Quote Originally Posted by Oscar77 View Post
Fox:
I do genuinely respect you, mainly due to the fact that your objections over Trump are atleast based on some logical defined reasons, but we clearly disagree on things.
On the subject of Tariffs, this was announced today:
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics...cks-home-goods
So let me guess, all that additional monies coming in has already spent- for lack of better words?
And when they dropped interest rates on the 24th, that WILL mean an "interest deduction," and there will be another in the fall, so maybe you are mistaken?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money...s/86324993007/

Finally No, Tariffs aren't a "Colorado-style backdoor tax on regular citizens" its a fee paid by Importers on goods they bring into the US. And No, we wont "feel it" mainly due to the fact that we have such a huge economy that we can produce everything we need with out Imports.
Thats one of the main points to Pres Trump implementing these tariffs. He's forcing foreign companies to build plants here for US jobs, taxes and wages. And they are doing just that, TRILLIONS of dollars in investment. And buying American for the same reason.
Fed rate reductions have nothing to do with Tariffs, and are usually cut to help bolster a weakening economy at the risk of increasing inflation even more. They are primarily raised to counter inflation. Rates are cut to prop it up and bolster lagging investment. That's just how our economy works, it's not a "win" for any POTUS.

Make no mistake, I'm not anti-tariff, but it is important to understand them. They aren't free for the end consumer. And while they do drive US based investment into some things, the tariff has to be significant enough to do so. Otherwise, it's just the end-user eventually soaking up higher costs on products that nevertheless continue to be imported.

The reality of our country is that we'll never be manufacturing at scale the crap that China and India produces, nor do we want to. Further, the tariffs are driving investments in other nations, but most of it isn't here. When China has higher tariffs, companies move manufacturing to Malasyia or Vietnam for the time being. They aren't making shoe and toy factories in the USA.

Lets say they did bring all manufacturing to the US. Your product costs would be 500% more expensive for mundane items - shoes, toys, furnature, curtains, that kind of garbage. You'd argue that wages would increase, but they wouldn't. Unemployment would lower, but most people don't want to be minimum wage factory workers anymore.

Where would the labor come from? Lax immigration policy, once again. That doesn't increase your wages.

So Tariffs are not a magic "made in the USA" blanket solution. They work to an extent on things like lumber or vehicles, things we arleady domestically produce and continue to. For other things, they just add inflationary pressure, and it is ultimately the end customer that is actually paying for that in every case. It drives US investment in some industries (and potentially economic growth in those set areas), but still at a much higher cost to the end user.

An interesting thing is if you study the history of Tariffs in the US - and I don't remember everything about it, been a minute since I've touched those history books - but I do recall the prior periods in the 19th century that we heavily turned to tariffs as a solution, it backfired.

Sarah Paine has studied all of this in great depth, fascinating source for history. While I haven't seen this video myself, I suspect it covers everything I've said here but with much better facts/knowledge:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jv3RZBdT34o