Tag: Trade War

“I Am The Destroyer Of Countries”

It appears that our leader (I use the term loosely) that it is his right too destroy countries that deems unworthy.

He proved just what a complete idiot he is and his lack of knowledge of the Constitution…..this after SCOTUS slipped him a mickey on his dumbass tariffs.

Reacting to a U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling his tariffs policy unconstitutional, U.S. President Donald Trump launched into an unhinged rant on Friday confirming that he considers himself above the law as any tinpot authoritarian leader would.

The court ruled 6-3 that the U.S. Constitution makes clear that only Congress can levy tariffs, which are really taxes, on the U.S. population. Thus Trump’s extensive tariffs, imposed since January 2025, are illegal and American consumers and companies are due a refund of around $200 billion, the court said.

The ruling unleashed Trump in full psychotic mode, railing against justices as “fools and lapdogs;” the plaintiffs in the lawsuit the court ruled on as “sleazebags, major sleazebags” serving an unnamed foreign power and he announced a new 10 percent worldwide tariff “over and above our normal tariffs already being charged” in defiance of the court.

Trump argues he is still allowed to impose tariffs over the heads of Congress by the authority of the 1974 Trade Act. That act allows a president to unilaterally impose tariffs of up to 15 percent (hence the new 10 percent measures), but only for 150 days, after which Congress must continue them.

However, Friday’s ruling means he must vacate the existing tariffs, which he is so far refusing to do.

Trump tries to justify his existing tariffs as having been imposed under an emergency act. But the court struck that down, arguing in essence there is no economic or national security emergency in the United States today.

In his madness, Trump furiously claimed he had authority to impose embargoes and “destroy countries” but the Supreme Court dared rule he couldn’t even put a single dollar tariff on a nation’s imports. He exclaimed:

“I am allowed to cut off any and all trade or business with that same country. In other words, I can destroy the trade, I can destroy the country. I’m even allowed to impose a foreign country-destroying embargo. I can embargo, I can do anything I want, but I can’t charge one dollar because that’s not what it says, and that’s not the way it even reads. I can do anything I want to do to them, but I can’t charge any money. So I’m allowed to destroy the country, but I can’t charge them a little fee.

Think of that. How ridiculous is that? I’m allowed to embargo them, I’m allowed to tell them you can’t do business in the United States anymore, ‘we want you out of here,’ but I want to charge them $10. I can’t do that.

It’s incorrect, their decision is incorrect. But it doesn’t matter because we have very powerful alternatives … .”

In fact, Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution asserts Congress has the authority to “lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises,” and to regulate commerce with foreign nations.  Embargoes, such as those on Cuba, North Korea and Iran, are imposed by Congress, not the White House (unless there is an emergency).

Trump: ‘I Can Destroy Countries’

This arrogant twat needs to be chopped down a peg or two….he clearly thinks he is an absolute ruler…..time for him learn differently.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

It’s Here! “Liberation Day”!

Warning:  This post contains words that some may find offensive….so if you are easily offended please pass this one by

After about a week of confusion and the lack of information Clueless leader has finally released what his new round of tariffs will be.

Let’s review shall we?

“It’s our declaration of economic independence,” President Trump said at a “Liberation Day” event at the White House on Wednesday, declaring it to be one of the most important days in American history. The president unveiled a slew of new tariffs that were higher than many analysts had expected, the New York Times reports. “Our country and its taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years but it’s not going to happen anymore,” Trump said.

  • Trump declared a baseline tariff of 10% on imports from all countries and extra “reciprocal tariffs” on imports from dozens of countries, the AP reports. They include a 34% tax on imports from China, 32% on imports from Taiwan, 25% on imports from South Korea, 24% on imports from Japan, and 20% imports from the European Union. He said the rate for imports from the UK would be 10%.
  • According to a chart Trump displayed, Cambodia will face the highest reciprocal tariff, at 49%, CBS News reports. The chart showed a 48% rate for Laos and 47% for Madagascar.
  • In an executive order, Trump declared a national emergency “arising from conditions reflected in large and persistent annual US goods trade deficits.”
  • The 10% tariff on all imports, apart from those compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, will take effect at midnight Friday, CNN reports. Officials said the extra tariffs on goods from around 60 countries will take effect next Wednesday.
  • Trump accused other countries of unfair trade practices, saying the US “has been looted, pillaged, raped, plundered” in his Rose Garden speech. “In many cases, the friend is worse than the foe in terms of trade,” he said, per the Telegraph. “We subsidize a lot of countries and keep them going and keep them in business,” he added. “Why are we doing this?”
  • Trump claimed the tariffs were “kind,” saying his administration was only imposing tariffs at half the rate that should be applied based on other countries’ trade practices, the Times reports.
  • The chart Trump displayed, however, showed a tariff rate based on “currency manipulation and trade barriers,” and it’s not clear how it was calculated, the Guardian reports. University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers said the new tariffs will give the US “the highest tariff rates of any industrialized country. And it’s not even close.”
  • The president also confirmed that a 25% tariff on auto imports would take effect at midnight.

WTF?

Just what in Hell did Cambodia or Laos do to piss off the big idiot?

These lame ass crappy policies are from the mind of an fucking idiot.

But the dumbest part of this shit storm is the idea of tariffs on illegal drugs.

President Donald Trump says a primary reason for his new tariffs against the United States’ three largest trading partners is what he calls a “national emergency” brought on by fentanyl flowing across the country’s borders.

Trump says he is holding Canada, China and Mexico accountable for the spread of contraband drugs.

“They’ve allowed fentanyl to come into our country at levels never seen before,” he said in a joint address to Congress on Tuesday night, referring to Mexico and Canada, “killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens and many very young, beautiful people, destroying families.”

You people realize that the importer pays the tariffs, right?

Okay now think about that for just a minute before your brain explodes.

You need some basic economic knowledge to see where this absolutely stupidity will fucking lead.

Here is a breakdown of some of the possibilities….

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/02/nx-s1-5345802/trump-tariffs-liberation-day

Let’s be honest the only people that will suffer are you and your family.

Donald Trump has been labeled the “most economically ignorant president in US history” following his recent actions.

His touted “Liberation Day” is being called out as a mere con job, aimed at deceiving Americans into thinking he’s championing their wealth, while he’s actually igniting an economic blaze. The tariffs he’s touting as a bold initiative to safeguard American jobs and industries are expected to do anything but that.

Instead, they’re predicted to cause prices to skyrocket nationwide, hiking expenses for consumers, businesses, and manufacturers alike.

Trump is notorious for shifting blame for his own shortcomings onto others, and this time he’s attributing economic woes to foreign countries, all while American families are left to pay the price for his catastrophic policies. Meanwhile, the threat looms that thousands around the globe could lose their jobs due to these decisions.

Despite promises to slash inflation from “day one” of his presidency, Trump has instead swung an economic sledgehammer at global markets, causing tremors across the financial landscape and ushering in a new era of uncertainty, reports the Mirror.

Far from curbing inflation, he’s accelerating it dangerously, confirming suspicions that his economic policies are merely bluster cloaked in populist rhetoric.

https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/con-liberation-day-how-trumps-1067011

The markets have not responded well to Donny magic Sharlie…..

The US stock market is poised to open with a steep plunge on Thursday in the wake of President Trump’s tariff rollout, reports the Wall Street Journal. World markets sank as well.

  • Dow futures fell more than 1,100 points, or 2.6%, per CNBC. The benchmark S&P 500 fell 3.3% and the tech-centric Nasdaq was in the worst shape, down 3.6%. Markets in Asia and Europe also dropped sharply, all of which suggests traders didn’t expect Trump’s tariffs to be as large as they were, notes the New York Times.
  • Two big multinational companies in the red were Nike, with shares down 9%, and Apple, down 7%. Companies with a big investment in imported goods also were down, including Five Below (11%), Dollar Tree (10%) and Gap (9%).
  • Many nations were still assessing how to respond after Trump levied a 10% tariff on all imported goods, plus extra penalties on countries the White House considers to be “bad actors.”
  • China, for instance, got hit with a new 34% tariff on top of previous ones, bringing the base tariff on Chinese goods to 54%. In response, the nation’s commerce secretary accused Trump of “unilateral bullying.” A sampling of others: The European Union got hit with a 20% tariff, Japan 24%, India 26%, and Vietnam 46%.

The markets could recover but it will take creative crap for them to do so.

But wait!

Is there any nation/s that failed to make Donny’s ire?  There are nations not on Donny’s list for harsher tariffs…..

The broad new tariffs unveiled by President Trump on Wednesday impose financial penalties on pretty much every country of note. However, Axios points out that one major nation is missing from the list—Russia. The White House says it isn’t about favoritism: Press secretary Karoline Leavitt says existing sanctions on Russia already “preclude any meaningful trade.” Axios, however, points out that the US does more trade with Russia than other nations on the list, including Mauritius or Brunei.

  • Three others: Cuba, North Korea, and Belarus also were not hit with new sanctions, with Leavitt again citing existing sanctions or tariffs.

Why are these American adversaries not on some list?

Do you really buy the bullshit of harsh sanctions precluded them from his anger?

A little economic knowledge would alert you to the possibilities facing you and your family.

I have had enough of trying to keep it civil….Okay let’s call a spade a spade….

Your president is one arrogant stupid motherfucker!  A “stable genius” my boney ass!  Anyone who thinks this stupid shit is going to make life better needs there tiny brain scrubbed out with hot sauce.  There is NO fucking upside to anything this moron you elected is doing.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Watch Your Wallet!

Today is one of those ‘big days’….today the much anticipated tariffs will go into effect on Canada and Mexico and China…..we will see just how successful they are at keeping America great…..

President Trump has said that the US will impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico on Tuesday, saying there’s “no room left” for the two countries to avoid the measures.

Trump signed an executive order on February 1 to impose the 25% tariffs on all goods coming from Mexico and Canada with a carve-out for Canadian oil, which will be hit with a 10% tariff.

Trump paused the tariffs for 30 days after speaking with the leaders of Canada and Mexico, who both pledged to work to stem the flow of fentanyl and migrants entering the US. But Trump said on Monday that drugs were still “pouring into our Country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels.”

Trump also wants to use the tariffs to pressure companies to manufacture in the US and to reduce the trade deficits between the US and its trading partners. He has previously acknowledged the tariffs will cause “pain” for Americans since they will increase domestic prices.

Canada has said it’s ready to hit the US with retaliatory tariffs right away, and Mexico is vowing it will respond as well. Last month, Trump also imposed a 10% tariff on China and said that it would increase by another 10% on Tuesday.

(antiwar.com)

The news that the tariffs would begin and W#all Street had a sell-off in anticipation….

A sell-off hit Wall Street on Monday after President Trump said tariffs he had announced earlier on Canada and Mexico would take effect within hours.

  • The S&P 500 fell 104.78 points, or 1.8%, to 5,849.72.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 649.67 points, or 1.5%, to 43,191.24.
  • The Nasdaq composite fell 497.09 points, or 2.6%, to 18,350.19.

Trump said there was no room left for negotiations that could lower tariffs set to begin Tuesday on Canadian and Mexican imports. That dashed Wall Street’s hopes that Trump would choose a less painful path for global trade, and it followed the latest warning signal on the US economy’s strength, the AP reports. The hope on Wall Street had been that Trump was using the threat of tariffs as a tool for negotiations and that he would ultimately go through with less damaging policies for the global economy and trade.

Canada has made it clear of their one option….

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Monday he is prepared to cut off electricity exports to the U.S. if President Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods go through.

“If they want to try to annihilate Ontario, I will do everything — including cut off their energy with a smile on my face,” Ford told reporters at a mining convention in downtown Toronto, the Toronto Sun reported.

Consumers are already seeing and feeling the Trump effect….in a month of the Trump coronation the confidence is sliding….

 

And so it begins.

Things are about to get more expensive….I have noticed a rise is food prices even before the tariffs went into effect.

Now we have even more problems to look forward to in the near future.

So again….watch your wallet.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Trump’s Trade Wars

Are you a Trump supporter? If so, how do you think his numerous trade wars are faring for the country?

I have written numerous posts on what I think of this sanity that is nothing more than a political stunt.

But let’s look at the results of the so-called trade war with China just weeks before the vote.

trade warAs the curtain falls on the first Trump presidency, it is timely to reflect on what has been achieved – or not. And nothing could be more at the heart of US President Donald Trump’s mission to “Make America great again” than an audit of his
on China.
costly claim….It is more than two years since his crassest, most significant and most
: “Trade wars are good, and easy to win.” The shocking naivety of that statement still makes me shudder. But having declared war, he has fought it, and continues to fight it, unflinching in his conviction that one way or another he will eventually succeed, and that the United States will have been made stronger in the process.
Whether Trump wins another term in office or not, he can take comfort that his good fight will continue. His opponent in the presidential election, former US vice-president Joe Biden, has given
every indication
that Trump’s trade war on China will rage on.
tariff wars. 
But how well served have the US economy, American companies and workers been by the, and unprecedented efforts to roll back seven decades of globalisation and trade liberalisation?
 
I have listened to his drooling slobbering supporters applaud and scream when he mentions what is war is doing to China…..it is nothing but make believe and wishful thinking…..
 
Further Reading…..If you dare…..
 
 
To be honest I am not thrilled with the trade policies of the Dem candidate, Joe Biden, either…..on which I wrote recently….read those thoughts as well…..https://lobotero.com/2020/05/27/biden-on-trade/
 
Learn Stuff!
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”

Are We Winning The Trade War?

Trump came into office promising all sorts of stuff but mostly that he was an expert at trade policies and he would return the US to its rightful place as the world leader in trade.

I have written about this experts consequences of his trade wars…..

https://lobotero.com/2019/03/29/trade-war-consequences/

https://lobotero.com/2019/09/16/trumps-trade-war/

Let’s be honest his policies have been disastrous to this country….only a handful of extremely rich people have benefited from these failed policies….

Some have asked just why has these policies failed other than a total impotent approach to trade…….

Before Donald Trump took office, he promised he was going to stick it to China on trade. When he assumed power, he indeed did so — threatening and then levying tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese imports. China responded in kind, before agreeing to a largely symbolic trade agreement in January only to have it disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The problem the Trump administration was ostensibly trying to solve was America’s enormous trade deficit, which Trump has portrayed as the U.S. being ripped off by foreign countries. This was also the motivation behind the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and a threatened trade war on Europe that is also now on hold.

Yet all these actions did not shrink the trade deficit. On the contrary, the deficit widened for the first few years of Trump’s presidency, shrank back to about what it was before he took office in late 2019, and now has widened once again. What gives?

https://theweek.com/articles/923813/why-trumps-trade-war-failed

My thought is if we are to trade with other nations that maybe a more inclusive talks and a mutual beneficial agreements would help everybody.

Instead we are “going it alone”…..and the results are noticeable to all….jobs loss…..factors closing……lack of confidence in the US.

Time that we stop acting like the sole nation on this planet and start working with others for common goals.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Tariffs–Trump Weapon Of Choice

Most Americans know that Trump has decided that a good trade war is what this country and the world desperately…..

He expanded his “war” with tariffs…first on two South American countries…..

President Trump leaves for a NATO summit in London on Monday, but first he’s making headlines in regard to South America. In an early tweet, the president announced he is restoring tariffs on aluminum and steel shipped from Argentina and Brazil, reports the Wall Street Journal. Trump accused both countries of manipulating their currencies to hurt US farmers, and he paired his action with criticism of the Federal Reserve, notes Bloomberg, which sees the morning moves as significant. Trump says that by these and other nations deliberately devaluing their currencies, “this makes it very hard for our (manufacturers) & farmers to fairly export their goods,” he wrote. “Lower Rates & Loosen – Fed!”

This is the first time Trump has explicitly linked tariffs to currency moves, per Bloomberg, and “as such, it signifies a potential new phase in his trade wars in which foreign-exchange markets are the battleground.” The US initially exempted Brazil and Argentina from metal tariffs put into place in 2018, but that exemption is now being lifted. The New York Times notes that the two countries have benefited from the US trade war with China: Both have been shipping soybeans and other farm products to China, making up for the shortfall of US exports

France is next in the cross hairs….

The Trump administration is proposing tariffs on up to $2.4 billion worth of French imports—including Roquefort cheese, handbags, lipstick, and sparkling wine—in retaliation for France’s tax on American tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Facebook. The Office of the US Trade Representative charged Monday that France’s new digital services tax discriminates against US companies. The trade office will accept public comments on the tariffs, which could hit 100%, through Jan. 6. The French tax is designed to prevent tech companies from dodging taxes by putting headquarters in low-tax EU countries. It imposes a 3% annual levy on French revenues of digital companies with yearly global sales worth more than $830 million and French revenue exceeding $27.7 million.

The US also criticized the French tax for targeting companies’ revenue, not their profits, and for being retroactive, the AP reports. The decision to pursue tariffs “sends a clear signal that the United States will take action against digital tax regimes that discriminate or otherwise impose undue burdens on US companies,” US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said. He warned that the US is also looking into digital taxes introduced by Austria, Italy, and Turkey. The decision to target France got bipartisan endorsement from GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden. In a joint statement, they assailed the French digital tax as “unreasonable, protectionist and discriminatory.”

I have made my thoughts known on Trump’s sanctions and tariffs….(you can find them in IST archives under “tariffs”)….I believe there is a better way to deal with other countries than trying to punish them for perceived violations.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Closing Thought–17Jul19

Every time Trump or his knuckle draggers open their mouths we hear how successful this damn silly Trump trade war is….but just because he says something does not make it so….regardless what the drooling 30% thinks.

Despite the somewhat positive news that Trump would refrain from slapping new duties on an additional $300 billion worth of Chinese goods – which would have sparked a full-blown trade war. Americans have recently become irritated with Trump’s tariffs and his self-proclaimed label as Tariff Man, new IBD/TIPP polling shows, and first reported by Investor’s Business Daily.

The IBD/TIPP Poll covered 900 responses from June 20-27, 16% of respondents said Trump should increase tariffs if there’s no China trade deal this summer. Another 33% said Trump should remove all tariffs on China, even if a near-term agreement can’t be reached, while 44% said Trump should leave the duties in place.

While the President continues to insist that China pays the tariffs, Americans are starting to become more spectacle that he could be deceiving them

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-29/new-poll-shows-almost-half-americans-think-trumps-trade-war-bad

Corporate media will not report the real story of Trump’s trade policies….instead they will tell the nation what is rosy and what is total manure.

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

The “Rare Earth”

You would think that on this first Saturday of Summer I would be writing something literary…..wrong…..it is something geopolitical  (as usual)……

Rare earth minerals are the cornerstone of the electronic age…….I have tried to educate my readers in the past…..https://lobotero.com/2019/06/04/it-is-about-rare-earth/

As the sector grows and more and more electronics are needed to power a society it is only a matter of time before a rare earth trade war erupts into a major conflict…..

Rare earth minerals have emerged as the latest front in the escalating US-China trade war. Nearly a decade after the Chinese government controversially suspended rare earth exports to Japan during the 2010 Senkaku dispute, similar threats are now being made if the bilateral trade dispute with the US deepens.

How prepared is the global economy for another deployment of the so-called “rare earths weapon”?

Rare earths are an ideal instrument for economic coercion. They are an essential input into a wide range of high-technology products, across the electronics, petrochemical, renewable energy and defence sectors. As there are few economically-feasible substitutes for their use, any suspension to rare earth value chains would have a disastrous impact on an economy’s technological ecosystem.

This article below is what made me start this post……the rise of electric cars will mean much more destructive mining…..

Climate warriors like to imagine a future where electric cars put oil companies out of business. Firms would stop injecting known carcinogens into the ground to break up the layer of hard, shale rock hiding stores of fuel, and they would no longer plumb the ocean depths for oil, letting sticky black goo leak into the sea.

To get to that future — a future where we don’t need to dig oil out of the ground— companies will need to dig a whole lot of metal out of the ground, and that’s potentially bad news for people who work in mines or live nearby.

Like solar panels and wind turbines, electric car batteries are made from some of the most hard-to-get metals on Earth— dysprosium, neodymium, manganese, cobalt and lithium — the list of materials reads like Tony Stark’s shopping list. Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers are going to need a lot more of these metals if we are to build enough electric cars to keep warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the stated goal of the Paris Climate Agreement.

More electric cars means more destructive mining

As with everything….one step forward, two steps backwards.

Enjoy the the first days of Summer.

Tariffs–Winners And Losers And Economics

Our Trade War With China!  Who’s gonna win and who gonna lose?

With all the words flying around about this legal aspect or another…..the news on our trade war with China takes a back seat…..but I think it needs to be in the forefront……

I found an article that tells the winners and losers in this trade war (I am hoping that you will actually read the referenced article)…..areas of our economy like technology, agriculture, steel, etc……

U.S. companies in everything from computer chips to tractors have said President Donald Trump’s trade wars, including disputes with Beijing and global steel tariffs, have had an impact on them.

Even for some of the expected winners, such as steel companies, the benefits of the president’s tariffs are not entirely clear.

Trump said on May 5 he would raise tariffs on $200 billion (£159 billion) worth of Chinese goods from 10% to 25%, ratcheting up pressure on Beijing to agree to a deal.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-trade-china-winners-losers-factbo/winners-and-losers-in-trumps-trade-war-with-china-idUKKCN1TK1UM

And yet the markets have not tanked on the bad news for the bigger of our corporations…..

Is this a good thing…… these tariffs?

This “Booming Economy” that we hear about from Trump, the GOP and others is looking a lot like the economy……wait for it……under Obama…..

In some key ways, the Donald Trump economy, on fire last year but slowing this year, is starting to resemble the one he inherited from his predecessor .

There are the rock-bottom bond yields, plodding economic growth and, not to be understated, the Federal Reserve seemingly pulling all the strings, a role that was only exacerbated in the days since the financial crisis and Great Recession and continues to the present day.

Those similarities came into even sharper focus this week, when the benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield fell below 2% for the first time since Trump became president, and the Fed’s indication, if something just short of an outright promise, that it soon will be cutting rates about half a year since its most recent hike.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way: The 2017 tax cut and aggressive moves toward deregulation were supposed to pull the U.S. economy out of its glacial move higher. That happened in 2018, but policymakers and Wall Street pros are growing increasingly fearful that a slowdown if not outright recession is on the horizon, and the Fed is being asked again to ride to the rescue.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/20/the-trump-economy-is-starting-to-look-more-and-more-like-the-obama-economy.html

Oh Snap!  All the comparisons to what Obama did…will this make the list for Supreme Beloved Leader?

Me thinks this news will not see the light of day.

There is other news that is missed by the MSM……some economists are predicting a crash is coming…..but can Trump hold it off until after the election…..

If he times it right, Donald Trump might set back the Democratic Party for a generation or more; if he misses, he’ll go down in history along with Herbert Hoover as the guy who brought the nation an economic disaster.

Back in 2007 and early 2008, many of us were convinced that an economic crash was coming, and that George W. Bush and his Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, and Fed chairman, Alan Greenspan, knew it.

And we also thought that they were doing everything they could to hold it off so it would happen after the 2008 election, so if a Democrat was elected they could say the crash was because people were “worried about the incoming Democrats,” and if McCain won it would be his problem, not Bush’s.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/06/18/can-donald-trump-hold-economic-crash-until-election

What do you think?

Would a crash change your mind on voting this time around?

Closing Thought–17May19

We are in a war of words and deeds…a trade war….with China….Our Beloved Supreme Leader went on the Tube and soothed the ruffled feathers on Wall Street and the markets calmed down a bit…..but how about the rest of us unwashed masses that do not depend on Wall Street for our wealth?

Me? I do not shop on 5th Avenue so I want to know how I will fare with Trump’s mash up with China…..

Walmart warned on Thursday that higher tariffs on imports from China will mean higher prices, the AP reports. The comments came after the nation’s largest retailer reported its best sale performance at its established US namesake stores for the fiscal first quarter in nine years. It marked 19 straight quarters of same-store sales gains. “We’re monitoring the tariff discussions and are hopeful that an agreement can be reached,” said Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs. But he told reporters, “Increased tariffs will lead to increased prices for our customers.” Walmart declined to comment on what type of price hikes shoppers could expect and which products would get the biggest increases.

The specter of higher prices was also echoed by Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette. He told investors Wednesday that if a fourth round of tariffs takes effect, that could mean higher retail prices for both store label and national brands. Target, JC Penney, and other major retailers will be reporting results in the next few days and should shed more light on the issue. Walmart, Macy’s and other major retailers have been left largely unscathed by the first several rounds of tariffs since they focused more on industrial and agricultural products. But that changed last week when the Trump administration slapped 25% tariffs on imports like furniture. The administration wants to extend the 25% tariffs to practically all Chinese imports not already hit with levies including toys, shirts, household goods and sneakers.

While Wall Street smiles the rest of us get raped……well our wallets to be exact……not what I signed on for…..

You?