The popular meme these days is the word ‘tariffs’….it is the weapon of choice by the president in his economic war with trading partners…some will applaud these actions and others, including myself, do not think it is the save all that we are told almost daily.

Donny the Man has upped the tariffs on 3 of our trading partners….and many Americans are confused.

Purely as an FYI post for those that do not completely understand what is involved with tariffs I offer this explanation….

Like the Townshend Acts and Bacon’s Rebellion, tariffs are one of those topics you may vaguely remember from high school history class. Let’s take another look at how tariffs work—and what happens to the economy when they don’t.

Tariffs are taxes imposed on imports or exports. If the U.S. government imposes a 25 percent tariff on imports of, say, Canadian timber, it means that American companies buying timber from Canada will have to pay a quarter of the price of timber to the U.S. government.

Tariffs can be imposed for a number of reasons, not all of them economic. Because they make importing more expensive, they can be used to promote the development of domestic industries. They can also be used as a geopolitical weapon to exert pressure on trading partners or to punish non-allies. Like all kinds of taxes, they are also a means of generating government revenue.

Crucially, none of these measures is foolproof. If the U.S. imposes tariffs on Canada, for example, Canada may simply start trading with countries that don’t impose tariffs, cutting the U.S. out of the equation. That could then weaken the U.S. economy and its ability to engage in international trade.

Tariffs impact companies that rely on imports as well as ordinary consumers. If a country that imposes tariffs fails to develop domestic production and find new trade partners—a process that can take years, if not decades—tariffs are bound to raise consumer prices, because the importers will need to recuperate the additional costs they pay to the government through higher markups on the products they sell. As a result, tariffs have often resulted in economic recessions in the countries that impose them.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/how-do-tariffs-work

I hope this article will everyone understand what is at risk by imposing them….and make up your mind (if that is possible) on whether you support or oppose these actions by the president.

Please read it carefully and just the parts that you think you know….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”