I don’t know what this means. So the prices have gone up, so we are going to raise them higher and that’ll somehow fix things?
So any industry where you feel for some reason the price has arbitrarily risen without organic causes, you think tacking on a tariff would added that?
It’s also inherently illogical in that these auto price increases aren’t really decoupled from inflation at all, ie a 3 series doesn’t really cost more effectively than it did 10-20 years ago. So I don’t know what “ prices never came back down to earth” means
Worth the read. I’m going to dive into Fed Stats on this to see if it’s true. Places like Vietnam are poorer countries and can’t afford to buy our stuff, therefore OBVIOUSLY they’ll have a surplus in trade. That doesn’t mean they’re unfair trading partners.
Agree some manufacturers are in big trouble and may not survive. Need to really go through each manufacturers earnings to see what their actual margins are and what percentage of their sales are US based. Should be pretty clear who is in danger of going out of business after that.
The tariff isn’t just slapping on extra costs - it’s rebuilding our manufacturing base that got hollowed out for decades. When COVID hit, car makers jacked prices through the roof claiming “supply chain issues,” but funny how those prices never came back down once things normalized. This 25% measure finally forces their hand. Look at the data - car prices shot up 30% in just four years while wages barely budged. What we’re seeing isn’t normal inflation, it’s corporate profit-taking because they could get away with it. Foreign manufacturers have had a free ride exploiting cheap labor while killing American jobs. This tariff finally levels the playing field and gives domestic production a fighting chance to increase supply and eventually drive genuine competition - something the market desperately needs after years of consolidation and price gouging.
And you think forcing the companies to produce domestically is going to result in them lowering their prices to this level you want? Interesting strategy cotton.
That’s how inflation works, prices rise to a new level which you never reclaim unless there is deflation , which generally requires economic collapse to realize.
It seems very foolish to force a recession or depression for the purpose of lowering demand and hopefully prices.
It’s just all nonsense. Onshoring makes stuff more expensive not less. Yes we need to produce semiconductors here from a tactical standpoint, no we don’t really need to produce cars.
I legitimately think that you don’t have a basic understanding of how trade works and what it’s supposed to accomplish. There’s a good read out there. It’s called “the wealth of nations”. Read it. It’ll help.
Like has been said 1 million times: the global economy has changed, manufacturing practices have changed and technology has changed as well. Add that to shareholders demanding returns and labor (unions, healthcare, etc.) being up to 80% of fixed costs and it is simple:
those jobs are never coming back at any scale that really matters as these jobs have been in the process of being eliminated since the Industrial Revolution.
Ofc. Just look at baby formula. Cheaper here than anywhere in the world. And the strongest industry. The best. Never any shortages. Ever. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it.
What makes you think domestic manufacturers will lower the price instead of the just barely being below what the foreign manufacturers charge including tariffs?
It’s always going to be corporations maximizing profits.
Not me.. .I dunk on US-made Toyotas because they are pretty crappy compared to the Japanese built ones. I’ve owned my share of questionably made US vehicles - Teslas, one Rivian, two Broncos, Sequoia TD Pro, Jeeps. You buy the US-assembled vehicles not for the QC… but for the fun factor.
Agreed short term pain for long term strategy. Wahhhhh my food is more expensive now so i shouldnt think long term about my kids.
Pretty sure on my way to a masters in econ we dabbled in that book. That was the age of mercantilism and while i will agree conceptually its a great foundational book. It doesnt take into effect current security concerns of today. You love covid so that will be my example…what happened to the global supply chain and many of the goods and services we use today? You think its bad to tariff them into submitting to manufacturing here, as well as paying down or debt at the same time.
Yesterday’s announcement made it clear what is trying to be accomplished. Either have countries reduce the their trade deficits with the US, lower their tariff rates, or entice manufacturing to come back. Their best bet is to get countries to reduce their deficits and/or reduce the rates. Getting manufacturing to come back is not going to happen overnight, if at all. Some of the reasons manufacturing left has to do with strenuous local and federal regulations as well as labor costs. Manufacturers had been in a chokehold in many cases by their own government, making their business operations not feasible, so they left. Some industries don’t even have the skill set within the US working base to produce certain products here. So while I understand the reason for what was done, I can’t understand how it would be implemented so poorly. #1 imposing a blanket reciprocal tariff that takes effect in only a week doesn’t give countries time to respond before immediately hitting the US consumer. #2 a blanket tariff, not done on a product by product basis, is just lazy. If you are going to do it, at least do it right.
That being said, it’s clear there will be short term pain but I don’t buy into the argument that this is going to start a trade war of any sort. The US market is by far the strongest market for many of these impacted nations. To think they will either walk away from us or start a tit-for-tat is not realistic. Most likely, there will be intense negotiations in the coming weeks where countries will announce commitments to importing more product from the US in exchange for lower reciprocal tariffs. The administration will chalk it up to a win.
Americans just don’t understand how much smaller most European cars are. On a family trip to Italy with stuff for two kids we couldn’t really fit in the Q5. In Rome, from hertz, we asked for something bigger and were willing to pay any amount of money. The literal only bigger vehicle they had at this huge location was a stick shift VW Sharan.
It’s not even the Wealth of Nations level complexity. It’s basic economic certainty. Even if @anon27376261 wants to onshore manufacturing, that can’t be done quickly. It would take a decade to build up the supply chain and factory capacity to build TVs, washing machines, waffle makers etc…domestically. and no company is going to do that without the certainy of what the global tariff situation will look like like in 2033.
Tariffs raise prices on imported goods. Once the imported goods reach a certain price threshold, domestic manufacturers WILL (they did it last time) raise their prices because domestically manufactured goods are made better (As far as plumbing supplies go).
