Archive for the Tariffs Category

Tariffs, Taxes, Trade, Trends (August 26, 2019)

Posted in Markets, Tariffs, Taxation, Trade on August 26, 2019 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “They’re back.”

J          “Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the economy.  The tariff jaws are opening back up and may devour us.”

. . .

J          “A tariff is a tax.  A tax raises revenue and raises the price of the tariffed/taxed product and shapes the behavior of the product’s consumers.”

K          “Our good friend price elasticity.  The demand for the tariffed/taxed product changes and in most situations goes down but in unpredictable ways and at a unpredictable rate in different economies and markets and regions and sectors.”

J          “The economists do not know what is going on in the economy as it is and definitely do not know what is going on when the tariff curve ball is pitched into the mess and the morass.”

. . .

K          “The goal is to encourage domestic production, but domestic production is dead.  No businessperson is willing or able or capable of responding to the possibility that there may be some ephemeral interest in a product in America based on a whim in policy this week.”

J          “Why make the effort.  Uncertainty is the greatest foe.  No one is going to open a manufacturing plant in America except perhaps one run by robots that are cheaper than foreign labor.”

. . .

J          “A tariff is a thinly disguised act of war.”

K          “This economy is so fractured and fissured and fraudulent that the next jolt could be the Big Jolt.”       

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Terrorized By Trumpi’s Tariffs (March 5, 2018)”, “Tariffs Are Tarrible.  Oh, And Happy Bastille Day! (July 16, 2018)” and “‘Mericanize:  Monetize, Mechanize And Militarize (December 30, 2013)”.

Bumper sticker of the week:

“Powerful nations can maintain themselves only by crime, little states are virtuous only by weakness.”  Mikhail Bakunin

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Tariffs Are Tarrible.  Oh, And Happy Bastille Day! (July 16, 2018)

Posted in Tariffs on July 16, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The unexpected $4200 surcharge for the schedule 80 steel pipes used to support the solar arrays was a real hit.  If fuel jumped in price during the performance of the contract, the fuel surcharge provision in the contract covered the jump, but he never anticipated that steel would be subject to a tariff and a big jump in price.  He has to eat the loss.”

J          “So they placed tariffs directly on solar panels and indirectly on solar panel support pipes.  I know ordinary homeowners who are also impacted.  While provisioning materials for her addition, a friend found that Canadian lumber is now subject to a tariff and is off the shelves.  Stores stock only one brand in each dimension.  The American lumber is more expensive.”

. . .

J          “Most business persons agree that predictability of even an unpleasant factor is preferable to uncertainty.” 

K          “Folks may be able to absorb the cost, hassle, dislocations and inconvenience of the tariffs individually, but can a just-in-time manufacturing and distribution system survive the jolts collectively?”

. . .

K          “Are the American steel workers better off?”

J          “Are the American lumber jacks better off?”

. . .

K          “Are the Americans better off?”

J          “Is the world better off?”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

Tariffs are not so good

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Terrorized By Trumpi’s Tariffs (March 5, 2018)

Posted in Automobiles/Automobile Industry, Banks and Banking System, Blue States / Red States, Currency, Kleptocracy, South, Tariffs, Trumpi, War on March 5, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “In his latest Twitter tantrum, Trumpi announced that he is going to terrorize the world with tariffs.”

J          “He is a twit.  Everyone but Trumpi knows that tariffs are tarrible.”

. . .

K          “Trumpi may place tariffs on foreign cars.  The BMWs manufactured in the foreign country of South Carolina and the Volkswagens made in the foreign country of Tennessee and the Mercedes made in the foreign country of Alabama all will be tariffed.”

J          “The South is the New Germany.  Lindsay Graham is the Senator from South Carolina, New Germany.”

K          “The South is also the New Japan.  The Toyotas from the foreign country of Kentucky also will be tariffed.  Mitch McConnell is the Senator from Kentucky, New Japan.  Someone said that other countries may place a tariff on Kentucky bourbon.  That will get Mitch in a tither.”

J          “What if other nations boycott Harley-Davidson?  They are made in Paul Ryan country.”

. . .

K          “Makes you wonder if most of the Red States are actually foreign countries.  We may soon need a passport to visit and transit.”

. . .

J          “Tariffs are a toll that takes such a toll.”

. . .

K          “A boycott of Harley-Davidson . . . now them is fighin’ words.  And that’s the problem.  A trade war often becomes a war war.”

J          “Trade wars often become currency wars.  Currency wars often become trade wars.  A currency war combined with a trade war almost always becomes a war war.”

. . .

K          “Putin sent a message on March 1 to the U.S. that seems to have been lost in translation and buried in the cacophony of chaos.  If the U.S. attacks, Russia will respond.”

J          “No one is listening over the din.”

K          “No one is listening.  Too many hurricanes are hurling toward the house of cards.”

. . .

[March 8 – International Women’s Day]

[See the e-commentary at “Bankruptcy Auto Companies (December 8, 2008)” on the auto industry in the South.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

The chaos is getting even more chaotic.

Trade War -> Currency War; Currency War -> Trade War; Trade War + Currency War -> War War

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