Trump 2025

[Doodoo]

Exactly right. A BIG Joke once again

Americans want more U.S. factory jobs—as long as they don’t have to work them

k Luntz
@FrankLuntz
·
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“America would be better off if more people worked in manufacturing.”

• 80% of Americans agree
• 20% disagree

“I would be better off if I worked in a factory.”

• 25% of Americans agree
• 73% disagree
• 2% currently work in a factory

[Doodoo]

Diamond traders say the $82 billion industry has come to a standstill due to Donald Trump's tariffs and the global trade war. Deliveries through the gem trading center of Antwerp have dropped to about one-seventh of normal levels, the Financial Times reports.

Keep up the good work you devil of a business man

[Barney]

Nvidia’s Made-in-the-U.S.A. Move Follows A Familiar Trump Pattern
The Wall Street Journal (4/14, Olson, Winkler) reports Nvidia announced plans on Monday to produce AI supercomputers in the US, collaborating with manufacturers in Texas. This follows the Trump Administration’s announcement of tariffs on semiconductor-reliant imports. Nvidia’s plan, involving partners like Foxconn and Wistron, aims to boost US semiconductor production. Although Nvidia promised $500 billion in spending, analysts were unsurprised by this figure. President Trump claimed that tariffs influenced Nvidia’s decision. Nvidia’s manufacturing efforts in Texas are expected to enhance production within 12 to 15 months.
Also reporting are Breitbart (4/14, Staff) and TechCrunch (4/14, Wiggers).

[AlexO]

The average Thai weighted tariff rate on US goods is about 8%.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/ge ... t-thai-gdp

Jacks
I know you are quoting the puppet news outlet Bangkok Post but 8% is about as believable as inflation is under 2% in LOS.
Saying that, even with the crazy import tariffs imposed by Thai HiSo protectionists there are still plenty high end European/British cars on the roads (Not so many US made cars)
Plenty European/British food and dry goods in the bigger supermarkets. (Not so much US made goods).
As I said in an earlier post even if money was plentiful there are virtually no exclusively US made goods that I need or want either here or in my home Country.

[papafarang]

The average Thai weighted tariff rate on US goods is about 8%.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/ge ... t-thai-gdp

Jacks
I know you are quoting the puppet news outlet Bangkok Post but 8% is about as believable as inflation is under 2% in LOS.
Saying that, even with the crazy import tariffs imposed by Thai HiSo protectionists there are still plenty high end European/British cars on the roads (Not so many US made cars)
Plenty European/British food and dry goods in the bigger supermarkets. (Not so much US made goods).
As I said in an earlier post even if money was plentiful there are virtually no exclusively US made goods that I need or want either here or in my home Country.

No cheese whizz or miracle whip ?

[AlexO]

The average Thai weighted tariff rate on US goods is about 8%.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/ge ... t-thai-gdp

Jacks
I know you are quoting the puppet news outlet Bangkok Post but 8% is about as believable as inflation is under 2% in LOS.
Saying that, even with the crazy import tariffs imposed by Thai HiSo protectionists there are still plenty high end European/British cars on the roads (Not so many US made cars)
Plenty European/British food and dry goods in the bigger supermarkets. (Not so much US made goods).
As I said in an earlier post even if money was plentiful there are virtually no exclusively US made goods that I need or want either here or in my home Country.

No cheese whizz or miracle whip ?

Absolutely not, not even that popular cats piss Budweiser.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

No cheese whizz or miracle whip ?

I cringe every time I see or hear the word ''cheez whiz'. Why are Thai restaurants so keen to put it on fries, chicken, etc.? Paprika on fries is nice, but not that processed monstrosity.

[papafarang]

No cheese whizz or miracle whip ?

I cringe every time I see or hear the word ''cheez whiz'. Why are Thai restaurants so keen to put it on fries, chicken, etc.? Paprika on fries is nice, but not that processed monstrosity.

Never would try it, glow in the dark mystery chemical yellow substance.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

No cheese whizz or miracle whip ?

I cringe every time I see or hear the word ''cheez whiz'. Why are Thai restaurants so keen to put it on fries, chicken, etc.? Paprika on fries is nice, but not that processed monstrosity.

Never would try it, glow in the dark mystery chemical yellow substance.

Exactly! LOL

[Declan MacPherson]

“I would be better off if I worked in a factory.”

• 25% of Americans agree
• 73% disagree
• 2% currently work in a factory

An increase from 6 million to 75 million Americans working in factories would be MAGAtastic.

[Bandung_Dero]

Back on track:- Been a crazy 24 hours, US markets were unstable all session and finished up in the negative with NASDAQ even worse. The ASX opened flat but been been steadily rising all morning now up over 1.2% across the board including commodities.

As a rule, if the S&P 500 sneezes the Australian markets catch pneumonia!

Very hard to read what is going on at the moment. Maybe the punters are just getting bored with Trump, with his antics, and returning to a normal life.

[Bandung_Dero]

An increase from 6 million to 75 million Americans working in factories would be xxxxxxxx

And where are you going to find 69 million Americans who want to sew buttons onto a shirt or feed shoe laces into Nike trainers?

[Declan MacPherson]

An increase from 6 million to 75 million Americans working in factories would be xxxxxxxx

And where are you going to find 69 million Americans who want to sew buttons onto a shirt or feed shoe laces into Nike trainers?

1. You assume that those are the only manufacturing jobs coming to and/or restarting in the US.
2. NIKE has no current plans to relocate to the US -- tariffs or not.
3. Specialized button-attaching machines are used in the clothing industry to sew buttons onto garments.
4. There won't be 69 million Americans or any other nationality working in the garment or shoe industry in America.

But you go right on ahead and keep cheering for America's failure. If it happens, this worldwide economy that you continue to agonize over (thinking it's the stock market), it'll be worse in other countries and probably worse in yours.

=====
Higher costs for consumers don't affect consumers unless they choose to continue to buy products under tariff. The suppliers/importers/exporters have to decide how much of the tariffs they will bake into the cost of their products. In Trump's first term, it was not rare for suppliers to choose to absorb some or all of the tariff increases in order to sell their products.

Message to the countries with tariffs and barriers against the United States:
Bring down your tariffs, and the US will do the same.

Message to companies in foreign countries who don't want their products hit with tariffs:
Do your product manufacturing in the US, and your products won't be hit by tariffs.

[Bandung_Dero]

1. You assume that those are the only manufacturing jobs coming to and/or restarting in the US.
2. NIKE has no current plans to relocate to the US -- tariffs or not.
3. Specialized button-attaching machines are used in the clothing industry to sew buttons onto garments.
4. There won't be 69 million Americans or any other nationality working in the garment or shoe industry in America.

But you go right on ahead and keep cheering for America's failure. If it happens, this worldwide economy that you continue to agonize over (thinking it's the stock market), it'll be worse in other countries and probably worse in yours.

Sorry, I should not have generalised, obviously you didn't get it. Maybe I should have said "any menial task" (items 2 and 3). Item 4 --- Are you serious? Who is going to make your shirts? WTF are all the tariffs about in the 1st place? The likes of Cambodia, Viet Nam, China etc. priced out of your clothing market if Trump gets his way. You will not make em (as you say without a citation) and Australia CERTAINLY will not. We don't need your markets anyway!

[Udon Map]

An increase from 6 million to 75 million Americans working in factories would be MAGAtastic.

Maybe good for Trump and his supporters, but not so much for the country, I think. The economy of advanced nations is moving away from heavy manufacturing and towards an information based economy. If he were running a business instead of the country, he'd be buying manufactured, labor-intensive products from where they were the cheapest, -- places like Vietnam, Thailand, India.

Perhaps you and the President haven't heard, but we've moved from the Industrial Age into the Information Age.

[Udon Map]

From the NYTImes:

Trump Is the One Who ‘Played It Wrong’ on Tariffs

By Robert Wu
Mr. Wu is a Chinese businessman and blogger who writes about China trade and economics. He wrote from Shanghai.


President Trump’s long-promised trade war with China got going in earnest only last week, and he’s already botched it.

Mr. Trump and his sycophants brag about his deal-making artistry. So they are presumably familiar with some of the basic principles of business negotiations: Have a clear and attainable goal, know your adversary’s pain points (and don’t reveal your own), and make sure you don’t box them in so aggressively that they have no choice but to dig in their heels and retaliate.

Mr. Trump seems to have forgotten these things. His ill-conceived and amateurishly executed tariff war with China has now spiraled out of control, threatening world trade and badly damaging America’s global image. And it is far from certain that he will prevail.

Mr. Trump’s main problem is that he and his team evidently — and wrongly — assumed China was so desperate to protect its exports to the United States that it would simply bend to his will.

China exports more to the United States than to any other country — $438 billion worth in 2024. The staggering tariffs that Mr. Trump has imposed and that Beijing has matched in retaliation will hurt, coming at a time of weak Chinese consumer demand and investment and a struggling real estate market. But China is in some respects better prepared today to hold its ground than it was during Mr. Trump’s first term.

After years of trade tension, tariffs and general decoupling, China is not as economically tied to the United States as before. Many American companies have reduced their presence in China by shifting manufacturing and sourcing to other countries. In 2017, before Mr. Trump began imposing tariffs, 21.6 percent of goods imported into the United States came from China. That fell to 13.4 percent last year. Some of that may be because of the rerouting of Chinese products and components through third countries before they reach the United States, a loophole that the Trump administration is looking to close.

But China has been diversifying its export markets to reduce its dependence on the United States: The value of direct Chinese exports to the United States last year was roughly the same as a decade ago; its exports to the European Union, meanwhile, soared in that period. China also has reduced its overall reliance on trade: Exports as a percentage of China’s gross domestic product declined from 36 percent in 2006 to 19.7 percent in 2023, according to World Bank data.

China under President Xi Jinping has spent years preparing for this expected trade confrontation with the United States, through its messaging at home and by prioritizing technological self-sufficiency, economic security and industrial retooling. In recent months it has taken additional steps to strengthen the economy and promote domestic consumption and is once again embracing China’s leading private sector entrepreneurs, whose dynamism and prominence faded in recent years as the government pursued more state-led industrial development.

So far, it is Mr. Trump who has blinked. Last week he declared a 90-day pause in the steep “reciprocal” tariffs he imposed on other countries after they sparked fears of a recession, crashed global financial markets and caused American business titans to publicly question the president’s approach. His admission that he backed off because investors were getting “yippy” was unwise, showing that he might waver again if the standoff with China persists.

The Chinese government has a range of policy tools it can wield to ease the pain of a prolonged trade war, including billions of dollars’ worth of state funds that can be quickly pumped into China’s capital markets. But Mr. Trump’s negotiating position will weaken by the day as U.S. consumers feel the sting of rising inflation, investors watch their stock portfolios suffer and chief executives see the business outlook darken.

China’s leaders are simply not as vulnerable to domestic pressure as Mr. Trump. This has deep historical, cultural and social roots. Recurring periods of hardship in Chinese history have embedded in the nation’s psyche a capacity for endurance and fortitude. The phrase for this is “chi ku,” or to “eat bitterness.” Younger Chinese today are accustomed to more comfortable consumer lives than previous generations, but chi ku still runs strong.

My grandparents’ generation was hardened by war, famine and social turmoil — memories that have been passed down and remain fresh for most Chinese today. I was born in China in the 1990s, before the country reached its current levels of prosperity. As a child, I lived in a cramped 200-square-foot single-room apartment with my parents; kitchen and restroom areas were shared with more than 20 other households. Our family was considered better off than most.

Instead of voicing worry, most Chinese I know are simply annoyed at the United States and fully support the Chinese leadership’s decision to dig in. In the public eye, Mr. Trump’s assault has only validated the years of official warnings that China needed to prepare for this.

Both China and the United States are trying to change their economic models. China produces too much and wants to shift toward more consumption; the United States consumes too much and wants to produce more. Both transitions are tricky. But it is easier for the Chinese, conditioned to endure hardship, to shift toward producing less and consuming more than for a consumer-centric economy like the United States to move the other way.

Mr. Trump says Beijing “played it wrong” by retaliating against his tariffs. But he gave China no choice; showing weakness only emboldens a bully like him. A severe downturn in global demand caused by his tariffs would undoubtedly affect the Chinese economy. But he shouldn’t wait around for a call from Beijing pleading for a deal. Mr. Xi can afford to sit tight and blame any economic hardship on Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump’s boorish, erratic approach has brought him no closer to achieving his unclear trade goals with China. What it has done is raise the risk of a world recession and make China appear like the more stable and reliable economic partner.

So much for the art of the deal.

[Declan MacPherson]

Are you serious? Who is going to make your shirts? WTF are all the tariffs about in the 1st place? The likes of Cambodia, Viet Nam, China etc. priced out of your clothing market if Trump gets his way.

Assuming again. Who says that a favorable trade deal won't be worked out with countries who provide garments and footwear? Those countries WANT access to US markets.

Not surprised that you're asking what the tariffs are about after the number of times it has been explained.

The main focus of the entire tariff initiative was reciprocal trade -- either through tariffs or free trade. It's up to the countries that have been taking advantage of the US in trade to come to the table. Last count, it was over 100 of them. If it didn't matter to them, they wouldn't care and wouldn't be trying to negotiate.

The third component of the tariffs is to bring all manufacturing back to the US that is sensitive to national security -- namely, steel, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, et al. Trump mentioned again the other day that Covid was a wake-up call for America when all of the things Americans needed were caught up in supply chains from other countries. (Current events is your friend. Or not.)

Americans don't want to depend on other countries for things important to the national security of the United States.

=====
Higher costs for consumers don't affect consumers unless they choose to continue to buy products under tariff. The suppliers/importers/exporters have to decide how much of the tariffs they will bake into the cost of their products. In Trump's first term, it was not rare for suppliers to choose to absorb some or all of the tariff increases in order to sell their products.

Message to the countries with tariffs and barriers against the United States:
Bring down your tariffs, and the US will do the same.

Message to companies in foreign countries who don't want their products hit with tariffs:
Do your product manufacturing in the US, and your products won't be hit by tariffs.

[Bandung_Dero]

The main focus of the entire tariff initiative was reciprocal trade -- either through tariffs or free trade.

Yea, that works well for countries like Australia doesn't it? A free trade agreement that has been flushed down the "dunny", a BIG trade deficit which has been ignored AND a screw you, pay up 10% on our meager exports to the US and consider yourselves as collateral damage while Trump tries to claw back the (so called) trillions he is trying to recover from others. AND NO we didn't want your beef with it's associated "foot & mouth" or whatever disease it had/has.

Is it any wonder some of us are pissed!

[Udon Map]

In Trump's first term, it was not rare for suppliers to choose to absorb some or all of the tariff increases in order to sell their products.

A May 2019 analysis conducted by CNBC found that Trump's tariffs were equivalent to one of the largest tax increases in the U.S. in decades. Studies found that Trump's tariffs reduced real income in the United States, as well as adversely affecting U.S. GDP. Some studies also concluded that the tariffs adversely affected Republican candidates in elections.

Following impositions of the tariffs on Chinese goods in Trump's first term, the prices of U.S. intermediate goods rose by 10% to 30%, an amount generally equivalent to the size of the tariffs.

A study published in fall 2019 in the Journal of Economic Perspectives found that by December 2018, Trump's tariffs resulted in a reduction in aggregate U.S. real income of $1.4 billion per month in deadweight losses, and cost U.S. consumers an additional $3.2 billion per month in added tax.

An April 2019 working paper by economists found that the tariffs on washing machines caused the prices of washers to increase by approximately twelve percent in the United States. A 2019 paper by Federal Reserve Board economists found that the steel tariffs led to 0.6% fewer jobs in the manufacturing sector than would have happened in the absence of the tariffs; this amounted to approximately 75,000 jobs.

A May 2019 Goldman Sachs analysis found that the consumer price index (CPI) for tariffed goods had increased dramatically, compared to a declining CPI for all other core goods. Tax Foundation and Tax Policy Center analyses found the tariffs could offset the benefits of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 for many households. The Tax Foundation found that if all existing and proposed tariffs were fully implemented, the benefits of the Trump tax cut would be eliminated for all taxpayers through the 90th percentile in earnings.

According to an analysis by Peterson Institute for International Economics economists, American businesses and consumers paid more than $900,000 a year for each job that was created or saved as a result of the Trump administration's tariffs on steel and aluminum. The cost for each job saved as a result of the administration's tariffs on washing machines was $815,000.

Yeah, the stable genius knows much more about economics than any economist.

[Doodoo]

Its only getting better.
"Donald Trump doubles down on tariffs with unhinged claim 'just about everything' is cheaper now"

Only, 1374 days
https://www.tickcounter.com/countdown/6 ... -of-office