721–730 of 1001 posts
10% is still a lot. Counter tariffs will still happen.
10% only applies to countries that have not retaliated. I assume (dangerous in these times) that any retaliation will cause reinstatement of the previous rates.
Possibly because lawsuits challenging the power of the President to impose tariffs under the Emergency Economic Powers Act are underway.[1] GOP support for Congress taking back control of tariffs is building.[2] At some point, Congress or the courts will take his toys away. [1] https://www.newsweek.com/trump-tariffs-hit-lawsuit-group-his... [2] https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5236142-congress-tariff-...
Seems kinda crazy that so much power was ever vested in the president. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48435
I'm honestly not sure there is another way since laws can't cover all possible future edge cases with effective enforcement mechanisms. The simpler fix is to not elect blatantly corrupt and incompetent leaders, but voters failed that task and now the country is paying the price.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That doesn't pass muster. If they had much interest in balancing the books, they wouldn't be ripping huge holes in revenue collection.
> If they had much interest in balancing the books, they wouldn't be ripping huge holes in revenue collection That can be explained by the fact that the cabal also doesn't like paying taxes.
1. Find instances where Trump or the billionaires backing him and/or in his cabinet are open to increasing tax as a solution to the deficit
2. Explain why the the administration and it's members are deadset against an effective IRS & Biden's effort to increase staffing at the IRS.
"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…
Besides the financial uncertainty, I doubt businesses want to make huge capital investments within the US to re/build factories in such a febrile environment. Will they be 'encouraged' to make 'donations' or purchase Trump golf club memberships? Will their foreign management staff be abruptly deported if someone in the administration sours on their country of origin? Will they wake up one day to find they've been denounced by conservative influencers?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Instead of being seen as a safe haven, U.S. debt itself started to look shaky There's also a more basic answer to why US debt got more expensive. There is no such thing as a "trade deficit". You cannot import something without exporting something else. That something else, in almost 100% of the situations, is dollars. What do you do with dollars, if there's nothing you want to buy? You buy debt. So, every trade def…
isn't this also kinda opposed to having the dollar as the dominant world currency? Lots of countries settle trades between each other using dollars. Making it harder to get those dollars will leave them seeking to use something else to trade.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If USA keeps 10% tariffs for everyone equally, why should we interfere? Serious question. I believe that Trump is shaking things off, but his goal is to introduce a fixed "tariff" like a soft VAT. He is just testing (and profiting with $$$$$) what happens when you do things like 30% there, 24% there, etc. But his long term goal is a fixed tax. In that context, who are we to judge them? We also have VAT on imports.
> We also have VAT on imports. And the US has sales tax. VAT is paid on all products, it doesn't matter if it's domestic or imported!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Incompetence is way more dangerous than people realize. These tariffs are China's Four Pests campaign. Mao, a very trump like figure, decided to protect Chinese crops by destroying sparrows that were picking at them. Killing sparrows killed a predator of insects which did more damage to crops. This coupled with reality denying policies and ignoring experts led to one of the most devastating famines the world has ever…
Both you and OP are not looking at this from the right angle. The goal here is to decouple US from China. In the meantime, tariffs are raised on every country to gauge which side they are on. Once US knows who the allies are, they will negotiate to have those allies put up massive tariffs on China as well to prevent transshipping. US wants nothing to do with China. As the biggest consumer economy in the world, the ha…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Incompetence is way more dangerous than people realize. These tariffs are China's Four Pests campaign. Mao, a very trump like figure, decided to protect Chinese crops by destroying sparrows that were picking at them. Killing sparrows killed a predator of insects which did more damage to crops. This coupled with reality denying policies and ignoring experts led to one of the most devastating famines the world has ever…
People are so desperate for this to be rational. Which itself is entirely irrational given the information at hand.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
James Carville in the 90s: “I used to think that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the pope or as a .400 baseball hitter. But now I would like to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.”
I agree. The bond markets are the ultimate heavy hitter. They have government level impact. See also: The French Revolution.
"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…
> Instead of being seen as a safe haven, U.S. debt itself started to look shaky There's also a more basic answer to why US debt got more expensive. There is no such thing as a "trade deficit". You cannot import something without exporting something else. That something else, in almost 100% of the situations, is dollars. What do you do with dollars, if there's nothing you want to buy? You buy debt. So, every trade def…
And meanwhile there is always a lot of US debt that needs to be rolled over (i.e. re-issued to a willing buyer.)
Except for the data point of today's 10-Year Treasury Auction which had a normal, usual result.