Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries • Hacker News Board

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#241

Post by louthy » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 6:55 PM UTC

spacephysics wrote: post #177

insane_dreamer wrote: post #132

So, it was all a bluff? (As many people suspected it would be.)

It brought a large number of countries to the negotiating table, and shows he’s willing to execute on threats of keeping tariffs high for an individual country. Now is the ripe time, 90 days, to make a deal with the US and offer the best terms. The whole point of Trump is to leverage uncertainty, make an unrealistically high water mark, then go down from there (to a point thats still very favorable) This rationale ca…

> It brought a large number of countries to the negotiating table

Did it? They said it did, but I wouldn’t trust a word they say.

What concessions has he actually got from the rest of the world? Was it worth it? It seems to me the two biggest trading ‘partners’ (China and EU) were escalating, not conceding.

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#242

Post by cmurf » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 6:55 PM UTC

skyyler wrote: post #126

fancyfredbot wrote: post #107

Too late for everyone who spent massively on flying in stock ahead of the tariff deadline. Too late for those forced to sell financial assets in order to pay margin calls. Too late for those working on projects involving foreign manufacturers which have now been cancelled due to tariff uncertainty. Too late for those who lost sales while they figured out pricing. Too early for the people fundraising to build US manuf…

It's almost like the whole point is just to enable insider trading on a scale we've never seen before.

https://bsky.app/profile/unusualwhales.bsky.social/post/3lmf...

"Alright, I think people knew of the tariff pause and traded it beforehand ... "

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#243

Post by squigz » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 6:55 PM UTC

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #204

coldpie wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How are businesses supposed to plan anything in this environment? Who cares? Business leaders & the politicians they helped elect are stripping the copper from the country. Whatever's left when they're done is someone else's problem.

I care?? Much of my family works in trades, have their own small businesses with employees and are very much subject to tariffs for their supplies. They did not vote for any of this.

I think GP meant, "Who in power cares"

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#244

Post by pavlov » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 6:55 PM UTC

me2too wrote: post #169

This man's absurdity never ceases to amaze me. How can his supporters appreciate all this - constant - chaos? Moreover, from the outside (European here), it looks like the US president can literally do whatever he wants without being subject to regulations or facing any consequences - pretty much like a dictatorship. No discussion, no parliament, no opposition taken into account. Crazy.

It now feels quaint that, not long ago, people used to speculate what Gödel's loophole was:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gödel%27s_Loophole

We're witnessing that there doesn't need to be any single clever actively exploited loophole. A two-party presidential system can become a dictatorship if one party holds just enough power across all branches of government to not resist what their leader wants.

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#245

Post by shortrounddev2 » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 6:56 PM UTC

nonethewiser wrote: post #119

steveBK123 wrote: post #61

He's turned the US stock market into the same model as China's - the entire up/down rests on the leaders words. Which makes them fairly uninvestable.

There are structural differences between the US and Chinese stock markets that remain unchanged. The policy changed but the relationship between the President and the stock market did not change.

Legally no, but normatively, yes. It was previously expected that the president wouldn't deliberately ruin the American economy for his own ego. That can no longer be expected.

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#246

Post by seanmcdirmid » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 6:56 PM UTC

ronsor wrote: post #87

steveBK123 wrote: post #61

He's turned the US stock market into the same model as China's - the entire up/down rests on the leaders words. Which makes them fairly uninvestable.

This isn't a good example because a lot investors are (or were) looking at China recently.

The Chinese stock market...is not a fun place. It hasn't done very well in the last 5 years (unlike the US stock market) and is still way too subject to insider trading to be very accessible to most people. You can go with an emerging markets fund, but I would only do that as a hedge.

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#247

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 6:56 PM UTC

nineplay wrote: post #217

My takeaway from what I've read and heard in the last few weeks is that his only actual motivation is to 'win'. He bragged yesterday that other countries are kissing his ass to negotiate deals on the tariffs. I think that was all he wanted, I think he now thinks that this whole tariff thing was a success and he's going to move on to the next crazy idea. The rest of us suffer for it, except for the sad portion of the…

[deleted]

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#248

Post by justin66 » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 6:56 PM UTC

jeetoid wrote: post #67

lysace wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

*How can anyone take the US seriously? Also see: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yrr0e7499o > Confidence in the US economy is plummeting as investors dumped government debt amid growing concerns over the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs. > Governments sell bonds - essentially an IOU - to raise money from financial markets for public spending and in return they pay interest. > The US does not normally see high int…

Any reasonable person does.

In the sense that people "take seriously" a drunkard waving a gun around.

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#249

Post by tintor » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 6:56 PM UTC

java-man wrote: post #135

kart23 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/1143082727259... > THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! - @realDonaldTrump today at 6:37 AM PST

How is this legal??

Because US is not a democracy anymore. Checks and balances are gone.

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#250

Post by the_arun » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 6:56 PM UTC

4ndrewl wrote: post #218

Pulling stunts like this just makes the USA even less investable. Markets operating at the whims of a capricious King (is there even a functioning government right now?)

Without taking sides, what if we think this wasn't a stunt but a genuine experiment?