Canada, Greenland, Mexico, etc - USA Tariffs / Trade War commencing March 2025 #4

[Fraize]

I've tried to understand what could possibly be the path for these tariffs. The New York Times' Ezra Klein had a fantastic interview with Gillian Tett of the Financial Times that tries to make sense of it.

Spoiler Alert: She explains the very narrow path that might work, but it's so laughably impossible it may as well be economic science-fiction.

 

[iamshadow21]

Paywalled, but you hardly need anything beyond the headline to get the idea.

Trump mocks world leaders, claims they are ‘kissing my ass’ to make a deal on tariffs

Trump was speaking at a Republican Party black tie dinner after his own trade representative was grilled at a Senate hearing about why the US whacked tariffs on Australian goods.

www.smh.com.au

EDIT: BBC has the quote in question without the paywall.

Trump's top tariffs for 'worst offenders' take effect

China has been hit with a 104% rate amid an escalating standoff between the world's two biggest economies.

www.bbc.com

 

[Lilibet]

Billionaires Speak Out Against Trump’s Tariffs: ‘Huge Policy Mistake’

Elon Musk - Tesla CEO
Ken Griffin - the Citadel founder
Jamie Dimon - JPMorganChase CEO
Bill Ackman - hedge fund manager
Daniel Loeb - hedge fund manager
Larry Fink - BlackRock CEO
Joe Lonsdale - Palantir cofounder
Ken Langone - Home Depot cofounder
Ray Dalio - runs the world’s biggest hedge fund firm, Bridgewater Associates
Stanley Druckenmiller - hedge fund manager
Ken Fisher - Fisher Investments chairman

Other GOP supporters speaking out:
Kimbal Musk - Tesla shareholder
Dave Portnoy - Barstool Sports owner
Joe Rogan - podcaster
Ben Shapiro - conservative commentator
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky

But not Peter Thiel, JD Vance’s mentor. He’s one of the tech Broligarchs working behind scenes for the destruction of democracy, as I posted about a few days ago.

JMO

 

[iamshadow21]

Fact check: are US tariffs really bringing in $2bn a day as Trump claims?

US president may have used some hypothetical maths but chances are slim that such sums are being raised

www.theguardian.com

Spoiler: no, not without fairyland mathematics coming in to play again.

 

[acutename]

He seems to be saying that if the USA goes to war against China, it will be devastating because China will not capitulate.

Has the USA started war with China ... a war like the war the USA started with Canada? Is Trump drunk on power, throwing his weight around, and now it's personal? It's a war between Donald and China, unrelated to the prosperity and health of the USA?

Although Trump started the war, it was reported yesterday that he waiting for China to phone him. Trump didn't start with a conversation, he started by lashing out. It took a few weeks before Trump finally phoned Canada, which did reduce tensions.

DIPLOMACY Definition & Meaning​

Merriam-Webster
https://www.merriam-webster.com › dictionary › diplo...




1. The art and practice of conducting negotiations between nations. 2. Skill in handling affairs without arousing hostility : tact.

US not reading definition #2

 

[Herat]

Paywalled, but you hardly need anything beyond the headline to get the idea.

Trump mocks world leaders, claims they are ‘kissing my ass’ to make a deal on tariffs

Trump was speaking at a Republican Party black tie dinner after his own trade representative was grilled at a Senate hearing about why the US whacked tariffs on Australian goods.

www.smh.com.au

EDIT: BBC has the quote in question without the paywall.

Trump's top tariffs for 'worst offenders' take effect

China has been hit with a 104% rate amid an escalating standoff between the world's two biggest economies.

www.bbc.com

What is being ignored is that the way their tariffs are being ordered are capricious, without specific monetary targets or goals.

I don't understand how you can make very significant financial decisions without an underlying foundation of hard data to gauge the effectiveness of the change. Adding another 50% tariff is just cheap showmanship, something Trump uses constantly to avoid responsibility for his bullying and angry whims.

There must be some financially astute Republicans that need to see hard, cold facts and figures and can point out to responsible politicians of the bottomless swamp Trump has created and will saddle the US consumer and voter in for decades.

Smoot-Hawley returns at turbo speed.

 

[iamshadow21]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/economy/trump-tariffs-whats-next-economy/index.html

 

[Lilibet]

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, well known expert on authoritarians, just published an interesting article.

Welcome to Autocratic Backfire

Imposing their will on the nation and the world is what matters to strongmen, but destructive policies made in an echo chamber have consequences

open.substack.com

America is living through a compressed arc of the process of autocratic capture and, now, with President Trump’s inane tariffs tanking the economy, the process of autocratic backfire as well.

Autocratic capture describes the executive branch’s attempts to control and politicize the judiciary, the media, and government institutions, turning them into tools of the leader and his cronies.

Autocratic backfire occurs when narcissistic leaders have insulated themselves from criticism by surrounding themselves with sycophants and loyalists. No one will tell them the truth, and religious collaborators tell them they are in office by divine will, and so they also end up believing their own propaganda about their invincibility, genius instincts, and infallibility. Then the stage is set for them to make momentous decisions on the basis of erroneous beliefs or personal ideological obsessions.

Normally the cycle of leaders amassing power and creating an echo chamber that leads to faulty policy takes years to develop, but America has accelerated this cycle.

 

[iamshadow21]

What is being ignored is that the tariffs are being ordered are capricious, without specific monetary targets or goals.

I don't understand how you can make very significant financial decisions without an underlying foundation of hard data to gauge the effectiveness of the change. Adding another 50% tariff is just cheap showmanship, something Trump uses constantly to avoid responsibility for his bullying and angry whims.

There must be some financially astute Republicans that need to see hard, cold facts and figures and can point out to responsible politicians of the bottomless swamp Trump has created and will saddle the US consumer and voter in for decades.

Smoot-Hawley returns at turbo speed.

He's done it his whole life. He bankrupted casinos, multiple times, where the house always wins and people flood in to pour their life savings into the casino's hands, and thank them for the opportunity.

That to me shows he has absolutely no idea how money works on a fundamental level.

MOO

 

[Lyanna]

DIPLOMACY Definition & Meaning​

View attachment 577850
Merriam-Webster
https://www.merriam-webster.com › dictionary › diplo...




1. The art and practice of conducting negotiations between nations. 2. Skill in handling affairs without arousing hostility : tact.

US not reading definition #2

They're not reading either definition. He's not conducting any negotions, he's stamping his feet and wailing like a toddler in a shop till he gets what he wants. Someone needs to give him his noonies/dummy/pacifier - my preference would be a gag.

Moo

 

[iamshadow21]

It begins.

Sony seemingly bakes tariff penalty into its new US TV pricing

The best OLED of 2025 comes at a very hefty price.

www.theverge.com

 

[detective.moon]

some things that are happening are almost funny (as long as you don’t think about them too much - it’s just the ridiculousness of it all), but adding tariffs on pharmaceuticals when they’re already so expensive in the US is really nothing but sad. i really feel for all americans on a low income who rely on medication

 

[iamshadow21]

some things that are happening are almost funny (as long as you don’t think about them too much - it’s just the ridiculousness of it all), but adding tariffs on pharmaceuticals when they’re already so expensive in the US is really nothing but sad. i really feel for all americans on a low income who rely on medication

It will literally kill people.

 

[iamshadow21]

Tit for tat and up and up. Now 125% on China.

Trump tariff updates: US president unveils 90-day pause for most countries

These were the updates for Wednesday, April 9, 2025, as Trump announced 125-tariffs on imports from China.

aje.io

 

[Herat]

And he may give a 90-day extention for those countries who call and don't install retaliatory tariffs ( ie: get on knees and beg forgiveness)

This is no way to run a hot dog stand and it sure AIN'T the way to run a country.

 

[Herat]

Tit for tat and up and up. Now 125% on China.

Trump tariff updates: US president unveils 90-day pause for most countries

These were the updates for Wednesday, April 9, 2025, as Trump announced 125-tariffs on imports from China.

aje.io

GAWD, he's so frustrated that China called his bluff. (And probably secretly terrified that China knows what it is doing)

If anything, I think this destabilizing this entire tarriff BS. Sure, some smaller countries may beg forgiveness, and hopefully Lesotho and Botswanna would be reprived. However, the entire EU now knows that nothing is sure at this point, and have no reason to captulate to him.

I assume the next increase will be 1000%.

 

[Lucy6226]

This is all such a game to him...willy waving contest. Spat his dummy out over China clearly

 

[Herat]

some things that are happening are almost funny (as long as you don’t think about them too much - it’s just the ridiculousness of it all), but adding tariffs on pharmaceuticals when they’re already so expensive in the US is really nothing but sad. i really feel for all americans on a low income who rely on medication

He has made NO provisions to assure people who need insulin and other medications do not have an interruption in their supply .

This is absolutely criminal. Why are all the Republicans just crawling into holes where they can't be found?

 

[IzzyBlanche]

Make America eat paint chips again.

RFK Jr.'s cuts to CDC lead poisoning team bring efforts to help tribes, health departments to a standstill

The CDC's team of lead poisoning experts remained off the job a week after the sweeping HHS layoffs.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[Warwick1991]

Trump just announced that he was going to have tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals. This will be a disaster for many Americans. Generic drug prices will rise exponentially, and there's limited capacity to return manufacturing here. Patented drugs will soar. It will make health care costs rise; prior approval for common genetics will become common, or perhaps there will be no coverage at all.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5239938-trump-major-tariffs-pharmaceuticals/

I can understand the anger of people outside the US, but Trump is destroying his own country. Other countries can redirect their exports and imports to a degree, but the US is on the road to destruction. Taking a long perspective, this will go down in history as the destruction of a great and prosperous to country, by an insane leader who ranks with the worst of others of his ilk.