Tariffs are working miracles. Winning!!!!
Do not show this to President Trump, he will not be happy…
In the few months since President Trump unleashed his trade war, predicated on managing back America’s massive merchandise trade deficit, things have gone very wrong, judging by the numbers.
Against expectations of a $70.6 billion deficit, August’s goods trade balance plunged to $75.8 billion – just shy of July 2008’s record high deficit of $76.025 billion…
Notably, the trade deficit was worse than the forecast range $68b to $73.9b from 36 economists.
Whether this reflects pre-emptive actions ahead of actual tariffs is unclear:
- Exports fell 1.6% in Aug. to $137.912b from $140.199b in the prior month
- Imports rose 0.7% to $213.742b in Aug. from $212.246b in July
With exports of food and beverage and Industrial supplies plunging in August (and consumer goods surging).
Imports were dominated by a 3.2% increase in Automotives.
It’s worse then the numbers indicate . Because it reflects foreigners selling more things at a lower price and domestic producers selling less things at a higher price in terms of the value of the dollar.
The dollar will continue to strengthen.. It’s time to put a floating duty on all imports. Which means the duty will only rise as there is capital flight to the US.
You’re absolutely right. Your economic brilliance is simply dazzling: Americans simply aren’t paying enough! We are so fortunate that the Constitution gives the executive branch the power to tax and a president who enjoys levying those taxes!
Stop buying Chinese pears and peaches and can your own. John
Tariffs are good for specific companies and hurt just about everyone else.
Think about how much more pain the middle and lower classes will be affected by Trump’s supposed victory of MAGA by fighting the evil Chinese who we import most of our shit from compared to the upper class and banksters classes who spend what amounts to 3 or 4 months worth of the lower classes gross income on a bottle of fucking champagne!?
When the reset button is pressed it will turn into a nasty, brutish, thuggish life real quick like Thomas Hobbes posited would happen without some form of acknowledged and respected government running things.
Gee, who would have predicted this shit? Me, that is who.
What did I say? I said the US is a huge exporter of goods, and that exports would be hit hard. I also said that people like the Chinese, etc., are likely to take a dim view of US tariffs, and might voluntarily stop buying US goods. Americans could learn to do the same, but will not.
Stupid is as stupid does.
The entire government was run on tariffs, duties and excise taxes until 1913…And American manufacturing dominated the world.
Exactly. Any study of the history of protective tariffs rapidly includes every powerful, industrialized nation on the planet, past or present, from France and Great Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries, to the US in the 19th, to Japan and China in the 20th.
These numbers would have been even worse without Trump’s efforts. Let that sink in.
Fact is, the US let things go too far for too long, and its going to take a while to even stabilize, much less recover.
Central planning NEVER WORKS. We used to condemn government central planning when there was a Soviet Union. Now we embrace it like never before.
Out biggest export to China:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-09-27/bombshell-wsj-story-confirms-systematic-and-methodical-chinese-theft-us-trade
Businesses and the government were warned, by multiple people, nearly thirty years ago that this would be happening. Not a single fuck was given by them.
Tell me more about how this situation benefits America.
Exporters here in Thailand are cook-a-hoop about the opportunities being presented to them on a plate, especially with reduced tariffs by China on the table.