The lion is not killed by other beasts but by the worms inside.
US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU
571–580 of 1001 posts
Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU
#572I'm European. While it's pretty childish to paint the US and the EU as two human being with a "relationship" it's of course pretty jarring to see a country that has for my entire life been the undisputed cultural hegemony simply check out of the world stage and suddenly treat everyone on "their" side (culturally, politically and economically) like an enemy, or at the very least an abuser. I'm not an economist, but I…
I was told the average voter wanted cheaper goods (especially eggs). One candidate lied and said you'd get that day 1 (like someone running for class president who promises free ice cream at recess every day), the other was realistic and used coherent words to describe their policy.
Our loss.
Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU
#573Notably none of Russia, Belorussia or North Korea. Really starting to look like the US senior leadership is compromised
All of those already have heavy sanctions. Additional tariffs do nothing since it's already effectively illegal to do business with them.
Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU
#574The 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…
I quite like the idea of our debts becoming real. Then we can’t live in the dishonest fantasy where we just print money and ignore debt anymore.
Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU
#575This doesn't come as a surprise as we all know it's going to come. My question is, how does the US prepare to re-industrialize itself? Is the tariff good enough to provide incentives so that factories start to appear domestically? I fear this might not be the case.
The US never lost manufacturing. It just automated it. Those people who know how to run a factory still exist.
However there is no getting around it taking years to setup a factory (less if you can import the assembly line back from China). So nobody sane will start a new one in the next year based on these tariffs - odds are too high that in 2 years the democrats take over congress (the house not flipping would be a shock: typically the out of power party gains a few seats in non-presidential elections and only a few seats need to flip. The senate is somewhat unlikely, but the loss of the house would have ripple effects there).
Even ignoring the above, any few factory would be highly automated. There won't be thousands of new no college required jobs created in any new factory. It will be maybe 100 (probably less), with a bunch more engineering degree required.
Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU
#576Trump is going at this with a big ask. I anticipate that these percentage numbers will settle much lower in the end.
Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU
#577From the people in my life who talked about their preference for this administration, the economy was the core reason I heard. Specifically interest rates, but ignoring that that’s the federal reserve and the president has no impact on that. Whatever - all that said, I can’t imagine this leads to an economic boom or anything near it by the midterms. Are the republicans going to lose midterms if the economy is shit? I…
If we have something closely enough representing a "free and fair election", there's zero chance Republicans hold the House of Representatives in the mid-terms. But they'll still have the Executive branch, the Senate, and a frighteningly strong hold on the Judicial branch.
Though it seems clear and likely that any means of voter suppression that can be used against areas and demographics that traditionally lean strongly Democrat will be utilized, with a lot less checks and balances than have existed in the past.
Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU
#578we've spent the last 50 years basing our currency in foreign manufacturing, seems like a good way to tank the dollar to me
Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU
#579The 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…
>> 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 make.
This is called Triffin Dilemma- And in many lies at the core of the most basic question every power in history has faced.
That is- You can either be a Geo Economic Super power or a Geo political Super power, You can't be both at the same. You have to chose to be one. China seems to be chosing the former. USA chose to be the latter, but can't seem to be sure about its choices so far.
Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU
#580Aside from everything else one thing what strikes me as particularly insane is how it’s not even defensible as a protective measure. My favorite everyday olive oil comes from Tunisia. They now have a 38% tariff on them. There are no out of work olive farmers in the US. The orange man wanted tariffs, the orange man is going to get tariffs. Now we have to hope the American people aren’t so dumb as to still be convinced…
I would happily pay 38% extra for high quality Tunisian olive oil, it is already super undervalued because it's reputation is lower than it should be. It's gotten so bad that Tunisian olives are shipped to Italy, pressed into oil, and labelled as Italian Olive oil.
Except none of that 38% extra in price is going to the farmers. It's a tax not extra profit for the producer. Crazy how many people still do not know how tariffs work.