street actors gaming the volatility for further profit? Or both?

Strongly believe it's the second.

Just learned from Twitter tariffs will be rolled back in a day or two.

Re: Best Buy and Target CEOs say prices are about to go up because of tariffs

#86

Post by Ar-Curunir »

jameslk wrote: post #62
captainkrtek wrote: post #23

Sure miss the days where there wasn’t headline generating chaos from the White House resulting in market volatility. Make Government Boring Again.

This could be an interesting topic, but inevitably these posts devolve into politics and it’s always about the same thing. Yet this is the type of comment at the top. Why bother leaving a comment like this?

You realize that the only reason this is a topic of discussion is because of politics, right?

Re: Best Buy and Target CEOs say prices are about to go up because of tariffs

#87

Post by mlinhares »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #65
warkdarrior wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is the theory. But there is no incentive for US manufacturers to compete on price. If the product from China costs $100 (including the tariff), the same product from US will be $99.99. Selling it any cheaper would be stupid.

That would only be conceivable if there was a single domestic manufacturer. You don't need a foreign product to keep prices honest in a competitive domestic market.

You do, actually. Countries that have succeeded with tariffs to "build an industry" eventually forced their companies to compete in the foreign market (look at Japan and South Korea) so that they would not be fake leaders.

These markets produced actually competitive businesses that thrived and outcompeted the market leaders (US and European companies) in multiple industries. So if you keep tariffs forever you end up with Russia or some other backwater where people are forced to buy shitty goods because you have no access to external markets.

The computer market in Brazil, for instance, was like that. Most of what we had were pirated hardware, because there was never an effort to create a real industry in the country, they would just copy and paste whatever was available out there and "launch" in the local market, so even with years of tariffs and protectionism the country did not produce any player in the computer manufacturing market.

Re: Best Buy and Target CEOs say prices are about to go up because of tariffs

#88

Post by throwaway48476 »

crazygringo wrote: post #64
throwaway48476 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who pays the tariff depends on the relative elasticity of supply and demand.

It is extremely rare for manufacturers to absorb the tariffs. Profit margins in most industries simply aren't high enough to cover it. A business can't absorb 20-25% tariffs if its profit margin is only 5%. And manufacturing is particularly known for its low profit margins. So no. I mean, in theory you are technically correct. But the way elasticity works in practice is that the buyer is who pays the tariffs in virtu…

This is the case of low elasticity of the supply curve.

Re: Best Buy and Target CEOs say prices are about to go up because of tariffs

#89

Post by kieranmaine »

codazoda wrote: post #35
Sabinus wrote: post #3

Any bets on how this will be justified by Trump voters? I'm thinking at first it'll be 'playing hardball negotiating tactic' and when it looks like the tariffs are here to stay 'paying more is patriotic'.

I haven’t paid attention to the politics here much, but isn’t driving up the price the point? If you charge Canada a 25% tariff then products sold in the U.S. and shipped from Canada should cost U.S. consumers about 25% more. That, in turn, makes U.S. products look more attractive. A U.S. business pays taxes at the federal and state levels. A U.S. business also hires U.S. employees, who pay taxes as well and spend in…

Don't forget retaliatory tariffs impacting exporters. See

From "Donald Trump’s tariffs will bring ‘nothing but pain’ to rural America, farmers say - " https://www.ft.com/content/ba4569d3-3c54-47d9-90af-125751434...

"Trump’s last trade war, with China in 2018...led to $27bn in losses for US agriculture, according to estimates by farming groups..farms received as much as $23bn in compensation from the federal government"

Re: Best Buy and Target CEOs say prices are about to go up because of tariffs

#90

Post by davidw »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #60
davidw wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you actually go about doing that? Like if the US economy implodes because enough of this malarkey breaks it, what/where is safe? In terms of your personal wealth/residence, I mean. The only thing I can kind of think of is maybe some land or housing in Europe or New Zealand or somewhere kind of out of the way; perhaps something that you can rent out. Might not make you a ton of money, but it would hopefully…

We own a modest flat in Spain. I’ve moved a year’s worth of living expenses to EUR. I can have my family out of the country in 72 hours. Total cost was under $300k USD. The best time to have a plan is before you need it. If you wait until you need it, you’re too late. (n=1, ymmv)

> I can have my family out of the country in 72 hours.

I was thinking out loud about this on a reddit thread, kind of going through my idea of different scenarios. "Maslow's hierarchy of GTFO".

As in... if you're in 1930ies Germany, you get out with whatever you can take, but you get out ASAP.

If you're in, say, Hungary... you don't really need to rush your exit. You might find the politics unpleasant, but you can leave whenever and take the time to take your stuff with you.

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