I’ve heard the Foxian quip about housing prices and the need to drive down home costs. Tell us, what are you gonna do when your home value collapses in the recession, and is upside down with its mortgage?
It's too bad that Trump is illiterate and gets his information from a conspiracy theorist junkie, or maybe he would have read the history books about what happened with Herbert Hoover's tariffs. Or William McKinley's tariffs. You are correct on one thing, however. Trump's disastrous tariffs will go down in the history books as one of the greatest catastrophes to ever befall the United States. It's called reading. Look into it.
My question is this: if tariffs were such a brilliant idea, why didn't Trump do them in his first term in office? He has been advocating for tariffs since 1987, so he did not discover them recently. Here are two possible answers: 1) He was getting capable advice from capable government executives and cabinet members in the first term. He is now getting almost all his advice from Fox News contributors and Elon Musk (i.e., clowns). 2) He knew that tariffs would be disastrous, and if he enacted them in his first term, there would be no second term.
We might lose a little weight standing in the soup lines. Probably gain it back eating government cheese. You'd think people would be satisfied with READING about the Great Depression, but nooooo.... Some people have to re-live it to accept that it happened.
Lumber is only 5-10% of the cost to build a house. Labor is 20-40%. When inflation hits, labor costs will go up. Doubly so if Trump keeps all of the Mexican immigrants out of the country.
Enjoy the ride?? That's some sick humor. Anybody that has $$ in the market thru their 401K or other investments is not going to be enjoying their financial statements unless they're a kool-aid drinking masochist. Then add in the impact on inflation if these tariffs stick which will impact everyone, not just stock market participants. Fun, fun fun.
This is some weird fanfic. Since the GOP apparently creates its policy with ChatGPT, I asked it to respond to your post (since I don’t have time to counter all the dumbassery contained therein). Some odd analogies but I guess no worse than the crap the modern day GOP dreams up. Enjoy! Oh, absolutely—Trump will go down in the history books, likely under the chapter titled “Economics According to Vibes.” Let’s unpack this economic fever dream, shall we? So, tariffs—which are literally just taxes on imports—are somehow not taxes? That’s some next-level Jedi mind trick. “These aren’t the taxes you’re looking for.” Meanwhile, American consumers are picking up the tab like it’s happy hour at the Dollar Tree—except now everything costs three bucks because your tariff-happy messiah wanted to “own” China. And sure, he’s paying down the debt—in the same way a shopaholic “pays down” their credit card by yelling at the manager and blaming immigrants. Under Trump, the debt ballooned like it was trying to qualify for a Guinness World Record. But hey, who’s counting? (Not the GOP anymore, apparently.) As for housing affordability, yes, it’s a disaster—but if you think tariffs are the fix, that’s like putting out a grease fire with gasoline and declaring victory because the house is now warmer. And Truman? Really? Truman dropped the atomic bomb and reshaped global geopolitics. Trump dropped tariffs and reshaped the price of microwaves. Bold comparison. But you’re right about one thing: he is consequential. Like a toddler with a marker is “consequential” to your white sofa. Keep fighting the good fight—for economic theories that would make a freshman Econ 101 professor weep into their chalkboard.
If the tariffs are so awful, aren’t the countries who are retaliating going to harm themselves too? So not only do our tariffs hurt their manufacturing, these countries are gonna hit their own consumers now with tariffs on American imports. Frankly, this course by President Trump looks very intentional and well thought out.
Yes. Because it is a multiple period game, countries have typically engaged in a form of a trigger strategy to make it irrational to do socially non-optimal things. Unfortunately, that all seems too complicated for the MAGA folks. So you think that hurting our consumers and hurting our manufacturing is brilliant because it hurts other consumers and manufacturing. MAGA in a nutshell. Willing to fire through their own foot if they think the bullet will hurt somebody else too.
On one hand, you have the singular nation of the US placing tariffs on the entire world. On the other hand, you all the nations of the world placing tariffs on the US. If you can't suss out the difference, you're a lost cause.
Treasury Secretary tells countries not to retaliate in response to Trump's tariffs | Fox News Yep, banging on all cylinders.
It was always a bluff in order to get some quick publicity but noneconomic win. We have seen the create a crisis and solve it movie…. High stakes liars poker now.