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Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

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181–190 of 704 posts

Re: Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

#181
post #97

In the end it's the biggest leopard ate my face moment ever: China has very high growth momentum that surpasses American living standards soon, and not long before it will surpass American security standards too. China's purchasing power is probably more comfortable than most western countries, with extensive housing and high speed rail and electric cars etc. When a country becomes rich, inevitably other countries as…

"Growth momentum" isn't a thing, and more over China's growth is slowing. This would be wholly expected under normal circumstances because it's no longer a developing economy, it's a developed economy - the absurd GDP growth rates it had are won off the fact that industrialization is an enormous, enormous change in productivity but you only get to do it once.

Re: Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

#182

As well as big business, this is just shutting down or radically altering many small industries. FIlmmakers, authors/book publishers, musicians etc. are negatively incentivized to ship product to the US, so good luck if you are an American consumer with niche cultural hobbies or a specialized importer who does a lot of small-batch orders.

Books aren't tarrifed.

That's good, but do you think you'll be able to ship to the US without restriction? I don't see post office counter workers working their way through the official list of exemptions published by the WH

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Annex-...

Re: Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

#183
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> GDP per capital with PPP China’s ‘25 GDP per capita on a purchasing-power parity basis is $29k to America’s $90k [1]. American real GDP per capita grew at 1.7% a year from 2015 to 2025 [2]. (American PPP GDP/c grew 4.5% a year from 2014 to 2024 [3].) From 2004 to 2024, Chinese PPP GDP/c grew 7.4% a year [4]. If China and America keep growing at their respective rates, we wouldn’t expect convergence for 20+ (40, usi…

American real GDP per capita grew at 1.7% a year from 2015 to 2025 [2] From 2004 to 2024, Chinese PPP GDP/c grew 7.4% a year [4]. What an incredibly dishonest comparison!

What about it makes it dishonest? What do you think would be an honest comparison? And, if you do it, what numbers do you get?

Re: Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

#185
post #85

I’d like to lay out an argument about why tariffs are good. The only businesses that are derailing with tariffs issues are those that import goods to sell. The argument against tariffs is that they make goods more expensive. Of course, this argument is true. But that’s not the end of the story. Because prices are higher for imported goods, demand for domestically produced goods increases. This increase in demand lead…

Incentives work better than tariffs. Tariffs are less effective due to their uncertainty (why would I build a factory if the next admin removes the tariffs?)

The problem with incentives is that they need to be ongoing. It doesn’t matter how cheap it is to build a factory in the US if foreign competition can still bring comparable products to market for cheaper. Because then you won’t sell anything, so your ROI is zero.

Re: Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

#186
post #122
post #85

I’d like to lay out an argument about why tariffs are good. The only businesses that are derailing with tariffs issues are those that import goods to sell. The argument against tariffs is that they make goods more expensive. Of course, this argument is true. But that’s not the end of the story. Because prices are higher for imported goods, demand for domestically produced goods increases. This increase in demand lead…

Except for one little thing: countries have comparative advantage in the production of different goods and services. Boeing is great at turning aluminum and steel (low in the value chain) into jetliners (at the top of the value chain). Because of this, Boeing gets to make thousands of jetliners and sell them all across the world and America gets to be one of very few places that can do this. I think you'll find that…

Boeing is going to be the first company to feel the pain of Trump’s tariffs.

The govt of India has already put one small order on hold and the word in aviation circles is to switch to Airbus as far as possible.

Military purchases now also won’t happen.

Peter Navarro in one of his rants inadvertently leaked this out on TV: his specific issue was a demand for mandatory tech transfer and manufacturing in India.

Re: Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

#187
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

@Dang can you please delete this comment OP might not be wrong, but let's at least follow SOP for disclosing security failures (30 days pre-disclosure)

We don't delete things unless the poster asks us to, and really I doubt this comment is creating any more risk than the picture itself on the WSJ.

Fair enough!

Re: Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

#188

80 percent plus of economic activity is domestic: all its inputs are entirely unaffected by tariffs. This is a Premier Cru Red Herring.

> all its inputs are entirely unaffected by tariffs.

80% of economic activity imports nothing? 80% of economic activity doesn’t involve on oil, cars/trucks, or computers?

Re: Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

#189
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The hiring slowdown predates tariffs. That's true, but it didn't predate the election of a man who has made his understanding of tariffs and economics crystal clear in the months and years leading up to January 2025.

The tariffs this time are far in excess of anything he did previously or promised to do while running for office again and took nearly everyone by surprise though.

This pre-election BBC summary - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy343z53l1o - pretty clearly spells out what has eventuated, describing it as a "central campaign pledge":

> Trump has made tariffs a central campaign pledge in order to protect US industry. He has proposed new 10-20% tariffs on most imported foreign goods, and much higher ones on those from China.

Re: Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you so well-versed in these anti-Chinese narratives? Your message reads like you're a victim of anti-Chinese propaganda.

I'm from China. I know what real numbers and news come out of China.

Sure, you are. You created this account 2 hours ago, all comments anti China, perfect english and you write about China as "their" country in one of the comments.
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