361–370 of 1001 posts
I'm wondering how this protectionist trend will impact overseas hires. Will US companies continue to hire talent remotely outside of their borders? Will they be incentivized to only hire in the US?
Trump is going for a 1-2 punch. First tariffs and then tax cuts to soften the blow of price increases. It also puts republicans in a choke hold to force the tax cut legislation through, because the fallout of tariffs with no tax cuts would be a death knell for the party. Maybe in a sim city game this would balance out, but it's a tall order for a real world scenario. Prepare for a bumpy road ahead.
A blanket 10% minimum tariff is a great excuse for any local US manufacturing to increase their prices. I used to live in a country with heavy tariffs, every time tariffs were raised the local producers increased prices to be just below the imports. Even after the tariffs were abolished the prices (on local and imports) never really lowered in any significant way.
> every time tariffs were raised the local producers increased prices to be just below the imports. That's literally how tariffs are supposed to work. I'm confused about what you thought should happen? Local producers are supposed to raise prices so there is more money for worker pay or business reinvestment or both.
How many times does Trump need to explain this to you?
Applying the same policy against everyone indicates it's not about them, it's about the usian 'us'. Another way to look at it might be as sanctions, but instead of applying them on another state, applying them at home. And sanctions are usually a means to influence oligarchs and industrialists in a state, which probably means this is a policy directed at those groups in the US.
Why would you want to hurt US industrialists and oligarchs? Because then you can ease their pain in exchange for their loyalty. This is the logic behind castles in Europe. It's a place where the king decides the taxes, taxing illoyal barons or whatever more than loyal ones, and if they militantly disagree, shut the door and have them expend their resources on a hopefully futile siege and then be weakened anyway. Similar policy was common in colonial settings too, if the colony was uppity, tax them harshly.
The world is changing fast anyway, the liberalist hegemony wasn't going to extend far into the future for many reasons, like climate change and the general rise of autocracy worldwide. Having guarantees of loyalty and stability from the state apparatus at home when the world order inevitably crumbles while burning some bridges that would likely fall apart anyway, instead of wasting resources keeping up a charade defending some 'status quo', has a kind of logic too it.
The whole table doesn't make sense. We (NL/EU) don't charge the US 39% to import . Apparently orange guy (not the Dutch) doesn't understand VAT rates. Car? max 4.5 + 21% VAT = 25%. But it simply doesn't matter bc we don't want their cars.. Except for thee Dodge RAM, which can be converted to a tax efficient company car (crazy).. What amazes me even more is that Elon doesn't seems to understand it either.
The whole table doesn't make sense. We (NL/EU) don't charge the US 39% to import . Apparently orange guy (not the Dutch) doesn't understand VAT rates. Car? max 4.5 + 21% VAT = 25%. But it simply doesn't matter bc we don't want their cars.. Except for thee Dodge RAM, which can be converted to a tax efficient company car (crazy).. What amazes me even more is that Elon doesn't seems to understand it either.
https://universeodon.com/@cryptadamist/114272487006550281
On top of that they excluded services and only recognize goods for the calculation.
"This guy cracked the tariff formula: @orthonormalist It’s simply the nation’s trade deficit with us divided by the nation’s exports to us. Yes. Really. Vietnam: Exports 136.6, Imports 13.1 Deficit = 123.5 123.5/136.6 = 90%" https://x.com/Geiger_Capital/status/1907568233239949431
Most goods in US directly or indirectly relies on importing. So practically, I think it just mean US introduced VAT.
It also doesn't apply potentially several layers down.
That's not to mention things like reverse charge for B2B etc.
In other words, not similar at all!
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…
Euro? - Nowhere near as stable as the dollar, and some quite shaky fundamentals and history? Yen? Pound? Swiss Franc?
I suspect Yuan will be unpalatable.
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…