Trump announced no details, but I believe I have a good idea of what he means. Many charts tell the story.
Reciprocal Tariffs
Reuters reports Trump Says He Will Announce Reciprocal Tariffs on Many Countries Next Week.
President Donald Trump said on Friday he plans to announce reciprocal tariffs on many countries next week, a major escalation of his trade war.
Trump did not identify which countries would be hit but suggested it would be a broad effort that could also help solve U.S. budget problems.
“I’ll be announcing that, next week, reciprocal trade, so that we’re treated evenly with other countries,” Trump said. “We don’t want any more, any less.”Trump told Republican lawmakers of his plans during budget discussions at the White House on Thursday, three sources familiar with the plan told Reuters. Trump and top aides have said they plan to use higher tariffs on foreign imports to help pay for extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which independent budget analysts say could add trillions of dollars to the U.S. debt.
In a confirmation hearing on Thursday, Trump’s U.S. trade representative nominee Jamieson Greer said other countries will need to reduce barriers to U.S. exports if they want to maintain access to the U.S. market, citing Vietnam in particular.
The China, Vietnam, Mexico Connection
I am very aware of Vietnam. I have been tracking that country for years.
Trade deficits with China have come down but increased dramatically with Vietnam and Mexico.
Evidence is strong that China has circumvented tariffs by masking exports via Vietnam and Mexico.
2024 Balance of Trade Select Countries
2024 Balance of Trade Select Details
- Total Balance: -1,203
- 8 listed countries Below: -948
- Canada: -64
- China: -295
- Germany: -85
- Japan: -68
- South Korea: -66
- Mexico: -172
- Taiwan: -74
- Vietnam -123
Those 8 listed countries account for 948 billion of the total 1.203 trillion US deficit, 78.8 percent of the US trade imbalance.
China is understated by about $100 billion so other countries are overstated by about that amount.
The above data is goods only. The US has a trade surplus in services making the total trade deficit about $918 billion.
Annual Goods and Services Balance of Trade
For details, please see December Had the Second Largest Monthly Trade Deficit in History
The latest trade report will give Trump something more to howl about.
Trade Deficit with China is Understated
I discussed China on January 18 in The US Trade Deficit with China is Understated by as Much as 30 Percent
Normal trade math does not add up. US imports and China exports are not in sync.
I asked Brad Setser, senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Director of International Economics, for the United States Department of the Treasury to comment.
Setser replied “Chinese exports started exceeding US imports only in those categories with tariffs, and only after the tariffs were imposed.”
I commented “This appears to be an amusing case of China cleverly avoiding US tariffs but not clever enough to hide it better.”
US Imports and Exports, Goods Only, China, Canada, Mexico
On January 7 I noted January 31, 2025: Seven Charts Show Tariffs Would Harm the US Auto Industry
The CATO institute does a great job explaining why tariffs on Canada and Mexico would be a very bad idea.
The average $25,000 price of a car imported from Mexico or Canada could jump $6,250 if the tariffs take effect, according to an analysis by S&P Global Mobility.
Not even the UAW wants Trump to increase tariffs on cars.
On February 2, I asked Trump Claims “We Have All the Oil We Need” True or False?
By volume, we are reasonably close. But by grades of oil US refiners need, we aren’t.
Refineries run on a mix of crude oils in order to run efficiently and maximize outputs.
We have to import 40 percent of the oil we need. That oil comes from Canada, at extremely good prices. We get more for our oil exports than we pay Canada.
And without those Canadian imports, the US has a big trade surplus with Canada.
In short, Canada is doing the US a favor. So is Mexico especially in regard to auto parts without which car prices in the US would rise by thousands of dollars.
Are Trump’s Tariffs Really Tariffs?
It is sheer idiocy to claim Tariffs are Not Tariffs but that is the preposterous claim made by Victor Davis Hanson on the Daily Caller.
Hanson dives into BS about fentanyl which has nothing to do with anything. If you sign a deal with your neighbor to buy peaches, you can’t break the deal and shoot your neighbors dog if it pees on your lawn.
Trump is breaking his “Best in History” USMCA deal, an authority he does not even have given The Senate passed USMCA 89-10.
Trump does not give a damn about the law and neither does Hanson.
And Hanson never even bothered to make the case tariffs are not tariffs (which is of course mathematic idiocy).
Finally, US consumers are getting a great deal on our trade relationship with Mexico and Canada as noted by CATO (and any bit of common sense). Only fools want the price of cars to rise by thousands of dollars.
Actions by Trump will make the US the highest cost producer of literally everything and strengthen the dollar too.
How anyone can possibly think that will help exports is a mystery.
And let’s take a look at Trump’s budget proposals.
TCJA and Other Promises Annual Subtotals
- TCJA: $460 Billion
- SALT: $170 Billion
- No Tax on SS: $160 Billion
- No Tax on Overtime: $68 Billion
- No Tax on Tips: $25 billion
That’s $883 billion per year.
Using Tariffs to Reduce the Deficit
In sleight of hand nonsense Trump claims he can use tariffs to reduce the fiscal deficit.
In fact they are supposed to reduce the fiscal deficit, the trade deficit, and bring jobs back to the US simultaneously.
That is mathematical nonsense.
The US total goods and services debt is $918 billion as noted. In CBO’s projections, the federal budget deficit in fiscal year 2025 is $1.9 trillion (not counting the above $883 billion additions).
On what planet is the US supposed to collect $1.9 trillion on tariffs on a total deficit of $918 billion.
I will tell you right now Trump will be lucy to collect $250 billion per year in tariffs (up from the current $90 billion), and all of it will come from US consumers in the form of a huge tax hike, while delivering tax cuts to a select few.
Factoring in Trump’s fiscal proposals, the deficit would soar even if the economy magically avoid stagflation from these ridiculous proposals.
Related Posts
Nov 22, 2024: Should Anyone Care Whether Underwear Is Produced in the US or China?
This ridiculous-looking question gets to the heart of tariff discussions.
November 27, 2024: What Industries Will Suffer the Most Under Trump’s Plan to “Make Tariff’s Great Again”?
Trump is upping the rhetoric on Mexico, Canada, and China on top of previous tariff threats. Who will be hardest hit?
On March 2, 2018 I posted Trump Tweets “Trade Wars are Good and Easy to Win”
If trade wars are good and easy to win, Why didn’t Trump win them then? And please note that Biden kept intact all of Trump’s tariffs and even added some.
September 26, 2024: Trump Claims Tariffs Will Reduce the Trade Deficit. Let’s Fact Check.
Trump proposes 60 percent tariffs on China. Would that reduce the trade deficit? Where? How?
If Trump imposed 60 percent tariffs on China, I believe all trade with China would cease.
The US would not collect a cent on those tariffs. That’s the good side actually because would be US consumers who paid the tax.
November 22, 2024: Trump’s Proposed Tariffs Are a Tax on Consumers, Primarily the Poor
For the poorest fifth of Americans, who will have incomes of less than $29,000 in 2026, the tariffs will impose a tax increase equal to 5.7 percent of their income that year.
If Trump wants a recession, he can escalate, escalate, and escalate tariffs. Meanwhile, Trump is oblivious as to the real problem and so is Hanson.
Monstrous fiscal and trade deficits are a direct result of Nixon ending gold convertibility.
I discussed gold, NAFT, and trade imbalances on February 6, 2017 in Disputing Trump’s NAFTA “Catastrophe” with Pictures: What’s the True Source of Trade Imbalances?
Nothing has changed except bigger trade and fiscal deficits. Tariffs cannot and will not fix structural imbalances when there is no brake on fiscal insanity.
The external deficit is the shortfall of US savings relative to US investments. Our external deficit is large because we have a large (make that gigantic) fiscal deficit. Increasing US taxes by raising tariffs will indeed increase US savings as long as the tariff tax increase feeds through to a lower fiscal deficit. But that’s not what is planned by the Trump administration. Trump wants to increase the fiscal deficit even more, which will almost guarantee that the external deficit will become even bigger. At the end of the day, as every informed person knows, but Trump denies, federal health spending, social security, and military spending will have to go to the chopping block to get our out-of-control fiscal deficit under control. Musk’s monkeying around with foreign aid and spending on federal employees will have no impact on the big fiscal picture.
Add Albert to the small list of people who get a pinned comment.
Deporting and removing 20 million invaders from medicare, secton 8, medicare, food stamps, et.al. will do wonders for the budget. Those who say it cannot be done have never looked into the point of a gun.
This is the one tariff move that I can agree with Trump. If a country imposes X% tariff on some given product category from the US then it is reasonable for the US to impose the same X% tariff on imported items in the same category that are imported into the US from that country.
And your suggestion is?
Let the free market, not government subsidies, find a way.
That was easy, wasn’t it?
You mention the US as a high cost producer. However, comparative advantage doesn’t care about this. It is about different price ratios between two domestic goods and trading when the ratios are different between entities. Comparative advantage assumes balanced trade. Massive trade imbalances are foolish.
You are correct about the amount of revenue raised but you fail to understand Kalecki’s profit equation and how the tariffs will help the working class and reduce the record profit margins embedded in stock prices. This will be an enormous benefit to reduce the divisiveness of this country. Yes, I do not expect the market to rise in the next four years. Not so sure if it will fall though.
I think that we’ve reached or are extremely near the point where our bankruptcy happens all at once. Theoretically, tariffs might do some good, but they might also do some bad, to the point where they accomplish very little, at best. A better approach might be to go to our trading partners and say, “Hey, we have a problem. We’re out of money, and our credit is shot. We need help. What can we do together to aid us in restoring our financial health while helping you with yours?” It seemingly would be in their interest to cooperate. We could offer them the carrot of a massive devaluation of the dollar. The resulting inflation in the U.S. would be very unpopular with the citizenry, but, if our people could effectively be made aware of how close we are to calamity, they might remain seated. Given our collective ignorance and short attention span, that’s probably a stretch. Maybe, instead, the mob could be pacified with free cable.
is this a rerun? didn’t we do this last week?
What are tariffs or the intimidation of tariffs doing to the coveted reserve currency status? One might guess tariffs will erode reserve currency use as alternative trading pathways get strenghtened. Interestingly, Trump himself may have defined the relationship by threatening 100% tariffs if BRICS create a new tading reserve currency and stop using the dollar.
Happenings, Tariffs (Most) to Date & Effects:
Panama Canal – Booted China, working with U.S.
Colombia Tariffs – Worked, and Colombia Caved.
Mexico Tariffs – Worked and Mexico Caved.
Canada Tariffs – Worked and Canada Caved.
Cause a “Trade War”? Nope! (Not Yet).
Food (certain) “Prices to skyrocket”? Nope!
“Crashed The Economy”? Nope!
“Destroy” the Super Bowl? I will Guess Nope!
Open People Eyes? Most Definitely!!!
Lol! That’s quite the narrative Stu!
Here’s mine:
Trump screams tariffs at the world, in the hope of getting some “headline wins” that he can crow about. Our trading partners play it smart and appear to be giving Trump his “wins”, while doing very little or nothing.
But not much is actually happening. It’s all smoke and mirrors designed to make Trump supporters think he is actually accomplishing something of significance.
I am tired of this do-nothing nonsense. I am waiting for Trump to grow some balls and actually follow through on his tariffs. Then we will see how well they work. Let’s see how they improve our trade deficit, and “make us rich”.
Come on Tariff Man! Let’s see how tariffs reduce our trade deficit!
– Lol! That’s quite the narrative Stu! > Reality at the time.
Here’s mine:
– Trump screams tariffs at the world, in the hope of getting some “headline wins” that he can crow about. Our trading partners play it smart and appear to be giving Trump his “wins”, while doing very little or nothing.
> Trump suggest Tariffs, as Leverage, to help solve Our Country’s Border Crisis. He doesn’t ask for anything but “Mutual” Adherence to Drugs, and Illegal Activity, and to Equally Protect Themselves too. Who He asked agreed 100% and immediately placed more security at their borders too. An excellent job by all parties involved!
– But not much is actually happening. It’s all smoke and mirrors designed to make Trump supporters think he is actually accomplishing something of significance.
> As Trump did, as the illegal border crossings have dropped by 90+% from Mexico, and unfortunately we don’t have quite the infrastructure in place, to know Canadas true situation, but again, that’s what Trump is doing. This is a great think for ALL Countries!
– I am tired of this do-nothing nonsense. I am waiting for Trump to grow some balls and actually follow through on his tariffs. Then we will see how well they work. Let’s see how they improve our trade deficit, and “make us Rich” Come on Tariff Man! Let’s see how tariffs reduce our trade deficit!
> We don’t want the need for Trump to use Tariffs obviously, as that would be going backwards. We wanted Trump to use the “Leverage” of Tariffs, to demand Security from “Both Sides” and He did just that!
How is this not a Win / Win for what Trumps Administration set out to do for American Citizens “Safety and Security” (A Mandate mind you…) in these particular instances? Not tomorrow or next month but what America just accomplished with Trumps Leadership NOW!!!
The Man has just gotten into office, and look around… It’s Nice!!!
The Private Equity Hatchet Man Leading the Lost Boys of DOGEIf Tom Krause is looking for government waste, ‘he should look in the mirror,’ says an ex-employee. https://prospect.org/power/2025-02-06-private-equity-hatchet-man-leading-lost-boys-of-doge/
Mish, this article just supports my assertions with friends and family that “NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS [OR REPORTED].”
A great example is that Russia continues to sell NatGas and Oil through other avenues RIGHT UNDER OUR NOSES and of course those noses are purposely “ignoring it.”
Our news is slanted to the level of it being 99.99% NARRATIVES and the rest is in there to SMELL OUT if we can. In other words, the Weather Segment is the .5% and the other .5% is to be figured out by simply saying to oneself: “OH, another LIE.”
1M SPX: Feb might rise to the 6,200 area, but close red, leaving behind a large selling tail.
Feb 1M might be green, keep moving up !
The point of Tariffs for Trump is just to right the injustice of these trading partners having “ripped us off” previously. It’s all grievance all the time with him. Nothing to do with any coherent economic policy.
And, of course he doesn’t give any details Mish. Because he never gives details… That would imply actually taking a stand, that could be proven wrong in the future. So, no details or taking both sides of an issue is standard operating procedure for Trump.
I would expect that he backs off on this claim because, again, as soon as he announced, the stock market fell. And he can’t be the guy in power when the market tanks. Then his sycophants will talk “art of the deal” and “master negotiator” when he gets some minor, symbolic concession, and life will go on. Same story over and over again.
YES, it is all OPTICS. The trust lies in .5% of it, but that truth is never spoken but only uncovered by REASONED LISTENERS.
Right, I wish he would explain how we are getting ripped off by our trading partners when the data shows that the United States has out performed our trading partners in terms of economic growth, unemployment, and job creation for decades. Plus, of the 20 largest companies in the world, U.S. companies occupy 17 of those spots. If our trading partners are actually trying to rip the United States off, they have proven themselves completely incompetent.
To replace the profits stolen (“ripped off”) by the massive trade deficits, we ran a housing bubble, and when that blew up, we ran trillion dollar budget deficits. Take away the low rates, gov’t guarantees for housing prices, and budget deficits and we would be in a depression. You only think nothing is bad because you fail to see the destructive compensation we have resorted to in order to hide the “rip off”.
You see him folding because the stock market tanked.
I see that he used a threat to get some action (you have to show you will use a threat for it to be credible). A win for Trump. Negotiations 101. BATNA.
I expect Canada will announce increase defense spending (the real issue!!! that could justify tariffs) and Mexico will announce other measures to restore balance and harmony in the relationship.
I expect therapy dogs to be very popular in the next four years.
The perceived Injustice has to weighed against:-
1.Nations pegging their Currencies to $ and accepting the latter as the Reserve Currency.Saudi Arabia allowed the petro-$. Thus this is an UNWRITTEN-rule by both the US and the rest of the World.
2.US demanding, as per an article in zerohedge.com, sometime ago, minimum $ 200 Billion in US Treasuries, if Nations want a Strategic Partnership with it.
Trump wants to keep the cake and eat it too.
Mish, Canadians pay duty, import fees and excise taxes on almost everything we buy from the US. I recently spent over $100can in import fees for a $650us ATV bumper I purchased from a company in Minneapolis. What is the difference between all these fees and tariffs? Do Americans pay these fees on things they buy from Canada?
A good part of the import fees are handling and shipping and are buried in those broken out line items.
Except shipping is in addition to the $100 in fees and none of those fees apply even if the item was sent from Halifax to Tuktoyaktuk. It’s only on items shipped from the US. It’s a real deterrent to purchasing from American businesses.
Depending on the province in which you live, you have to pay GST and PST (provincial sales tax), or HST (harmonized sales tax) if you live in Ontario or the Maritimes, on all goods imported from U.S., excepting those worth under $20 CAN. That usually amounts to about 12 to 13 percent of the item cost (as low as 5% in Alberta where they have no PST). Duties vary according to the type of product you are importing and from which country.
The Trump/Vance gov is fully committed to cutting debt ASAP. His supporters and his globalists opponents will benefit later.
Naive to think any Americans, including Maga faithfull will see one slim dime of the doge savings. Not a chance!
Just redirected to those friends with the current potus. From “them” to “us”.
I’m not complaining, just reporting.
You would do the same if you were in charge. Me too…
Just please, please, don’t succumb to DDS!
Democrats derangement syndrome.
Not sure if I’ve seen it mentioned here; if I were a Democrat with some exposure, like those freaks called the squad, I’d huddle up and come up with that ancient maxim, “if you can’t beat them, join them ”
That wild eyed oac or that gorgeous one with her hair all wrapped up in a cloth of some sort, get on CNN, FOX, Tucker mother fuhhhhhh, and scream every day that there’s no eggs in America because of the potus!!!!!
Could you imagine what potus would be texting in the wee hours if demorats were in control?!!!!!
NO EGGS? I WILL RESTORE EGGS IN THE FIRST SECOND OF MY FIRST MINUTES OF MY FIRST HOUR OF MY FIRST DAY OF MY TOO BIG TO RIG VICTORY ELECTION. MANDATED TO GIVE EVERY AMERICAN FREE EGGS FOR LIFE!?
I think you get my drift.
Naive, the whole lot of you.
Sleep well comrades. 😴
It’s not going as well for repubs as repubs think. It’s part of the reason Trump reverses himself on tariffs and other things.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/07/musk-congress-doge-angry-calls/
I don’t think you’re very patriotic. Perhaps you could use a vacation in one of the Patriot Camps we’re working on.
To the globalists amygdala. The next GDP will rise, after the last revision, despite the retiring boomers – the participation rate of 55Y and older is only 38% And after cutting federal workers – including radical workers And after cutting IMPORT. The US dollar will rise. Gov debt ==> down fast. The screamers who need us have to please us. Trump’s gov will fill it’s coffer from higher tax collection from more workers, tariffs, carving federal workers and cutting frivolous spending.
Hahahahaha! You need to get together with Goldguy. He says that Trump is deliberately trying to create a recession with his policies so he can win the midterms. And you say his policies will make the economy boom and pay off our debts. You two Trump fans should figure out what’s going on and then get back to us.
This is clearly a failure of media. These guys clearly didn’t get the same talking points. Heads will roll!
And the annual servicing of the Federal debt willl be north of $1+ trillion per year forever.
Tariffs are not the problem. Federal deficit spending is.
Put all tariffs at zero, we will still be broke.
So will Trump put negative tariffs on countries with which the US has a trade surplus? Of course not, which shows the absurdity of his reasoning.
And if tariffs replace income tax the burden will fall far more on the poor and middle class than the upper class; intentionally?
It is not remotely feasible
It would take 300% tariffs or whatever
Trade would cease
Tariffs will harm the US auto industry until they reshore a million high paid jobs. Along with the jobs come income tax revenue until President Trump and the freaking Democrats cut income taxes. It’s all good.
The last time trump did tariffs in 2018-2019 it did nothing inflation wise. It did drop the Dow by about 20 percent. Let’s see what happens this time, he needs to create a recession soon so he can come out good in the midterms
Interesting. Trump will create a recession on purpose now in order to win big during midterm elections. Seems a little odd.
Is that a common Republican strategy? Because every Republican president since 1920 has had a recession begin during their term. Some even had two and one Republican president had three recessions. I had no idea they did it on purpose.
The last Democrat to have a recession begin during their term was Carter. Though a few Democrats have inherited an existing recession from a Republican.
It’s morning again in America, Dave.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUMqic2IcWA
“6500 young men and women will be married today…”
Lol. Those were the good old days, I wonder how many are getting married today. Demographic death spiral anyone?
Marriage will be replaced by the Selective Breeding Program.
How is China going to sell to other Asian markets when the majority of China’s massive population can’t afford the products they make or have no use for them? Those other Asian markets have the same thing going on and worse. Europe also got themselves in the poor house tinkering around with cheap energy so that’s not an option for China either.
The US market, even our low income still have the ability to buy lots of cheap goods. There is no way we lose a trade war with anyone. Short term it would hurt but long term we would crush China. Nobody is buying all those new battery mowers this spring and summer but us. Who else has actual front and back yards on this planet?
We already lost the trade war in many areas to China.
China currently leads the world in manufacturing electronics, textiles, clothing, footwear, machinery, steel, solar panels, windmills, batteries, automobiles, etc.
Chinese consumers do not have the buying power of US consumers, but they are managing to buy 23 million automobiles per year, while US consumers buy 15 million.
https://www.focus2move.com/chinese-auto-market/
Auto is one industry. I’m sure there are other things you could cherry pick as well. We lead the world in consumerism overall. If we stop buying Xi has a serious problem on his hands and that is a massive population with idle hands. That is why they built that wall back in the day. To keep the population occupied first. Defense second. It is something that keeps Xi up at night.
Right before COVID there was an outbreak in China. It wasn’t a virus. It was people in Wuhan protesting, large protests about pollution. It started picking up steam then the actual virus happened and squashed it. I don’t know if you have ever witnessed civilization break down but I have on a small scale. It does not take long once it get’s going. A matter of days. I hope that doesn’t happen but the potential is absolutely there if they want to get in a real trade war. No way the CCP could control it either.
You are the just typical stupid American, fully convinced of “American greatness – the indispensible nation” which is simply not true anymore, no matter how much bullshit Americans spout about it.
There is an Australian think-tank who produce annual reports about global high tech, and last year China was leading in IIRC 57 of 65 catgegories, and # 2 in the rest, and I think they gained a couple more this year, a couple more years they will be 65 out of 65, while Americans are still babbling about how great they are, in their imagination.
By PPP, China passed the US in 2012 and is now far bigger than the USA in size of economy, and about 100X the USA in manufacturing capacity. The USA is #2, India #3 and Russia #4 – and no, the Russian economy is not a “gas station with nukes’ their economy is fully diversified and manufacturing is booming in Russia, where they have the lowest unemployment rates ever seen, and record high Government tax revenues last month. Russian inflation is high because their economy is running red-hot, demand far exceeds supply in many areas, but the average worker in Russia is still doing better than in the West, as they get big raises over the inflation rate, while here we get raises less than inflation every year, causing our workers to falll behind in living standards.
In China and Russia they spend far more on R & D per worker than we do, and the results are showing it. In the West they waste money on idiotic stock buyout schemes, as spending on R & D is not favored, you can’t get quick results out of it to improve quarterly profits. They take the long view, we don’t.
Get a grip on reality. If you want to compete, you have to actually try hard, not spend all your time bragging about how great you are, while doing little else. The West are not really serious about anything, except sniffing their own farts and saying it smells like roses.
Don’t pull that PPP crap! Where the rubber meets the road is pretty simple, look at the top 20 largest companies and 17 of them are U.S. companies and most of those companies essentially created the business category that they dominate. The American system of capitalism has been and continues to be the undisputed heavy weight champion when it comes to actually innovating and turning that innovation into world changing products and services.
All true. We have many of the largest and most successful companies in the world.
Care to explain why our trade deficit is so high then?
We are by far the largest consumer economy in the world and our consumer sector accounts for 69% of our GDP, that is also the highest in the world. Our annual consumer expenditures is over $21Trillion, which is equal to the combined consumer spending of the EU, Japan, China, and India combined. If you look over time, we have consistently had a trade deficit, but it is not has large if you look at goods and services, instead of just manufactured goods. We dominate the world in technology and services, not manufactured goods. It is mostly meaningless to assign significant importance to our trade deficit versus one country or another. It is meaningful to track our goods and services trade balance against the entire global economy and we do have work to do in that regard. As we more meaningfully develop export markets for our LNG and hopefully upgrade our refining capacity to be able to refine our domestic light sweet crude into gasoline, our global goods and services trade balance should become less negative.
I think basic math has escaped you.
There are about 350,000,000 people in America, while in the Rest of The World, outside The West, there are about 7,000,0000,000 plus. And there is much more growth potential there than here, as those 7+Billion aspire to be where American are now, buying all the things Americans already largely own.
If you are a global business looking at USA tariff walls, it’s a no brainer, where will you experience the largest sales growth n the future?
Protectionist high-cost America, where they might block your business at any time, or raise tariffs again – or the ROTW?
Trump;s tariff walls will result in factories being built in America, but they won’t be exporting anywhere else except captured vassal nations like Canada/UK/Australia etc. The ROTW will buy at much lower cost from China, and sell their products among themselves., and be happy that Americans can no longer dictate what they can and can’t do. It will be impossible to compete on cost, and quality will be about the same – everyting manufactured in China for export is ordered by foreigners who spec the product, if you want to sell a higher priced higher quality product they can provide it, but most just order the cheapest and they make it. Give the customer what they want.
Fortress America has no gates in those high walls, only more walls.
hahahaha sure – review how GDP is calculated and get back to me
And as for America’s “technology” and “innovation” I have a 1 word reply – Deepseek – emblamatic sample of what is happening. Or, isn’t it odd how the “superior” American “world-leading” products, like the iPhone as a prime example, uses the “latest” chips that are made in….Taiwan using equipment made in…The Netherlands, supported by R & D spending which depends on large sales to…China to support that R & D expenditure, and is assembled in…China. Go Team America, Word’s Greatest! (TM)
your comment proves exactly what I was talking about above
I understand you may be offended because I used the word “stupid” above, but that about sums up the situationn.
It’s not Just the USA, the entire West are locked into a death spiral of stupidity, while in Asia they are just getting on with it, and have no time to constantly falsely proclaim about how great they are.
“top 20 largest companies and 17 of them are U.S” – yes Wall St stock market valuations are the only real metric to use, that is surely “fair value”. LOL
Amazon is now the largest US retailer, selling products made in…China and Mexico (using Chinese parts) – a service business that sell sproducts they don’t produce, and only creates low-paying slave labor jobs in America. Ask the average Amazon worker about how they feel about working for that impressive Trillion $ corporation.
This is why you should all be so happy I came from South Africa to save you all from your stupidity. Americans simply cannot be trusted to make their own choices.
China will have to sell to Africa but this also means that China will have to buy and hold African debt. You can’t have trade surpluses without lending the money or acquiring their assets. Somebody is going to need to lend Africa the money. It could be Wall St. promoting “frontier markets” but realistically unlikely.
I expect this to be a geopolitical issue as the trade war develops.
Finally, common sense prevails. How long will it take for Maga to see what’s going on? Unless someone takes the matches away from Trump and Musk, they are going to burn things down, leaving us all in misery.
It was too late the minute we hacked those voting machines to win. Golden Age incoming!
Forgive me, 3rd comment. But this would be an ideal time time to sell $US and buy ones own currency without too much damage.
Indeed, technical analysis does suggest that the USD has peaked around the Donald’s inauguration.
I doubt it will return. There’s no easy way to add in seamless tariff collection https://www.reuters.com/business/trump-signs-order-delaying-tariffs-de-minimis-imports-china-2025-02-07/
Compare prosperity and ample industrial growth for home and export, versus: if you want our former prosperity savings you must build a plant here to serve us. Else tariffs will apply. Plus we wish to remain the reserve currency btw.
How China might take advantage of Trump’s policies: By rallying domestic support and among nations the US alienates—and preparing for what the world looks like in four years https://www.foreignaffairs.com/china/chinas-trump-strategy
How can I say this…the USA is going broke.
I guess that’s enough said.
For that, we have the right man for the job, doing his best to make it happen.
“Pressed further on how he would negotiate the country’s debt, Trump responded, ‘You go back and you say, guess what, the economy crashed, I’m going to give you half.’” —Trump in 2016
https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/22/politics/donald-trump-defends-bankruptcy-history/index.html
The man has more experience with bankruptcy than anyone. Its incredible! Everybody says so!
Ilan will convince his progressive enemies to buy fleets of Tesla Y and
Cyber trucks to escape Trump’s gov wrath. Herz was the first one.
Tariffs on China just cause imports to shift to other cheap Asian countries like Vietnam.
Where are the jobs being onshored?
Meanwhile the “de minimus loophole” was temporarily reinstated by Trump. Get your cheap stuff from Temu while you can.
Tariffs will only work if they are across the board, on all products ( except raw materials we don’t have). That ‘s not what Trump is proposing. By making it transactional, he is just creating mechanisms to arbitrage tariff differences to make money for himself and friends. But, good for him. He is the only one who saw just how gullible the American people are. And they will love him for it.
The civilian labor force spiked to: 170.744 millions, updated Feb 7. Trump has to protect them.
Is that good or bad for small/ mid US industries ?
Oh. Is this gonna be the real one this time?
Idk, but the Japanese ambassador seemed very agreeable and appreciative following their discussions this afternoon.
Of course, what do I know. I thought the tariff wars against Columbia, Mexico and Canada were going to go well for the US… oh wait.
You forgot to log into your sock puppet account to reply to yourself.
Just so I know who I’m talking to, which usernames are yours?