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

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

#411

Post by WalterBright »

tombert wrote: post #162
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’ve also been running deficits since the birth of our nation [1]. Perpetual deficits are a post-WWII thing, not post-Fed. [1] https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/021115/how-long-has...

Yeah but that doesn't align at all with the "1914 Federal Reserve is Evil Boogeyman". A lot of libertarian "bad guys" tend to be pretty reductive, or just outright lies.

Inflation started the year after the Fed was created.

See "Monetary History of the United States" by Milton Friedman.

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

#412

Post by aurareturn »

AngryData wrote: post #373
9dev wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why compete on factories if that isn’t competitive with foreign factories?

Because the immediate profits of capitalists shouldn't be the sole dictator of our economic activities and policies.

That's how you become a poor country. Every country that closed itself off to the rest of the world becomes poor.

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

#413

Post by rsynnott »

hopelite wrote: post #20

[flagged]

While there are industries where that might be the case (and, if and when the Trump tariffs are removed, companies will absolutely take advantage for a bit), most industries are actually pretty low-margin, due to competition. If you're a supermarket chain, say, your net profit margin is probably under 5%.

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

#414

Post by rsynnott »

casey2 wrote: post #3

This is how you know most economic theory is a total lie, if it wasn't they would just "price what people are willing to pay" and be forced to eat the loss. Is that cause copper bathtubs are a special item or are you just making up more rules after the fact to patch holes in your leaky theory.

> This is how you know most economic theory is a total lie, if it wasn't they would just "price what people are willing to pay" and be forced to eat the loss

... Wait, why on earth would businesses do that? "Yeah, we're in the business of buying X for a dollar and selling it for 90 cents". What economic theory are you referring to that makes that in any way plausible?

When input prices go up, output prices go up, and usually consumption falls.

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

#415

Post by enaaem »

apical_dendrite wrote: post #139
timr wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even assuming that there were no other federal, state or local YoY differences [1] that could explain this change (and that the numbers are right as presented in the first place), New York City private sector employment is nothing like most other parts of the US: it's the largest city in the US by a large margin, it has a concentration of employment in a few major industries (finance, fashion, publishing, software) t…

It's true that NYC private sector employment is different from the US labor market as a whole, but NYC private sector employment is better representative of what readers of this site care about than overall US employment. Readers are much more likely to be affected by changes in the professional services and information sectors than, say, agriculture.

ICE raids are freeing up a lot of spots in the agri sector.

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

#416

Post by lm28469 »

platevoltage wrote: post #111
haunter wrote: 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…

See this is what I don't understand. Everything you just said about China is a positive. Everything you said about China is achievable in the USA, and we at least HAD a head start on soft-power influence. Instead we should just have tariffs instead of actually making the lives of Americans better while FIGHTING affordable housing, high speed rail, and EVs. We've got an entire team of goons who would rather rack up pe…

It's the whole "benevolent" dictatorship VS flawed democracy debate.

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

#417

Post by JumpCrisscross »

WalterBright wrote: post #411
tombert wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but that doesn't align at all with the "1914 Federal Reserve is Evil Boogeyman". A lot of libertarian "bad guys" tend to be pretty reductive, or just outright lies.

Inflation started the year after the Fed was created. See "Monetary History of the United States" by Milton Friedman.

Can you quote where Friedman says “inflation [in America] started the year after the Fed was created”?

What you may be trying to say is until about 1900 there was little secular (i.e. fundamental long-term) inflation, given price levels oscillated more than they moved [1]. But the change to steady inflation pre-dates the Fed. And the secular shift to constant inflation starts in WWII, not 1914 or 1976.

[1] https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/s...

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

#418

Post by SirHumphrey »

charlie90 wrote: post #335
SR2Z wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>China will ALWAYS be better than us Comparative advantage is not innate. China was a rural country and didn't have a comparative advantage in manufacturing, they developed it and are now a powerhouse. Nothing worth doing is easy. I don't know why Americans think that if its not easy, it's not worth doing. Americans 80 years ago would hate us for what we have become today.

In some sense of the word “manufacturing” china has several thousand years of experience in silk production. It also has - and had for much of it’s history - a stable government overseeing a high order society. The situation makes a lot more sense if we stop thinking about “the rise” of china and more “return to the historical norm”. There are a lot of other countries with cheap labour and governments desiring to industrialise that have achieved nothing like china did.

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

#419

Post by hdgvhicv »

hunglee2 wrote: post #382
mupuff1234 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet the rent in NYC just seems to go up and up.

rental prices are driven by P/E redirecting funds to the purchase of housing stock, which they then use to jack up the rent. Fuedalism is returning by stealth.

If there’s demand for 5 million units and supply of 6 million prices will go down as 1 million units will be empty

If there’s demand for 5 million units and supply of 4 million, prices will go up and 1 million will move out of the city

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

#420

Post by AlecSchueler »

lm28469 wrote: post #416
platevoltage wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See this is what I don't understand. Everything you just said about China is a positive. Everything you said about China is achievable in the USA, and we at least HAD a head start on soft-power influence. Instead we should just have tariffs instead of actually making the lives of Americans better while FIGHTING affordable housing, high speed rail, and EVs. We've got an entire team of goons who would rather rack up pe…

It's the whole "benevolent" dictatorship VS flawed democracy debate.

It might be an authoritarian one party state but China isn't a dictatorship right?
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