Trump's tarrifs (1 Viewer)

[AConcernedCitizen]

I buy a lot from Amazon and thus far they've purchased nothing from me.

That seems like a trade deficit to me.

And are you going to just let Amazon treat you like that?

Have you tried threatening to punch yourself in the face until they agree to buy as much from you as you buy from them?

 

[JoeyJoystick]

The only reason Trump didn't bring China to their knees during his first term is that he ran out of time. He has four years now.

Hi Mycroft.

No he didn't bring them to their knees. Nor did China bring you to your knees. However, It is easier for them to find new customers than it is for you to find new suppliers. Do they hurt? Sure! But you hurt too. The questions is who can endure more pain. The prospects for China are not bad. I think Trump will be forced to revoke tariffs and ask them to start negotiating. He is lucky if China allows him to save his face. (note 'allow') And that would hurt him the most. So he is willing to let th epeople endure more. I am curious to see who will back-down first, but I would not be surprised if Trump goes down-under on this one.

He didn't do that before.

You're absolutely right that there is no evidence that he did this. But his reported historical business practices, combined with his reputation is enough to make people wonder why Ivanka received 21 Trademarks in the 6 months surrounding the US-China trade negotiations in 2018. And most people, including me, still go by; Where there is smoke, there is fire...

Joey

 

[JoeyJoystick]

Sounds like a bad strategy since China's working on other deals and doesn't seem in a rush talk.

Hi ElChupacabre,

I live in Thailand and we obviously have a lot of Chinese people living here and doing business here. This has been this way for centuries of course. Here a few things I regularly hear people say about Chinese people.

- For all money that passes through your hands, you need to skim off a little bit for yourself.
- Chinese people will never lower their prices. Refuse to negotiate. (Now this needs a little context of course, because as is, the statement can not be true of course. This was in the context of renting office space in Bangkok. When a lot of buildings were empty, some real estate investors lowered the rents. The Chinese never did. And that I know form personal experience. When talking to friends about this, most confirmed that this was common practice when real estate was owned by the Chinese. They do not lower their prices.)


The Chinese people will sing out there time. Patience is the key here. And Trump does not have a lot of that as we have seen with the Ukraine Peace negotiations he abandoned because it was not going quick enough for him...

China's weakest spot is that they are susceptible to making the same mistake as Japan made in WWII when they did not believe the US threads. A whole different scenario, but the thinking is a little bit the same. I have seen some of that already. Now Trump has not been strong on his 'red lines', but if one time he is, there is a good chance that China will not read that correctly, just like the Japanese didn't.


Joey

 

[Ethel2]

The import deficit isn’t a problem, so nothing needs to be solved.

Buffett is right: he said that we should let the manufacturing countries do what they do best and we should focus on what we do best.

 

[Mycroft]

Hi Mycroft.

No he didn't bring them to their knees. Nor did China bring you to your knees. However, It is easier for them to find new customers than it is for you to find new suppliers.

China cannot survive without US customers. We are seeing that already, with their factories shutting down, laying off their workers...heck, they can't even pay their worker's back wages.

Do they hurt? Sure! But you hurt too.

The US won't hurt just because we can't buy $2.00 stuff from Temu.

The questions is who can endure more pain. The prospects for China are not bad. I think Trump will be forced to revoke tariffs and ask them to start negotiating. He is lucky if China allows him to save his face. (note 'allow') And that would hurt him the most. So he is willing to let th epeople endure more. I am curious to see who will back-down first, but I would not be surprised if Trump goes down-under on this one.

Trump won't be "forced to revoke tariffs", but he might lessen them if China shows a proper willingness to negotiate.

You're absolutely right that there is no evidence that he did this. But his reported historical business practices, combined with his reputation is enough to make people wonder why Ivanka received 21 Trademarks in the 6 months surrounding the US-China trade negotiations in 2018. And most people, including me, still go by; Where there is smoke, there is fire...

Joey

I'll leave the CT's to you. I deal in reality.

 

[devildavid]

China cannot survive without US customers. We are seeing that already, with their factories shutting down, laying off their workers...heck, they can't even pay their worker's back wages.


The US won't hurt just because we can't buy $2.00 stuff from Temu.


Trump won't be "forced to revoke tariffs", but he might lessen them if China shows a proper willingness to negotiate.


I'll leave the CT's to you. I deal in reality.

Trump already has backed off with his tariff bluff. It is all a bluff and he will never carry it out if his intent was to force negotiations. He is trying to do opposite things like the idiot he is. You can’t force negotiations for better trade deals and have tariffs punishing those you negotiate with at the same time. Those goals conflict and lead to nothing at all. Trump needs to pick a lane and stay in it but he can’t because everything he does is bluff and bluster. He doesn’t even have a concept of a plan when it comes to tariffs.

 

[JoeyJoystick]

China cannot survive without US customers. We are seeing that already, with their factories shutting down, laying off their workers...heck, they can't even pay their worker's back wages.

Hi Mycroft,

True, but the same applies to you. Many people have lost there job over this already. And the question is not how much the people hurt. The question is how much hurt the people are willing to accept (which is high in China and low in the US) and how much pain their leader is willing to inflict on his people. And that applies to both of course.

The US won't hurt just because we can't buy $2.00 stuff from Temu.

Nope. But the US will hurt when they realize that the 200$ they spend every months now costs 400$. And the other stuff they bought and that is made in the US is now also more expensive, so the amount they can spend at Temu is all of a sudden even smaller than the 200$. Hmm, you have less money and you pay more. Doesn't sound like a good deal to me to be honest.

Trump won't be "forced to revoke tariffs", but he might lessen them if China shows a proper willingness to negotiate.

And if China does not show a willingness to negotiate, than Trump will be forced to to revoke the tariffs. I am only curious to see how he is going to blame this on Biden or Obama.

I'll leave the CT's to you. I deal in reality.

The reality is that you voted a criminal in office.

 

[ElChupacabra]

Hi ElChupacabre,

I live in Thailand and we obviously have a lot of Chinese people living here and doing business here. This has been this way for centuries of course. Here a few things I regularly hear people say about Chinese people.

- For all money that passes through your hands, you need to skim off a little bit for yourself.
- Chinese people will never lower their prices. Refuse to negotiate. (Now this needs a little context of course, because as is, the statement can not be true of course. This was in the context of renting office space in Bangkok. When a lot of buildings were empty, some real estate investors lowered the rents. The Chinese never did. And that I know form personal experience. When talking to friends about this, most confirmed that this was common practice when real estate was owned by the Chinese. They do not lower their prices.)


The Chinese people will sing out there time. Patience is the key here. And Trump does not have a lot of that as we have seen with the Ukraine Peace negotiations he abandoned because it was not going quick enough for him...

China's weakest spot is that they are susceptible to making the same mistake as Japan made in WWII when they did not believe the US threads. A whole different scenario, but the thinking is a little bit the same. I have seen some of that already. Now Trump has not been strong on his 'red lines', but if one time he is, there is a good chance that China will not read that correctly, just like the Japanese didn't.


Joey

I think most reasonable people see the world's two largest economies are interdependent, and will likely continue to be so for the foreseeable future. The world's other larger economies are also in the same boat because the bottom line for all of the world's economic powerhouses is international trade is a quick way to continue economic growth. The mercantilist vision the current administration is pushing is regressive and the world has moved past that approach.

That said, there is certainly room to maneuver and use the leverage we have to negotiate better agreements with China in order to access their markets, eliminate IP theft, and end their currency manipulation. I just don't think the approach the administration is taking is a smart one at all, and mainly because all of the gravest concerns our allies have had on the US financial system are made very apparent under the current leadership. While many countries will continue to need access to the US, this country's approach now is likely to force other countries to find alternatives so they are not as dependent on the US financial system.

 

[Quag]

For his whole term unless Trump finally relaizes it is a stupid policy, then they will last until Trump finds a way to pretend he won and they will go away.

 

[Peter]

Trump already has backed off with his tariff bluff. It is all a bluff and he will never carry it out if his intent was to force negotiations. He is trying to do opposite things like the idiot he is. You can’t force negotiations for better trade deals and have tariffs punishing those you negotiate with at the same time. Those goals conflict and lead to nothing at all. Trump needs to pick a lane and stay in it but he can’t because everything he does is bluff and bluster. He doesn’t even have a concept of a plan when it comes to tariffs.

I think we can now be sure that Mycroft doesn't give a shit about American workers.
He doesn't care if they get fired because of Trumps actions as he sees everything Trump does as wildly successful.
American towns devastated because factories have closed due to tarrifs?
That's a small price to pay and Trump and Mycroft are happy to pay it if they think they can "Own the Libs!".