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

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

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

691–700 of 704 posts

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

#691

Post by dismalaf »

cycomanic wrote: post #393
dismalaf wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The system that allows very wealthy to exist is also the reason the US has the highest class mobility among western nations. Also, on a purely pragmatic note, capital is mobile. If you penalize the rich, they just move, and then the new system will stop class mobility.

I don't know how you came up with that statement. It certainly does not reflect reality unless you don't count Sweden, Germany, Canada as part of the western world. >Individual studies have estimated absolute mobility rates for recent cohorts of roughly 50% in the US (Chetty et al. 2017), 53% in Canada (Ostrovsky 2017), 70% in Germany (Bönke, Harnack, and Luthen 2019; Stockhausen 2018), and 77% in Sweden (Liss, Korpi…

> It certainly does not reflect reality unless you don't count Sweden, Germany, Canada as part of the western world.

Look at this chart: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?location...

Look at the divergence from the US.

Canada's GDP per capita is barely above 2013 levels (~4%), meanwhile the US' is 60% higher. Wages in Canada have been stagnant, there is NO social mobility at all, it's completely fucked.

Where I came up with this statement? Actually knowing things about economics and following the CURRENT numbers. Not a 2017 study (which probably took a couple years and using data from 2015 or earlier) which is completely worthless in 2025.

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

#692

Post by dgfitz »

nobody9999 wrote: post #647
dgfitz wrote: post #604

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She did? What was her platform? I never did figure it out.

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2024/08/politics/kamala-harr... https://www.deseret.com/politics/2024/09/09/harris-policy-pl... https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-harris-campaign-promises-... https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/... All of the above were posted prior to the 2024 election.

The second paragraph of your first link: “ However, she has not provided many details on her plans”

Edit: did you read these links?

“ The American people lacked any concrete policy positions from the presumptive, and then official, Democratic presidential candidate for seven weeks following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race.

Despite the absence of clarity on key issues, Vice President Kamala Harris quickly rose in the polls compared to Biden”

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

#693

Post by the_gastropod »

yubblegum wrote: post #663
dboreham wrote: post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are communities of non-English speaking people here in Montana. They speak a form of German. Hutterites (kind of like Amish).

Does the New York Times (which is a national paper) have a section in German language? Does it have one in any other non-English language besides Spanish? Why is Spanish singled out? Why was "bilingualism" being promoted so heavily? Meaning no offense, wtf has the Spanish speaking community contributed to American history to get this special perch? So yeah, there are all sorts of little pockets here and there, and gr…

What’s the German-speaking population of the United States? What German-speaking lands in the Americas did the United States acquire through violent or financial means?

> Meaning no offense, wtf has the Spanish speaking community contributed to American history to get this special perch?

About half of the total land area of the US was formerly colonized by the Spanish. What “history” are you referring to?! And what “special perch”?

> The phenomena is obviously political in nature and to construe is as anything else, including "prejudice" or "xenophobia", is disengenuous.

This is innuendo. Say what you want to say, and don’t couch it behind a passive “political”. Who’s driving what outcome, and for what ends. Go on!

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

#694

Post by yubblegum »

the_gastropod wrote: post #693
yubblegum wrote: post #663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the New York Times (which is a national paper) have a section in German language? Does it have one in any other non-English language besides Spanish? Why is Spanish singled out? Why was "bilingualism" being promoted so heavily? Meaning no offense, wtf has the Spanish speaking community contributed to American history to get this special perch? So yeah, there are all sorts of little pockets here and there, and gr…

What’s the German-speaking population of the United States? What German-speaking lands in the Americas did the United States acquire through violent or financial means? > Meaning no offense, wtf has the Spanish speaking community contributed to American history to get this special perch? About half of the total land area of the US was formerly colonized by the Spanish. What “history” are you referring to?! And what “…

The historic arguemnt is lucidrous since NYTimes only recently published in a bilingual mode.

Special perch is clear: this is a nation of numerious ethnicities with an equal number of distinct 'mother tongues'. The special perch is the recent push to normalize having an entire subset of the society speak a langauge that many of us do not speak and have no desire to learn.

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

#695

Post by the_gastropod »

yubblegum wrote: post #694
the_gastropod wrote: post #693

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the German-speaking population of the United States? What German-speaking lands in the Americas did the United States acquire through violent or financial means? > Meaning no offense, wtf has the Spanish speaking community contributed to American history to get this special perch? About half of the total land area of the US was formerly colonized by the Spanish. What “history” are you referring to?! And what “…

The historic arguemnt is lucidrous since NYTimes only recently published in a bilingual mode. Special perch is clear: this is a nation of numerious ethnicities with an equal number of distinct 'mother tongues'. The special perch is the recent push to normalize having an entire subset of the society speak a langauge that many of us do not speak and have no desire to learn.

They’re not equal. There are more Spanish-speakers in the U.S. (and the world, for that matter) than there are German, Estonian, Russian, Croatian, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, … speakers. You’re ascribing some bizarre conspiracy to basic market dynamics.

And again, this is pretty localized. Salt Lake City has less Spanish than Los Angeles. Flushing, Queens has more Mandarin than Spanish or English.

It remains unclear who is being harmed here. And what solutions are you advocating for?

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

#696

Post by tharmas »

cowboylowrez wrote: post #675
tharmas wrote: post #651

Earlier quoted context omitted.

≥The Democrats did not compel them to vote for Trump. Perhaps i didn't make my point clear. Indeed ur statement is true. I was referring to those who hated Trump but also hated Harris and so DIDNT VOTE. My point being that if the Democrats had fielded a compelling candidate many of those who didn't vote may have voted for them. Enough to win. The Democrats learned nothing when they fielded Hilary Clinton and lost. Jo…

I love how people are blaming democrats for electing trump. Its just such a dystopian timeline lol

Really?. I argue that if the Democrats could've fielded a candidate voters felt good about voting for, it would've been no contest.

What is wrong with my logic?

It sounds like ur logic is: if u don't want trump then u have to vote for the (shitty) democrat candidate.

My point of view is based on those who DIDN'T vote at all, not people who voted for trump because they didn't like harris.

Oh wait, its entirely their (non voters) fault trump won, is what u would argue, correct?

So the democrats have no responsibility to field a candidate worthy of a vote except their not trump or Republican?

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

#697

Post by tharmas »

triceratops wrote: post #669
tharmas wrote: post #651

Earlier quoted context omitted.

≥The Democrats did not compel them to vote for Trump. Perhaps i didn't make my point clear. Indeed ur statement is true. I was referring to those who hated Trump but also hated Harris and so DIDNT VOTE. My point being that if the Democrats had fielded a compelling candidate many of those who didn't vote may have voted for them. Enough to win. The Democrats learned nothing when they fielded Hilary Clinton and lost. Jo…

> Joe Biden barely won That's slightly revisionist. He won the popular vote by almost 5 percentage points. That's a lot. He also got more electoral college votes than GWB (both times) and Trump in 2016. His victories in the battleground states were also by a higher margin than Trump's in 2016, though still close. "Barely won" is a shade of true. I honestly don't blame the guy for believing it was his responsibility t…

Trump in 2020 was such a shitty candidate that he should've been easily trounced.

So anything a lot kess than that looks to me like ”barely". Perhaps im too harsh?

I get why Michelle Obama wont run but i think she would've trounced trump in 2020 or 2024.

The democrats need to field a candidate that has her kind of appeal to beat trump.

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

#698

Post by yubblegum »

the_gastropod wrote: post #695
yubblegum wrote: post #694

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The historic arguemnt is lucidrous since NYTimes only recently published in a bilingual mode. Special perch is clear: this is a nation of numerious ethnicities with an equal number of distinct 'mother tongues'. The special perch is the recent push to normalize having an entire subset of the society speak a langauge that many of us do not speak and have no desire to learn.

They’re not equal. There are more Spanish-speakers in the U.S. (and the world, for that matter) than there are German, Estonian, Russian, Croatian, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, … speakers. You’re ascribing some bizarre conspiracy to basic market dynamics. And again, this is pretty localized. Salt Lake City has less Spanish than Los Angeles. Flushing, Queens has more Mandarin than Spanish or English. It remains unclear…

What "market"? Did this "market" exist 100 years ago or not? If yes (and it did) then why haven't we been bilingual English-Spanish since day 1? There is conspiracy theory here - just pretty straightforward observation of facts.

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

#699

Post by the_gastropod »

yubblegum wrote: post #698
the_gastropod wrote: post #695

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re not equal. There are more Spanish-speakers in the U.S. (and the world, for that matter) than there are German, Estonian, Russian, Croatian, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, … speakers. You’re ascribing some bizarre conspiracy to basic market dynamics. And again, this is pretty localized. Salt Lake City has less Spanish than Los Angeles. Flushing, Queens has more Mandarin than Spanish or English. It remains unclear…

What "market"? Did this "market" exist 100 years ago or not? If yes (and it did) then why haven't we been bilingual English-Spanish since day 1? There is conspiracy theory here - just pretty straightforward observation of facts.

The market for reading the NYTimes in Spanish… There’s also a big enough market for reading it in Chinese! (https://cn.nytimes.com)

Since these are online-only versions of the NYTimes, and immigration sources change throughout history, no. This particular market did not exist 100 years ago.

However, the portion of non-English speakers has remained about the same since the 1910 census began asking about this. ~100 years ago, German was the most prominent non-English language spoken in the U.S., and there were over 500 German-language newspapers in circulation. Yiddish newspapers were common in New York. And Spanish newspapers were widely read in Texas. In Chicago, Polish newspapers were common. San Francisco had the Chinese World (世界日報) newspaper.

Your idea that, 100 years ago, everyone spoke English, and we didn’t support non-English speaking is just flatly wrong.

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

#700

Post by JumpCrisscross »

hippo22 wrote: post #208
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can’t let perfect be the enemy of the good You can let bad be the enemy of both good and perfect. Investment in manufacturing structures is down in ‘25 [1]. Manufacturing activity in the northeast is down, with “the new orders index dip[ping] into negative territory” [2]. Tariffs can reduce trade imbalances and incentivize domestic production. We’re not doing that. Our tariffs are too volatile. They tax manufac…

From your first link, investment in manufacturing is lower than in 2024 (by like 3%), but both 2024 and 2025 (Trump’s presidency) are the highest datapoints in that dataset. Also, your second link generally paints a mixed picture, not an outright negative one: > On balance, the firms indicated an increase in employment, and the price indexes rose further above their long-run averages. The survey’s broad indicators fo…

> investment in manufacturing is lower than in 2024 (by like 3%), but both 2024 and 2025 (Trump’s presidency) are the highest datapoints in that dataset

Sure, it’s down in ‘25 and has stalled a multi-year trend. The most-recent data show that trend spreading.

> something that’s going to take a decade plus to play out

Won’t get there. One, the policy is changing on a week-to-week basis. And two, there is no bipartisan buy-in to this policy.

The tariffs could have worked were they sensibly implemented. They weren’t. As structured, they are politically and economically infeasible for their aims. (Great if you’re an intermediary, though.)

Post reply on HN