Give them what they voted for – good and hard.
free link:
intercst
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The government will selectively subsidize critical voter blocs which are damaged by tariffs.
Wendy
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Then foreign tariffs on US goods could go even higher, or be extended to other goods as well due to additional subsidies to the tariffed items.
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We will be assured that the soaring profits of the beneficiaries of protectionist trade policy, will, somehow, eventually, maybe, “trickle down” to the people who do the actual work.
Steve
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Fool Around and Blame Emanuel Goldstein.
I assume you know this, but Europe is targeting red states with their tariffs: EU targets €26 billion of U.S. products in tariff pushback | Financial Post
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Balderdash!! No one knows how this will turn out. As always economics is not simple. It depends on how everyone reacts to first round changes. And eventually you get to a new equilibrium. Then maybe you know how it came out. Until then mostly we have speculation.
Tariffs may cause a seller to raise prices but how will customers react? Will they find another supplier or a substitute product that turns out to be cheaper. You don’t know until they agree to pay your increased price. And this can happen thousands of times. By definition economics is too big to get your arms around. You can guess how customers will react but we should admit that is little more than a guess based on logic and maybe experience. Wait and see!!
Not after the tax cut and the immediate bond market fallout.
Last time the farmers got welfare but this time people won’t be so lucky.
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With complex systems some people are versed. They can hold the moving parts in their heads. Just as you have talents with chemistry.
I do not see much of that in DC or in the media.
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I recall some people advocating that “government not select winners and losers.”
What happened to this principled, free market stance?
Have we arrived at a “policy” of free market for you, but “government slanted market in my favor” for me?
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BRUSSELS, March 17 (Reuters) - The U.S.-European tariff conflict is jeopardising transatlantic business worth $9.5 trillion annually, the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU warned on Monday.
AmCham EU, whose more than 160 members include Apple, ExxonMobil and Visa, showed in its annual Transatlantic Economy report a deepening relationship hitting records in 2024, such as goods and services trade of $2 trillion.
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Ever since Ronny Raygun…
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Reagan gave an interesting radio address on tariffs on April 25, 1987. He says
Imposing such tariffs or trade barriers and restrictions of any kind are steps that I am loath to take.
the way to prosperity for all nations is rejecting protectionist legislation and promoting fair and free competition.
High tariffs inevitably lead to … Then the worst happens: Markets shrink and collapse; businesses and industries shut down; and millions of people lose their jobs.
The memory of all this occurring back in the thirties made me determined when I came to Washington to spare the American people the protectionist legislation that destroys prosperity.
You can watch a video of Reagan reading the speech
https://youtu.be/5t5QK03KXPc?si=FAN7LQrL1b-gTviU
and read the transcript at the Reagan Library
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Harrumph!
n May 1981, with the American auto industry mired in recession, Japanese car makers agreed to limit exports of passenger cars to the United States. This “voluntary export restraint” (VER) program, initially supported by the Reagan administration, allowed only 1.68 million Japanese cars into the U.S. each year. The cap was raised to 1.85 million cars in 1984, and to 2.30 million in 1985, before the program was terminated in 1994.
The 1983 motorcycle tariff, or Memorandum on Heavyweight Motorcycle Imports, was a presidential memorandum ordering a 45% tariff on heavyweight motorcycles imported to the United States, signed by President Ronald Reagan on April 1, 1983, on the US International Trade Commission recommendation to approve Harley-Davidson’s petition for import relief. The tariff expired in 1988
Harley was a particular interest of Malcolm Forbes. Forbes had Reagan’s ear. So, of course…
Steve
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Double balderdash! Most everyone knows how this will turn out. It’s not like tariffs haven’t been tried before.
In 2002, Pres Bush installed tariffs on steel to protect the US steel industry. Steel prices went up as did the cost of making steel products, thereby reducing the demand for those products. Turns out that the US has a lot more businesses making steel products than producing steel. The result according to many studies was a loss of more jobs than existed in the entire US steel industry. https://taxfoundation.org/blog/lessons-2002-bush-steel-tariffs/
The same seems to have occurred with the 2018 steel/aluminum tariffs by trump.
… increased input costs due to the steel and aluminum tariffs are associated with 0.6 percent fewer jobs in the manufacturing sector than would have been the case without the tariffs. We compute that this amounts to about 75,000 fewer jobs in manufacturing attributable to the March 2018 tariffs on steel and aluminum, not counting additional losses among U.S. exporters facing tariffs other countries levied in retaliation. Steel Tariffs and U.S. Jobs Revisited | Econofact
Suppose the US wins the tariff wars and the US now has a trade surplus with China, the EU, Mexico, and Canada. The result will be that all four trade adversaries will have weaker economies and therefore buy fewer US exports. It also means fewer cheap imports for Americans, leading to higher prices domestic prices and therefore lower consumer demand. The overall result is reduced economic activity for all concerned.
At best, the US will be economically stronger relative to these four economies but poorer in absolute terms compared to a universe without the tariff wars. What’s the point of that?
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The point is raising enough revenue via tariffs to replace the income tax.
Steve
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No trade surplus for the ‘adversaries’ also means dollars earned from exports to the US go into dollars spent on imports from the US.
So, no funds left over to buy up Treasuries / the US budget deficit.
Fortunately, we are told that in the bright shiny world proposed, even after juicy tax cuts for the JCs, and nice DOGE checks for everyone, there will no longer be any US budget deficits.
I bow to the ingenuity of the masterplan.
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More “getting what you voted for” Extra hard edition:
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The reality of immigration enforcement is that targeting convicted criminals requires time and manpower; it can take half a dozen agents to arrest a single person.
An airport checkpoint – like the one at the San Juan airport in mid-February – can quickly round up multiple people whose immigration status may be in limbo.
Panem et circenses… except panem must be on short supply these days.
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There may be plenty of this kind of Panem coming our way…
Pete
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