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By Connor O’Keeffe
President Trump has declared “Liberation Day” as new tariffs take effect—gambling that Americans won’t mind higher prices or that supply and demand will not apply.
43 sats \ 1 reply \ @BlokchainB 21h
Let the chips fall where they may. I find it odd that it is a mistake when some countries are charging 95% Tariff rate on our imports while we only pay 2%
America is done being the worlds last buyer of resort!
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It's like a lot of the stuff Trump's doing: if it works out as advertised, it might be fine (or better), but if all we get are the tariffs, it will be bad.
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Such a dumb name. I wonder if he came up with it. Feels like something he would come up with to me. Not that I think he's dumb. I actually think he is very sharp.
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So now US consumers and businesses face a hugely distorted global marketplace. Paying higher prices than everyone else and likely to see increased production of goods within America that will only be produced in America because of the tariffs obstruction of free trade.
Trump is admitting that the US economy is not competitive and can only be artificially 'revived' by blocking free trade and thereby creating massive distortion of market signals.
This only makes sense if you are heading into war and need to revive supply chains for strategic reasons...
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we've been at war since at least 2001
us economy was artificially destroyed to build China's manufacturing base
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The US chose to shift manufacturing to China because China could make things cheaper.
This delivered higher dividends to US corporates.
This is how free markets allocate capital and investment- to the use and purpose where they generate the highest returns.
Trumps tariffs seek to overtly distort market signals.
This only makes sense if you are heading into war and need to revive supply chains for strategic reasons...
China has won the free trade war by being structured to make things more efficiently than any other economy can.
China played the 'capitalist' west at its own game and beat them- now the USA wants to change the rules because it is losing at the game it set the rules for.
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"free market" lol
okay bro
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My country of residence charges ALL countries the same uniform tariff of 15% on all goods and has done since the 1990s.
This tariff is the goods and services tax that is charged on all transactions within New Zealand and so charging it on imports simply creates a level playing feild- ie free trade.
The USA in response has refused to negotiate any free trade agreement with us and maintains huge barriers to free trade meaning US consumers have been are still denied the cheaper and higher quality of NZ produce.
The US now loses all credibility by unilaterally reneging on the free trade agreements it had made with countries like Canada and Mexico.
The USA has lost the trade war with China and the rest of the world- it has grown fat and indolent upon the endless spigot of USD money debt printing - and now that USD hegemony is in decline the USA wants to change the rules to hugely distort the global trade markets.
It might buy the US some time but little else- it is most likely to result in a global fragmentation and the US ending up isolated and broke.
Europe and other traditional allies have already been trading more profitably with China and that trend looks like being accelerated by the US tariffs which make most trade with the US even less viable.
Scoff all you like - $36 trillion debt makes USA look insolvent and USD hegemony unsustainable.
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This tariff is the goods and services tax that is charged on all transactions within New Zealand and so charging it on imports simply creates a level playing feild- ie free trade.
this is contradictory.
i don't have time for the rest of it
'The US’s calculation that New Zealand imposes 20% tariffs on US goods entering the country is “outside the realm of reality”, economist Brad Olsen says.
The US has imposed a 10% tariff on all New Zealand exports to the US, claiming that was a “discounted” rate as it faced 20% tariffs into New Zealand.
But that US calculation appears to include New Zealand’s 15% GST, despite the fact that it is charged on all goods and services sold in New Zealand, and despite the fact that the US has its own sales taxes.
“The inclusion of GST is simply not in keeping with what what we are discussing on tariffs,” said Olsen, chief executive at Infometrics.
“Realistically, it’s a convenient way to up the numbers, and create the feeling of greater unfairness,” he said.'
Trump is a looking like poor dishonest loser and a bully. USA set the rules of international trade and still lost the trade war. Now USA seeks to change the rules again to address its chronic trade deficits.
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