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Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

bloomberg.com

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Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#491

Post by kikokikokiko »

loudmax wrote: post #367
jonplackett wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the only explanation that has made sense to me so far. And it makes even more sense based on these exemptions. https://www.instagram.com/share/_jW_V1hwM This is Senator Chris Murphy explaining it’s not economic policy, it’s an attempt to blackmail corporations into submission by making a deal with him in return for sanctions relief. Keep an eye out for what Apple and nvidia might have agreed to give.

The term for this is extortion. The last time tariffs were this high, it led to rampant corruption as companies would pay off customs officers. This was one of the reasons for switching to an income tax. For the current administration this possibility counts as a major opportunity to generate personal wealth. But this isn't the only reason for the policy. For someone who is at heart a coward, bullying and brandishing…

[flagged]

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#492

Post by goatlover »

csomar wrote: post #393
whalesalad wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

chaos is the strategy

Chaos is a strategy but in this case it's just chaos.

No, other autocrats have instituted chaos to grab power before. Too many people underestimate Trump and his allies. They are going to grab as much power as they can for as long as they can.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#493

Post by tines »

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #216
fells wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because, in reality, they voted for his regressive cultural policies, not his regressive economic policies. Though in November I'm sure they were telling us how good he would be on the economic front.

It's funny, (well, not funny ) because the social issues are the ones where the toothpaste doesn't go back in the bottle. Progress over the long run only goes in the right direction, there's no path to undoing broad acceptance of homosexuality just like we'll never go back to forbidding interracial marriage or women voting. So the top 1% will benefit economically from the right being in power, but the rest will spend…

Iran would like a word.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#494

Post by qmr »

toss1 wrote: post #465
csomar wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There could have been deals/agreements behind the scenes. This is not a republican "first". The democrats did the same to get Facebook and other social media to censor news. Trump is literally playing their book but with his style.

Anyone who can not see the obvious difference in substance, intent, scope, and scale is either willfully ignorant or seriously lacking in reading comprehension and reasoning skills. Requesting curbs on rampant disinformation is not even close to the same thing as crashing the economy to extort our closest allies and major business and industry players. Yikes

Censorship is censorship.

Who are you to decide what is or isn't disinformation?

Who is anyone?

I prefer to do my own critical thinking.

It is also well documented that Meta's rampant censorship extends far beyond "disinformation".

https://web.archive.org/web/20250411170102/https://www.drops...

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#495

Post by bruce511 »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #484
jonplackett wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the only explanation that has made sense to me so far. And it makes even more sense based on these exemptions. https://www.instagram.com/share/_jW_V1hwM This is Senator Chris Murphy explaining it’s not economic policy, it’s an attempt to blackmail corporations into submission by making a deal with him in return for sanctions relief. Keep an eye out for what Apple and nvidia might have agreed to give.

> This is Senator Chris Murphy explaining it’s not economic policy, it’s an attempt to blackmail corporations into submission by making a deal with him in return for sanctions relief. Weirdly the same explanation works if you're being less uncharitable, i.e. Apple agreed to invest $500B in the US but everybody knows new factories aren't going to be built overnight, so they get a reprieve from the tariffs for now prov…

Apple can agree to invest 500B to build a factory, but they don't have to actually do it.

Building a factory takes years, and a big chunk of that happens long before you actually start work on site.

You gotta find a site, work with local govt to negotiate servicing, environmental report (there's a couple years, and potentially a couple go-arounds right there.)

So there can be lots of activity, lots of progress reports, lots of optimism, for a decade or more before any real money has to be spent.

Ultimately Apple et al can "agree" to anything, the president can have his "big win" and things can carry on just as before.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#496

Post by righthand »

djeastm wrote: post #309
righthand wrote: post #95

Why is no one highlighting how this is repeating history 8 years ago? I don’t get it, there’s this magical reporting gap where all of this is new strategy but it’s the exact same strategy. Why don’t we acknowledge this instead of searching for some new angle? Here are a bunch of links from 2018/2019: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/13/apple-dodges-iphone-tariff-a... https://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/investing/t052-s00…

Wow you had these at-the-ready, didn't you. Thanks. *I've read through a few of these and it seems like perhaps Trump still thinks it's 2018/19, but China's position has only gotten stronger. It seems the attempt to jack up tariffs so high this time was a bluff to "show" how strong we can be, but he miscalculated on how shaky the stock/bond markets actually currently are and the financial players know we're not in a…

I did not have them at the ready but a Kagi News search with a date range allowed me to pull from quite a selection that seemed relevant to my point.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#497

Post by righthand »

standardUser wrote: post #314
righthand wrote: post #95

Why is no one highlighting how this is repeating history 8 years ago? I don’t get it, there’s this magical reporting gap where all of this is new strategy but it’s the exact same strategy. Why don’t we acknowledge this instead of searching for some new angle? Here are a bunch of links from 2018/2019: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/13/apple-dodges-iphone-tariff-a... https://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/investing/t052-s00…

The tariffs from 8 years ago were a seemingly rational policy and were largely upheld by the Biden administration. These tariffs look designed to rapidly eject the US from the global economic order and hand over the reins to China. Though saying they were "designed" at all seems extravagantly generous.

Only on China, the rest were largely removed.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#498

Post by sagarpatil »

cinbun8 wrote: post #30

From an outsider’s perspective, it’s difficult to discern any coherent U.S. strategy—assuming one even exists. One day it’s a 145% tariff on China. The next, it’s “Well, it’s still 145%, but Apple and Nvidia are exempted because their stock prices might take a hit.” Then comes a 90-day pause, adding to the confusion. It’s not clear whether Jamieson Greer is actually steering this, or if any of it was thoroughly thoug…

Feels like they are just winging it based on public response.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#499

Post by Qwertious »

grues-dinner wrote: post #483
pcthrowaway wrote: post #471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's good to consider what the implications are if Hanlon's razor fails... but I'm not giving up hope that this is all just a result of the incompetence of Trump and his administration either.

Hanlon's Razor is worse than useless if the target is aware of the principle. Then they can be malicious and play it off as incompetence. Which works especially well when they are also surrounded by genuine incompetents. They can also be, and often are, malicious and incompetent. It's like saying "if it's white, fluffy and has four legs, never assume it is anything but a sheep". If the wolf knows you're applying that…

Hanlon's razor is a great counterbalance to peoples' natural inclination of assuming people aren't dumb. The problem is when people divorce it from that context and assume it applies in general.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#500

Post by Qwertious »

reaperducer wrote: post #82
cinbun8 wrote: post #30

From an outsider’s perspective, it’s difficult to discern any coherent U.S. strategy—assuming one even exists. One day it’s a 145% tariff on China. The next, it’s “Well, it’s still 145%, but Apple and Nvidia are exempted because their stock prices might take a hit.” Then comes a 90-day pause, adding to the confusion. It’s not clear whether Jamieson Greer is actually steering this, or if any of it was thoroughly thoug…

it’s difficult to discern any coherent U.S. strategy—assuming one even exists The strategy is to keep everyone unsure what might come next. It's like in boxing. When you hit your opponent and leave them confused and uncertain what you might do next, you use that to your advantage and keep on hitting. It's how you "win." As if there are any winners here.

>The strategy is to keep everyone unsure what might come next.

If the goal is to encourage investment into US manufacturing, then that's the exact opposite to the strategy he needs - investment requires stability and confidence that the N-year investment will eventually pay off. Nobody will invest due to tariffs if the tariffs might disappear tomorrow.

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