Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

671–680 of 1001 posts

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

#671

Post by boringg »

TaurenHunter wrote: post #599

I don't see anyone mentioning that the United States needs to manage its massive national debt, currently in the trillions, by issuing Treasury securities. These securities mature at varying intervals and require continuous "rolling" or refinancing to pay off old debt with new borrowing. Significant rollovers are expected from April through September 2025, with additional short-term maturities due by June. Higher int…

Many critical flaws. Your getting lost confusing the forest for the trees.

For starters you are focusing on the % on the interest payments which is a line item. However when all of your allies stop buying your goods and services you run into bigger problems.

Bonus problem: If one of your internal metrics is that you want to have a trade deficit but nobody to sell to because you have created a hostile environment for trade.

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

#672

Post by nonethewiser »

Cyph0n wrote: post #645
roxolotl wrote: post #479

Aside 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…

Tunisian here. Tunisians on social media are baffled/amused because olive oil is basically the only product imported by the US.

And apparently the US bought 33% of it

>Onagri data show that Spain is the leading destination for Tunisian olive oil, with 47.4 percent flowing to Spanish ports, followed closely by Italy at 42.2 percent and the United States in third at 33.8 percent.

https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/business/africa-middle-east/as...

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

#673

Post by bluedino »

cloverich wrote: post #661
lumb63 wrote: post #625

Everyone is quick to deride this move as stupid. I don’t disagree that there are downsides to the approach, but there is a set of very real national problems that this might address. For instance, globalization and offshoring of production has made goods cheaper for consumers, but what about the former domestic producers who could not compete, and do not have the skills or capital to find a new job which pays as well…

> Globalization has played a big role in creating the massive income inequality in our country; it seems like we should fix that. Wouldn't restoring the prior taxes to those with highest incomes, and adding a proper capital gains tax, address this directly? As I've started to accumulate small amounts of wealth I've realized, my capital gains are taxed lower than my income; when I sell my house, I get up to 500k of ga…

You can tax whoever you want as much as you want but the problem is the industries from the past are no longer in this country.

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

#674

Post by Yeul »

motorest wrote: post #635
TaurenHunter wrote: post #599

I don't see anyone mentioning that the United States needs to manage its massive national debt, currently in the trillions, by issuing Treasury securities. These securities mature at varying intervals and require continuous "rolling" or refinancing to pay off old debt with new borrowing. Significant rollovers are expected from April through September 2025, with additional short-term maturities due by June. Higher int…

> I don't see anyone mentioning that the United States needs to manage its massive national debt, currently in the trillions, by issuing Treasury securities. It's very hard to even assume that's a concern of the current US administration, based on not only the fundamentalist goal of radically cutting taxes and regulations, coupled with the fact that it's purposely pushing a recessive economic policy that defies any l…

The whining about how social security payouts was going to sink America while at the same time handing out tax cuts for corporations hints at a ideologically driven agenda.

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

#675

Post by boringg »

wayeq wrote: post #670
roxolotl wrote: post #479

Aside 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…

If Jan 6th didn't dissuade people, I don't think anything will. Additionally, his base will not blame him, they will swallow whichever of the many narratives the propagandists are currently cooking up that suites their fancy.

One thing worth noting is that congress isn't pleased about the executive branch high jacking the powers of appropriations from them (i.e. imposing a tax on the people in the form of a tariff).

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

#676

Post by misja111 »

TaurenHunter wrote: post #599

I don't see anyone mentioning that the United States needs to manage its massive national debt, currently in the trillions, by issuing Treasury securities. These securities mature at varying intervals and require continuous "rolling" or refinancing to pay off old debt with new borrowing. Significant rollovers are expected from April through September 2025, with additional short-term maturities due by June. Higher int…

The flaw is that the USD is massively dropping because of the tarifs. This will push up interest rates on US bonds, because bond holders want compensation for the value loss of their bond.

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

#677

Post by alabastervlog »

TaurenHunter wrote: post #599

I don't see anyone mentioning that the United States needs to manage its massive national debt, currently in the trillions, by issuing Treasury securities. These securities mature at varying intervals and require continuous "rolling" or refinancing to pay off old debt with new borrowing. Significant rollovers are expected from April through September 2025, with additional short-term maturities due by June. Higher int…

I don't see any way the actions we've already seen haven't moved up drastic action on the US debt by at least a decade. And it's only been a very-few months.

We were probably screwed when we cut taxes going into two crushingly-expensive wars, and certainly were when we cut taxes again, but now we're rushing toward crisis instead of trying to at least delay it.

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

#678

Post by brianbest101 »

lumb63 wrote: post #625

Everyone is quick to deride this move as stupid. I don’t disagree that there are downsides to the approach, but there is a set of very real national problems that this might address. For instance, globalization and offshoring of production has made goods cheaper for consumers, but what about the former domestic producers who could not compete, and do not have the skills or capital to find a new job which pays as well…

[dead]

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

#679

Post by Beretta_Vexee »

_heimdall wrote: post #505
roxolotl wrote: post #479

Aside 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…

> There are no out of work olive farmers in the US. Is that because we can't grow olives here, or because we don't have federal subsidies propping up a domestic olive industry that can compete with corn and soy? I ready don't know the details well enough there, but it feels like this could just be selection bias at play.

An olive tree reaches the peak of its productivity after 15 years and can live for several centuries.

An adult tree can be so expensive that there are cases of theft. It takes a heavy truck and a tree puller to steal an olive tree.

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

#680

Post by tim333 »

TaurenHunter wrote: post #599

I don't see anyone mentioning that the United States needs to manage its massive national debt, currently in the trillions, by issuing Treasury securities. These securities mature at varying intervals and require continuous "rolling" or refinancing to pay off old debt with new borrowing. Significant rollovers are expected from April through September 2025, with additional short-term maturities due by June. Higher int…

>The country is at risk of a debt spiral.

The US owes US dollars and can also issue US dollars. There are complications but it's not like you run up a credit card and can't pay.

Post reply on HN