Tag: Tariffs

The Cost Of Tariffs

Welcome to May Day or the International Day of the Worker

I cannot believe that this needs repeating….but sadly it does.

But something of a conundrum….I see a lot of readers that are worried about their retirement with all the issues with DOGE and these same people when the topic of tariffs comes around they defend Donny’s tactics…they almost always reference the book “The Art Of The Deal” which at best is just bound toilet paper.

Onto the consequences of these damn silly tariffs….

For those that cannot quite grasp the reality of this pipe dream….the tariffs on a country like China or Canada is NOT…I repeat….I NOT paid by the country….NO it is paid by the US importers and is passed on to the consumer….that meaning YOU….at best it is just another tax that will be paid by the people of this nation.

Can you grasp the situation now?

No?

Tariffs cannot do certain things…(I try to keep it simple)

1. Tariffs can’t both create permanent domestic jobs and be a temporary negotiating tool.

2. Tariffs can’t both protect domestic industries and generate trillions of dollars in revenue.

Donny’s promise is that these tariffs will bring manufacturing and jobs back to the US….the estimates are that they will create about 100,000 jobs…good huh?  Think again….while destroying about 500,000 jobs….destroying jobs and screwing the people is not a good trade off in my opinion.

As that dynamic plays out across the whole economy, the tariffs will create more losers than winners. A Goldman Sachs report published this week estimates that Trump’s tariffs will create about 100,000 new manufacturing jobs (a result of supply chains shifting to the U.S., as the president wants) but will destroy 500,000 other jobs in the process.

That would reflect what happened during Trump’s first term, when his tariffs cost about 245,000 American jobs, by one estimate.

More layoffs are almost certainly coming.

https://reason.com/2025/04/18/trumps-tariffs-are-starting-to-kill-jobs/

To illustrate…did you see where Mazda has shuttered its US operation because of the tariffs?

Following President Donald Trump’s introduction of the “Liberation Day” tariffs, the first major car manufacturer has announced plans to halt production in the United States.

The president, who initiated blanket tariffs of 10% on all countries except Canada, Mexico, and China, 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, as well as on all automobiles, and a 125% tariff on China, has not backed down from his stance and has even issued threats to other countries.

…

While the president has stated that his tariffs will bring manufacturing back to the United States, one automaker seems to be leaving instead.

Mazda has confirmed it will halt production of CX-50 vehicles bound for Canada due to the tariffs in the U.S. and the corresponding retaliatory measures enacted in Canada.

The company confirmed that production at its Huntsville, Alabama, plant will be suspended beginning on May 12.

If tariff policies remain unchanged and the plant stays closed for an extended period, the price of the CX-50 in Canada could rise further.

(msn.com)

There is word that Mack, the builder of those semis, will be doing some hard thinking and making some very hard decisions soon….jobs included.

can consumers have been shielded from much of the impact. But as the world of international shipping adjusts to his policies, the president is facing a potential reckoning.

With the US-China trade war starting to gum up container traffic between the world’s two biggest economies, freight companies are warning of plunging bookings and a surge in “blank sailings” – where ports are skipped or voyages are called off altogether.

Earlier this week, America’s most powerful retail executives trooped into the White House to deliver a blunt prognosis: tariffs on Chinese goods risked causing “empty shelves” in two weeks without a change of course.

The three companies who attended the meeting – Walmart, Target and Home Depot – are among the most exposed to the president’s policies, which include tariffs of up to 145pc on Chinese goods and higher port fees for Chinese-made vessels.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/04/25/trump-has-two-weeks-to-save-america-from-empty-shelves/

Most Americans do not understand tariffs….most still believe that say China will be paying….which is completely wro9ng….this article explains the confusion somewhat….

One of the hot-button issues in US politics lately? Tariffs. President Donald Trump has gone back and forth on the controversial issue, announcing tariffs on imports from other countries before later imposing delays. The results have been nothing short of disastrous — from retaliatory tariffs to deep stock market declines to rising prices. Some of this has come as a shock to Trump supporters and conservatives, who seemed to think tariffs would A) force other countries to foot the bill and B) drive business back to America.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahmarder/31-americans-who-really-really-dont-understand-tariffs

I wish people would spend more time learning the mechanics of economics and less time worry about what some slutty bitch was wearing on Instagram….they would be better informed and better off in the lives.

Do I need to break it down further?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Billionaire Vs Billionaire

This is what our economy has come to….billionaires in competition….itr has always been about profits but there seems to be something deeper than that there days.

Musk has Starlink and now Bezos has Project Kuiper which will be giving Starlink a run for its money….(it is hoped)

Amazon has launched its first Project Kuiper internet satellites, signaling its official arrival in the fast-expanding race to blanket the globe with broadband from space. The company launched its first batch of 27 Project Kuiper internet satellites into orbit Monday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the AP reports. The satellites were carried by the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket. The launch marks Amazon’s entry into the satellite internet market, currently dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and its more than 7,000 Starlink satellites. The Kuiper satellites will eventually reach an altitude of almost 400 miles.

Two test satellites for Project Kuiper were launched in 2023, also using an Atlas V rocket. Project officials said the newest satellites have major upgrades over the previous test models. Each satellite is coated with a mirror film designed to scatter reflected sunlight to address concerns from astronomers about night sky visibility. Stargazers and astronomers have criticized the increase in low-orbiting satellites, arguing they interfere with observations and may increase the risk of satellite collisions. The European-based OneWeb satellite constellation also has hundreds of satellites, but they operate at a higher orbit.

Amazon, founded by Jeff Bezos, plans to launch more than 3,200 Kuiper satellites with an aim of delivering fast and affordable broadband internet globally. Bezos now also runs Blue Origin, another private rocket company. Amazon has purchased dozens of launches from both United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin, as well as other providers, to further deploy Kuiper satellites. The Verge recently reported that Project Kuiper is behind schedule; its FCC license requires it to have launched 1,600 satellites into orbit by next summer. Bloomberg reports the company has been struggling to increase satellite production at the rate it needs to.

It is all about the multi-billion dollar government projects….mo money, mo money….

As long as I was writing about Bezos I read a report of something that Amazon was considering….

Earlier this month, economic effects from the Trump administration’s tariffs blitz hadn’t yet made their way to Amazon, though that’s been changing in recent days as vendors have started to raise their prices, stating that keeping their costs to consumers the same amid the trade war is “unsustainable,” per CNBC. Now, the online giant is apparently trying to separate itself somewhat from the rising price tags: A source tells Punchbowl News that Amazon will soon be posting how much the tariffs are adding to each product it sells—meaning next to the total price of the product will be, in black and white, the added fee for consumers to see for themselves.

That news comes at the same time that the Financial Times reports Amazon has been putting the squeeze on suppliers to keep costs stable for consumers, according to a trio of vendor consultants. “Amazon is the 800-pound gorilla in the room,” Scott Miller, a consultant and former Amazon vendor manager, tells the outlet. “Brands have grown dependent on the platform and have little choice.” In a statement, Amazon notes: “We’re working with our broad, varied range of valued selling partners in our store to support them in adapting to the developing environment while maintaining low prices for customers.”

Two consulting sources tell the FT that Amazon has nixed a bunch of orders from China and pivoted to scooping up merchandise from suppliers carrying American inventory. Third-party sellers on the site are starting to get spooked by the tariffs upheaval: Reuters reports that some who hawk China-made goods are cutting down on the deals they’d planned to offer for Amazon Prime Day, which takes place in July, or pulling out of Prime Day altogether. “Last year Prime Day was a no-brainer,” says Rick Sliter, CEO of a therapeutic-pillow company that last year saw Prime Day sales that exceeded a typical day’s sales by seven times. “But if tariffs continue, discounting gets thrown out the window.”

I believe this is damn good idea….let people see just how much all these stupid tariffs is costing them in their purchases….

Just when I was giving Bezos a good pat on the back disappointing news breaks….

The Trump administration is taking none too kindly to reports that Amazon might slap labels on their imported wares letting consumers know how much tariffs affected the price. “I just got off the phone with the president about … Amazon’s announcement. This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday, Politico reports. The honeymoon between President Trump and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos could be cooling in light of the report, with Leavitt holding up a printout of a 2021 story about Amazon’s ties with China with Bezos’ photo featured prominently. It’s “another reason why Americans should buy American,” Leavitt said.

Leavitt questioned why Amazon didn’t enact similar labeling “when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years,” per the Independent, which notes independent retailers that depend on imports account for some 60% of the behemoth’s sales. Amazon, however, is quickly distancing itself from the initial Punchbowl report. In a statement to USA Today, Amazon spokeswoman Rachael Lighty ruled out the new label: “The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products,” she said. But “this was never approved and is not going to happen.”

So one of the world’s richest men caves to the likes of Little Donny…..that is a gutless move….and just when I thought there was integrity left in these social parasites….what did he say to Bezos to scare him off?

Any takes on these subjects?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Crawfishing Again

Crawfishing down here in Cajun land means the same thing as ‘waffling’….in other words a back track on stated policies.

It has been said because of Donny’s idiotic ideas the Stock marker had its worst week since the depression….with his moronic tariffs and his attacks on the Fed chair his Fat Cat buds were losing money as quickly as they steal it….something had to be done to avoid a collapse….

Enter the ‘stable genius’ to crawfish on his tariffs and other idiotic ideas….

President Trump said Tuesday that the hefty tariff rate on China will significantly be reduced after he negotiates with Chinese President Xi Jinping, expressing optimism about a trade deal.

“145 percent is very high. It won’t be that high, it’s not going to be that high … it won’t be anywhere near that high,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “It will come down substantially, but it won’t be zero.”

The overall tariff level imposed on China is 145 percent, which remained in place after Trump delayed the “reciprocal” tariffs on other trading partners for 90 days and reduced them to 10 percent.

“We’re going to be very nice. They’re going to be very nice, and we’ll see what happens. But ultimately, they have to make a deal, because otherwise they’re not going to be able to deal in the United States,” Trump said, referring to China.

He cited his relationship with Xi as his reason for being optimistic about a deal. The White House said earlier Tuesday that it was “setting the stage for a deal with China,” seeking to reassure nervous financial markets and investors that progress with Beijing could be imminent.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5261948-trump-optimistic-china-trade/

As usual he, Donny, had to keep his butt buddies happy so he did what he does best…. ‘crawfish’……

US stocks rose Wednesday as a worldwide rally came back around to Wall Street.

  • The S&P 500 rose 88.10 points, or 1.7%, to 5,375.86 after President Trump appeared to back off his criticism of the Federal Reserve and his tough talk in his trade war.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 419.59 points, or 1.1%, to 39,606.57.
  • The Nasdaq composite rose 407.63 points, or 2.5%, to 16,708.05 .

Treasury yields also eased in the US bond market after Trump said he has no intention to fire the Fed’s chair and that his tariffs in imports from China could come down, the AP reports. Stocks also rallied across much of Europe and Asia.

Big Tech helped lead stock indexes higher. Nvidia rose 3.9% to claw back more of the sharp losses it took last week. The chip company’s stock was the single strongest single force lifting the S&P 500. Vertiv Holdings, which traces its roots to the industry’s first manufacturer of computer room air conditioning, jumped 8.6% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It said it’s continuing to see accelerated demand from AI data centers. Super Micro Computer, a company that makes servers used in AI, leaped 7.6%. Tesla, which reported a big drop in profits Tuesday, revved 5.4% higher after CEO Elon Musk said he’ll spend less time in Washington and more time running his electric vehicle company.

Trump said late Tuesday that he has “no intention” of firing the head of the Federal Reserve. Trump had been angry with Jerome Powell, calling him “a major loser,” because of the Fed’s hesitance to cut interest rates. Trump’s tough talk frightened investors because the Fed is supposed to act independently, without pressure from politicians, so that it can make decisions that may be painful in the short term but are best for the long term. While a cut to interest rates by the Fed could give the economy a boost, it could also put upward pressure on inflation. Economists say Trump’s tariffs are likely both to slow the economy and to raise inflation, at least briefly

Are you getting an idea how this game is play by Donald the Orange?

For now all is right with the markets they can go back to their manipulations and thievery.

And as usual none of this helps those families that are struggling to survive from having to be living out of the cars (if it has not been repossessed).

Is this what you voted for last time around?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

More Tariff Stuff

It is no secret that I believe these Little Donny tariffs are doing very little to enrich the people of this country and everything to help out his wealthy boot-lickers.

What are these tariffs really all about?

Now, the toughest tariffs by far are on China, and they’re paired with relatively much lower (but still significant) tariffs on the rest of the world while the administration seeks trade deals with various countries in hopes of forming a trade coalition against China.

Trump’s advisers hope that this policy will achieve several things at once: bring manufacturing (and manufacturing jobs) back to the US, address national security concerns about dependence on China, boost US exports, raise revenue to help address the US national debt — and maybe even pave the way toward a restructuring of the global currency system.

If all that sounds fanciful, that’s because it’s extremely fanciful.

Many of those hoped-for benefits are quite implausible and extremely difficult to achieve. Tariffs, meanwhile, bring extremely significant costs and downsides that could very easily wreck his team’s hopes of trying to achieve those lofty aims.

Furthermore, even Trump’s revised tariff policy isn’t at all well-tailored to achieve those aims — it’s still beating up allies we’d need against China, and targeting goods and industries it would make little sense to produce in the US. And his erratic implementation gets in the way even more by ruining businesses’ attempts to plan.

In practice, the only thing Trump is really doing is economic damage – by making things more expensive, chilling investment in the US, reducing confidence in the US’s stability, and casting a pall of uncertainty over everything.

https://www.vox.com/politics/408722/trump-tariffs-bessent-manufacturing-china

So how’s it going collecting these tariffs?

Customs and Border Protection has announced the amount of money it’s taking in under President Trump’s tariffs, and the figures do not agree with the president’s repeated declaration that the US is collecting $2 billion per day. That figure was said to include revenue tied to the tariffs Trump calls reciprocal. But the agency said in a statement this week to CNBC that “since April 5, CBP has collected over $500 million under the new reciprocal tariffs, contributing to more than $21 billion in total tariff revenue from 15 presidential trade actions implemented since Jan 20, 2025.”

And in discussing a system snag that kept freight on the water already from facing the higher tariffs, a situation that lasted 10 hours, the agency said, “Even during the brief glitch, CBP’s average $250 million/day revenue stream remained uninterrupted.” The Treasury Department released data this week reflecting its daily statement of total deposits— “Customs and Certain Excise Taxes”—at $305 million, per CNBC. US Customs collects all tariffs at point of entry.

Money is being collected but that means prices will shoot up…..glad we are collected the cash but at what cost to you and me?

I still not convince the need for these shots at the new trade war that is being fired by Little Donny and his Merry Band of thugs.

Does anyone else see the danger these tariffs impose?

Did you know that tariffs sparked a revolution…..the American Revolution….

The basic economy of the times was this: The Colonies were there to export raw goods to Britain. In the case of Virginia, that was primarily tobacco. British merchants then exported luxury goods to the Colonies that the Colonies couldn’t, or didn’t, produce on their own. The British felt that this was a fine arrangement and that they were helping the Virginia economy, in particular, when they banned British farmers from growing tobacco (not that Britain had a great climate for the leaf).

The Colonists, particularly those in Virginia and Massachusetts, didn’t see it that way. The reason that “debtors” makes its way into the title of Holton’s book is telling. He wasn’t talking about Dickensian debtors living in squalor; he was talking about the Virginia gentry, which found itself constantly in debt to British merchants. Those gentlemen farmers were almost totally dependent on the price of their tobacco exports — which varied wildly — but had to keep up appearances by continuing to import British goods (or so they thought; appearances were very important to them, Holton writes). Various British laws also restricted what the Colonies could produce and how they could sell it. At various times, the British banned the Colonies from making their own iron; Colonists could only sell woolen clothing within their own colony — they couldn’t export it. For anything they did export, such as that precious tobacco, it had to be done on British ships.

That meant Virginia planters couldn’t sell tobacco on the European market, they could only sell it through British middlemen, and those middlemen were the ones who profited most. That merchant class in London was growing in political power at home, so parliament was inclined to listen to what the merchant class wanted, while those Virginia farmers across the ocean had no vote at all. The British felt they were being “indulgent” with their North American Colonies when Parliament repealed the hated Stamp Act. The Fairfax County lawyer-planter George Mason was one who didn’t see it that way at all: “Is the indulgence of Great Britain manifested by prohibiting her colonies from exporting to foreign countries such commodities as she does not want and from importing such as she does not produce of manufacture …?” He was complaining about the restriction on trade; the addition of import duties on what Colonists felt they had to import made matters worse. In modern parlance, the Colonists wanted free trade for their agriculture-based economies.

How tariffs helped spark the American Revolution

Are these modern day tariffs bringing this nation to the cusp of a new American Revolution?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Just Who Are These Cheating Bastards?

Donny came to power with the promise of making all the trade partners that US has that are not treating us fairly….then he took the throne and the retaliation started and has continued since January….that is about100 days of so….

We know who he has targeted the likes of China, Mexico, Canada, etc…..but now that it has started I would like to knbow just who the cheating bastards are…..how about you?

If you listen to President Donald Trump and his allies discuss his sweeping tariff plans, one word pops up a lot: “Cheating”.  (That is the common theme)

When he unveiled his initial tariffs plan, Trump said, “For nations that treat us badly, we will calculate the combined rate of all their tariffs, non-monetary barriers and other forms of cheating.”

Over the next few days, other administration figures echoed the “cheating” accusation.

“Our leaders allowed foreign countries to rig the rules of the game, to cheat, to steal, to rob, to plunder,” White House adviser Stephen Miller said on April 4 on Fox News. “That has cost America trillions of dollars in wealth. … They’ve stolen our industries.”

The White House didn’t provide any evidence.

While cheating on trade does happen – genuine accusations of it can be adjudicated at the World Trade Organization – the White House’s formula for calculating tariff rates leaned on how much of a trade imbalance a country has with the US, not on evidence of cheating.

Trump and his allies “tend to use the term ‘cheating’ as any action by a foreign country that leads to a bilateral goods trade deficit with the US”, said Kent Jones, professor emeritus of economics at Babson College, who specialises in trade policy. “On the face of it, this definition has no economic validity, since bilateral trade balances are generally determined not by trade and other government policies, but by specific patterns of trade by commodity.”

Our analysis of the 10 countries with the highest announced tariff rates on April 2 showed they are largely poor and small – and it is these factors, rather than unfair trade practices, that made them susceptible to the highest rates. Such countries export the resources they have and are too small and too poor, or both, to buy much from the United States.

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2025/4/10/fact-check-are-other-countries-cheating-the-us-on-trade

 

And The Game Continues

Here we go again….playing with people’s lives….again.

Our dear Clueless Leader is playing a horrible game of tariffs, pauses and exemptions….all in the name of his buddies making billions upon billions off of stock manipulations.

Lately the markets were sluggish so Donny pauses the auto tariffs for now….give the robber barons time enough for some transactions and the making of billions.

President Trump suggested Monday that he might temporarily exempt the auto industry from tariffs he previously imposed on the sector to give carmakers time to adjust their supply chains. “I’m looking at something to help some of the car companies with it,” Trump told reporters gathered in the Oval Office. He said automakers needed time to relocate production from Canada, Mexico, and other places. “And they need a little bit of time because they’re going to make them here, but they need a little bit of time. So I’m talking about things like that.”

  • The statement hinted at yet another round of reversals on tariffs as Trump’s onslaught of import taxes has panicked financial markets and raised deep concerns from Wall Street economists about a possible recession, the AP reports.
  • When Trump announced the 25% auto tariffs on March 27, he described them as “permanent.” His hard lines on trade, however, have become increasingly blurred as he has sought to limit the possible economic and political blowback from his policies. “I don’t change my mind, but I’m flexible,” he said Monday.
  • Detroit’s Big Three automakers have been lobbying the White House for weeks to have some low-cost car parts excluded from tariffs, Bloomberg reports. Ford, GM, and Stellantis have told the administration they are willing to pay tariffs on imports of finished vehicles and large parts like engines, but import taxes on other parts would drive up costs by billions of dollars and lead to layoffs.
  • Stocks in the Big Three jumped after Trump’s remarks, the AP reports. General Motors rose 3.6%, Ford rose 4.1%, and Stellantis rose 5.1%. The companies have complex supply chains and production processes that cross borders several times within North America.
  • he tariffs on finished vehicles took effect April 3, with tariffs on parts expected May 3. Officials in Canada say that since some parts go back and forth across the border multiple times, the Trump administration hasn’t figured out a formula for the parts tariffs yet, Global News reports.

Seriously?

The “stable genius” is playing an infantile game and making extra cash for the rich sycophants…..if it is so good then how much did you make off these games?

When all this silliness is gone can the economic outlook be repaired?

Watching the wild lines of the S&P 500, U.S. Treasury bond yields, and various foreign markets is how I’ve spent most of the past week. This felt familiar; I’d spent much of 2017 doing the same, following the vagaries of the first Trump administration and tracking the markets’ reactions like a nurse checking a patient’s heart rate.

But despite that familiarity, this isn’t the same as last time. I actually wish it were. This time, there’s no coming back from this quickly. Whoever is elected the 48th president won’t be able to easily rebuild what Donald Trump is busy destroying. Countries can and will move on without the United States. Their firms will establish new supply chains and pursue other markets. Even if the U.S. were the ultra-dominant trading partner it used to be, the credibility of the nation’s promises, its treaties, its agreements, and even its basic rationality has evaporated in just weeks.

The Us after this debacle of ignorance may never be the economic anchor of the world that it has enjoyed for so many decades.

And we owe it all to the idiot  Donny and his minions of doom that he lets run the country and the economy.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Does He Watch The Polls?

Polls are notoriously wrong these days…..but after some of the pull back Donny has done on his policies does indicate that at least someone in his inner circle of corrupt officials pays some attention tom them.

The consumer is not happy with all the game playing from Donny and the thugs….

Consumer sentiment in the United States continued its sharp plunge this month under President Donald Trump as Americans grew increasingly concerned about the prospect of a job-destroying recession in the near future—fears fueled in large part by the administration’s erratic tariff policies.

The University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers, released Friday, found that U.S. consumer sentiment plunged 11% at the start of April compared to last month, a decline that was “pervasive and unanimous across age, income, education, geographic region, and political affiliation.”

That’s according to the survey project’s director, Joanne Hsu, who said that “sentiment has now lost more than 30% since December 2024 amid growing worries about trade war developments that have oscillated over the course of the year.”

Friday’s assessment shows that overall consumer sentiment has fallen to its second-lowest level since the early 1950s.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/consumer-sentiment-plunges

Part of the problem is the cost of food….like the eggs….

For the third straight month, U.S retail egg prices have hit a record high, despite falling wholesale prices, no bird flu outbreaks, and President Donald Trump’s campaign promises—and recent misleading claims.

On Thursday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index (CPI) reported the average retail cost of a dozen eggs rose from $5.90 in February to $6.23 last month.

Trump also said that egg prices “are going down more,” a statement that contradicts not only recent trends but also his own administration’s Food Price Outlook, which forecasts a 57.6% increase in egg prices for 2025, with a prediction interval of 31.1%-91.5%.

Recent record egg prices have largely been driven by an avian flu epidemic that has forced farmers to cull over 166 million birds, most of them egg-laying hens. However, no farms are currently reporting any bird flu outbreaks.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/record-egg-prices

While Donny continues his waffling and babbling his approval rating is taking a nose dive….

President Donald Trump is not well-liked, and, according to new polling, few Americans understand why anyone would approve of the job he’s doing.

…

Recent approval polls show Trump sliding: He’s 13 percentage points underwater in a recent YouGov survey, 12 points underwater in a recent Quinnipiac poll and 5 points in the tank in the notoriously pro-Trump Rasmussen poll.

According to YouGov: “Trump’s net job approval is down 14 points since the first Economist/YouGov Poll after he took office this year, when 49% of Americans approved of him and 43% disapproved.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/04/11/trump-approval-rating-tariffs-groceries-polls/83036443007/

His, Donny’s, tariffs are dooming him in his push to become president for life….the polls illustrate just how pissed the peasants are getting especially with higher and higher food prices….

In the wake of President Donald Trump imposing tariffs on dozens of countries, a vast majority of voters (72 percent) think the tariffs will hurt the U.S. economy in the short-term, while a smaller majority (53 percent) think the tariffs will hurt the U.S. economy in the long-term as well, according to a Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pea- ack) University national poll of registered voters released today.

For the short-term, 72 percent of voters think the tariffs will hurt the U.S. economy, while 22 percent think the tariffs will help the U.S. economy.

97% of Democrats, 77% of Independents, and 44% of Republicans all believe that tariffs will harm the economy. Considering that the tariffs have been dialed back but aren’t going away, that seems like a pretty big problem remaining for Republicans.

https://www.politicususa.com/p/new-poll-bombshell-trump-and-republicans

In case you have not noticed Donny has been waffling lately on the tariffs…..is that a good sign or is he just trying to calm a sleeping beast?

This will be interesting to keep a sharp eye on in the coming days and weeks.

Jeez!  I love this stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Tariffs: The Real Story

***Note this is a rather lengthy post on the tariffs that the Trump Administration are so proud of and with the promise of a better tomorrow.  If you do not care that your life and livelihood are about to change and not for the better then this post will mean nothing to you….pass it by***

Donny’s tariffs are the promise of so much and all it will deliver will be higher prices making your life difficult while billionaires will make up like bandits and without guns.

Let’s begin with the ‘Tariff King”…..that is what Donny named Pres. McKinley because of hos imposing of tariffs back in the day….I explain McKinley’s policies in a previous post….

More Tariff Talk

Here is the real story of McKinley’s tariffs….

It is true that the self-styled “tariff man”—his political opponents preferred the more derisive “Napoleon of protection”—was the biggest public face of mercantilism during America’s high-tariff era of 1870–1912. As a congressman, he wrote what came to be known as the “McKinley tariff” of 1890, and as president he signed another increase in 1897.

But a funny thing happened after the U.S. came out of the Panic (and subsequent four-year depression) of 1893: Goosed by sharp increases in domestic iron and copper production, Americans had too many goods chasing too few consumers. And McKinley himself began agitating to tear down some of those trade barriers.

“What we produce beyond our domestic consumption must have a vent abroad,” he said in September 1901 at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. “The excess must be relieved through a foreign outlet, and we should sell everywhere we can, and buy wherever the buying will enlarge our sales and productions, and thereby make a greater demand for home labor. The period of exclusiveness is past,” he continued. “The expansion of our trade and commerce is the pressing problem. Commercial wars are unprofitable….If perchance some of our tariffs are no longer needed, for revenue or to encourage and protect our industries at home, why should they not be employed to extend and promote our markets abroad?”

McKinley’s presidency was ended by an assassin’s bullet the very next day.  (please do not consider that option)

https://reason.com/2025/04/06/trump-is-wrong-about-mckinleys-tariff-legacy/

Donny has many promises around his ill advised tariffs and his calculations are in error….this analysis is issued by the AEI, a conserv think tank…..

Two scholars at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative think tank, found the White House used the wrong value when assessing the rate at which prices would change as a result of tariffs. The correct version of the formula uses price changes in the cost of imports, meaning how much it costs a U.S.-based company to buy a good from a foreign seller. Instead, the White House factored in the retail price change, which is what consumers pay.

That meant the formula was off by a factor of four, because the White House valued the elasticity of import prices at 0.25 when it should have been 0.945, according to AEI.

“It’s pretty bush league,” Stan Veuger, one of the AEI fellows, told Fortune in a phone call. “For such a big policy you’d expect a much higher level of professionalism.”

Using the wrong value rendered the formula inaccurate, according to Veuger and his coauthor Kevin Corinth.

“Now, our view is that the formula the administration relied on has no foundation in either economic theory or trade law,” Corinth and Veuger wrote. “But if we are going to pretend that it is a sound basis for U.S. trade policy, we should at least be allowed to expect that the relevant White House officials do their calculations carefully.”

Another AEI economist, Derek Scissors, went even further, saying the administration hadn’t made a mistake so much as intentionally fudged the math to get the outcome officials wanted.

“This whole thing was rigged,” Scissors said Monday on CNBC. “It was a manipulated way to get very high tariffs because President Trump wanted to announce very high tariffs.”

https://fortune.com/2025/04/07/trumps-tariff-formula-was-rigged-to-get-inflated-rates-and-it-used-the-wrong-value-for-one-of-its-variables-conservative-think-tank-says/

Donny has taunted is “Liberation Day’ as a miracle off K Street….but he is wrong on so many accounts.

…

Economically, Trump’s fixation on goods makes no sense. This view is not unique to the president (though he feels it unusually strongly). There is a broader fetishisation of manufacturing in many countries. One theory is that it is potentially ingrained in human thinking by pre-historic experiences of finding food, fuel and shelter dominating all other activities.

But for Trump, the thinking is likely related to a combination of nostalgia for a bygone (somewhat imagined) age of manufacturing, and concern over the loss of quality jobs that provide a solid standard of living for blue collar workers – a core part of his political base.

Nostalgia is not a sensible basis for forming economic policy. But the role emotions play in international affairs has been receiving more attention. It has been identified as an “emotional turn” (where the importance of emotion is recognised) in the discipline of international relations.

Of course, that’s not to say that the concern over jobs and the unequal effects of globalisation is misplaced. It is clear that blue-collar workers have suffered in the US (and elsewhere) for the last 40 to 50 years, with governments paying little attention to the decline.

https://theconversation.com/trump-thinks-tariffs-can-bring-back-the-glory-days-of-us-manufacturing-heres-why-hes-wrong-253991

All this from the ‘stable genius’ who supposedly went to the Wharton Business School at the Univ of Penn….but he actually shows a kindergarten approach to economics…..

President Donald Trump said that he hopes to erase the U.S. trade deficit with other countries—but anyone who understands economics knows that wouldn’t be a good thing.

…

A trade deficit isn’t a “loss,” regardless of what Trump thinks. A trade deficit simply means that one country spends more on goods from another country than that country spends on goods from them.

Crucially, economists say that having a trade deficit is not an inherently bad thing at all, because the U.S. simply can’t and shouldn’t make everything. Trump’s insistence that the U.S. is being taken for a ride betrayed a fundamental misunderstanding of economics that is built on a dislike of other countries and a desire to be the dealmaker responsible for a new world order.

Trump warned that it would be the “worst” for China. In 2024, the United States had a $295.4 billion trade deficit with China. Trump said that China would need to “solve their surplus” before he would be willing to make a deal on tariffs.

https://newrepublic.com/post/193677/donald-trump-tariffs-deficit-understanding

Sorry Donny is a lot dumber than most consider….his tariffs prove it….

There’s a lot to say about these tariffs and how destructive they are, and most of it has been said. My colleague Timothy Noah wrote about the stupidity of tariffs as policy and how Trump has already cost him personally thousands of dollars. But I want to focus on something different here. I want to focus on Trump’s understanding of history. It’s so shockingly dumb—yes, even for him—that it’s hard to believe that we have a president of the United States who is this ignorant.

Here’s what Trump said the other day, and he has said versions of it a number of times: “In the 1880s, they established a commission to decide what they were going to do with the vast sums of money they were collecting. We were collecting so much money so fast, we didn’t know what to do with it. Isn’t that a nice problem to have?”

OK. First of all. Nobody can tell what commission he’s talking about. President Chester Arthur empaneled a commission that recommended reducing tariffs by 20 to 25 percent, going hard against the conventional wisdom of the day. But Congress defied him, lowering tariffs by just an average of around 1.5 percent (and yes, that’s another thing—Congress is supposed to set tariffs, not the president, making this move, among other things, an impeachment-worthy “abuse of power,” a phrase invoked by The Wall Street Journal editorial board Thursday).

But more importantly, there’s this. Allow me to put this as Trump himself might on Truth Social: THE MAN IS AN IDIOT!!!

https://newrepublic.com/post/193614/donald-trump-tariffs-dumb-history-income-tax

This is why his policy is so appealing (for now) to the peasants that support him….they have very, very limited knowledge of how economics works…so they will fall for some bullshit story every time.

Donald Trump has once again proven himself to be the most economically ignorant president in US history.

His so-called “Liberation Day” is nothing more than a desperate con job designed to fool Americans into believing he is fighting for their prosperity while, in reality, he is setting the economy on fire. His tariffs, sold as a bold move to protect American jobs and industries, will do no such thing. Instead, they will send prices soaring across the country, driving up costs for consumers, businesses, and manufacturers alike.

Trump has made a career out of blaming others for his failures, and this time, he is pinning economic hardship on foreign nations while forcing American families to foot the bill for his disastrous policies. At the same time, thousands across the world may lose their jobs.

Let’s not forget that Trump promised to cut inflation on “day one” of his presidency. Yet, what has he actually done? He has unleashed an economic wrecking ball on global markets, sending shockwaves through the financial world and triggering a fresh wave of instability.

Instead of taming inflation, he is fuelling it at a reckless pace, proving once again that his economic strategy is nothing more than hot air wrapped in populist bravado. The impact is already being felt worldwide, with British pensions losing billions in value as a direct consequence of Trump’s actions.

(irishstar.com)

But the truth is glaringly obvious to anyone with even a basic understanding of economics: tariffs are a tax on consumers. The burden doesn’t fall on China, Mexico, or Europe – it falls squarely on American workers, farmers, and families.

Prices on everyday goods will climb, businesses that rely on international supply chains will suffer, and the supposed economic “boom” Trump keeps bragging about will collapse under the weight of his own incompetence.

Trying to explain his tariffs Donny used Biden as an excuse….

“Our past ‘leaders’ are to blame for allowing this, and so much else, to happen to our country,” the former host of The Apprentice declared. “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Trump added: “This is despite the fact that the biggest abuser of them all, China, whose markets are crashing, just raised its tariffs by 34 percent], on top of its long term ridiculously high tariffs (Plus!), not acknowledging my warning for abusing countries not to retaliate. They’ve made enough, for decades, taking advantage of the Good OL’ USA!”

Of course he would use Biden….that is a cowards way out.

Sorry people but this whole tariff thing is one big con….

…

“Instead of coming up with a real plan to get American workers a fair shake, he’s making the United States into an international joke and driving up prices for U.S. consumers,” he added. “If Republicans in Congress allow him to keep this up, Trump will keep yo-yoing on tariffs and using threats to pressure U.S. companies to stay in line instead of fighting back against this senseless economic war on American families.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a longtime critic of “disastrous unfettered free trade deals,” said in a lengthy statement that “targeted tariffs can be a powerful tool to stop corporations from outsourcing American jobs… But Trump’s chaotic across-the-board tariffs are not the way to do it.”

“What Trump is doing is unconstitutional. Trump has claimed supposed ’emergency’ powers to bypass Congress and impose unilateral tariffs on hundreds of countries… This is another step toward authoritarianism,” the senator asserted. “And let’s be clear about why Trump is doing all this: to give massive tax breaks to billionaires.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-pauses-tariffs

Side note:  China tariffs will now be 125%….that means that iPhone and Apple geeks will be paying through the nose for the product….will they still wait in long lines for the newest version?

People need to read this especially those ‘smart’ people that think Donny is on their side.

As proof that he is not on your side…..after his infamous rollback….

Donald Trump is openly bragging about just how much money his billionaire buddies made off of his dangerous tariff gambit.

After announcing a 90-day pause Wednesday on his sweeping “reciprocal tariff” policy on nearly every country—with the exception of China—Trump was excited to take credit for making a buck for his guests at the Oval Office.

“He made $2.5 million today, and he made $900 million! That’s not bad,” Trump said, pointing to financial investor Charles Schwab and Roger Penske, a Nascar team owner, respectively.

Schwab’s estimated net worth is $12.6 billion, while Penske’s is $5.6 billion.

Bloomberg reported that Wednesday was the “best day ever” for billionaires, as the world’s wealthiest people raked in a heaping $304 billion as the markets shot back up.

The day’s biggest individual winner should come as no surprise: Elon Musk made a whopping $36 billion as Tesla stock soared up 23 percent. Trump’s surprising decision to temporarily back off his steep tariffs has sparked major concerns of obvious market manipulation, and even potential insider trading.

https://newrepublic.com/post/193860/donald-trump-brags-tariff-pause-made-billionaires-richer

How much did you make off his game?

Please look at all angles and stop letting petty biases get in the way.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What F*cking Game Is This?

Donny and his tariffs is nothing more than a wealth generating scheme for him and his billionaire buds….it is a game.

Just yesterday his wild swings on tariffs was something out of an economic nightmare…

It began with his statement….

Consumer confidence is sinking, China and the EU have introduced retaliatory tariffs within the last few hours, and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says we’re likely spiraling toward a recession. The president’s response? “Be cool.” President Trump took to Truth Social Wednesday morning to share the following:

  • “BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!” (link)
  • “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT” (link)
  • “This is a GREAT time to move your COMPANY into the United States of America, like Apple, and so many others, in record numbers, are doing. ZERO TARIFFS, and almost immediate Electrical/Energy hook ups and approvals. No Environmental Delays. DON’T WAIT, DO IT NOW!” (link)
  • The president was unequivocal in comments made Tuesday night at the National Republican Congressional Committee dinner in Washington, DC. “I know what the hell I’m doing,” Trump said.  (He does and it is not something for you or your family).

Then later Wednesday he made another of his wold swing on this moronic idea of tariffs….

President Trump said Wednesday that he paused most of his “reciprocal” tariffs on other countries because people were getting “yippy” and “afraid.” The president said he had been watching the bond market, where there has been a major sell-off, and he thought people were “getting a little queasy,” the AP reports. He said that he expects to reach trade deals with most countries, but “nothing’s over yet.”

  • Leavitt says tariffs will be held at 10%: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the tariff rate would be brought down to a universal 10%, a major reduction from the level imposed on imports from many countries in “Liberation Day” tariffs that took effect early Wednesday, the New York Times reports. She spoke to reporters after Trump posted about the pause on Truth Social and stocks soared. Trump said more than 75 countries had called to seek trade deals—but tariffs on imports from China, which brought in retaliatory tariffs, would be raised to 125%.
  • “Bespoke” trade deals: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump would negotiate “bespoke” trade deals with other countries. He said this has been the president’s strategy “all along,” the Washington Post reports. “You might even say he goaded China into a bad position—they have shown themselves to the world to be the bad actors,” Bessent said.
  • ‘WTF. Who’s in charge?’ Trump’s announcement came as US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was testifying in front of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Wall Street Journal reports. After Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford asked him if he knew about the pause, Greer said he found out about it a few minutes earlier. “WTF. Who’s in charge?” Horsford asked. He told Greer: “This is amateur hour. It needs to stop. How are you in charge of negotiations if the president is tweeting about this from wherever the hell he is?”
  • ‘He is reeling, he is retreating’: Trump “is reeling, he is retreating, and that is a good thing,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a press conference moments after Trump’s announcement, the Hill reports. Schumer said he would keep pressure on Trump despite the pullback. “This is chaos. This is government by chaos. He keeps changing things from day to day. His advisers are fighting among themselves, calling each other names,” Schumer said. “And you cannot run a country with such chaos.”
  • Market swings could continue: Stocks jumped on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq up more than 11% in the afternoon, the S&P 500 up almost 10%, and the Dow up 8%, but investors are worried that volatility will continue. “The tariff clouds parted for the first time today, but it’s too soon to know how sunny the skies will be tomorrow—or 90 days from now,” said Daniel Skelly at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, per the Times. “As welcome as the announcement was, investors can’t assume it’s the end of the tariff story, or that the market’s day-to-day volatility will disappear.”
  • ‘Pause’ could be permanent: “Our working assumption now will be that, cowed by the market response, Trump will repeatedly extend the ‘pause’ meaning that this will end up looking a lot like the 10% universal tariff that he campaigned on,” Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist at Capital Economics, said Wednesday, per the Journal. “In return, other countries will offer minor concessions on their own tariffs and trade practices.”

After telling his butt buddies to buy stocks and then announcing a the ‘pause’…..markets hit record numbers…..and then set about using the American people as an excuse to help his cronies make lots of cash….

US stocks soared to one of their best days in history on a euphoric Wall Street Wednesday after President Trump said he would back off on most of his tariffs temporarily, as investors had desperately hoped he would.

  • The S&P 500 rocketed higher by 474.13 points, or 9.5%, to 5,456.90. It was the index’s third-best day since World War II.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial leaped 2,962.86, or 7.9% to 40,608.45.
  • The Nasdaq composite jumped 1,857.06 points, or 12.2%, to 17,124.97.

So I ask again….what is this f*cking game?

You guys really do not see what all this economic games is doing?

Looks to me like all this tariff shit is just a cover to help himself and his ass kissers make lots of cash.

At what point do you allow this type of blatant bullshit to continue….time to get off your ass!

(I sit and shake my head)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Liberation Day”: Part Deux

A tariff on penguin crap?

Today the results of Donny’s “Liberation Day” has taken full effect….

The stock market opened on Thursday exactly as predicted—with a thud. Investors seemed rattled as they continued to digest the implications of President Trump’s bigger-than-expected tariffs, reports the Street.

  • The Dow fell more than 1,100 points, or 2.7%.
  • The S&P 500 fell 187 points, or 3.3%. The benchmark index is on track to have its worst day since September 2022, notes CNBC.
  • The Nasdaq, focused on tech stocks, plunged 790 points, or 4.3%.
  • Global markets also sank, and the US dollar fell to its lowest level of the year, per the Wall Street Journal. The dollar weakened more than 2% against the euro, the Swiss franc, and the Japanese yen, among others. Part of the reason is that “foreign investors are losing confidence in US investments that have come to dominate global portfolios,” per the story.

The ‘stable genius’ has done it again…screwed everything up.

Then when looking at his new round of tariffs we find a bizarre turn…..the McDonald Islands.

The unveiling of President Trump’s tariffs on Wednesday had White House journalists reaching for their atlases—or at least Google. On the list of penalized nations is one that’s actually an Australian territory in the Antarctic called Heard Island and McDonald Islands. Its inclusion is a bit of a puzzler:

  • Remote: The islands are about as remote as you can get, explains Wired. No humans live there, with the main inhabitants being penguins. It takes about two weeks to get there by boat from the Australian mainland. Combined, the islands are about the size of Philadelphia.
  • Zero trade: The islands were hit with the baseline tariff of 10%, the same as mainland Australia. Their trade with the US is $0, thus making the new penalty “somewhat moot,” notes the Washington Post.
  • Another island: The US imposed an even bigger tariff, 29%, on another remote Antarctic territory managed by Australia—Norfolk Island, per the Guardian. It has about 2,000 people and does conduct some trade with the US, with the big export being about $400,000 worth of leather footwear, according to stats from the Observatory of Economic Complexity. However, officials from the territory and Australia dispute those figures and voiced disbelief.
  • Leader vents: “Norfolk Island has got a 29% tariff,” said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. “I’m not quite sure that Norfolk Island, with respect to it, is a trade competitor with the giant economy of the United States, but that just shows and exemplifies the fact that nowhere on Earth is safe from this.”

There is a possibility of making a case against Norfolk Island….but what do the penguins on McDonald Islands produce that we import?

Penguin crap.

Have you ever considered where Donny got his idea for all these tariffs?

Here it is.

This is the formula that Trump's team says was used to calculate reciprocal tariffs. (Source: Office of the United States Trade Representative)

The formula shown uses a country’s trade surplus as the numerator — with “x” representing total exports for a given nation and “m” representing total imports.

That was then divided by total exports. In the below formula “ε” represents price elasticity for import demand and was set at 4. Meanwhile, “φ” represents the elasticity of import prices and was set to 0.25 — effectively canceling each other out.

Does that sound like Greek to you….well is because it is bullsh*t.  As much bullsh*t as the Laffer Curve theory (think trickledown economics)….this math is embarrassing….the reciprocal tariffs turned out not to be based on actual levies imposed by other countries. Instead, they’re based on a formula made up by the White House ― and widely mocked by experts.Instead of strategically imposing tariffs, Trump has chosen to “give the country the most massive tax increase in its history, possibly exceeding $1 trillion on an annual basis, which comes to $7,000 per household,” warned Center for Economic and Policy Research co-founder and senior economist Dean Baker. “And this tax hike will primarily hit moderate and middle-income families. Trump’s taxes go easy on the rich, who spend a smaller share of their income on imported goods.”You do realize that all this stupid game will cost you and your family heavily, right?  Can you now see how utterly moronic all these tariffs and such have become?’Stable genius’ my ass!

At what point do Americans start seeing the utter stupidity of this group of thugs in DC?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”