What makes you think, if you do, that tariffs aren't already in place in a variety of markets?
American auto companies already have to deal with 10% to go to Europe, IIRC.

Rather than something unilateral, notice this:
Those who are investors, and who pay attention to tariffs, can take advantage of marketing changes driven by government and profit by them.

I suggest that the end game should be to force the (re)development of domestic industry. Regardless of how the modern American consumer clamors for more and more things cheap, exporting your manufacturing is always a bad idea.

We're dumbing down all of our schools and importing all of our trinkets, right?

Tariffs are great... if your plan is to destroy the economy.
http://blog.kentforliberty.com/2018/08/new-tariffs-nothing-to-cheer-about.html

Of course, I would have more sympathy for the tweeted example if it weren't a government meddling with people's choice to own pets by trying to regulate it.

PS: Trump's decisions are always unilateral, and he get no advice from anyone, doesn't look at his own investments and doesn't care that the public isn't entitled to tell him what to do in detail.
OMG, he even has his own phone!

(this is called, "poisoning the well")

Hey, let's not forget the embargo of wheat to the Middle East, which directly led to the formation of OPEC...

...which nations found out after a few years that they still had to maintain a "sweet spot" to keep the money coming, and then found out that as a group they had to compete with non-member sources of crude.

Tariffs are, indeed, a tax on the American people and businesses that use imported goods from the countries whose products are targeted. Rather than having tariffs against China (the targeted nation), simply place a trading ban with that country until their behavior (IP theft, business and military espionage) changes.

IP and military secrets theft cost the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars annually and supports development of those products (without the associated research costs) in an adversarial nation.

Incentivize trade with India while disincentivizing trade with China.

That sounds awful. Has it cost us 15 million manufacturing jobs like NAFTA yet?

I can’t tell you how much cheap and terrible Chinese steel has cost me in replacement firing pins and other gun parts. Not to mention the frame underneath my travel trailer.

Dont get me started on Chinese Seafood and pet food. Quality control there is criminal, and employs slave labor.

I see a tariff as a tax that I as a consumer can chose not to pay. Sadly, I haven't had the same luck with the IRS.

American auto companies already have to deal with 10% to go to Europe, IIRC. ~ Radwaste at August 18, 2018 8:35 AM

Yes. American cars shipped into the EU face a 10% import duty while cars from the EU shipped into the US face a 2.5% import duty. When Trump threatened a tariff to even out the import duties, Merkel acknowledged the disparity and suggested the EU review its import duties on cars - since much of Germany's export car sales are made in the US and Germany had the most to lose from US tariffs on imported cars. Changing the EU import duties will be contentious since, by law, the duty must apply to all imported cars, from anywhere.

Unlike past presidents, Trump is bundling military and economic discussions instead of compartmentalizing each topic in a solipsistic silo. The US funds 22% of NATO's shared expenses and makes up 67% of the total defense spending by NATO countries.

NATO, and the countries in it, are far too reliant on US military capabilities - logistics, firepower, etc. - having failed to develop such capabilities for themselves. John Keegan illustrated European awe at US logistics capabilities in his book, The Iraq War, desribing the resupply of an armored penetration deep into enemy territory:

British observers who travelled with the Americans testified to the awesomeness of the spectacle. 'The armour had halted,' a British colonel described to me, 'dozens of vehicles abreast in the first line and dozens more in the lines behind them Suddenly out of the dust appeared every logistic vehicle you can imagine, tankers, water bowsers, ammunition trucks, mobile repair workshops, ration trucks. ... Sooner than you can imagine the combat echelon was re-supplied and ready to move forward again.' Re-supply, quite as much as firepower or air support, was to be the secret of the coalition's overwhelming of Saddam's forces.

"A tariff is a tax on ..."

No. Stop. That's it right there. A tariff is a tax on imported goods. That's it. Done. Don't need all the rest of that.

And if I have to trade Obama regulation with Trump tariffs, that is a trade I am happy to make. GDP growth is up. Substantially. And that is with interest rates up substantially as well. Are there individuals who are disproportionately hit by such things, yes. So what? That's been true for longer than any of us have been alive. But on the whole things are better economically than they were 2+ years ago.

“The Dane County Clerk said the county is spending more money than usual on dog tags as a result of Trump's tariffs on steel/aluminum.‘If we had stuck with the same company it went from $1,500 to $4,000.” https://www.channel3000.com/news/alum“

These people are really graping at straws here arent they.?

How much of the production costs of dog tags are the raw materials?

> No. Stop. That's it right there.
> A tariff is a tax on imported
> goods.

Paid by their buyers.

> he get no advice from anyone,
> doesn't look at his own
> investments

Delusion of this magnitude needs no countermand: You kids are Venezuela, waiting to happen.

“Delusion of this magnitude needs no countermand: You kids are Venezuela, waiting to happen”

Crid at August 18, 2018 3:43 PM

If I recall correctly in Venezuela they were virtually giving stuff away at below market prices until they ran out of money.

The democratic party has typically been in favor of pro union, pro labor protectionist polices. What changed?

Wait, don't tell me, Trump proposed it. Must be bad.....

From what I read, China is a country that can’t sustain a trade war with the US. I’m willing to see how this shakes out, before I get my panties in a knot about it.

http://www.kitcometals.com/charts/aluminum_historical_large.html#1year

Nope. Just not buying this argument.

Tariffs with your dick in your hand.

He's just a masterful human being, right?

And if Trump's Tariffs are a part of Trump's economy I'll take it - I am much better off than I have been in the last 10 years. Good job, great pay with benefits, and a future that looks brighter than it has in years.

Obamanation is OVER - Thank God!

Wow. You are masterful Crid. Yes, as Isab pointed out tariffs are semi-optional because the buyer can chose who to buy from. And just like sales taxes this tax burden is mostly on the buyer.

And this leads to Venezuela? Oh my god! Our dog tags are destroying the US! Everybody panic! Wa wa wa!

No, you silly little puff, the Venezuela part is your Chavismoid adoration of one of the tawdriest figures in [North!] American life over the past half-century, and your veneration of this proud illiterate as an exemplar of character and insight.

Ethical principle may be too much to ask of the common voter nowadays... So too perhaps is a 10th-grader's rejection of zero sum thinking in economics. Well, okay, no one's asking you to be bright.

But for fuck's sake, you're not in grade school anymore. You're all old enough to know better than to think of any human being in any context as the sole bearer of solutions to matters of such global consequence.

That you would select this multiply-failed & interpersonally incompetent weasel as the locus of your panty-moistened teenage aggrandizement explains the ascendance of shitbaby leftist culture in recent decades. The conservatively-inclinded man on the street is no more coherent in his appreciation of human affairs than is the most censorious, authoritarian lefty.

Hell to pay. But don't come cryin', little girls... Not to me.

Has anyone come crying to you Crid? Seriously, even one?

Once you leave crazy pants land Trump doesn't have that much senseless adoration. I still remember Chris Mathews and his psudosexual thing with Obama. Now that was wierd. I must say it is rather ridiculous that a lifetime New York Democrat is better at advancing conservative principals than any other Republican leader. But most of Trump's 'adoration' is earned. He's actually kept quite a few campaign promises. As for ethics, he isn't doing to bad there too. Honestly about standard for Republican presidents. You just can't get away with much when the media is out to get you.

But by all means Crid actually make a sane argument and back it up with something other than random histrionics. At least Amy pointed out something sorta real. Though the price of dog tags in Dane county don't matter much to me.

So the aluminum tariff is 10% and the steel tariff is a far steeper 25%. And the claim in the article is a small aluminum dog tag would have change from $1500 to $4000, a $2500 increase. That is 166% up. How is this related to a 10% increase in materials costs? Even plan B was a $700 increase, 46%. These are steel tags, not aluminum? Not according to the article.

None of these numbers add up. It is unlikely taxes have anything to do with these cost increases. Far more likely, the economy is returning to traditional growth rates. Wages are increasing and machine shops are more interested making higher profit items, muscling Dane county out. But improving Trump economy costs Dane county isn't that moving of a headline.

None of these numbers add up. It is unlikely taxes have anything to do with these cost increases. Far more likely, the economy is returning to traditional growth rates. Wages are increasing and machine shops are more interested making higher profit items, muscling Dane county out. But improving Trump economy costs Dane county isn't that moving of a headline.

Ben at August 19, 2018 11:34 AM

The thought that occured to me, is a contractor trying to bilk the city government. We got that a lot when I was a contracting officer. Any excuse will do, and in this case, they could blame it on Trump so the media ran with it....

You would be amazed how many people spending other people’s money just pay up, no questions asked.

This is pretty normal with machine shops Isab. They don't want to have any down time since the machines used to be so expensive and were probably bought on credit. So when business drops off prices follow just so they can keep making those interest payments. When business heats back up they ditch all the cheap contracts and focus on the big money. Aluminum dog tags are not a money maker. So they can't compete when real business comes to town.

On the bright side prices on CNCs and other tools are dropping pretty significantly. So the seasonal work stuff is having a smaller effect on price.

> Has anyone come crying

Comments on this blog are a bottomless popcorn pan, with five or ten trivial detonations of resentment at the nature of the liberal project each and every day.

Yes, that is a fine metaphor, and thank you very much. You guys are enamored of your erratic little micro-explosions, carby calories of annoyance in no broader dinner of meaning.

"carby calories of annoyance in no broader dinner of meaning"

I'm stealing that.

Sooo, no one? Not a single person? You've been going off on this tears thing for a couple of years now and you haven't had a single taker? Why are you so worried about it?

> I'm stealing that.

Yours to deploy. It was kinda gay and rainbow-y, and the second biggun in a two-'graph comment, but it still seemed worth posting.

> Not a single person?

Can't you read, bitchweed? All you little Trumpweepers are a castrato chorus of mustache-salting sorrow.

Hell Crid! I've come crying to you? Am I effin sleep walking again? Cause I don't remember any of that.