Trade Wars and Tariffs

#6,101
#6,101
CobbVol said:
I view the "tariffs" as more complex than a % for each country. Trade barriers, IP, foreign market access, domestic investment, and geopolitical issues are also considered. So, I trust Trump more for addressing the complete issue versus a collection of economists.
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oh sure. Because he’s done such an amazing job at managing the self created tariff fiasco 😂
 
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#6,102
#6,102
NorthDallas40 said:
I enjoy asking AI science and physics questions and seeing some wildly wrong answers. It’s only as good as the data it can crawl thru. But at least if it’s on the internet it has to be right… RIGHT?!
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Of course it's right, it's from that interwebby thing. Everything on that is true and right.
 
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#6,104
#6,104
McDad said:
I rewired some electrical runs in a rental house with direction from AI. The house mysteriously burned down a few weeks later.
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on a lark I fed some measurements from a pond to see if it could give me the amount of sediment in the bottom. It came within a couple yards of what I figured manually.
 
#6,108
#6,108
MontyPython said:
Mkay. I'll bite.

When you say Trump recognizes when "the US is being taken advantage of and is taking a business-like approach instead of being the world’s charity"... What do you really mean by this?

Do you think that having a trade deficit with another country means we're being taken advantage of?

You're missing the big picture.

Take Bangladesh. Shithole country. We buy clothes and apparel from that country. They sell our importers shirts for $3 that would cost $30 to make here. You end up buying that shirt for $15 here at Walmart. Guess what... You just saved $15 over the American made shirt.

You. You saved money.

So guess what... Everybody figures out buying a shirt from Bangladesh saves money. Get the same quality shirt for a half the price. What happens? Demand for shirts from Bangladesh increases. We as a country end up buying a whole lot of shirts from Bangladesh which allow us to save a whole lot of f****** money.

But now the folks in Bangladesh... frankly 95% of them don't have two f****** sticks to rub together. The average person makes $3,000 a year.

Tell me... tell me exactly what someone who lives in Bangladesh is going to buy from us here in the United states. What products are we going to sell them that they can afford making $3,000 a year?

But wait by Trump's "logic"... they should be buying our Cadillacs at $70,000 a pop. Because if they don't, that means we'll end up buying more stuff from them than they buy from us... WHICH RESULTS IN A TRADE DEFICIT.

So do tell me how us buying cheap shirts from Bangladesh is a problem and tell me why people in Bangladesh should be buying our $70,000 Cadillacs to try to equalize our trade deficit.

Tell me how we're behaving like a charity when we buy shirts for 1/5th the price from Bangladesh. If anything people in Bangladesh will tell you how much you're taking advantage of their cheap labor.

Yes, we have a trade deficit with Bangladesh. But guess who actually benefits from that trade deficit (aka cheap labor)... you and me.

Trump's "solution" to this non-existent "problem"? Add a 30% tariff (TAX) to all goods imported from Bangladesh. Now that shirt is 30% more expensive. But wait... Bangladesh paid that new tariff right? We showed them.

WRONG.

You, sir. You get the honor of paying that extra 30% on that shirt you bought from Walmart.

And where does that new tariff money go?

Straight into the United States Treasury Department.

You just got new taxes up your ass and you're happy about it. WTF dude?

But Trump would argue that these tariffs will force industry to relocate here. That we'll have some sort of wackadoodle second industrial manufacturing revolution here in the United States. The ****? Okay those people over in Bangladesh... I just Googled it... the average Bangladesh citizen makes $0.70 an hour. What business owner in his or her right mind would relocate to the United States from Bangladesh to our country where minimum wage in many states is $15 an hour.

Ohhh... but Trump would argue that we can modernize everything and it'll be simplified and manufactured in a more streamlined fashion.

Bull ****ing ****. If that were the case it would already be happening here.

Right. Now.

We're being sold a bill of goods from a serial liar who is literally the dumbest president we've likely ever had.

BTW We tried tariffs in this country previously... 1920s. Shut down international trade and, in part, ushered in the Great Depression.

Any of this sinking in yet?
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You should be running things.
 
#6,109
#6,109
hog88 said:
on a lark I fed some measurements from a pond to see if it could give me the amount of sediment in the bottom. It came within a couple yards of what I figured manually.
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Curious that you're spending time calculating pond sediment.

Do you live with your cousins on a sheep and horse ranch in Montana?
 
#6,111
#6,111
MontyPython said:
Curious that you're spending time calculating pond sediment.

Do you live with your cousins on a sheep and horse ranch in Montana?
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Designing, building, maintaining and cleaning ponds are a big part of what we do. Retention, detention and engineered wetlands are big business in your neck of the woods.
 
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#6,114
#6,114
n_huffhines said:
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In your opinion, is the drop in homeownership more related to the purchase of single-family homes by rental consortia/corps, interest rates (particularly w.r.t. homeowners getting bit by variable-rate loans), or _____?

I'm thinking it's a combo, but I'd be interested to hear what factor you (or anyone else) think is moving the needle the most.
 
#6,115
#6,115
Let's not forget... Trump literally threatened to ANNEX Canada. Now, gee... was that a good idea, Donald? Did you really think that Canadians would simply listen to you and do nothing? That your words would have no effect on Canadian consumers?

Moron.

And you know the thing is, it's stuff like this that is 100% unnecessary and, frankly, just childish. It truly hits right to the core of why I despise Trump. Think about it... why would an American president EVER threaten to annex Canada. It's just "Trump being Trump"? Right. "He's just being sarcastic". MMhhhhmm.

No. This is just Trump being a complete and utter jerk.

I'd wager that Tennessee whiskey businesses are similarly suffering now thanks to Trump.

There's so much stupidity that's occurred since he's been back in office, it's hard to keep up with all of it. All these things will be coming to roost soon enough - harming American businesses.

"Donald, do you think your tariffs are going to harm exporters in our country?"

[Trump radiates orangeness with a vacant stare and begins babbling something about Biden]

# # #

Sales of bourbon grew by 7% worldwide between 2011-2020, which is more than three times the growth of the decade prior, according to industry data company ISWR.

Soon, some bourbon distillers were becoming quasi-celebrities, and people were starting to buy up bourbon bottles not to drink, but as an investment.

"Everyone was going crazy over the bourbon market, and treating like a commodity, like a stock," recalls Robin Wynne, a general manager and beverage director for Little Sister in Toronto, Canada, who has been a bar manager for about 25 years.
"People would go in as a prospector, to flip bottles for two to three times the value."

But like most market bubbles, this one was bound to burst. The pandemic's lockdowns tanked bar sales, and inflation has made many would-be bourbon drinkers choose less expensive options - or forgo drinking all together. Amongst Gen-Z, many 20-somethings are drinking less than their older siblings and parents did at their age.

Those factors have contributed to declining alcohol sales, with bourbon sales specifically slowing down to just 2% between 2021-2024, according to ISWR data.

President Donald Trump's global tariffs have been the final straw. The EU has announced retaliatory tariffs against US goods, including Kentucky bourbon and Californian wine, although implementation has been delayed for six months.

Meanwhile, most provinces in Canada have stopped importing American alcoholic beverages in retaliation. The country accounts for about 10% of Kentucky's $9bn (£6.7bn) whiskey and bourbon business.

"That's worse than a tariff, because it's literally taking your sales away, completely removing our products from the shelves ... that's a very disproportionate response," Lawson Whiting, the CEO of Brown-Forman, which produces Jack Daniels, Woodford Reserve and Old Forester, said back in March when Canadian provinces announced their plan to stop buying US booze.
Trump has said that tariffs will boost made-in-American businesses.

But Republican Senator Rand Paul, who represents Kentucky, said the tariffs will hurt local businesses and consumers in his home state.

"Well, tariffs are taxes, and when you put a tax on a business, it's always passed through as a cost. So, there will be higher prices," he told ABC's "This Week" in May.

genius.png
 
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#6,116
#6,116
hog88 said:
Designing, building, maintaining and cleaning ponds are a big part of what we do. Retention, detention and engineered wetlands are big business in your neck of the woods.
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Cool. Don't get me started about CAMA. Building and/or doing anything with wetlands these days has... bogged down.
 
#6,119
#6,119
On July 28, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, announced legislation that would provide Americans with $600 “rebate checks,” supposedly due to the vast swathes of money being collected from President Trump’s tariff policy.

Hawley’s proposal comes just days after Trump suggested the idea himself.

# # #


Our Trump administration in action:

Collect new federal tax from us, then give part of that same tax back to us.

Stable genius.

1000000234.gif
 
#6,120
#6,120
n_huffhines said:
Seems damning, IDK, call me crazy.

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I don't know about crazy, but either not understanding the graph or intentionally posting a deceptive representation.

That steep incline at the tail end? Was actually only about a .6% change. 1/163. In other words about six times less the grade from my house, not the Matterhorn.
 
#6,121
#6,121
tbh said:
In your opinion, is the drop in homeownership more related to the purchase of single-family homes by rental consortia/corps, interest rates (particularly w.r.t. homeowners getting bit by variable-rate loans), or _____?

I'm thinking it's a combo, but I'd be interested to hear what factor you (or anyone else) think is moving the needle the most.
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What is moving the needle the most is a scale on the graph that represents seven points out of 100.

Did it move down? Yep. But barely a tick.
 
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#6,122
#6,122
BeardedVol said:
www.theamericanconservative.com

Tariffs Are Economic Patriotism, Putting Americans First

Once a nation is hooked on cheap goods like a narcotic it is rarely able to break free. But we can try.
www.theamericanconservative.com www.theamericanconservative.com
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🤣

I mean this article could be interpreted as tongue in cheek. Surely the old fart Buchanan can't be serious, right? This is laughable.

Unadulterated hot steaming pile of garbage.

"Tariffs were the taxes that made America great. 🤣 They were the taxes relied upon by the first and greatest of our early statesmen, before the coming of the globalists Woodrow Wilson and FDR."

"That is economic patriotism, putting America and Americans first."🤣🤣🤣

"A tariff is a tax, but its purpose is not just to raise revenue but to make a nation economically independent of others, and to bring its citizens to rely upon each other rather than foreign entities."🧐

"Free trade is the policy of fading and failing powers, past their prime."🤣

"Once a nation is hooked on the cheap goods that are the narcotic free trade provides, it is rarely able to break free. The loss of its economic independence is followed by the loss of its political independence, the loss of its greatness and, ultimately, the loss of its national identity."🤣🤣🤣

Wow. Holy crap.

OK! Sign me up! But just one thing... about that "economic independence"... so, Patrick, we're gonna start making our own apparel here in the US at $15/hr instead of, say, buying it from Bangladesh where they can make it for $0.90/hr? How does exactly does that work without tripling or quadrupling the cost of our clothes? Are we no longer concerned about the cost of goods in favor of expanding our own manufacturing sector?

How much are Junior's new school clothes gonna cost next Fall?

1000000272.gif

Patrick J. Buchanan does not have formal training or education in economics. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in English from Georgetown University in 1961 and a Master’s degree in Journalism from Columbia University in 1962. His academic background is in English and journalism, and his career has primarily focused on political commentary, journalism, and political roles, including serving as an advisor to Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. While Buchanan has written extensively on economic issues, particularly trade and globalization, such as in his book The Great Betrayal: How American Sovereignty and Social Justice Are Being Sacrificed to the Gods of the Global Economy, his economic perspectives stem from his political ideology and self-study rather than formal economic education.

Important Tomorrow To-Do: Hire gardener to do my taxes.
 
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#6,123
#6,123
MontyPython said:
🤣

I mean this article could be interpreted as tongue in cheek. Surely the old fart Buchanan can't be serious, right? This is laughable.

Unadulterated hot steaming pile of garbage.

"Tariffs were the taxes that made America great. 🤣 They were the taxes relied upon by the first and greatest of our early statesmen, before the coming of the globalists Woodrow Wilson and FDR."

"That is economic patriotism, putting America and Americans first."🤣🤣🤣

"A tariff is a tax, but its purpose is not just to raise revenue but to make a nation economically independent of others, and to bring its citizens to rely upon each other rather than foreign entities."🧐

"Free trade is the policy of fading and failing powers, past their prime."🤣

"Once a nation is hooked on the cheap goods that are the narcotic free trade provides, it is rarely able to break free. The loss of its economic independence is followed by the loss of its political independence, the loss of its greatness and, ultimately, the loss of its national identity."🤣🤣🤣

Wow. Holy crap.

OK! Sign me up! But just one thing... about that "economic independence"... so, Patrick, we're gonna start making our own apparel here in the US at $15/hr instead of, say, buying it from Bangladesh where they can make it for $0.90/hr? How does exactly does that work without tripling or quadrupling the cost of our clothes? Are we no longer concerned about the cost of goods in favor of expanding our own manufacturing sector?

How much are Junior's new school clothes gonna cost next Fall?

View attachment 762625

Patrick J. Buchanan does not have formal training or education in economics. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in English from Georgetown University in 1961 and a Master’s degree in Journalism from Columbia University in 1962. His academic background is in English and journalism, and his career has primarily focused on political commentary, journalism, and political roles, including serving as an advisor to Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. While Buchanan has written extensively on economic issues, particularly trade and globalization, such as in his book The Great Betrayal: How American Sovereignty and Social Justice Are Being Sacrificed to the Gods of the Global Economy, his economic perspectives stem from his political ideology and self-study rather than formal economic education.

Important Tomorrow To-Do: Hire gardener to do my taxes.
Click to expand...

While I think Trump's tariff policy has been a mess, your extremity of "all tariffs = bad" is something I oppose.

You do know that the loss of manufacturing doesn't just impact blue collar jobs? Engineers, Procurement, Sales, Finance, HR, Safety, Legal, etc. all rely and support localized manufacturing. You remove factories and white collar people suffer just as much.

If we moved all our manufacturing to Southeast Asia like you advocate, where are the youth going to work? Also, when we start to run out of money, who is going to buy these products?

This is going on right now in Europe. Manufacturing is dying to low labor and the youth can't find work. (The easiest way for Companies to make cuts is new hires versus existing employees so that is where society is hit first).
 
#6,124
#6,124
volbound1700 said:
While I think Trump's tariff policy has been a mess, your extremity of "all tariffs = bad" is something I oppose.

You do know that the loss of manufacturing doesn't just impact blue collar jobs? Engineers, Procurement, Sales, Finance, HR, Safety, Legal, etc. all rely and support localized manufacturing. You remove factories and white collar people suffer just as much.

If we moved all our manufacturing to Southeast Asia like you advocate, where are the youth going to work? Also, when we start to run out of money, who is going to buy these products?

This is going on right now in Europe. Manufacturing is dying to low labor and the youth can't find work. (The easiest way for Companies to make cuts is new hires versus existing employees so that is where society is hit first).
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Nope. Never said all tariffs are bad. Some definitely make sense. Trumps approach unfortunately does not.
 
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