Gee, really? You mean when CNN and CNBC are screaming about muhTaRiFFs 24/7, people’s confidence weakens? Huh. Never would have thought that.
It has little to do with that (and I hate MSM). CEOs can’t make decisions when they don’t know what is happening. How do you make purchasing decisions on a large scale? Think about the dealer level, they don’t know the true outcome of what’s happening. Same at the manufacturer level. Uncertainty is destroying everything. People are becoming worried and companies are slowing hiring and increasing firing. This is happening and it’s specific to uncertainty, you can’t blame the media for everything.
If you remove uncertainty, you can at least model things. That’s what needs to happen to get things back on track.
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We’re on the cusp of a depression. And yet it’s a 45 minute wait for a table at Chili’s. Literally last Friday I went to Chili’s with my kids. For some reason they like that place. 45 minute wait. And after we went to a hockey game where it was a 20 minute wait to buy $14 cans of beer. But yeah, depression time cuz tariffs. 
This is the problem with the NY/DC grifters. They never go out into the real world.
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The world is ending since VIX crush Friday didn’t happen today. Hopefully we can have window dressing quarter end Monday anyway. America spends like tomorrow won’t be here!
Not sure who you’re calling a grifter, you reference NY, and I have 212 in my user name. I live in Palm Beach for the last 5 years if you are referring to me.
Just FYI, I’m a data hound, and said data is showing cracks, especially in manufacturing. You scream about MSM at the top of your lungs, but the data is the data. Also, recession or slow down (those odds are creeping up aggressively) and “depression” aren’t the same thing.
In terms of anecdotes, they’re just that, your own personal experience. I was in Duffy’s last night with my wife and kids during the UF game. So in Florida during a Florida March Madness game at a sports bar chain. Couldn’t have been more than 30 people in there. Anecdote, means nothing to me. Maybe it was an off night, who knows, but it’s just that, one personal experience with no true or hard takeaway.
Oh, and I think the data will be muddied as people front run purchases ahead of April 2nd, so making real decisions based on data and probabilities will continue to be extremely challenging.
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Sorry I didn’t even make the connection with your name. Not at all meant to be directed at you. I meant the grifters of the media, Wall St, government who pump out the negative news.
As for anectodes, I’ll take those over what the grifters pur out. Remember the experts said inflation was - what was the fancy and super smart sounding word they used - oh right transitory. Nothing to see here folks, all is well. 4 years later, prices have doubled. But THIS TIME they’ll get it right.
Well, at least they don’t go to Chili’s.
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You forget that 70 million+ people did NOT vote for Trump. Hardly just NY/DC. Your arguments do nothing for the middle class you claim Trump cares about. Ok so Europe/Asia has tariffs on US autos, and? US companies seem to be doing alright. What this 25% will do is 100% raise costs for 300 million Americans ( if they actually go through, 50/50 chance on April 3rd, there’s some sort of deal) what’s the point of it? What do you think will actually come out of it? Except Sabre rattling the middle class here ZERO out of it.
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Man, you all need to stop talking politics and go try to score a discount auto before it’s too late. March Madness = record sales!
I just talked to my local credit union and they said they can’t handle any more loan applications this month.
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i am waiting on Trump to raise the Standard Deduction to 150k.
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I ask again…
If this is so bad for Americans, why does every other country do it? Are you saying all their leaders are purposely hurting their citizens? The free trade at any cost people never answer this question.
I forgot LA and Seattle. My bad.
I’m so old I remember when Democrats running for president supported tarriffs waaaaaay back in 2019 LOL
KEILAR: “I understand your criticism of that. But you say this would be a tool. Is it a tool that you would use? Would you use tariffs?”
SANDERS: "Yeah, of course. If it is used in a rational way, within the context of a broad sensible trade policy, it is one tool that’s available. You’re looking at somebody, by the way, who helped lead the effort against permanent normal trade relations with China and NAFTA because trade policies that we have had in the past have lost us millions of good paying jobs and were written primarily by large corporations at the expense of workers and farmers
Short 6 years later and it’s the most awful economic policy ever.
There is a key part here "If it is used in a rational way, within the context of a broad sensible trade policy, it is one tool that’s available. "
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Yeah but you forgot the rest of the world. Remember nations have interests, not friends.
Canada, unlike Mexico or other LATAM countries, has options. They can forge closer ties to Europe, China, the commonwealth etc. They also have tons of natural resources and a stable effective government. The question remains if the rest of the world is willing to combine forces to stand up against us. The US is stronger than the EU, Austraila, Canada, Commonwealth, etc. But it is not stronger than them combined.
In any case, I hope you’re right and I’m wrong.
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They’re already “standing up against us”. Remember how they currently have tariffs on our goods? These forthcoming tariffs are retaliatory tariffs, which all the purists conveniently forget. If Germany doesn’t want tariffs on BMWs all they have to do is get rid of their tariffs on Fords. They could do that today.
Why won’t they?
That’s amazing, a mere 6 months ago “this economy” at the time I’m sure led to chili’s being empty!
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It’s the worst policy bc there’s no substance to how we are creating jobs and improving middle class. All this talk about tariffs is a distraction to everything else they are doing. The core fundamental issue isn’t the tariffs imposed on our products, its that labor cost in America is way too high. Someone earlier said it best, if we can dismantle unions, and replace manual labor where applicable (like china with robots) then goods CAN BE CHEAP.
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This is going into a broader economic discussion but it’s not just tariffs. You’re too focused on tariffs. Do the Europeans/canadians tariff us? Of course, but they were also buying from Lockheed Martin, Boeing, etc for defense; American real estate, stocks and treasuries for investments; American technology like AAPL, FB, etc.
You think we can just bully the rest of the world and get what we want. I want that too. I wish the world will bend over for us whether it’s foreign policy or economics. But unfortunately, it’s not happening right now
Applications could be the key word though. I received a one word text from a dealer contact today. It simply said, horrible, when I asked about today.
Applications doesn’t necessarily mean funded applications…