if they had planned all the tariff rates and things that get tariffed so well, why the see-saw? they are making up as they go along. this is worse than an incompetent biden!
Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs
841–850 of 931 posts
Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs
#842Earlier quoted context omitted.
The thing that’s really been getting to me, is that, I’m liberal, not pro-Trump, but the MAGA American heartland story has been really getting to me. I want to see small business, manufacturing, small town American succeed. And there’s some part of me that thought maybe Trump, as much as I don’t like him, is the thing that is needed to make that happen, but man it seems like he’s really fucking over the people who su…
Why does it deserve to succeed, especially if it results in everyone paying more for things, and if they’re of worse quality to boot? Labor and industries are specialized just like agriculture is. Fighting to redomesticate labor is a bit like fighting to produce bananas at scale in the USA: It’s just not practical and will cause harm to the broader economy.
This critique seems to miss that Trump is putting his thumb on the scales against small business, and in favor of big business. There are macroeconomic and antitrust policies one could put in place to level the playing field and Trump seems insistent not only on not preferencing small town America, but actively opposing it.
Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs
#843Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's the opposite! A universal tariff is a tariff on all inputs that manufacturers need to be competitive. How will Ford or Tesla ever be competitive if all their inputs are 24% more expensive than Toyota's inputs? Autarky doesn't work. Juche doesn't work. Comparative advantage works, both theoretically and in practice if we study economic history.
Do you really believe in the comparative advantage argument though? Surely it’s only true if comparative advantage is fixed over time. And surely in order to leverage comparative advantage, an economy would need to know how good they would be at producing every possible good. There are good reasons to trade, but comparative advantage doesn’t feel like the correct theoretical underpinning to me.
The alternative to comparative advantage is that there exist countries where it's economically optimal for them to produce every single possible good with finite resources taking into account the opportunity cost of producing one good over another. Or to put it another way, in a world where comparative advantage doesn't exist, the country in question must have the same economic outcome for any good they produce, and that seems ludicrously implausible to me.
Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs
#844Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you really believe in the comparative advantage argument though? Surely it’s only true if comparative advantage is fixed over time. And surely in order to leverage comparative advantage, an economy would need to know how good they would be at producing every possible good. There are good reasons to trade, but comparative advantage doesn’t feel like the correct theoretical underpinning to me.
>Do you really believe in the comparative advantage argument though? Surely it’s only true if comparative advantage is fixed over time. It's mostly not that complicated. Ecuador is better at bananas, the US is better at software so they trade. And similar stuff.
It's even simpler than that. Ecuador doesn't even need to be better than the US at growing bananas, they just need to be better at growing bananas than the US is at developing software relative to their banana growing abilities.
My favorite example is from an economics class quite a few years ago now. Michael Jordon is super efficient at making money playing basketball (told you it was a while ago). But he's also pretty good at mowing his lawn, since he's tall and athletic. But since he's way better at playing basketball, it makes sense for him to focus on basketball and paying some kid to mow his lawn, even though the kid is way less efficient at mowing lawns.
The US is way more advanced than Ecuador, and could presumably develop some hyper efficient banana greenhouse using genetic engineering and AI or whatever. But Ecuador is still pretty good at growing bananas and the US is much better at developing software, so buying bananas from Ecuador and putting the AI greenhouse resources into developing software instead makes way more sense.
Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs
#845I listened the book "Lucky Loser" (Craig/Buettner) a few months back. It's a well-researched timeline of how the Trump fortune was made, and to be really kind, how monumentally terrible DJT is at business on a fundamental level. The shady deals and repulsive ethics are not exceptions but the status quo. The only reason he's in the situation he's in is because the guy who created Survivor saw an opportunity. Now the w…
From what I am hearing, he seems to have appealed on culture war issues. On economic issues, it was assumed that Biden had been doing something bad and Trump would end it, but they didn't much care past that. There is still a halo of "Democrats are bad at the economy" dating from the 1970s and rooted in the New Deal.
Yeah, the New Deal. That terrible disaster that turned America into a temporary economic powerhouse until their kids decided no further investment was necessary to keep the good times rolling.
Enjoy your bridges.
Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs
#846Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. Can't speak for the US, but in Germany immigration is not the problem they make it out to be, but one that is propped up as a scapegoat. You presume the people's demand here are based in reasonable distress, when really it's not. Or rather it's not attributed correctly. Stats don't support it, proposed solutions are not able to resolve it. In particular the AfD has no actual answers for anything. Their "politics"…
I do advocate for addressing those, and I don't support throwing anyone under the bus. That's why I support moderating on immigration! I agree with you that the anti-immigration movement doesn't make much sense to me, and I'm pretty confident that restricting immigration won't have the benefits its proponents claim. But the people who support it are genuine, as far as I can tell, and aren't going to just evaporate if…
> You can restrict immigration in a humane and respectful way
But this won't change anything, if their demand is not reasonable, or founded in truth to begin with. As I said, the AfD is most popular where there are no migrants at all. Lots of them feel their narrative validated when they see a brown person existing, see "Turkish" people living here for generations. The goalpost will always shift. You will never satisfy them, if their demands aren't anchored in reality. Again, this isn't fueled by exposure, but guided media outrage. There is a lot of conspiracy narratives mixed in as well. Talk to them, poke deeper than the concern trolling surface. You will encounter actual loony talk quite soon.
Apart from that, the biggest problems with these ideas are factors outside of Germany's control. E.g. if the origin country won't accept those immigrants back, you can't just air drop them there. Constitution, European law, human rights, Schengen... it's not really possible/worth it to do anything significant. It's all ever going to be for show.
Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs
#847Seems a bit anti-business to have an unequal playing field just for the star-bellied sneetches. Also silly that those with the biggest piles of capital are getting exemptions when the whole purpose of this exercise is to spur local investment in manufacturing. If anything, small businesses below some threshold of revenue/staff should be getting exemptions.
You are right. Do you think all the tech CEO’s attended his inauguration for nothing? I never imagined I would see such public corruption in any western country. I am saying this as someone who supported some the current administrations agenda
Jared Trump’s business getting two billion dollar investment from
Saudi Arabia and the Secret Service paying Trump millions for various services like staying at his hotels happened during his first term.
Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs
#848Earlier quoted context omitted.
And I want a pony. But one should be realistic in their desires.
A pony is a very realistic desire. Horse property is cheap and horses themselves aren't too expensive provided you have time. Don't let your dreams be dreams.
This reads like a AI response. What world do you live in?
Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs
#849I suspect it would be a good idea if the US abolished the presidency and moved to a parliamentary system. Turns out that concentrating so much power in a single position is a bad idea.
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Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs
#850Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do advocate for addressing those, and I don't support throwing anyone under the bus. That's why I support moderating on immigration! I agree with you that the anti-immigration movement doesn't make much sense to me, and I'm pretty confident that restricting immigration won't have the benefits its proponents claim. But the people who support it are genuine, as far as I can tell, and aren't going to just evaporate if…
> You can restrict immigration in a humane and respectful way But this won't change anything, if their demand is not reasonable, or founded in truth to begin with. As I said, the AfD is most popular where there are no migrants at all. Lots of them feel their narrative validated when they see a brown person existing, see "Turkish" people living here for generations. The goalpost will always shift. You will never satis…
On the contrary, demands that aren't founded in reality are often easier to satisfy, because pure rhetoric can shift the narrative much more easily than it can shift reality. Going back to Denmark again, if you pulled out charts and tried to track the objective quantity of immigration, you'd have a hard time identifying any policy shift. But as you say, immigration restrictionists were never looking at these charts in the first place. What matters politically is that the center-left PM goes around talking about how mass migration can be dangerous and the preservation of Danish culture is valuable.