Tariffs

We buy cheaper chinese products. Many are clones that are cheaper knockoffs of American products. We bitch when they don't last or break prematurely, yet we still buy them. Just possibly people will have the choice between cheap/inferior foreign made products and higher quality American products at the same price. Hopefully the American manufacturing industry can catch up and start manufacturing higher quality products again. Maybe 🤔
FYI, I run an older Cat dozer. When something inevitably breaks or wears out I don't even consider non-Cat parts that may or may not fit and definitely will wear out or break sooner.
Agree. Sounds like why I am suspect of buying things online. But don't forget the 80's when Japanese cars were all the rage because the quality of American-made cars went down the drain. Competition is good, but Americans hate losing.
 
I see your point. I certainly don't buy $20 socks. But can you see mine. The stagnation or more likely a decline in the American middle class. Kids today do not have an expectation of doing better than their parents. I don't think it is a lie to suggest that whole swaths of the American public have not been able to succeed. I am not trying to be augmentative for the sake of argument. Are we making semiconductors why did we offshore so much of that to Taiwan?
If the cost of labor is going to be the final determinant for everything. Can anything be made in this country, outside of high tech and defense items?
Lots of irony on the semiconductor front though, right?
 
I heard Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen, the unelected EU president, talking about retaliatory tariffs. Funny how upset other countries get when we applied only 50% of the tariffs they have on US. I guess if they get in a pissing match, Trump will raise their tariff to 100% match.

Any Ursula was talking about how Trumps tariffs are a "tax" on US citizens, but then out the other side of her mouth see fails to state that she supports double that tariff is double the "tax" on EU citizens, and threatens to raise it more (tax her own EU more). How about the EU lowers the tariff in half or eliminate it all together?
 
I heard Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen, the unelected EU president, talking about retaliatory tariffs.
Not to nitpick, but the EU doesn’t have a president per se. She’s the president of the European Commission. It’s one branch of the government of the European Union. Each member country has a commissioner who is chosen by that country’s government. This is supposed to keep them neutral and beholden to EU-wide interests instead of having to run every few years to satisfy electoral interests. The Parliament is however elected by their country’s citizens.

Also FWIW, prior to the current administration EU tariffs against US goods were targeted to very specific products (like ag). The EU has never levied a blanket tariff on all US exports.
 
I should probably also add that the rates the administration set weren’t based on the target country’s tariffs against US goods (as they’re usually targeted toward specific products), but based on the 2024 trade deficit.

I pulled this from an article:

“For each country, the White House looked up its trade in goods deficit for 2024, then divided that by the total value of imports.”

That number was then halved.

So, for China:
  • Goods trade deficit: $291.9bn
  • Total goods imports: $438.9bn
  • Those figures divided = 0.67, or 67%
  • And halved = 34%
 
I heard Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen, the unelected EU president, talking about retaliatory tariffs. Funny how upset other countries get when we applied only 50% of the tariffs they have on US. I guess if they get in a pissing match, Trump will raise their tariff to 100% match.

Any Ursula was talking about how Trumps tariffs are a "tax" on US citizens, but then out the other side of her mouth see fails to state that she supports double that tariff is double the "tax" on EU citizens, and threatens to raise it more (tax her own EU more). How about the EU lowers the tariff in half or eliminate it all together?

Huh?
Specifically, the White House documents appear to allege the “tariffs charged to the USA” are the greater of two different quantities: (a) 10 percent, and (b) the 2024 US trade deficit in goods with a given country, divided by the total quantity of US imports from that country.
 
One positive note that this Administration has done is united countries that had once hated each other. First with the Europeans and now with Japan, South Korea and China. It’s gotten to a point with us that were talking about what to do with the US debt we own. I bet we’ll also bring in the Japanese, Chinese and Europeans into this conversation at some point.

On the scary side of things. In order to physically defend ourselves we are looking at the Nuclear route.
 
PEAX Trekking Poles

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