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

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

#921

Post by wesapien »

mistrial9 wrote: post #841
svara wrote: post #750

It's true that free trade is hugely beneficial to the US economy as a whole, particularly with the USD being the reserve currency. The flow of goods is balanced by a flow of US dollars to other countries, which are ultimately cycled back into the US financial system - enabling budget deficits and an abundance of capital to invest in high growth industries. The flip side of this is that it also drives inequality - the…

this glib analysis neglects the part where decades of plans and budgets have been addressing " build out social systems" while simultaneously building crony networks of political appointees, guarding the hen house. Short term pain is loudly announced for the purpose of defeating the political opponent, not addressing the long standing inefficiencies in a swollen and obese wealth exchange centered in the USA. tons of…

The political class and plutocrats always wins regardless of the election outcome. The two party system guarantees they come out unscathed regardless of their jousting.

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

#922

Post by iteratethis »

coderenegade wrote: post #244
iteratethis wrote: post #75

This won't bring home manufacturing but let's say that it will... The US doesn't have the people to do the actual manufacturing. I saw a video recently explaining how sectors like the military, construction and the automotive industry each have 100K+ positions that they are unable to fill. A return to manufacturing adds to that shortage. Apparently there's some 7 million young men of working age that are...missing in…

I don't know that I agree with this. The US is too large a market to ignore, and this is effectively raising the profit margin for local production. Foreign companies will either move some portion of manufacturing to the US (for the domestic market), or cede the market completely, and I don't know that they're prepared to do that (well, maybe Chinese ones are). Factories have a long lead time, so even if this is abol…

You say foreign companies will move manufacturing to the US or cede the market. You leave out the most likely option: everything will stay the same yet you pay more for your imports.

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

#923

Post by nurettin »

keithxm23 wrote: post #820
svara wrote: post #750

It's true that free trade is hugely beneficial to the US economy as a whole, particularly with the USD being the reserve currency. The flow of goods is balanced by a flow of US dollars to other countries, which are ultimately cycled back into the US financial system - enabling budget deficits and an abundance of capital to invest in high growth industries. The flip side of this is that it also drives inequality - the…

> but many on this very site would need to give up a little bit of their privilege to reduce the pain felt by many of their fellow citizens. Agreed. However, by imposing tariffs it is not the privileged who are going to be affected the most. The pain is felt most by the low-skill workers you mentioned earlier. If the solution was instead along the lines of changing tax-brackets to tax the 'privileged' more, that migh…

Taxing the rich is wishful thinking. They don't just give up wealth. They will simply look at it as an additional cost and hike the prices of their products up causing more inflation and that means even more trade deficit.

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

#924

Post by Swoerd »

svara wrote: post #750

It's true that free trade is hugely beneficial to the US economy as a whole, particularly with the USD being the reserve currency. The flow of goods is balanced by a flow of US dollars to other countries, which are ultimately cycled back into the US financial system - enabling budget deficits and an abundance of capital to invest in high growth industries. The flip side of this is that it also drives inequality - the…

[dead]

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

#925

Post by rayiner »

svara wrote: post #750

It's true that free trade is hugely beneficial to the US economy as a whole, particularly with the USD being the reserve currency. The flow of goods is balanced by a flow of US dollars to other countries, which are ultimately cycled back into the US financial system - enabling budget deficits and an abundance of capital to invest in high growth industries. The flip side of this is that it also drives inequality - the…

You can’t make everyone above average.

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

#926

Post by jay_kyburz »

mywittyname wrote: post #869
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…

> What are the flaws in this thinking? That the national debt matters. A) The Fed & Treasury have the ability to buy back the securities at any time if they wanted, since they can basically poof the currency into existence. And t-bonds are as good as cash anyways, so that money is basically already in the economy. B) The country's national debt is also our citizens' savings accounts. Every major company in the countr…

All I know about this issue is what you wrote above, but it sounds to me like the US taxpayer is paying interest on bonds so that bond holders can earn interest.

I think its perfectly reasonable for the taxpayer to say they would rather not pay interest on those loans. The bond holder could lend the money somebody else instead.

In fact, I think its really unfair that one generation of people can leave debt behind for future generations to pay with higher taxes.

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

#927

Post by SmellyPotato22 »

MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #813

Naive question of a foreigner: I see a lot of approval on the youtube comments to Trump's liberation day speech and over at twitter. Now the consensus on HN is diametrically opposed. My question: why do some people think that this is a good idea? Why is there such a huge rift in US society and how do you plan to bridge this gap?

This anecdotal, but I feel like YouTube applies a positive sentiment filter to its all of its comments. Somehow on most videos I watch never see anything critical at the top of the comment section.

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

#928

Post by whiplash451 »

jodacola wrote: post #886

I'm an American. I've generally benefited from the system here (which speaks to my privilege, of which I'm aware). I don't want to wade into political battles, but I'm genuinely concerned for my future and the future of my children from an economic standpoint, based on where things seem to be going. I am considering options on the spectrum with ends like: * Staying here, because this is where I was born and raised an…

If I may: I would sit this out for a little while.

Moving with another partner to another country is a huge undertaking.

Now, if this was in the back of your mind before, that’s another story.

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

#929

Post by Quarrelsome »

This is absolutely shocking. As these tariffs are reflective of trade deficits this administration is taxing the cheapest sources of goods for the American economy in proportion of volume.

This is economic handbrake territory. It will impact every industry that imports goods (as well as many raw materials and components) and will devestate many, if not all SMEs who rely on importing goods to sell to local customers. Fashion retail in particular and drop shippers will have to raise their prices considerably.

While I imagine the ideas behind these tariffs have some sense of justification, the numbers simply don't add up. Manufacturing clothing in the US simply isn't viable at the sorts of scales for mass consumption. For example, you can pick up Levis at Walmart for around $25 that have been manufactured abroad. The Levi Vintage run, which are made within the US, have prices starting at $150. So all this will do is force people will less money to spend an extra ~50% (or $12.5 in this case) on their jeans, as this will still be cheaper than $150. Obviously to entirely succeed at the supposed aim would to create a world where all jeans cost $150 and this would simply mean that most people would not be able to afford jeans.

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

#930

Post by ponector »

nullhole wrote: post #159
mcoliver wrote: post #92

Here's a csv and google sheet of the data. Turns out they aren't tariffs countries charge us. They are trade imbalance percentages. Unreal: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xK0OQ5VGl8JHmDSIgbXh... https://gist.github.com/mcoliver/69fe48d03c12388e29cc0cd87eb...

The bit I love is that countries with which the US has a trade surplus aren't getting the opposite of a tariff (a grant, I guess) on their imports to the US, they aren't getting zero tariffs on their imports to the US, they're getting 10% tariffs.

And zero tariff for his dear friend putin. Insane!
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