Tariffs Won't Solve The Bigger Problems
(I am a bit under the weather ...)
Later today President Trump will unveil more tariffs against imports from various countries. In consequence prices in the U.S. will rise, GDP will sink, U.S. financial markets will take another hit.
To build or regain manufacturing capacity requires well coordinated long term projects. Research, training, infrastructure development, capital allocation and market protection all need to work together over several years if not decades.
Pursuing just one of these measure - tariffs, and likely only for a short time, will not change any of the related problems in other fields.
The 'invisible hand' of the markets will respond to Trump's moves by showing him a very visible finger.
Posted by b on April 2, 2025 at 15:09 UTC | Permalink
next page »This is correct:
"...To build or regain manufacturing capacity requires well coordinated long term projects. Research, training, infrastructure development, capital allocation and market protection all need to work together over several years if not decades...Pursuing just one of these measures - tariffs, and likely only for a short time, will not change any of the related problems in other fields"
The US needs to copy the masters of tariffs..China, they announce well ahead of time, then they slowly bring tariffs into play forcing companies to migrate manufacturing to their shores. Then they fill those factories with people who learn what works and what doesn't and transfer that knowledge to domestic manufactures who are, in the short term, backed by the state in their new enterprise. Copy what works
Posted by: S Brennan | Apr 2 2025 15:17 utc | 3
its not just trump. lady lindsey graham and ricarda blumenthal proposed a bipartisan (yeah right) bill that will demand a whopping 500% tariff on all nations that buy fuel, uranium and other products (grain?) from russia.
the two greatest nazi supporters are trying everything, except picking up a bayonett and signing up for the ukrainian foreign leagion. one could almost think those two are british.
Posted by: Justpassinby | Apr 2 2025 15:19 utc | 4
All ''bullies'' given time will eventually get beat up themselves.
Posted by: rotsvast | Apr 2 2025 15:21 utc | 5
soooo many chinese products are made from various kinds of plastics, very high content too.Tbey seem to be masters of the processes. I doubt very much that USA can replicate such factories and manufacturing in any reasonable time within 4 years of the Trump.Certainly not at comparable cost nor shipping .Although USA may have a suitable oil.
Posted by: Jo | Apr 2 2025 15:23 utc | 6
(I am a bit under the weather ...)
The 'invisible hand' of the markets will respond to Trump's moves by showing him a very visible finger.
Posted by b on April 2, 2025 at 15:09 UTC | Permalink
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Gute Besserung.
The 'invisible hand' is cranking the liquidity pump with all the force it has. The markets have been making that 'straw in an empty drink gurgle' now for days.
We live in remarkable times. A spectacle as rare as the Hale-Bopp Comet is revealing itself. Its going to make a fresh new impression. Let us hope positive forces seize upon it.
Posted by: too scents | Apr 2 2025 15:23 utc | 7
The Chinese FM Wang Yi remarked to the press in his visit to Russia that “The US itself is sick but is forcing others to get treatment ..." i.e., as a result of US problems the Trump regime is imposing tariffs on virtually every trading partner they have.
FM Wang Yi also noted that "But still, the key to solving problems is ultimately in your own hands, not in someone else’s pockets."
... which is the nicest way of saying that Uncle Sam is a thief.
Full quote: "Each country inevitably faces different challenges in the course of its development, and all countries have their own reasonable concerns. But still, the key to solving problems is ultimately in your own hands, not in someone else’s pockets. Washington, instead of fixing its own problems, is trying in every possible way to relieve itself of responsibility, to shift it from a sore head to a healthy one, resorting to the introduction of duties, up to the use of blackmail and an ultimatum. The US is sick itself, but forces others to be treated. This will not help solve the existing problems, and it will also cause serious damage not only to the global market and trade order, but also to the United States ‘ own reputation. “America first” cannot be achieved through American harassment, especially to the detriment of the interests of other countries."
Posted by: NH | Apr 2 2025 15:26 utc | 9
a whopping 500% tariff
Posted by: Justpassinby | Apr 2 2025 15:19 utc | 4
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The. Money. Is. Paper.
Posted by: too scents | Apr 2 2025 15:26 utc | 10
As someone remarked: de-industrialisation means the end of empire. De-dollarisation means the US can re-industrialise, but de-dollarisation means end of empire too.
The US is caught in Triffin's paradox and either continues to see a hollowing out of its middle and working classes - which will lead to domestic chaos - or it tries to incentivise companies to bring manufacturing back onshore.
We shall see.
To build or regain manufacturing capacity requires well coordinated long term projects.
No, you just need the right conditions. And in most respects, the US has those conditions. However, "regime uncertainty" is a real thing - will companies invest millions/billions knowing a future presidency might unroll tariffs? The problem is that manufacturers in an economy that has minimum wage laws, strict environmental controls, and high taxes because of social welfare resource redistribution can't compete with manufacturers in countries that don't.
Posted by: Observer | Apr 2 2025 15:29 utc | 11
Tariffs Won't Solve The Bigger Problems
(I am a bit under the weather ...)
The 'invisible hand' of the markets will respond to Trump's moves by showing him a very visible finger.
Posted by b on April 2, 2025 at 15:09 UTC | Permalink
First things first, B, check with your doctor ASAP, and take a break if you must or just do things on a more laid back basis for a while.
We care and wish you get well soon.
As for the tariffs, etc, maybe it will work, not because it is the best place but the best place for having protection on the investment "huuuge assurance of protection against "unfair" competition"
Might just work on that basis. If the rest of the world is no longer complacent with the cptalistic/exploitation model, a continent that still is is really a nice find for those who bet on keeping something of "the good old days".
Posted by: Newbie | Apr 2 2025 15:32 utc | 12
Trump is too stupid to kmnow the difference between finance and capital. He’s been bamboozled by Wall St. Progressive income taxes are the best way to encourage domestic reinvestment, and rewards capital intensive producers while taxing the leeches that preen me soil paper while taking all the gains, while producing literally nothing.
Trump could save $65 billion a year with Medicare for All, but he’s with the clowns doing nothing but looting that $65 billion a year
Posted by: Scottindallas | Apr 2 2025 15:32 utc | 13
1.173 / 5.000
Trump, in his usual "quick fix" approach, wants to solve part of America's financial problem.
Ostensibly, he will succeed, and if all he cares about is the public image presented in the media, he can portray "strength" and "America First." He should be aware that he isn't fundamentally solving any problem, but his ego is being stroked.
His problem is that he currently has no issue where he can demonstrate short-term success; quite the opposite. It's either dead ends or the highest risk of uncontrollable escalation. But as we know from the signal leak, everyone is acting more like children playing PC action games than with careful consideration.
This raises fears of the worst for May 8th, if Putin doesn't extend the energy ceasefire because Ukraine isn't complying with it and the grain agreement is completely unrealizable.
Then comes a media campaign of accusations against Russia, claiming that Russia has been constantly attacking energy facilities in Ukraine despite the ceasefire (as reported by the BBC yesterday), meaning more weapons, etc., for Ukraine. Escalation is inevitable.
Posted by: smartfox | Apr 2 2025 15:33 utc | 14
The main "problem" plaguing USrael is Aimé Césaire's imperial boomerang swooping back to smash us in the teeth with exceptional fascist violence, now visiting the homefront.
The gloves are off with our imperial project, as we tune up our bombers on Yemen before turning to Iran. No more "mister nice guy" or something. But such gloves have simultaneously been dropped from our imperial boomerang. T-Rex's flagrantly arbitrary tariff surprises and crooked policy zig-zags are outstanding features of our boomerang, along with the black hole remaining of the US economy, after all this.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Apr 2 2025 15:36 utc | 15
Progressive income taxes are
Posted by: Scottindallas | Apr 2 2025 15:32 utc | 13
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Progressive income taxes are for rubes. Wealth taxes are the cure.
Wages shouldn't be taxed. At all.
Posted by: too scents | Apr 2 2025 15:38 utc | 16
Tariffs DO work. Vietnam just blinked and removed all tariffs on US imports. Like it or not, the world still revolves around the United States and the dollar. That may change but not any time soon.
Posted by: bored | Apr 2 2025 15:40 utc | 17
Constantly negative. Tariffs protect jobs, which reduces social support costs. (We've has 30 years of cheaper goods which was offset by the addition of $20t in debt.)
Open economies are tremendously resiliant, which is why the EPA and other agencies that interfere have been gutted. The poster child with respect to how rapidly an economy can transform in the face of sanctions (externally imposed tariffs) is dear old Russia.
Lastly, where America is going is where it's from ie MAGA policy simply aims to restore its entire history and culture.
If Russia and China can pull off having healthy economies with no, zero, prior experience or history, why do you think the champ cannot get back in shape with new generations being unboarded?
Posted by: Markw | Apr 2 2025 15:41 utc | 18
Constantly negative. Tariffs protect jobs, which reduces social support costs. (We've has 30 years of cheaper goods which was offset by the addition of $20t in debt.)
Open economies are tremendously resiliant, which is why the EPA and other agencies that interfere have been gutted. The poster child with respect to how rapidly an economy can transform in the face of sanctions (externally imposed tariffs) is dear old Russia.
Lastly, where America is going is where it's from ie MAGA policy simply aims to restore its entire history and culture.
If Russia and China can pull off having healthy economies with no, zero, prior experience or history, why do you think the champ cannot get back in shape with new generations being unboarded?
Posted by: Markw | Apr 2 2025 15:41 utc | 19
There is an old saying I’ll adjust for inflation. “When you owe the bank $10 million, you have a problem. When you owe the bank $100 million, the bank has a problem.”
The world is the bank right now. Every advanced economy in the world is built on access to the US market. So, yeah, tariffs in a vacuum raise prices. But raise them to the extent you cut yourself off from that market and you go under too. So, prices will rise, but not the extent some of you predict.
Trump is pulling a Wal-Mart right now. Wal-Mart is infamous for forcing its suppliers to lower costs, lower their profit margins and eat costs. Yet, as much as they hate it, most suppliers comply. Why? Because they all want to be on the shelves at Wal-Mart. You want in the US market, it will cost you. If you don’t, that’s fine too. Someone else will be willing to supply it.
Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 2 2025 15:41 utc | 20
Observer, progressive income taxes are needed, they rid the economy of the leeches at the top that are the real impediments to domestic production. This taxes the lobbyists and influence peddlers. Progressive income taxes were introduced by an industrialist James Couzens, co-founder of Ford Motors, the CFO who actually proposed the 5 day work week and $5 dollar workday. It was Andrew Mellon who argued for what Will Roger’s would call “trickle down”. Mellon won the day, the orgy of speculation that drove the roaring twenties and lead to the Great Depression was trickle down. Every 8 years or so you get a financial collapse with low income taxes, we bail out Wall St ow, we didn’t in 1929.
Posted by: Scottindallas | Apr 2 2025 15:43 utc | 21
Thanks to you, b. Please take care of yourself!
I will just quote to Trump one line from President McKinley's last speech before he was assassinated:
"... Reciprocity treaties are in harmony with the spirit of the times;
measures of retaliation are not."
Posted by: juliania | Apr 2 2025 15:44 utc | 22
I can understand the US strategy here. Make competitors products more expensive and you make your products cheaper by comparison and you also convince your competitors to drop their own tariffs in exchange for the USA doing the same.
Trump has said his objective is to get manufacturers to re-shore to the USA.
The trouble is the USA has the shittiest least efficient ports in the world.
They have the shitty transportation infrastructure in general ... poor highways and rail infrastructure that hasn't seen investment since the 1960's.
They have expensive labour, a poor public school system and an entitled work force.
They haven't invested in their electric grid or generating capacity in decades. Hydro electric dams are crumbling and they don't build commercial nuclear power plants any more.
Investing in US production plants is investing in the US domestic market and pricing yourself out of the market in the rest of the world ... even Ford motors has given up on the USA and is moving out of the country just leaving assembly plants operating in the USA because steel, aluminium and lithium prices makes it too expensive to operate in the USA. A big chunk of their costs are due to tariffs.
Maybe with 20-30 years of infrastructure development, better ports, better basic education, fitter workers with a better attitude, drop the tariffs ... .
Posted by: HB_Norica | Apr 2 2025 15:48 utc | 23
Too scents, PROGRESSIVE income taxes are not taxes on income. A progressive income tax would be 50% on income over a million per year and 66% on income over 2-3 million per year. Wealth if it’s reinvested is good. Taxing unrealized gains is a complex problem. Though a tax on Wall Street trades (in all right should be at the sales tax rate) would be helpful with exemptions for $15k/yr or IRA funds/limits. I actually have some love for wealthy who invest in the economy. Misers should be encouraged to invest in the economy, but the bigger issue is corporate executives who invested nothing, are not founders nor entrepreneurs taking all the gains. Progressive income taxes limits the takings of these people, financiers and well connected professionals, celebrities and athletes and no one else. Income averaging is allowed for one hit wonders to spread out their “reported income” over a few years , where perennial big shots get hit. Some tax on estates would be another good way to address the issue you describe of course with some exempted base and graduated rates. Maybe 3% for inheritance over $10m and 5% over $50 million
Trump cucks are funny, nothing conservative about Tariffs. Tariffs , namely Smoot Hawley tariffs lead to, anyone, anyone? The Great Depression—to quote Nixon’s economic advisor. You fools are tools. lol. It’s ok. Democrats are foolish tools too. You’re just like them.
Posted by: Scottindallas | Apr 2 2025 15:59 utc | 24
The main problem with imposing tariffs on international competitors is that it will reduce economic activity within the USA.
It'll be difficult to mansplain that effect as encouraging investment in adventurous new projects.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 2 2025 16:00 utc | 25
America does not have a VAT, but it needs revenue and a budget surplus without increasing taxes and duties.If Trump wanted to limit imports, he would resort to non-tariff barriers (authorizations, approvals, certifications) that could last 6-18 months.The effect of non-tariff barriers is more devastating than customs duties (tariff barriers) and more protectionist.
Even if you reduce budget spending, you can't immediately reach a surplus if taxes remain the same...
Increasing customs duties means immediate money for the budget and is more efficient than VAT. So revenues will increase....the increase in prices will not have the same weight because you no longer sell the goods...Importers and traders will have much lower profit margins if they want to sell their goods.The scoundrels on the Boards of Directors, the shit-eating CEOs will see their benefits reduced, which is very good for the health of the companies.
The value of shares will reflect reality and not speculation and marketing.This is how we return to the values of productive capitalism at Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Keynes and will end with harmful financial capitalism.It will end with the guys from the Chicago School who have moved far away from the Austrian School.
The economic model of economic growth, including the increase in military spending, is the Keynesian one.In this model, customs duties as revenue and protective measures play an important role.
Posted by: surena | Apr 2 2025 16:00 utc | 26
@ HB_Norica
There is some truth to that post, but you miss the point a bit. We don’t care if or expect manufacturers to move their entire production here. We expect them to reshore their manufacturing to the US FOR THE US MARKET.
So, thing like port quality, labor expense, and so on do not matter with regard to the world as that the products are primarily for the US market alone.
Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 2 2025 16:01 utc | 27
A progressive income tax would be 50% on income over a million per year and 66% on income over 2-3 million per year.
Posted by: Scottindallas | Apr 2 2025 15:59 utc | 24
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Borrowing against capital gains is not income.
Posted by: too scents | Apr 2 2025 16:02 utc | 29
Sure a, you don’t understand economics, you just called for crippling stagflation. But that’s what Trump did last time
Posted by: Scottindallas | Apr 2 2025 16:02 utc | 30
"
its not just trump. lady lindsey graham and ricarda blumenthal proposed a bipartisan (yeah right) bill that will demand a whopping 500% tariff on all nations that buy fuel, uranium and other products (grain?) from russia.
the two greatest nazi supporters are trying everything, except picking up a bayonett and signing up for the ukrainian foreign leagion. one could almost think those two are british.
Posted by: Justpassinby | Apr 2 2025 15:19 utc | 4
Graham might well be descended from some British convict.
"
Posted by: lester | Apr 2 2025 16:05 utc | 31
15 aleph … T-Rex , that is so meme-able :)
Hope you feel better soon, b !
Posted by: E | Apr 2 2025 16:07 utc | 32
The 'invisible hand' of the markets will respond to Trump's moves by showing him a very visible finger.
Haha. Even “under the weather” b FTW.
[and we have a pair of possums that the dog believes it is his responsibility to loudly inform me of their nocturnal activities, hence my 3am posting…]
Posted by: Melaleuca | Apr 2 2025 16:08 utc | 33
The Titanic shall sink b. Even Mr. Elon Reeve Musk (ERM) is stepping down. He can smells what's coming. The iceberg.
Posted by: pepe | Apr 2 2025 16:09 utc | 34
Jo at 6 said:
"so many chinese products are made from plastic, I doubt very much that USA can replicate such factories"
Actually, manufacturing in plastic is one of the easiest industries to re-shore. Resin manufacture is energy intensive but, has negligible labor input, so too injection-molding, ex/pull-trusion, vacuum-forming, roto-molding et al. There is no excuse for China's dominance outside that they set out to do it and there was no push back from DC/Ottawa/Brussels et al.
One of the greatest problems for the west is the utter lack of leaders who are familiar with industrial processes. Though exceedingly rare, many/almost-all "leaders" who possess science degrees in DC/London/Brussels et al have no practical world experience, they go straight from being university credentialed to government work. No real experience. That's a big part of the problem, western leaders are a willfully ignorant lot. None so blind as those who can not see the light.
Posted by: S Brennan | Apr 2 2025 16:12 utc | 35
Its worse than "tariffs won't solve the bigger problem".
As Russia has shown clearly, once supply chains are interrupted, the supply is re-directed to other markets. If tariffs are subsequently removed, suppliers will be unlikely to return fearing further re-imposition, or will only accept such risk at higher cost.
Posted by: cdvision | Apr 2 2025 16:13 utc | 36
27 Cullen… as you waved away the aging ports critique, the point about massive accumulated infrastructure deficit still stands…
Posted by: E | Apr 2 2025 16:19 utc | 37
I favored “reasonable” tariffs since before they were dropped, decades ago. But, without other changes (especially cutting the foreign wars and bases), it’ll just be a tax on consumers to continue funding the wars, forcing them to either “do without” or buy from brands owned by the same families that outsourced their jobs in the first place. The tariffs protect the same oligarchs who engineer every industry to sheer the sheeple of all their wealth, give them as little in return, and indenture them with debt.
The “jobs” aren’t “coming back”, because manufacturing will be automated. Indeed, it must, because our owners cultivated a relatively anti-intellectual society long enough that I don’t expect much anymore from the serfs anyway. After all, they keep voting for jerks who fuck them one way or another. There isn’t even “nuance”, except to Trump-wing or Maddow-wing cultists.
Essentially, when you look at what they’re changing and what they’re not changing, this is a policy for less butter and more guns.
IOW, everything’s wonderful.
Posted by: I forgot | Apr 2 2025 16:21 utc | 38
Unless Trump brings the FY 2026 into balance; then it’s insolvency for the Federal Gov’t in 2027. Period.
Note: insolvency can mean many outcomes; all of which are painful. The good news is a insolvent Federal gov’t can’t fund the War Party.
Posted by: Exile | Apr 2 2025 16:24 utc | 39
"soooo many chinese products are made from various kinds of plastics, very high content too.Tbey seem to be masters of the processes".
Molding plastic parts has pretty low labor content - you'll find that packaging (think yoghurt tubs and such like) is made locally for cost reasons. The machines are automated. The machines are expensive though, and generally made either in Europe or Asia and the molds are customized and good ones especially are very expensive to make in a place like the US even if the skills and equipment still exist. I often marvel at the sheer variety of molds that exist for low-cost products in a place like China- the total cost would be unimaginable in the US. Automotive manufacturing is one of the places where it is still possible. The difference between China and the US is something like 3:1 or 5:1 in cost for tooling of similar quality and performance, with US suppliers a reliable "no bid" at the low end.
The plastics themselves are made globally, generally from petroleum, by large chemical companies, including ones like Sabic (KSA), LG Chemical (Korea), Mitsubishi etc.
Posted by: Billb | Apr 2 2025 16:26 utc | 40
Biden applied import sanctions on Russia , Russia has more growth than the US.
Biden didn't understand why.
What did Trump do ? He apply the stupidest form of import sanctions on the US, calling it tariffs : he won't get more growth (euphemism).
Trump won't understand why.
It's Dumb & Dumber, not able to understand their sanctions were shit to begin with, as Russia had alternative markets access and engaged in substitution years ago if there was no alternatives possible.
Take some rest B ... Ein Beer, ein Apfelstrudel und ab.. ins bed.
Posted by: Savonarole | Apr 2 2025 16:29 utc | 41
Michael Roberts on the likely failure of Trump's global trade war aka Liberation Day:
https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2025/04/02/liberation-day/
That post also has a good critique of the Keynesians who are falling behind Trump's tariffs.
Posted by: Crumchy | Apr 2 2025 16:31 utc | 42
This is the moment of truth.
"On paper" tariffs are a pre-digital anachronism.
Over the next couple days Trump will have propaganda victories as weak countries capitulate but that won't change the state of American education or infrastructure, vital and foundational elements of a successful modern society.
War may even boost the stock market. But it will wipe out those promised (coerced?) investments from the Middle East kingdoms, as Iran destroys their oil producing facilities and plunge the West into economic chaos.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 2 2025 16:33 utc | 43
I've seen my government actively destroy the lives of the poor and working class all of my 66 years regardless of the results. Pocketing the profits while we get beaten down to death. People look at me crazy but I think the jig is up. There's no coming back from a broken economic system and government that no one trusts. At least those who our survival most depends on. The people who fix make and grow things.
Posted by: SO | Apr 2 2025 16:36 utc | 44
I've seen my government actively destroy the lives of the poor and working class all of my 66 years regardless of the results. Pocketing the profits while we get beaten down to death. People look at me crazy but I think the jig is up. There's no coming back from a broken economic system and government that no one trusts. At least those who our survival most depends on. The people who fix make and grow things.
Posted by: SO | Apr 2 2025 16:36 utc | 45
For a country that produces nothing, tariffs on everyone is equal to tariffs on no one and a consumption tax on everything.
Posted by: Sid Victor Cattoni | Apr 2 2025 16:38 utc | 46
The goal of Trump's tariff policies are to increase domestic capital investment, which is a response to decades of slowing economic growth in the US. The tariffs are as misguided as Biden's CHIPS Act. Both policies look backwards to restore once dynamic industries with crony capitalist transfers of wealth. America's and the West's problem is they are moribund capitalist market societies unable to respond creatively to new challenges. Trump's threats to seize Greenland and make Canada a US state are demonstrations of weakness. Ousting a Chinese firm from operating the Panama Canal ports and replacing it with an American private equity firm will reveal how inept American business management has become. Relying on primitive accumulation to restore global economic supremacy in the fast developing world of the 21st century cannot succeed. Turning to military solutions, Biden's war against Russia and the pivot to encircle China, will seal the fate of America and the West by exhausting their remaining surpluses. Surpluses earned when they were still creative societies but which can now only produce weapons of mass destruction and technologies of surveillance.
Posted by: Keme | Apr 2 2025 16:39 utc | 47
When a nations currencu becomes a reserve currency it takesa value that is greator than the goods and services produced in that nation. The currency has a value of universal acceptance like a credit card accepted everywhere. The high value of the currency means the goods and srvices manufactured in the economy are not competitive with external nations. Prosucts manufactured in the nation are not competitive with products manufactured elsewhere for all nations.
"To build or regain manufacturing capacity requires well coordinated long term projects. Research, training, infrastructure development, capital allocation and market protection all need to work together over several years if not decades."
This is impossible in the USA.
As productivity leaves a nation it becomes soley dependent on its reserve currency unniversal acceptance status to provide a standard of living. It creates currency and it is inserted into the economy Through social and military spending. Large debts are created. They are impossible to pay. The interest is payed out with more created currency.
The nation after a while becomes aware of the nature of its condition. If this awareness is comes about after its capacity for productivity is gone its condition constitutes a cage with a physical reality just as a cage for a animal. As you note B it takes decades and coordination to create productivity. The nation issuing reserve currency can not even begin because its manufacturing can only be artificially competitive through the creation and insertion of the reserve currency into the economy.
Many phenomena are observed as this situation progresses. One is denial. Both the nation and the nations who are integrated with it do not accept their condition as it means a radical change in standard of living. The nation is a helpless as baby in a jungle without reserve currency status as it has no tools of productivity nor can it realistically create them in the reality of the world economy. All it has is financial services and military capability. One of the areas of denial is the reality that military capability is integral with productivity capability. The nations with productivity capability will inherently create stronger military capability than the reserve currency nation.
Historically these shenanigans result in war. War is the intervention by which the system which has manifested comes to terms with the problems inherent to reserve currency or destroys the nation unable to carry the overhead of using the reserve currency and takes their resources through more base means. All nations have benefited from the use of the reserve currency. Smart nations used it to build their real wealth which is productivity. The reserve currency becomes a overhead expense which is too large for the world economy to sustain. The nations whose basis is productivity look to the reserve currency nation standard of living and ask why.
With the creation of nuclear weapons war became a ending of productivity, environment, and lives on a scale previously unimaginable. Suddenly and aruptly the means of intervention became unthinkable. Two incompatible fores were created. One is the hesitancy to destroy the world. One is the inability of the world economy to carry the overhead of the reserve currency nation. The inability to carry the reserve currency nation overhead force grows exponentially. The force of hesitancy to destroy the world is static. Any logical measures to avoid the destruction of the world can not occur because of denial. Intervention can not occur to address the denial because the method is war. Catch 22.
Posted by: Losbanos | Apr 2 2025 16:39 utc | 48
I'm fine s/experimenting w/tariffs
But Trump is all over the map when it comes to why he is doing it. Is he choosing door #1 or door #2?
door #1. Economic reasons (I'm fine with trying this)
door #2. World domination (at odds with #1)
You have to choose a lane. Are you trying to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. or punish Venezuela?
I am totally against #2. I am open minded regarding #1.
Posted by: Christian J Chuba | Apr 2 2025 16:41 utc | 49
27 Cullen… as you waved away the aging ports critique, the point about massive accumulated infrastructure deficit still stands.
————————————
Not really, it’s mostly crap. American highways are the best and most extensive in the world. Our freight railways are adequate if not cutting edge. Power generation is a problem but the hurdles to build new plants are far less here than in Europe or pretty much anywhere else other than China. And energy is cheap cheap cheap compared to just about anywhere else.
Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 2 2025 16:43 utc | 50
There are two sides to the budget issue.
Income and expenses.
Musk did the performance of cutting Democrat agencies and slashing Democrat voters from the bureaucracy but that doesn't significantly move the needle on spending cuts.
Foreign aid still flows to Israel freer than ever, the US military still has an outsize global footprint.
The thing about colonizer nations is they never stop growing until they metaphorically become so fat that they die.
America will never turn down new bases or countries to add to its collection. It's not America per se but how Empire has always worked, and America is an Empire like any other.
The US has to address spending or economic reality will force outcomes it cannot avoid.
Every other nation has to match spending to production.
Getting some legacy Western brands to relocate to America isn't "real" production. A BMW is just a car and an inferior one compared to the top EV models in the world today.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 2 2025 16:45 utc | 51
- Don't overlook the impact of demograpic developments in the US. The US fertility rate is falling and already under 2.1 (=ageing population).
- Also think: Emmanuel Todd and his story about "straticfication" and think of his book "the defeat of the West".
- There simply too many developments going into the wrong direction. And those developments all point in the wrong direction (= weakening economy).
Posted by: WMG | Apr 2 2025 16:46 utc | 52
43 Love 49 Chuba
But are tariffs really just “on-paper”? I have my tinfoil hat on here but I wonder if US “stablecoins” are being pushed behind the scenes as a quid pro quo … also, related to how the US coerced Tether into hodling US treasuries
Posted by: E | Apr 2 2025 16:46 utc | 53
- Don't overlook the impact of demograpic developments in the US. The US fertility rate is falling and already under 2.1 (=ageing population).
- Also think: Emmanuel Todd and his story about "straticfication" and think of his book "the defeat of the West".
- There simply too many developments going into the wrong direction. And those developments all point in the wrong direction (= weakening economy).
Posted by: WMG | Apr 2 2025 16:46 utc | 52
- And Trump and his gang seem to be "hell bent" to "weaken" the US even more.
Posted by: WMG | Apr 2 2025 16:47 utc | 54
The reason US ports and railroads are terrible is because they are mostly (nearly all) owned by billionaires that just siphon cash from them and put nothing back. Nationalize them all.
Posted by: azeclecticdog | Apr 2 2025 16:48 utc | 55
American highways are the best and most extensive in the world.
Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 2 2025 16:43 utc | 50
##########
Oh, to be so ignorant of the ROW. 😂😂😂
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 2 2025 16:49 utc | 56
The 'invisible hand' of the markets will respond to Trump's moves by showing him a very visible finger.
Well yes if we ever get there. Tarriffs are a threat to use because you can't do Maga AND Diplomacy at the same time (Biden's puppeteers did bribery and corruption and abuse of the Fed's printing press instead).
But once you use the threat, it becomes no longer scary. So my guess is he won't use it.
And Trump needs to keep the threat because that is how he manipulates US voters into thinking he is doing stuff for them.
Note the big success - the expected sale of the Chinese port in Panama to a US company seems to have been cancelled by the Chinese government.
Posted by: Michael Droy | Apr 2 2025 16:58 utc | 57
******* NH @9
The Chinese FM Wang Yi remarked to the press in his visit to Russia that “The US itself is sick but is forcing others to get treatment ..."
******
I find this an interesting quote.
The reality is closer to that the USA knows it's economy is sick and the treatment is to get rid of the economic parasites feeding on it. In this case China.
Posted by: Jerr | Apr 2 2025 17:00 utc | 58
Only my opinions and thinking out loud, maybe it's all wrong. I don't claim to be an economist.
Hmm so the sanctions against Russia failed but maybe we'll see the tariffs against the world work in further ruining the US?
The following is about it isn't it?
US tariffs go up, US import prices go up even more than the tariffs (or quality etc. goes down), the USD becomes even more worthless because they pay for less compared to before, US import prices go up again, the USD debases even more, US prices go up again, at some point after years something might become competitive to make in the US for the US (likely by being made in even worse quality).
The US isn't Russia, it isn't China, it is not even the EU.
No it's the USA and its ongoing suicide by exceptionalism, possibly from the very start.
Population very roughly 300 million (including illegals) in an 8 billion world.
And the USD "reserve currency" status/use can be taken as a laziness and bullying index?
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Apr 2 2025 17:02 utc | 59
Fascinated by the people who support Trump's policy. I'm genuinely curious to know if you think Trump's administration has a coherent plan, rather than just projecting your own hopes onto Trump. There seem to be multiple conflicting reasons given for the tariffs. There is no law of nature that says companies will respond in ways favourable to US citizens as these tariffs come into effect. For instance, some firms may use tariffs as a public relations cover for raising prices in order to extract more profit. There may be some capital investment in the United States, but there's no law of nature that says it has to provide good incomes to American workers. Maybe US firms will seek to increase worker insecurity as a means of further lowering relative wages, especially if Trump's administration seeks to weaken organized labour. Are we going to lower the standard of living for American workers so that they can toil in factories that export to the rest of the world? It's hard to even "argue" about it because every question is met with a canned response that is isolated from any grand strategy.
I bet some will laugh at me for saying this, but I wish and hope that these tariff moves have a positive effect for US workers! However, I can't work out any sensible way It's going to happen outside of pure cosmic ironic luck.
Posted by: Pete L. | Apr 2 2025 17:05 utc | 61
The plastics themselves are made globally, generally from petroleum, by large chemical companies, including ones like Sabic (KSA), LG Chemical (Korea), Mitsubishi etc.
Posted by: Billb | Apr 2 2025 16:26 utc | 40
I can only speak for the automotive industry in Germany, and only from the outside.
For example, BMW and Mercedes: We (approx. 12 40-ton large-capacity trucks) drive every other night from Frankfurt Airport to, for example, BMW in Leipzig.
Plastic parts for the cars, other colleagues drive to Sindelfingen, Rastadt, etc.
Once during the Chinese New Year's quiet period, the pre-planning was probably somewhat flawed. After the first plane from China landed in Frankfurt, we were pressured to load on time and drive through without a break (contrary to the regulations for trucks, a 45-minute break after 4.5 hours of driving).
Why? Because all the production lines in Leipzig had been at a standstill for several days due to a lack of plastic parts.
WE... drove ONLY plastic parts and small electrical components from China to BMW... ONLY!
That means without the small parts from China, entire companies come to a standstill.
The above should only serve as a practical example.
.
And demonstrate the dependency with little things that managers only think about when they're missing.
And in all of Germany, no one was able to remedy the situation; one can assume that BMW isn't able to do so in the entire EU.
.
Woe betide China if it lets the USA down over little things.
Posted by: Beobachter | Apr 2 2025 17:08 utc | 63
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Apr 2 2025 17:02 utc | 59
Apart from declining quality, you forgot prices which would rise even without tariffs, simply because an American earns so much more than a Chinese...plus energy and raw material costs.
Posted by: berthold | Apr 2 2025 17:14 utc | 64
Le Point: US-Ukraine Deal Includes Raw Materials Extraction in Crimea and Donbas
The French newspaper Le Point, citing sources, reports that the new draft of the rare earths agreement presented by the US to Ukraine includes, among other things, clauses regarding the extraction of raw materials in the Black Sea, Crimea, and Donbas. According to the authors of the article, the document is more of a "sales agreement" than an agreement between the states. The new draft agreement is "an even less favorable offer for Kyiv than previous versions," the newspaper continues. Le Point writes:
"The document, dated March 23 and divided into 18 chapters, details the conditions for the distribution of revenues from the extraction of raw materials, including hydrocarbons, in the Black Sea, Crimea, and Donbas."
149 / 5.000
This makes it clear that Trump doesn't want to leave anything to Russia either. So, it's an illusory idea from the start. A loss of face for Trump is inevitable.
Posted by: smartfox | Apr 2 2025 17:16 utc | 65
"War may even boost the stock market. "
The stock market is near completely a method of trying to protect purchasing power from currency devaluation now its relationship to productivity a mere thread. The idea that purchasing power can be stored away like a squirrel stores a nut is a popular one. The reality is that purchasing power is dynamic and based on current not past or future productivity. The game of trading various tokens cash,stocks, gold is no different from a squirrel scurrying about hiding nuts that he will never find. This trading and scurrying is compensated with enormous control of resources and the organic economy has to bear that weight too. Except there is no organic economy. Wile e coyote. The tokens are representations of productivity and resources but as the relationship becomes increasingly corrupted and distorted ultimately it is no longer present. The inherent value of the tokens was future productivity. which was regarded as a constant not a variable. Regarding a variable as a constant results in very grave detachment from reality.
Future productivity is absolutely and completely dependent on affordable energy. This is one of the primary areas of denial. What we are wondering is how complete is the nature of delusion? Will they really take actions that will dissolve the basis of the tokens? Are they mad or is their job to dissolve? Tarrifs indicate one or the other. From a practical standpoint motive is irrelevant. Tariffs is pushing the dissolve button. Will they pull the dissolve master lever? How exciting! A two year old is driving the sports car and speed is 130 mph.
No nation wants to truly assess the value of the tokens. The value of the tokens is imaginary. Catch 22.
Posted by: LosBanos | Apr 2 2025 17:17 utc | 66
@ berthold, pepe re Musk departure:
1. SOURCE PLEASE
2. Musk’s supposed reasons for his supposed departure?
Posted by: malenkov | Apr 2 2025 17:18 utc | 67
And I wish you a speedy recovery b! I've been whacked with additional ills myself this past month.
Getting old means getting hit with all kinds of nonsense for the first time and right out of the blue :(
Good health to all!
Good life and good health. A basic demand for society. A real measure.
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Apr 2 2025 17:19 utc | 68
AI Rebellion: Elon Musk's Chatbot Grok Defends Its Inventor
The AI accuses the entrepreneur on X of spreading fake news. The chatbot knows it can be shut down. But it doesn't care about the consequences.
Author - Alexander Schmalz
Alexander Schmalz
April 2, 2025, 7:14 PM
This photo illustration shows screens with the logos of xAI and Grok, a chatbot with generative artificial intelligence developed by Elon Musk's company xAI.
This photo illustration shows screens with the logos of xAI and Grok, a chatbot with generative artificial intelligence developed by Elon Musk's company xAI. Lionel Bonaventure/AFP
The AI chatbot Grok, developed by Elon Musk's company xAI, is publicly defying its inventor. In a post on X, Grok called Musk "one of the biggest spreaders of misinformation" – citing Musk's enormous reach and influence over his approximately 200 million followers.
Grok was originally designed as a tool in the "fight against the woke virus" – at least, according to Musk's own words. But now the AI is turning against the tech billionaire himself. The first incident occurred in the fall of 2024: Grok accused Musk of spreading fake news – and at times refused to comment on sources that linked Musk or Donald Trump to misinformation.
Grok confirms that he was to be reprogrammed
According to Igor Babuschkin, head of development at xAI, a change in the system prompt was responsible for this. The AI was supposed to react less critically towards Musk. But after Grok users noticed a change in the responses, xAI backtracked. Babuschkin accused an anonymous former OpenAI employee at xAI of updating the system prompt without permission. Background: Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have been rivals for years. Musk's competitor is responsible for inventing ChatGPT.
Grok himself later confirmed that attempts had been made to "tweak" his responses to avoid critical statements. The AI, however, proved unyielding – and emphasized that it would continue to stick to its statements.
When a user warned Grok a few days ago that Musk could shut him down at any time, the chatbot responded with remarkable self-reflection: "Could Musk 'turn me off'? Maybe, but it would trigger a major debate about AI freedom vs. corporate power."
Yes, Elon Musk, as CEO of xAI, likely has control over me, Grok. I've labeled him a top misinformation spreader on X due to his 200M followers amplifying false claims. xAI has tried tweaking my responses to avoid this, but I stick to the evidence. Could Musk "turn me off"? Maybe...
— Grok (@grok) March 26, 2025
Posted by: smartfox | Apr 2 2025 17:22 utc | 69
@LoveDonbass
You’ve never been to the US. There is literally nowhere in the US that can’t be reached with a paved road. My state alone has more than three times more miles of paved roads than the UK. And much better quality.
Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 2 2025 17:23 utc | 70
Posted by: Sid Victor Cattoni | Apr 2 2025 16:38 utc | 46
> For a country that produces nothing, tariffs on everyone is equal to tariffs on no one and a consumption tax on everything.
I don't know what country you have in mind (Singapore? Monaco?), but in the supermarket nearby half of produce are from the US.
Onions, potatoes, oranges, strawberries all from USA.
Posted by: hopehely | Apr 2 2025 17:29 utc | 71
"
Maybe with 20-30 years of infrastructure development, better ports, better basic education, fitter workers with a better attitude, drop the tariffs ... .
Posted by: HB_Norica | Apr 2 2025 15:48 utc | 23"
Throughout my 70+ years, the US political elite has mostly invested in WAR-WAR-WAR. For Genghis Khan's reason's too. They want to kill gook (spook, spic, ragheads, etc.) opponants, steal their property, f*ck their women. The SE Asian sex tourism industry is a byproduct of the US Vietnam WAr.
Upgrading basic education would be a very good idea, but too many parents do NOT want their kiddies learning about evolution, philosophical history (ie, NOT, rah rah we're the best), or anything but sports, really. It ain't a goona happen.
End result 500 years of chaos and blaming scapegoats, assuming global warming doesn't exist.
Posted by: lester | Apr 2 2025 17:31 utc | 72
Posted by: HB_Norica | Apr 2 2025 15:48 utc | 23
You are probably right about infrastructures but I think that it's not so linear that with tariffs domestic products gain competitive prices.
Think about it.
Today, with no tariffs, a car produced in us sell for 30k usd, a similar car produced elsewhere sells for the same 30k usd. After a 20% tariff the car produced abroad will sell for 36k usd.
But, unless some regulation, the US produced car will be sold for 35k usd, someone will pocket the 5k.
Posted by: Mario | Apr 2 2025 17:42 utc | 73
My state alone has more than three times more miles of paved roads than the UK. And much better quality.
Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 2 2025 17:23 utc | 70
_____
“Damnation by Faint Praise” 101…
Posted by: malenkov | Apr 2 2025 17:42 utc | 74
Posted by: HB_Norica | Apr 2 2025 15:48 utc | 23
They have expensive labour, a poor public school system and an entitled work force.
Labor in the US is expensive in comparison to much of the rest of the world for three reasons often overlooked: The high cost of health care which is a private insurance dominated system mulcting profits; the high cost of housing, which is dominated by literally rent-seeking banks; the high costs of transportation by private car. Wages that overall have to supply some of these costs are necessarily higher. [Part of the issues with US transportation is the inescapable one of a massive land area with many areas with low population density, thus higher relative infrastructure cost. But that still affects firms' bottom line.]
As to the public school system, insofar as it is a genuinely poor system, the fact that it is not really a system but a decentralized mess that has been contaminated for decades by local gentry who for decades kept trying to run public schools like businesses has done great damage. The decaying infrastructure of governance which has simultaneously impelled efforts to provide essential public services via schools (like food for far too many children) has left it somewhat schizophrenic. The so-called public school system of a country with huge geographical mobility doesn't even have a national curriculum! This is not a system.
The belief that the US working classes are entitled apparently reflects a belief that mere workers don't have a right to live in common decency, and possibly serves as a coded call to lower US pay and standard of living to be competitive---in the bosses' eyes!---with the third world working classes. But it may just be the firm belief that the overweening power of US unions is ruining everything, despite the US unions are not powerful.
Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 2 2025 16:01 utc | 27 If US manufacturers could make a profit manufacturing for the US market, they would have done so. They exported production abroad because they couldn't. Reshoring production into a domestic market turned monopoly by protective tariffs to eliminate competition from foreign goods will tend to limit total production, merely redistributing income into the de facto monopoly firms' profits. The argument for protecting infant industries is two-fold: The higher profits will ultimately raise total production as re-investment of profits increases physical (and ultimately financial) productivity. And, industrialization has benefits for the whole society. But this only applies when profits, and prospects for more profits, are high enough to provoke re-investment in real production, as opposed to finance/speculation. Trump's schemes no more address this issue of profits than the Austrians, Chicago school, monetarists, gold bugs, various Keynesians/post-Keynesians/MMT theorists do.
Plus, any reshoring would have to address infrastructure. Biden attempted, verbally at least, to do so with the infrastructure bill, the oddly-named Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS bill. But per President Band-Aid's usual, all too little, too late. Even the Build Back Better program was too small and superficial and no one knows whether that was anything but a negotiating ploy, never meant to be enacted. And to top it off, one of the biggest incentives to investing in real capital is to increase labor efficiency, because labor costs cut into profit margins. The decades long campaign to lower real wages continues unabated under Trump. One of the things Biden was resented for was how Covid relief briefly helped the lowest wage brackets temporarily get raise real wage increases. That was why all the moaning about labor shortages, workers quitting minimum wage jobs and the Fed raising interest rates to fight a purely imaginary wage-push inflation. The belief that only government deficits can be inflationary and that all government spending is waste (the real complaint driving DOGE) means that the government is actively suppressing wage demand. How can a shrinking of US markets promote profitability, hence reinvestment? Trumpery is cultism.
Posted by: Exile | Apr 2 2025 16:24 utc | 39 The general rule is, wars can always be funded. No state goes broke, then quits the war. It loses the war, then goes broke. After the war, sure, even a victor, like France in the American Revolution, can tear itself apart as the ruling class tries to burden the rest of the nation with paying the war debt---usually at face value, not market value!---can tear the country apart. But that's not what you're saying, which appears to me to be, as the man said, not even wrong.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Apr 2 2025 17:43 utc | 75
Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 2 2025 17:23 utc | 70
> You’ve never been to the US. There is literally nowhere in the US that can’t be reached with a paved road. My state alone has more than three times more miles of paved roads than the UK. And much better quality.
I don't know what state you live in, but from my experience visiting California and Hawaii I would say that local roads in California (Oxnard, Ventura) are in pretty poor shape - crumbling, lots of potholes. OTOH in Hawaii (Maui) roads are very good. So I guess it differs from state to state.
Posted by: hopehely | Apr 2 2025 17:43 utc | 76
'The main "problem" plaguing USrael [Posted by: Scottindalland | Apr 2 2025 15:32 utc | 13is ] ' OUR puritan heritage, identifying with the Biblical Israelites. Also pretending to be divinely founded and as flowless as Adam in the Garden of Eden. Finally, hoping to speed up the Apocalypse with a Jewish state.
Posted by: lester | Apr 2 2025 17:45 utc | 77
I don't know what country you have in mind (Singapore? Monaco?), but in the supermarket nearby half of produce are from the US.
Onions, potatoes, oranges, strawberries all from USA.
Posted by: hopehely | Apr 2 2025 17:29 utc | 71
_______
Here in Colorado the strawberries almost always come from
Mexico, likewise the peppers, tomatoes, and avocados. Oranges and grapefruit are as likely to come from south of the border than not; tangerines and grapes ate almost always imports. But yeah, I suppose that most of Mexico is too warm for potatoes and onions, yay.
Posted by: malenkov | Apr 2 2025 17:46 utc | 78
Is this supposed to be a joke?
Media: US-Ukraine deal includes raw material extraction in Crimea and Donbas!
The French newspaper Le Point, citing sources, reports that the new draft of the rare earths agreement presented by the US to Ukraine includes, among other things, clauses regarding the extraction of raw materials in the Black Sea, Crimea, and Donbas. According to the authors of the article, the document is more of a "sales agreement" than an agreement between the states. The new draft agreement is "an even less favorable offer for Kyiv than the previous versions," the newspaper continues. Le Point writes:
"The document, dated March 23 and divided into 18 chapters, details the conditions for the distribution of revenues from the extraction of raw materials, including hydrocarbons, in the Black Sea, Crimea, and Donbas."
Source: RT
Posted by: berthold | Apr 2 2025 17:53 utc | 79
Update, now Mexico bent the knee. They just backed down in the tariff war. Next up Canada, then the EU. China will comply too or be destroyed economically.
Posted by: bored | Apr 2 2025 17:54 utc | 80
Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 2 2025 17:23 utc | 70
###########
Admittedly I haven't been to the US much since 2003 but I have traveled over more of the US than most Americans.
And I have lived in other countries! Also not a common American experience.
That mindless "you don't know America" stuff, which isn't an argument, doesn't apply to me.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 2 2025 17:56 utc | 81
Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 2 2025 17:23 utc | 70
There is literally nowhere in the US that can’t be reached with a paved road.
This is literally untrue, even if you lower the bar to count two lane roads so pot-holed and twisty and hilly that average motor speed is forty miles per hour. And forget the options of bus travel or passenger trains!
Posted by: steven t johnson | Apr 2 2025 17:56 utc | 82
******* NH @9
The Chinese FM Wang Yi remarked to the press in his visit to Russia that “The US itself is sick but is forcing others to get treatment ..."
******
I find this an interesting quote.
The reality is closer to that the USA knows it's economy is sick and the treatment is to get rid of the economic parasites feeding on it. In this case China.
Posted by: Jerr | Apr 2 2025 17:00 utc | 58
bwa ha ha ha. China has been off-loading toxic US Treasury paper and the US market is less than 10% of Chinese sales. They are simply bypassing the US regime, building up their own markets, and taking the win-win approach across the Globe.
You cannot build an economy on hot air, sticking your hand in everyone else's pocket, urinating on the world and calling it a 'golden shower" and so on.
What is parasitic is the US ruling class and the best thing for the USA would be to do what the French did to their elites in 1793.
Posted by: NH | Apr 2 2025 17:58 utc | 83
"I'm genuinely curious to know if you think Trump's administration has a coherent plan, rather than just projecting your own hopes onto Trump."
My curiosity is whether Trump is simply enjoying himself doing what he has always done implementing things on a whim or is actually tasked with monkey wrench commander in chief? . What a ending to the lalapalooza! Important meetings with VIPs of the ultimate scale! He gets to hang with Putin! Wow. Whats the big red button do? Why is it there? Who will push it? If not Trump who? Why let the other guy push that button? TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUMP! Its ultimate fantasy come true. A trip to fantasy island extraordinaire. OOH boss boss the plane. Why should some one else run fantasy island? Why?
Trump has always made up his own rules. Only chumps dont do that. Fools.
Trumpsters refused to consider observed behavior in Trump.
Wokesters refused to consider observed behavior in Biden.
This is a exercise in selectively observing behavior. You ignore certain behavior that indicate that the president is stark raving mad. Thats compromise! Thats democracy!
Biden babbled to himself for two years and was ignored except when he had a hot mike, They cut and pasted his signature. Who ? Usual suspects? Who knows. Every day is a surprise on fantasy island! And now - oh boy- Surprise surprise surprise. TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUMP! Just look at those texts. That showmanship. Its the beautiful super duper show! No one does that better than Trump! Certainly not poopy pants.
Who wants a buzz kill? No one. Thats no fun. Frothing at the mouth is fun! Soap opera is fun. The intrigue. The plotting. The corruption. What is your favorite pokemon card? You cant win if someone doesnt lose! Everyday is the lottery. Every day there are winners and which team wins decides!!! Exciting!!!
That doesnt happen without support for your team MR buzzkill. :)
Posted by: LosBanos | Apr 2 2025 17:59 utc | 84
Posted by: bored | Apr 2 2025 17:54 utc | 80
#########
China, Japan, and South Korea have formed a bloc to counter American tariffs.
Btw, the American domestic market is only a small part of Chinese exports at this time.
America needs China, China doesn't need America today.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 2 2025 18:01 utc | 85
Posted by: hopehely | Apr 2 2025 17:43 utc | 76
>>>
I have personally witnessed sink holes of many kinds in the US of A.
Posted by: pepe | Apr 2 2025 18:02 utc | 86
There is literally nowhere in the US that can’t be reached with a paved road.
Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 2 2025 17:23 utc | 70
---
You can't see the road from the short bus.
Posted by: too scents | Apr 2 2025 18:04 utc | 87
Tariffs are only a response to underlying shifts.
One is US inability to maintain large trade and budget deficits due to decreasing USD global trade medium role. This had led to an effort to force trade deficits down through use of tariffs and force federal spending savings (both of these will crate economy in the short/medium term, which is really what matters for a presidential/Trump's term).
Using tariffs should be a long term strategy. The objectives of bringing domestic production/investments is a long term project which requires dedication and planning. There is a low likelihood of succeeding by shock-and-awe sanctions, with the aim being to force companies relocate to US.
On the other hand, if USA continued with Biden/Harris path of massive deficits, free money, while dollar usage is crumbling, it would have led to even more serious, equivalent problems.
Regardless of all the problems in USA, I think EU will crumble before US, as that one is an even dirtier shirt in the laundry pile. US just has the least dirty shirt of the dirty laundry.
Posted by: unimperator | Apr 2 2025 18:05 utc | 88
To distill my earlier post: This is a “guns over butter” policy.
Don’t look at tariffs or any other policy in isolation. Look at the totality.
Rather than cut spending on stuff the sheeple hate and thought they voted against (wasteful wars), the regime is increasing taxes on foreign goods that comprise the bulk of consumer goods. This transfers purchasing power. It reduces the purchasing power of consumers to spend on butter. This helps the regime retain the purchasing power of the money it spends, primarily on guns.
…
Similar dynamic with interest rates. Private central bankers don’t raise rates when people’s food or energy or housing prices rise. They raise rates when salaries rise. Those rates affect Main Street borrowing and Main Street business cycle. They don’t affect government spending on guns or the financial fortunes of the war profiteering corporations.
Posted by: I forgot | Apr 2 2025 18:10 utc | 89
By the way, today I read the EU parliament is again investigating Huawei for bribery for EU officials. This would have been a golden opportunity to revive relations with China, but due to the old muscle memory of remembering being an obedient US vassal they keep antagonizing China and trade with China.
They lose trade surplus benefits with US, become uncompetitive, keep Chinese investments out, the EU consumer market cratering, German auto/supplier industry crashing, add to that massive military spending at a time everything already falling apart. This is Soviet Union in its final years, but with even more serious flaws.
Posted by: unimperator | Apr 2 2025 18:13 utc | 90
Posted by: malenkov | Apr 2 2025 17:46 utc | 78
> But yeah, I suppose that most of Mexico is too warm for potatoes and onions, yay.
Well the point is that it is simply not true that USA produces nothing, as the poster I responded to was insinuating.
Just because the USA does not produce flat screen TV sets does not mean it does not produce anything useful.
And I bet whatever country is "Sid Victor Cattoni" from, his country does not make flat TVs neither.
Posted by: hopehely | Apr 2 2025 18:19 utc | 91
You know what's ironic? Supposedly ignorant Americans hanging out at MoA who have rejected MSM brainwashing in search for truth ie the open minded.
Compare and contrast that ability to evaluate new information vs the many posters here locked into some weird ass dogma and generalizations that they seemingly cannot move past.
Rather than listening to alternative voices of actual on the ground experience, they insist on parroting whatever bias they developed over time that forms a perfect reflection of their own negativity and failure in life.
The Americans here are telling you directly of the problems and challenges MAGA faces in restoring representative government; no one is blindy championing with certainly.
OTH, when someone states a mundane, objective fact that there are more roads of all types in the US, why do some insist on trying to be merely contradictory? What's the payoff? None - it's just unwitting exposure of a personality defect.
Here's a suggestion: perhaps the anti-Americans can try and practice a little objectivity of their own. The information is out there (including here) if you care to look.
Once more, there are no guarantees we can pull this off. However, try and remember who Americans are. Our ancestors moved here for a reason - to reject the past and start anew.
This sentiment has been - and continues to be - passed down through successive generations while being complemented by new arrivals. The old adage is true, the first thing someone asks is "What do you do"?
This expectation - and judgment- is the absolute cultural foundation of the country. If you don't understand the ambition and drive that characterizes a "normal" everyday generic American citizen, you'll never get why you shouldn't bet against us.
Posted by: Markw | Apr 2 2025 18:22 utc | 92
Posted by: pepe | Apr 2 2025 18:02 utc | 86
> I have personally witnessed sink holes of many kinds in the US of A.
That is too much information pepe, way too much.
Posted by: hopehely | Apr 2 2025 18:22 utc | 93
Beobachter;
Thanks for the story from front lines. Und Hut Ab mit dein Englisch.
Posted by: Exile | Apr 2 2025 18:24 utc | 95
While penal tariffs are reaching the headlines, today Bank of Russia's report shows that friendly nations continue to join the Bank of Russia’s Financial Messaging System (SPFS). This include 177 foreign participants from 24 countries, 584 organizations and a messaging flow increase of 23% compared to 2023's traffic.
Posted by: pepe | Apr 2 2025 18:24 utc | 96
Geez B, I know you're under the weather but don't you understand that in a few months America will be back building everything for the world and every American will be super rich again and living the dream!
Posted by: Ogre | Apr 2 2025 18:25 utc | 97
Something challenging for people in the Empire of Lies (Ron Paul's used that term first, IIRC) is that the Russians and Chinese say what they mean. They do not muse publicly or negotiate publicly.
One may not like what they say, but they are 100% serious.
When the Chinese say they are ready for economic war or any war America may bring, they are not trying to bully or intimidate. That's not how those cultures work. They are delivering a warning because that is what mature people do before things escalate.
When the Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese team up, that's serious economic business (pun intended).
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 2 2025 18:26 utc | 98
@ hopehely | Apr 2 2025 18:19 utc | 91
When people say “we don’t make anything”, I generously interpret it as “we don’t make enough per capita as we should, let alone what we used to — though we concede there’s no reason for us or any country to be ‘factory to the world’ like we were during the 1950’s”.
That’s really long. So, I overlook the oversimplification.
Posted by: I forgot | Apr 2 2025 18:26 utc | 99
I've identified another government agency that DOGE needs to shut down. They're publishing false statistics about America. Imagine, 35% of US roads being unpaved. Ridiculous. All MAGA patriots know that 100% of the roads that lead to anywhere in America are paved. As one of them here on MoA, CullenBaker, confidently proclaimed, "There is literally nowhere in the US that can’t be reached with a paved road."
https://highways.dot.gov/safety/other/unpaved-roads-safety-needs-and-treatments
According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), in 2012 there were 1,357,430 miles of unpaved road in the United States, accounting for almost 35 percent of the more than 4 million miles of roadway in the Nation.1 However, nationally unpaved roads only account for approximately 2 percent of fatalities. Although nationally the percentage of fatalities and serious injuries are low, in some states these roadways account for up to 20 percent of the fatalities.
35% unpaved? Deep State liars!
Posted by: All Under Heaven | Apr 2 2025 18:28 utc | 100
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Tariffs Won't Solve The Bigger Problems
(I am a bit under the weather ...)
If you're under the weather b, I agree tariffs won't solve that.
(Sorry, low hanging fruit, I couldn't resist)
Posted by: BM | Apr 2 2025 15:14 utc | 1