Tariffs are a tax on consumers, not a tax on foreign competitors. 
In a recent interview with Larry Kudlow on Fox news, Trump proposed a “ring around the collar” of the U.S. economy, “When companies come in and they dump their products in the United States, they should pay, automatically, let’s say a 10 percent tax. That money would be used to pay off debt.”
Trump’s $300 Billion Tax Hike Would Threaten U.S. Businesses and Consumers
The Tax Foundation reports Trump’s $300 Billion Tax Hike Would Threaten U.S. Businesses and Consumers
In 2022, we bought more than $3.2 trillion worth of goods from other countries; imposing a new 10 percent tax on our purchases would raise U.S. taxes by more than $300 billion. It would create what Trump describes as a “ring around the U.S. economy” to discourage foreign companies from selling to U.S. consumers under the unfounded hope of boosting domestic production.
But rather than boost domestic production, the new tax would harm the U.S. economy through various possible channels.
One is through higher prices. Higher input costs for businesses lead to reduced production, and in turn, lower wages and profits. They can also lead to higher consumer prices, which reduce the value of our incomes because we can’t afford to purchase as much.
Another is through currency appreciation. A stronger dollar would help offset the price increases for U.S. consumers, but it would make it harder for exporters to sell their goods abroad. Again, the result is lower incomes for workers and business owners.
Whatever channel the tariffs take, Americans become poorer. In turn, the actual revenue collected by the government would be less than $300 billion because other tax revenues would fall.
Using Tax Foundation’s general equilibrium model, we estimate a new 10 percent tariff on all imports would reduce the size of the U.S. economy by 0.7 percent and eliminate 505,000 full-time equivalent jobs.
Unfortunately, that would be the tip of the iceberg. Imposing an across-the-board tariff would threaten the entire system of global trade we currently enjoy.
U.S. exports totaled $2.1 trillion in 2022. If the rest of the world responded to the new tariff in kind, it would amount to $200 billion of new taxes for foreign governments. We estimate that would further reduce U.S. GDP by 0.4 percent and eliminate another 322,000 full-time equivalent jobs.
Taken together, we find Trump’s proposal of a 10 percent trade tax matched with in-kind retaliation would shrink the U.S. economy by 1.1 percent and threaten more than 825,000 U.S. jobs.
Trump Tweets “Trade Wars are Good and Easy to Win”
2018 Hoot of the Day
On March 2, 2018 I noted Trump Tweets “Trade Wars are Good and Easy to Win”
It’s so easy it didn’t work.
Using Tariffs to Pay Down Debt
“Because of Tariffs we will be able to start paying down large amounts of the $21 Trillion in debt that has been accumulated, much by the Obama Administration, while at the same time reducing taxes for our people.“
That’s an even bigger hoot. Repeating obvious nonsense on Kudlow makes Trump look sillier.
Debt went up by $6.7 trillion under Trump as calculated by Investopedia. Trump did nothing to reduce deficits or debt.
Krugman Chimes In
Of course, Krugman defends Biden’s tariffs, most of which were continuations of Trump’s tariffs.
My position is best summed up with a question: Question of the Day: Is Trump or Biden the Bigger Trade War Fool?
Tariff Leapfrog
In this game of tariff leapfrog madness, it’s difficult to say whether Biden or Trump is winning.
All either of them will achieve with tariffs is to increase inflation.
Hey Mish at least somebody agrees with me about the Republicans and the Democrats. Today’s WSJ article by Daniel Henninger-The Stupid Party vs. the Evil Party-he makes a lot of sense.
Sad thing is: Compared to current taxation schemes, this one is both rather efficient AND fair. At least as presented. That’s not saying much, but still……
Cross border trade is one of the precious few “economic activities” any legitimate, and any economically efficient, government just about may have some business keeping some form of track of. If for no other reason, then in order to be aware of someone attempting to import containers’ worth of Russian warheads and the soldiers to “operate” them.
So: Since people already have to declare, and have inspected, what they bring across the border: Border control isn’t free hence needs to be paid by someone, hence it only makes sense that those using “border protection” resources most directly are the ones doing so: A FLAT, universal tariff, free of any “yes-but-I’m-special-snowflake-exception” drivel, would be a lot more efficient than any of the current (“income”, “fines”, “mandates”, “debasement”…..), entirely arbitrary, pure theft and shakedown means of obtaining the same revenue.
But of course, in reality:
1) It’s the US. In the idiot era (electing Trump, after all….) So it won’t be flat. 2)It won’t replace anything. Just add even more taxes and levies to be extracted at gunpoint what is already one of the most robbed, harassed and abused populations in all of history. After all, “just adding” is always the case, whether Democrats or Republicans are in nominal power. Hence why the reign of President X has always been, without a single exception, worse than the reign of President X-1.
But still: A flat, universal tariff, remains one of the precious few means a legitimate government can raise revenue, which is not completely, 100%; obvious to anyone in possession of even the tiniest sliver of economic (nor any other form of) literacy; straight up retarded and solely wantonly destructive.
Yup, everyone pays the same.
None of this telling the doorman “My name’s on the list!”
What actually happened when the West imposed massive tariffs in Russia (in effect, using sanctions)? The Russian economy is now rapidly GROWING. We gave their economy a boost!
The thing is – in economies that are sufficiently large and have access to adequate resources – tariffs cause huge growth in domestic production to compensate for the reduced imports, with all the benefits that local production has. Jobs, demand for local services, construction, etc.
So are tariffs always bad for an economy? Or are (wannabe) economists just stuck in their thinking, as usual?
With your post name, it is clear that you might not be the brightest bulb on the tree, so the document I am going to point you to might be beyond your capability to understand. But read it slowly and give it a try as it provides a honest overview of the Russian economy and the challenges it faces as Putin continues to press his invasion of Ukraine.
———-
The State of Russia’s Wartime Economy
Russia’s Economy is Recovering From Western Sanctions—But the Cost of the War Itself is Growing
JOSEPH POLITANO
AUG 12, 2023
It has now been nearly a year and a half since the Russian military invaded Ukraine, kicking off the largest European war in a generation and one of the largest refugee crises in human history, and since then the conflict has grown to impose a considerable cost on Russia’s economy. The initial impact of sanctions from the world’s major Democratic Allies threw the Russian economy into a recession, the subsequent loss of key material imports crushed Russian complex manufacturing, and the gradual decline in energy prices throughout late 2022 and early 2023 has begun depriving the Russian state of revenue. The situation on the battlefield and at home had degraded so much that mercenaries from the infamous Wagner group launched a failed rebellion just over a month and a half ago.
Yet, from a broad perspective, the Russian economy has proved more resilient than expected in the face of these shocks. To the extent you can trust Russian data, the GDP loss caused by sanctions—while still on the caliber of a major recession—looks to be fading as the economy recovers. A higher-frequency real output index points to stronger growth in this quarter and the last, outside of the weakness in the oil and gas sector. Russian manufacturing output also continues to recover from 2022 lows, and consumer spending has returned back to late-2021 levels despite the surge in inflation last year. Russia has become a lot more dependent on Chinese imports and financing to achieve this, and will still likely end the year with negative growth if a recovery in energy doesn’t materialize, but the forecasts of economic catastrophe have been avoided.
Thus, Russia’s wartime economy is entering a new phase—one where the country is trying to meet the rapidly growing costs of the war while its economic growth rate remains slow. Ever more resources are being directed away from the Russian civilian economy and toward the Russian military, the results of which are persistent government borrowing to fund the ongoing invasion and growing labor shortages as workers get pulled to the front or leave the country altogether. Russia is also becoming more geopolitically dependent on China, with the post-invasion economic resiliency and de-dollarization efforts mostly resulting in poor terms of trade with China and deepening financial bonds between the two countries. Right now, the costs of the war are growing faster than Russia’s economy, and without changes on the battlefield that will likely require mean squeezing of Russia’s civilian economy.
…
https://www.apricitas.io/p/the-state-of-russias-wartime-economy
It should be closer to 50% tariffs and get rid of Income Tax on Labor. Taxing Labor income is the greatest theft ever on the working class. It’s NOT Income you are trading labor so it’s a Swap.
The US Govt funded itself via tariffs before the income tax act, so it can do it again with tariffs. Plus high tariffs encourage domestic production.
Trump skipped the republican primaries mudslinging for a lovefest with Tucker Carlson. He wasn’t challenged on any of his claims, but most importantly did drop a hint that he thinks interest rates are too high.
The way he views himself as a benevolent ruler, that means he would bludgeon Powell to give him what he wants.
All these schemes are based on the absurd presupposition that nobody can outcompete America (b/c it is great), so they must be cheating and dumping.
As if Chinese or German tax payers have been losing money (? from where) to subsidize exports so that American consumers ill have a better standard of living.
Mish, you don’t like tariffs, but how about we at least stop subsidizing the shipping of products from China? Is it sensible for western postal services (supported by our tax dollars and domestic postage) to enable an advanced communist dictatorship to ship products to US consumers’ doorsteps for less than it costs to ship within the US, from next door, next town, next state, or even from friendly/ally nations?
trump isn’t conservative, he’s a fucking moron with a bunch of simplistic fixes. “10 new cities” without state or local regulation? WTF? Mexican paid wall, much better health care plan in 2 weeks. All nonsense gobbled up by his mindless true believers.
Stormy Daniels in disbelief over Trump weight: ‘I’m 110lbs and a virgin’
August 26, 2023
Porn star Stormy Daniels said she doesn’t believe former President Donald Trump weighs only 215 pounds, as his Fulton County jail booking records attest.
“Mmmkay! And I’m 110lbs and a virgin ??! I’m not a scale or a doctor but I have spent some time beneath 215lb men and Tiny was not one of them,” she wrote Friday on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Trump also listed his height at 6 feet 3 inches — putting him in a class alongside the likes of boxer Muhammad Ali in his prime, and actor Chris Hemsworth when he played Thor.
Trump’s last reported weight was taken in 2020 during his annual physical as president.
At that time he weighed 244 pounds and was an inch shorter.
Before achieving his current peak physical performance, his former weight was considered obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Adult BMI Calculator.
…
https://nypost.com/2023/08/26/stormy-daniels-in-disbelief-over-trump-weight-im-110lbs-and-a-virgin/
All tariffs do is hurt our ability to export. It discourages companies from becoming more efficient and/or improving quality. They don’t have to compete on a level playing field.
Desantis is a cool effective mgr. We need someone like him to manage our country mess.
– The Tax Foundation reports Trump’s $300 Billion Tax Hike Would Threaten U.S. Businesses and Consumers.
> Not sure I believe even 3% of what the Tax Foundation reports. Definitely not on this topic for certain.
– In 2022, we bought blah,blah,blah…
> Last time I looked at my Calendar it was 2023. EVERYthing has changed since then, and certainly by much, much More by 2025, before this idea will even be reviewed by the New President.
– But rather than boost domestic production, the new tax would harm the U.S. economy through various possible channels.
> I had not read, and Will Not read, the Trump didn’t want to boost domestic production, and actually I believe quite the contrary, if I recall correctly. I also think the Most Vague words yet in this article are: “various possible channels” which is basically saying Absolutely Nothing At ALL (Various=1 or More? Possible=Capable of being done? Channels=A passageway?)
– Then comes words like General, Estimate, Possible, If, Threaten, etc.
> So Very Vague
– Funniest Line Ever: “would threaten the entire system of global trade we currently enjoy”
> First off, thank goodness Something, Anything at all, will threaten the entire system of (what is humorously called) Global Trade. We Do Not Enjoy Global Trade at all, as it is totally stacked against us (by choices of our collective thought leaders currently in charge). We are not using are most plentiful resources to compete in the World Markets (even more humorously, it’s because of Climate Change BS and that’s exactly what it is, and we are making World Decisions based on this erroneous BS).
I must admit Mish, this is one of your more clumsy articles, and they are extremely rare IMO, but with so many generalities and endless possibilities, it makes this article near pointless. Why so all over the place, using the past, guessing about the future.
So unlike your articles, I have and will continue to read, for years now… I had to comment about that.
IDalia is category 3. EV clog escapees.
Carnegie lived on 46 street and 5th Ave NYC thanks to the tariff.
Trump/Republicans or Biden/Democrats; it makes very little difference to me.
Tariffs? They come and go.
Economic Growth or recession. You can profit from both.
The important thing is to pay attention to what the decision makers are doing and adjust what you are doing to take advantage of whatever the opportunities are.
What I currently see is a US and world economy that continues to muddle along. And continued growth in demand for energy. In the US, active drilling rigs have been declining at a rate of 6-7 every week since April. Yet production is up as new efficiencies in production kicks in. However, if rigs keep dropping, production will eventually decline. And OPEC keeps extending their production cut backs.
Oil Inventories continue to drop, both in the US and worldwide.
WTI is over $80 and the pressure is toward higher prices as inventories will drop further.
How Do We Manage China’s Decline?
Aug. 29, 2023, 7:00 p.m. ET
Bret Stephens
Several years ago, the Harvard political scientist Graham Allison coined the term “Thucydides’ trap.” It was based on the ancient historian’s observation that the real cause of the Peloponnesian War “was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta.” Allison saw the pattern of tensions — and frequent wars — between rising and ruling powers repeating itself throughout history, most recently, he believes, with the challenge that a rising China poses to American hegemony.
It’s an intriguing thesis, but in China’s case it has a glaring flaw: The main challenge we will face from the People’s Republic in the coming decade stems not from its rise but from its decline — something that has been obvious for years and has become undeniable in the past year with the country’s real estate market crash.
Western policymakers need to reorient their thinking around this fact. How? With five don’ts and two dos.
…
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/29/opinion/china-economy-decline.html
economics ain’t sports. the people in chiina so much better off today than 20 and 40 and 60years ago. not really for most amerikans.
exactly!
Sure, many in China are in better positions economically than they were 50 years ago but the vast majority of China is still dirt poor. Those with jobs in urban areas only earned on average about $15k/year.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/278349/average-annual-salary-of-an-employee-in-china/
And their “FOOD” prices compared to USA???
I’m guessing the prices of stuff is cheaper, price wise..
50 years is blink of eye in world history. i vote in italy as well as pax dumbphuckistan. i also study anthropology and history of human economics for past 15k years quite often. amerikans are naive, arrogant and ignorant and quick buck artists. hence the morons like trump and biden and obama and bush crime families so popular.
Those with jobs in urban areas only earned on average about $15k/year.
——
buddy. try to learn what PPP is .
in USA you are poor chap if you make $ 50.000 before taxes
=How Do We Manage China’s Decline?
ahaha! ahahha~!!! hahah!!!
it is called projection. I will take China over USA for next 100 years.
at least thre is a chain of command in china. and ablity to make something happen!
in usa . zero!!!!! just political bickering!
alx
The oft-quoted example of import tariffs relates to the 1930’s, and was a real disaster. Free trade works best for everyone: no exceptions.
The US was transformed into an economic industrial giant in the 19th century thanks to tariff walls. Virtually every country that has become an economic power has done so by building up its industry behind tariff walls.
n economic industrial giant in the 19th century thanks to tariff walls
——
100% certified BS, tariffs wise.!
USA become biggest industrial giant by being awash in natural resources, big in population, and not taking part in ww1 and ww2 mostly!
after ww2 most of europe/ussr/japan was destroyed.
thus gdp of USA was half of whole world in 50xxx-60xx.
Germany and Japan are industrial giants. having limited resources and population in short time after ww2 they built 2d and 4th biggest economies in world!
toyta, nikon, sony , bmw, porshe, bosh etc etc etc !! THOSE ARE HOUSEHOLD NAMES!!!
USA not so much. when did you last time buy 4door sedan made in USA of decent quality?
alx
Mish….What will it take to stop the growth of our trade deficit? Global trade is declining, de-globalization. Don’t put restrictions on RESOURCES or FOOD. But it doesn’t make sense for us to send resources abroad to have them return as finished products that compete with our identical products. Our society needs to bite the bullet and resist the probable lower cost import if it is going to support our higher cost labor market. If not, the wage differential will continue to have downward pressure for our laborers. Is there a better way than a tariff?
That’s an excellent question, worthy of a post. It has to do with the alleged “exorbitant privilege” of having the worlds reserve currency. For all China’s bitching it does not want it, nor does Germany or any other country.
Under a gold standard these issues were self correcting. If you ran huge deficits, you lost your gold. There is no enforcement mechanism. The US has two choices as a result, neither of them is any good. I will explain in a post.
Doesn’t free trade lay the ground for what the economic textbooks call creative destruction. Those uncompetitive domestic industries close when low skilled jobs are outsourced to poorer countries raising their standard of living. The groundwork for new domestic industries requiring more skill and technical expertise will create higher valued products thus benefitting each country in the long run. At least according to textbook theory. Perfect eg was US automobile industry in the 70s producing overpriced POS’s until the Japanese ate their lunch and forced them to start building quality automobiles. If it wasn’t for the competition from Japan we would most like still be driving garbage vehicles with no choice.
Countries don’t decide if their currency will be a reserve currency. Other countries do. The reason the US is a reserve currency is because countries have historically depressed the value of their currency vs USD so they could export more. They exchanged their currency for USD and hence accumulated a lot of USD.
Actually the reserve currency status was decided by Bretton Woods, and so was the exchange rate. When the gold peg was abandoned, the dollar continued by inertia, and because most of the rest of the world is an even more shiddy place. That’s no compliment.
Lower the bezzle.
Income differential can only be narrowed if the cost of living (medical costs, education costs, crime, taxes) are lowered. The proportion of income captured by unproductive rent and monopoly must become less.
I wish more people understood this. Biden and Trump’s trade policies are both pernicious and self-defeating. The question is, why is such an obvious remedy so unpalatable to the ruling elites of the country? I believe the primary answer is that the strictures of a gold standard make it harder for politicians to buy people’s votes with promises of free shit, though there are other reasons as well. In addition to monetary reform, a simple flat tax would make it doubly difficult for politicos to bamboozle the public with Keynesian inspired nonsense regarding fiscal policy.
Even though I think the Democrats have become the party of darkness and depravity, and as the Republicans still remain the party of traditional values and hope, it’s the Democrats who understand Trump, while the Republicans don’t really get Trump at all! For the Democrats Trump is the gift that keeps on giving, for them he’s a winner, for the Republicans a loser. I voted for and supported most all Trump’s policies, and yes with him the border was secure, inflation and crime under control, traditional values of hard work, family values, patriotism, and religious faith still respected for the most part. Yet with this administration things in America have changed politically, economically and culturally so dramatically, that Trump’s personality and leadership style won’t work with the challenges we currently face.
Trade wars are easy to win. I guess these economic illiterates don’t know history. That Taft Hawley act during the depression really did the trick. With both these morons running for president we will continue to circle the drain. The 4th turning is here.
= Republicans still remain the party of traditional values and hope
you mean like Vietnam war values and hope, or Iraq war values and hope!
I just need clarification.!
—
and yet, Bush jr (republican) was worst president in USA history and frankly probably most stupid politican in 20th century at least .
even old Soviet leaders in 70ххх were not that bad. those were just plain old !
= internal production
min salary in USA is about 10*12 $ per hour. i doubt you can find qualif. person in USA willling to work for less than 20$ per hour.
in China same people work for less than 500$ per MONTH.!
comparing labor costs alone USA WILL NEVER BE ABLE COMPETE W/ CHINA!
it is just pure macro idi$ocy! and pandering to certain group of people in USA!
alx
Trump is illiterate uneducated macro and economy MO$RON!!
He is carbon copy of Bush Jr on macro, economy overall, governing, etc
how he become billionaire is beyond me!
Trump inherited $40 million in real estate from his Dad. He had one bright idea: Move the business to Manhatten from the Bronx and get hand outs from the politicians for his developments. Or is that two bright ideas?
Holy cow! You mean Trump “the savior” isn’t going to save us at least not until we pay 10% more for everything. does this mean the fed will hike rates to 18% like in the 80s again? Is Mexico paying for that wall yet?
It seems no matter which clown is in office nothing gets better except for those who plan on profiting from each of these clowns decisions. Got money making strategy?
All the more reason to favor Canadian oil companies over US oil companies. I am roughly 85% Canadian oils and 15% US. Another nice day for the oils today. Ringing the cash register with $80 WTI or higher.
Yup. I sold more calls on Devon, up 20% so far. When it goes up, I sell calls, when it goes down, I buy them back cheap and rake in 30% to 70% profits. And in the meantime, I am collecting 7% dividends while I wait. DVN goes ex-dividend on Sept 14.
Took some profits and bought 300k of 30 day T-Bills this week. Earning another 5.3% profit on my profits. Choo! Choo! The money train is leaving the station, all aboard!
aye aye
Realist (Papafraud, mpo, imgreen, jeffgreen) buyhighselllo
Care to share how much you lost on Plug power? or how about Ballard Power?
For those new here, Realist was pumping his renewable stocks a few years ago at the highs and stating of course how he was going to make millions. For a good laugh google Plug Power or Ballard Power, check the highs where Realist was buying and the share price today. Im still ROTFLMAO. Too funny, the great scam,fraud artist losing his shirt.
An anatomy of Fraud: Plug Power is the Enron of Hydrogen
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/anatomy-fraud-plug-power-enron-hydrogen-alexander-richmond/
Trump demonstrates again that he does not have the knowledge, experience, or temperament to be president of anything, other than his own personal matters, and he appears to have problems with that.
As an idealist, ALL free market interference is BAD
As a realist, what tools does any country have to optimize anything?
Tax / tarrif something/anything, you get LESS of that thing.
His suggestion is simply the simplest and only approach we have, isn’t it? (to “reduce imports…as if imports are “bad”)
If they’ll take pieces of paper for stuff, well and good. The problem comes when they want to buy our land and buildings with their pieces of paper.
Tariffs are a tax – undeniable. Taxes lower economic activity and government uses tax policy to punish and distribute favors.
Are tariffs the wrong way to tax? That’s a completely different discussion.
I would qualify tariffs as a consumption tax. Inherently, I think consumption taxes make more sense rather than taxing income (personal especially) and investment.
A 10% tariff on everything imported into the US would mostly be absorbed by the exporter.
Again, Mish spouts off tariffs are bad, blah, blah, blah with zero attention to a solutions manifesto. This is getting old.
For the millionth time, we get it Mish! Trump is an idiot while you’re the genius with no real solutions.
A 10% tariff on everything imported into the US would mostly be absorbed by the exporter.
——-
what???? I laughted so hard!
buddy have you ever run lemonade stand? CONSUMER ALWAYS PAY!
there is a thing called business accounting.
there is a item called revenues or gross sales: sum of money business received by selling stuff!!
then out of those money business pay salaries, pay taxes , PAY IMPORT TARIFF, pay whatever it needs to run bussines.!!
see ? consumer always pays!
alx
ps
and yes,. Trump is macro and eco. mo$ron!
It’s has been widely reported that Chinese exporters absorbed a significant portion of the tariffs that Trump placed on various goods while her was president.
I’m not a Trump fan boy, but I do think tariffs are an important PART to pushing onshoring on key products (pharma comes to mind).
My major problem is Mish’s constant bashing of tariffs & sanctions without EVER giving us his trade manifesto.
i’d be ok with tariffs if we had no other taxes. the us used to finance it’s government with just tariffs and land sales. of course both sides of aisle in 21st century are radical spenders and world wide imperialists intent on having bases all over world and outspending every one else on department of war. trump is an idiot as is biden. but they are perfect reflections of the electorate. democracy works. always have. republics are just a form of democracy. the idiots today represent the idiots in the majority coast to coast.
With overseas markets collapsing, do tariffs even matter?
Of course they do, but naturally everyone’s looking at the wrong things. In particular Krugman. I’m surprised he’s mentally capable of operating a keyboard. Probably dictated his article. At any rate, you first need a global trade to tariff, and that seems to be disappearing before our very eyes.
JGB 3 month fell off a cliff yesterday, a strong indicator that China is having a lot of trouble finding eurodollars to fund its operations with. The 3 mo note is now 3 basis points off the March 2020 Covid low. That tells us it is taking China more and more collateral to obtain Eurodollars or USTs through the wrongly-named yen carry trade.
I suspect the drop in the USD today won’t last as shadow banks stay risk averse and continue to hoard Eurodollars and quality collateral.
Europe is already in a recession, including Germany and the numbers seem to be getting worse not better. Keeping Russia partitioned off from the rest of Europe’s economy isn’t helping either. Germany’s debt issuance is so low, it forces market to rely on Italian BTPs for collateral and there’s every chance that does not end well.
And emerging markets are somewhere between China’s deflation and Europe’s recession.
Somehow the US thinks it will be exempt from all this carnage. That is impossible with these globally synchronized markets…
…And when you’re led by a man navigating by the stars on a cloudy night.
With overseas markets collapsing
——
did 500 mil people in europe, or 1.5 bil in china STOP eating, working, going out, buying cars, buying houses, etc ?
buddy, you watch too much tv. it is call fear mongering! esp by USA press regarding
China.
alx
Actually it is a $300 billion incentive to reshore manufacturing. Likewise inflation puts the minimum wage closer to the value of unskilled labor in the USA and is another incentive. High energy prices make shipping from China expensive. US natural gas is arguably the least expensive energy in the world. I am hoping that corporate CEO’s are smart enough to add up the savings. If so the USA will have boom times as corporations build factories, employ robots, and hire Americans.
We ought to have a 500% tariffs on bananas too. Just think of the economic boom we could create growing them in North Dakota. Comparative advantage is for sissies.
good one!
Indoor farming might actually make growing bananas in ND possible!
Let’s see a profitable business proforma for growing banana trees indoors in the far north.
YES!!!! or grow them here in New England. Think of the jobs that will result from building and operating large greenhouse facilities, supplying these greenhouses with heating fuel, etc.
Do the same with coffee as well!
Do you have a plot of land above 2500 ft elevation? Das Google says:
Coffee does grow at low altitudes, but it usually lacks flavour and vibrancy. Low elevation beans will often be the robusta variety and grow at around 760 metres (2500 feet).
LOL!
Toot toot!
you have to admire audacity of mor$$ons.
buddy, what if US company will want to export to China and China is already biggest market in world for many positions and China will put out 20% tariffs for USA companies??
have you thought about that ?
you do realise that world economy is 2 lines highway, and all eco. players can make such decisions : tariffs, etc.???
btw, under WTO rules tariffs are illegite. it is just USA pulls so much weight, nobody cant do anyting about .
you have no idea what you are talking about.!
alx
. Likewise inflation puts the minimum wage closer to the value of unskilled labor in the USA and is another incentive.
——
what???
buddy, min salary in USA is about 10*12 $ per hour. i doubt you will find qualif. person in USA willling to work for less than 20$ per hour.
in China same people work for less than 500$ per MONTH.!
comparing labor costs alone USA WILL NEVER BE ABLE COMPETE W/ CHINA!
period.
learn basic macro stuff!
alx
KGB wrote “If so the USA will have boom times as corporations build factories, employ robots, and hire Americans.”
——-
The future is automated, lights out factories staffed by robots that don’t require humans at all. So reshoring manufacturing is not going to lead to hiring Americans or anyone else.
But better to have the profit margins of those lights-out factories supporting US businesses and infrastructure, rather than CCP totalitarians and Chinese infrastructure.
THE USA DEBT springs from our WELFARE SYSTEM that encourages the birth of money babies as a business–1964 Great Society–we have Millions who should never have been born–created the homeless-destroyed public education–bloated health care costs—encouraged illegal immigration–grown the lawyer class—put politicians in office–Grown parasitic Government — Atlas will Shrug if we don’t attack the DEBT via Welfare reform —tariffs won’t fix the debt