Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries • Hacker News Board

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#701

Post by Epa095 » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 9:27 PM UTC

nisa wrote: post #573

davidguetta wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still wonder why this was not done instantly by EU. US has an imbalance on goods that was used to calculate the tariff amount, but it has the opposite imbalance on service from what I've read

It would be a just a hefty fee for most EU companies and not much more. From what I've seen Azure is pretty popular in most bigger companies and smaller shops and websites use often AWS or Google cloud. Microsoft Windows and Office is also everywhere - it would be a tax on European business with little effects on the USA because moving away from big clouds won't happen because there is no realistic alternative. Last…

Both OVH and scaleway provide managed k8s (and both have terraform providers). But yes, definitely much less sophisticated than the hyperscalers. But if you use k8s, maybe s3 and Kafka, and some databases, it's definitely possible to do the switch.

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#702

Post by delusional » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 9:27 PM UTC

compumike wrote: post #305

Is it just the historical legacy of international trade that tariffs apply only to physical goods, but not to something like software-as-a-service subscriptions, digital media, or intellectual property? As the latter categories are more representative of US exports, it would surely be an interesting escalation if other countries were to start including them in their “retaliatory” tariffs.

The EU is discussing it, but are currently debating if that would be seen as an escalation of the conflict.

Yes it would be a strong response, but unlike the US we are not interested in appearing like the strongest idiots, the EU would rather we all get along and trade. We'd rather work on real issues instead of this self damaging garbage.

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#703

Post by seanmcdirmid » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 9:30 PM UTC

wtcactus wrote: post #698

[flagged]

There were a lot of smart things that could be done "about China" and then there are a lot of dumb things...we chose the dumb things.

We could...oh...increase are R&D on automation, AI, green energy, electric vehicles dramatically, we could focus on better education and better infrastructure for our cities (like lightrail in Seattle to where I live that doesn't take $200 billion and 2 decades to build). We could have just fought China with a better product. We could lean into our chip advantage that will only last at most a decade anyways. And many of those fit in with Conservative philosophy even (who doesn't want less regulation and cheaper/quicker construction, well, at least moderates like me would).

But no, we doubled down on culture wars and going back in time to when America was more self sufficient but less rich.

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#704

Post by lysace » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 9:30 PM UTC

meepmorp wrote: post #151

lysace wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

*How can anyone take the US seriously? Also see: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yrr0e7499o > Confidence in the US economy is plummeting as investors dumped government debt amid growing concerns over the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs. > Governments sell bonds - essentially an IOU - to raise money from financial markets for public spending and in return they pay interest. > The US does not normally see high int…

> How can anyone take the US seriously? we can wipe out humanity if we get cranky

Yeah, Trump, Putin and Xi Jinping can do that "if they are cranky".

The reasonable world doesn't take Russia or China seriously. US is about to be added to that list.

Also, we're now busy building nukes. Morons.

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#705

Post by reverendsteveii » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 9:30 PM UTC

magicloop wrote: post #397

"It’s the T-bills wot dun it." That’s my read on why the U.S. just paused the global tariff hike to 10%. From the beginning, I’ve believed the executive branch's real goal was to push down the yield on the 10-year Treasury. Why? Because Uncle Sam has to refinance a mountain of debt this year, and the cost of that depends heavily on Treasury yields — especially the 10-year. That’s the rate that sets the tone for every…

I'd believe you if he hadn't already flipflopped on tariffs recently. I think it's much simpler than that: he's pulling whatever levers he has to squeeze everyone and then letting up the pressure on people who do what he wants. He already did this with Canada and Mexico, using tariffs to get them to make a show of border secy=urity.

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#706

Post by beloch » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 9:30 PM UTC

layer8 wrote: post #520

The 10% apparently also apply to Canada and Mexico now, which they didn’t before: > In a strange turn of events, the president seems to have added another 10 percent tariff to Canada and Mexico. Asked earlier if the 10 percent tariff extended to those countries, Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, said that it did. And a White House official clarified for me just now that that was the case. Previously, Canada and…

The U.S. ambassador to Canada has since informed the government that this is not the case, and the tariff's currently in place will remain unchanged for now[1].

However, with this administration, who really knows?

Perhaps Trump is staying quiet to avoid aiding Carney in the election. Perhaps he'll announce harsher tariff's on Canada tomorrow. Canada did retaliate and hasn't been hit with retaliation for retaliating, which gives the lie to Trump's statements that countries should refrain from retaliating if they don't want to be treated even worse.

There is not one whit of consistency or logic on display here.

[1]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-canada-will...

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#707

Post by nottorp » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 9:30 PM UTC

But can you trust him to keep them at 10% for more than 12 hours?

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#708

Post by delusional » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 9:30 PM UTC

mfitton wrote: post #633

snarf21 wrote: post #551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, just maybe, this is all about a secret wealth transfer.

Do you think normal people (think, your average investing American) are trading based on this news? They probably shouldn't be... I would think that by far most of the trading these past few days has been institutions, so, a big transfer from some financial institutions to others?

Aren't your 401k's tied up in stocks and bonds? Index funds too will probably have been fleeced too on the volatility.

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#709

Post by keeganpoppen » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 9:32 PM UTC

tombert wrote: post #133

davidw wrote: post #33

One thing companies love is lots of uncertainty like this. It keeps their accountants entertained! "Maybe we should build a factory in the US" ... 24 hours later ... "well, not today". What's really amazing is all the muttering from "Very Important Wall Street" type people who are saying that he's insane. Like... with that kind of salary, weren't you paying attention? We've known he wasn't right in the head for a whi…

At this point, I do wonder if long-dated (2-3 months) American-style Puts are a good idea. The weirdness of this administration has created a lot of volatility. With American-style options you are allowed to exercise early, so if you think there's going to be a ton of ups and downs in the next few months, I wonder if this could be lucrative. I might try this just as an experiment with one of the cheaper options.

i doubt you're the first person to think of this. not to be an "it's priced in" guy, but... something to consider

Re: Trump temporarily drops tariffs to 10% for most countries

#710

Post by delusional » Wed, Apr 09, 2025, 9:32 PM UTC

jopsen wrote: post #680

shaky-carrousel wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully EU will still go ahead with the tariffs. We should not be dancing at the tune of the mad king.

Yes, but what's the rush here? The EU should do what does best: make things boring. If retaliatory tariffs is the way to go, maybe do it the boring way: considered bit by bit, no flashy announcement. Or just make a 10 year deal on LNG so Trump can say we're paying the US money every year.

That seems to be the current strategy, and I happen to appreciate it.

I'm pretty mad a the US for fucking up the entire world right now, but I also realise that acting on that anger is a bad idea. I appreciate the EU having some long discussions while the emotions fade.