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US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

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Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#321

Post by ianpurton »

casey2 wrote: post #156

The US particularly has an extremely large population of men (10s of millions) who don't work. Who knows if they'd be doing "low skill" manufacturing if somebody was around to hire them. But if you actually wanted this to work you would have started by subsidizing american raw materials.

Tesla in Berlin employs 12,000 workers and can produce 5000 cars a week.

The US will need a lot of factories to employ 10s of millions of workers.I also imagine new factories will employ less workers due to increased automation.

I'm interested to see how this plays out.

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#322

Post by timeon »

ggm wrote: post #87

I think a lot of people assume the economic consequences like these have not been understood by the WH. Although I don't like this administration I beg to differ: they know what's going to happen, and they expect the coming storm because they seek what follows. They want to repudiate foreign held debt, or devalue it, by revaluation of the USD and they will wear what they think of as a one time economic shock to get t…

I tend to agree with you that they know. However the signal leeks showed me that they are not just playing stupid in public - it seems that they are like that for real.

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#323

Post by aurareturn »

mcoliver wrote: post #92

Here's a csv and google sheet of the data. Turns out they aren't tariffs countries charge us. They are trade imbalance percentages. Unreal: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xK0OQ5VGl8JHmDSIgbXh... https://gist.github.com/mcoliver/69fe48d03c12388e29cc0cd87eb...

Are we factoring in digital/service trades? For example, Netflix is in Vietnam. There are many Netflix subscribers in Vietnam. Does that get factored into the trade deficit? Or is it only physical goods that get factored in?

Vietnam uses many US services such as Microsoft Office, Netflix, ChatGPT, Facebook ads, etc. This is revenue that directly go into the pockets of American companies.

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#324

Post by cantrecallmypwd »

ggm wrote: post #87

I think a lot of people assume the economic consequences like these have not been understood by the WH. Although I don't like this administration I beg to differ: they know what's going to happen, and they expect the coming storm because they seek what follows. They want to repudiate foreign held debt, or devalue it, by revaluation of the USD and they will wear what they think of as a one time economic shock to get t…

Rich people are typically insulated from economic downturns, especially ones they cause, by their ability to shift investments and asset allocations to mitigate and/or profit from changing tides.

Furthermore, Trump has never bought his own groceries, pumped his own gas, or interviewed for a job so retail prices and layoffs are abstractions "for plebs". Plus, he's reaching the end of his life so he doesn't have very much proverbial skin in the game since his motivations revolve almost exclusively around himself.

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#325

Post by bamboozled »

ggm wrote: post #87

I think a lot of people assume the economic consequences like these have not been understood by the WH. Although I don't like this administration I beg to differ: they know what's going to happen, and they expect the coming storm because they seek what follows. They want to repudiate foreign held debt, or devalue it, by revaluation of the USD and they will wear what they think of as a one time economic shock to get t…

By the time the midterms come along I doubt there will be many people left who want the job of fixing up this mess. So they will likely get to keep it.

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#326

Post by piokoch »

hayst4ck wrote: post #297

The golden prize for America's enemies is to remove the US dollar as a global reserve currency. Since trade is conducted largely in USD, that means other governments must purchase USD to trade. This is the core of trade deficits. Foreign countries buy US dollars so they can trade with other people. That guarantees the deficit since they give us something in exchange for USD, which they do not then spend on goods we m…

Yes... and no. Having own currency as a global reserve currency has its disadvantages too. For instance it keeps value of the currency high, what makes whole USA production noncompetitive. USA exports two things: internet services (all those Googles, Facebooks, etc.) and military equipment.

The problem is that internet services are making rich small group of people (owners, software engineers), military production is a niche, so there is a big group of people who lose jobs, are on low paying positions, as being, say, a car factory worker, does not bring enough money. Those people voted Trump, so Trump is trying to solve their issue by bringing back production back to USA, and the way to do this is twofold: make USD weaker and make foreign goods more expensive.

All this was not a problem till early '00, when USA didn't have much competition (basically Western Europe and Japan), but the times has changed and USA is seeing that. BTW this is not a Trump thing, Obama, Biden administrations were also noticing that and taking actions, like (in)famous Obama reset with Russia to be able to expand trade over there. "Pivot" to Asia - failed Biden project of Indo-Pacific, that was supposed to convince Vietnam and others to follow USA job regulations, what would make their products more expensive. Surprisingly, they told Biden to go away...

Another thing is that for years USA was in a sense donating European industry, for instance taxes on European cars in USA were 2%, while taxes on American cars in Europe (that is European Union) were 10%. Trump puts this to an end.

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#328

Post by ianpurton »

Freedom2 wrote: post #46

As someone interested in "curious discussion", what are some of the positives we can take away from this? Is this a new standard for economic policy?

It may reduce consumerism in the US and therefore be beneficial to the environment.

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#329

Post by 4ndrewl »

ggm wrote: post #87

I think a lot of people assume the economic consequences like these have not been understood by the WH. Although I don't like this administration I beg to differ: they know what's going to happen, and they expect the coming storm because they seek what follows. They want to repudiate foreign held debt, or devalue it, by revaluation of the USD and they will wear what they think of as a one time economic shock to get t…

"Personally I think it's a mistake but hot takes "they have no idea what's coming" are I believe naive."

They slapped 10pct tariffs on the Heard and McDonald islands. Literally uninhabited islands in Antarctica.

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#330

Post by short_sells_poo »

hayst4ck wrote: post #297

The golden prize for America's enemies is to remove the US dollar as a global reserve currency. Since trade is conducted largely in USD, that means other governments must purchase USD to trade. This is the core of trade deficits. Foreign countries buy US dollars so they can trade with other people. That guarantees the deficit since they give us something in exchange for USD, which they do not then spend on goods we m…

The Pax Americana died during the first week of the Trump administration when he proceeded to turn on practically every single one of US' long standing allies and dissolve NATO for all intents and purposes. All the soft power disappeared right there.

Perhaps the world will be better for it in the end, but it's definitely a turning point. A new world order will emerge and America won't be at the helm.

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