Tariffs can be used in a variety of vain and foolish ways — to promote foreign policy goals, to influence other countries’ internal politics, to raise drug cartels’ profits, to pay off big donors.
Trump is imposing a VAT on the USA without calling it a VAT. The insanity that other countries will pay our tariff is a smokescreen for those who have no financial education or those who willingly stick their collective heads in the sand. Taxes always discourage activity and this is no different.
Oh, Clark, you are way too nice. They aren't sticking their heads in "the sand". it is somewhere else where they could use a glass belly button so they can see where they are going. The U.S. empire is sinking and our so-called "democracy" way of life has gone the way of the Dodo bird. King Trump (aka the TACO Clown) is so full of himself. Both he and us are going to find out how full. Going to be ugly. Us Buttercups are going to have no choice but suck it up unfortunately. The Supreme Court and Congress have folded and become impotent. So sad to see the U.S. come to this - but it has.
Don't feel sorry. Not asking for the mental flexibility of a psychological gymnast but when Trump says he wants a minimum of a 10% across the board tariff (Whitehouse.gov April fact sheet), that is functioning as a VAT for the USA. The rates will vary depending upon if he thinks a product is cool, a donor has an interest in the product, or whatever Trump had for dinner and how it agrees with him, or not.
Repeating your weak argument does not validate it. It is a de-facto VAT. I pay the "Trump tax" and then pass it on to my customers as part of the sales price. Why is this so hard for you to wrap your mind around it? No foreign company or country reimburses my company for the tariff. Thus, the consumer pays...every...time!
Typical Worthless - just so typical. You give me great pleasure and put a HUGE smile on my face with your incredible idiotic responses. Just so sad. Please keep it up, Worthless, you make my day!
no one gives two S***s about your ability to self-pleasure, get a life old man - I seriously doubt you were an LSO, more like a front to get people to believe your sorry ass dribble.
Worthless - once again, thank you. It is hard to imagine you have any punditry in anything. But, please keep up your yapping. Just so nice to see what type of people idolize the TACO Clown. Just a huge smile here!
Angry, so sad..........you really just don't get it and drinking the lemonade. The TACO Clown doesn't have a clue. He thinks the whole world is like a real estate deal. He has no respect for anyone including us minions/peons here in the U.S. He is spending no money on improving the U.S. And, all some people can think about is somebody else should pay. But others are not going to pay - it is going to come out of the pockets of us Americans. So delusional and so harmful. Just disgusting!
Angry, let's agree to disagree. You are so far off to this ol' man to figurely be laughable. But, you have your view and here is hoping your portfolio continues to grow but if it is in the Market - good luck with that. The TACO Clown is just that. A Clown. No respect for anybody but himself.
I dont agree with your premise. VAT is open and included on an invoice / sales receipt, while tariffs (which are levied on value of a product so are, if not brothers of VAT, first cousins) are hidden in the overall price. Either way, in a competitive market with low margins, VAT or tariffs will be paid by the consumer.
My prediction is that tariffs will fail to lead to any meaningful renaissance in US manufacturing given the huge arbitrage on wages and regulation in SE Asia. For tariffs to drive jobs back to the US, US factories would have to be able to produce at less than SE Asia + 15%. Not going to happen when wage are 10x higher and there are tariffs on the import of raw materials. So we are back to tariffs are a hidden tax on US consumers.
I'm not having a dig at USA as all Western countries are grappling with similar problems. In the UK, manufacturing has no hope given you can "earn" more on welfare than you can working minimum wage. That ratchets up if you can convince a doctor, who has no incentive to properly diagnose, that you have a mental health condition.
You claim VATs are open and included on an invoice, I wasn't aware the EU gov'ts itemize every value-added increment.
The whole nefarious concept behind VAT's are to raise taxes indiscriminately.
-
Depending upon the product, yes, some labor-intensive items may never be completely on shored, however there is so much than can be reengineered, optimized, automated etc...
Automation will likely create greater problems for the low wage, low education, high density countries than the U.S.
Next time you're in Baltimore, Bill, take a drive around the city. Count the shuttered or repurposed factories and then count the cheap retail stores. Trading our manufacturing for Walmarts and Dollar stores, to achieve your "free" trade TALKING POINT is flat out silly!!! Something different had to be tried and I'm ok with it.....let's see in another 6 months, my words will be right here!
If we end up with Tariffs and a national sales tax instead of complicated income taxes, then denying the rich like you from using the loop holes, you talked about, is fine with me. In theory the rich will still buy the best products made here in the U.S. and still pay the most in tax.
Section 232 of The Trade Expansion Act of 1962 gave the president the power to adjust imports if they threaten national security. The Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate commerce.
Tariffs regulate commerce. Clearly unconstitutional. But why should that matter. The Congress has been abdicating their role and handing it over to the Executive Branch for many years now. The Supreme Court has not disallowed these unconstitutional edicts. All the President has to do is declare his actions are necessary to insure national security. The Constitution has been effectively relegated to a dead letter instrument. We've become a country ruled by men, not based on the laws founded on the principles expressed in The Declaration of Independence.
Popped back in for the first time in a month - only to find Bill is still spewing half-truths and completely ignoring Reality. A whole lot of excellent Economic info in the last several weeks - and many, MANY outcomes that show how consistently wrong Bonner has been for the last 16 months. Yet he persists in spite of the laughter and jeers. Are people still paying for this drivel?
I do notice there are a few new arrogantly ignorant twats in the comment section, vomiting out conclusions that don't match what we see happening daily - and doing so with "authority", like that will make more people believe them. Keep going - you've almost convinced me that yes, Orange Man IS bad. LMAO....
Welcome back brother Starboard! You haven’t missed much. Bill does write a few days a month, but it’s mostly his ghost writer spewing out much nonsense about nothing helpful or even honest. The evident truth is that Trump keeps winning, and the leftist keep losing badly. Issues of corruption and treason are coming out daily and our ghost writer here tries to distract with his or her daily TDS bullshit. It does keep the few left wing useful idiots happy, and continues to entertain us Americans. I’ve been so busy enjoying many trips I wish I took at a younger time, but grateful I’m doing it now. The mountains of NC are recovering beautifully, and it’s probably a good time to invest in you bolthole here. Something to consider 😊
Welcome back SE. None of the TDS crowd point out any of the good being done. No mention of the tax breaks for SS or tax deductions for state and local taxes in the BBB or military recruitment passing quotas. No mention of in women sports, or closing the border and rescuing children being used for slave labor.
When you bring up the other choice (kamala) the tds crowd don’t look in the past!!!!!! That could have been our future.
I do enjoy reading all the arguments here though. ;)
Bill: tariffs are created to have a playing field in trade of products between countries. The one thing that stood out in your raving and ranting was how government officials sold their stock before the tariffs were implemented. Where were you when Nancy Pelosi (and husband) bought a bunch of Mastercard stock before congress passed a favorable bill. If you are not going to be fair in your reporting then it’s best to keep your mouth shut. AP
Always in agreement with you Bill, Yup, no sh*t tariffs were a bad idea. That’s like saying, “Maybe mixing tequila and fireworks wasn’t the smartest way to start the Fourth of July.” But here we are, watching the federal government treat the economy like a clearance sale at a meth-fueled pawn shop.
Trump wants to fix trade? Cool, but maybe you shouldn’t start by threatening 35% tariffs on Canada, the economic equivalent of trying to mug Mr. Rogers. What’d they do? Beat us at curling too hard? Look, you don’t need a PhD in economics to know that punishing Americans for buying things they like is…well…f*ckn stupid. This isn’t 1776, no one’s throwing imported iPhones into Boston Harbor. You’re not Paul Revere, Donny, you’re just a guy yelling “China’s coming!” while pantsless on Truth Social and calling it a “massive deal”?
Yeah Donny, so was a cruise ship Norovirus.
You’ve got farmers selling soybeans out of the back of pickup trucks while federal officials are day-trading on insider info like a chimp in a MAGA hat day-trading pork futures on a Fisher-Price laptop during a Red Bull shortage. This ain’t economics, it’s a Mad Libs version of capitalism written by someone who thinks “GDP” stands for “Grab Donuts, Please.”
A 17% tomato tax? Who does that hurt? Not the cartels, genius, it’s hurting taco night! And now we’re flirting with a universal tariff baseline, which sounds less like policy and more like a failed prog-rock band from New Jersey.
This isn’t a trade war. This is a fiscal suicide note, written in crayon by a man who thinks NAFTA was a character in The Lion King.
And the worst part? Congress didn’t even vote on this. We’re just letting the president freestyle taxes like he’s Eminem at a truck rally. Bills of attainder? Nah, let’s just tax individual companies now. At this rate, we’ll have a 25% tariff on oxygen if Canada starts exporting clean air.
But hey, maybe we deserve it. We let it happen. We watched it all unfold like a bad Lifetime movie starring tariffs as the abusive boyfriend you keep taking back because “he said it was gonna be different this time.”
America, we got played by a man who bankrupt a casino, twice. That’s like losing a food fight at a buffet. It shouldn’t be possible.
That's the problem. Is only time for a few comments here. Nobody was yelling that China is coming. China is here. It's in your house it's all over your body. It's in most of your meat processors.... People don't worry about tomatoes.... The drug cartels have overtaken the avocado market completely.
Egypt S -- I enjoy your creative assessments of our chaotic times.
I especially liked, "This isn’t a trade war. This is a fiscal suicide note, written in crayon by a man who thinks NAFTA was a character in The Lion King. And the worst part? Congress didn’t even vote on this."
I believe the discussion of free trade needs to broaden. As I understand, true free trade is not only the lack of tariffs but the lack of any quota or other restriction. For example, it's not free trade if a exporting country subsidizes a product to reduce its price. There are myriad other restrictions obvious and hidden that can be applied. One needs to evaluate the entire market.
Trump is imposing a VAT on the USA without calling it a VAT. The insanity that other countries will pay our tariff is a smokescreen for those who have no financial education or those who willingly stick their collective heads in the sand. Taxes always discourage activity and this is no different.
Oh, Clark, you are way too nice. They aren't sticking their heads in "the sand". it is somewhere else where they could use a glass belly button so they can see where they are going. The U.S. empire is sinking and our so-called "democracy" way of life has gone the way of the Dodo bird. King Trump (aka the TACO Clown) is so full of himself. Both he and us are going to find out how full. Going to be ugly. Us Buttercups are going to have no choice but suck it up unfortunately. The Supreme Court and Congress have folded and become impotent. So sad to see the U.S. come to this - but it has.
...ain't it a "Best Idea Trump Could Have".
So sad to see folks throwing their hands in the air and giving up...
Not the back-bone America I was taught we were...
Sorry for you.
Don't feel sorry. Not asking for the mental flexibility of a psychological gymnast but when Trump says he wants a minimum of a 10% across the board tariff (Whitehouse.gov April fact sheet), that is functioning as a VAT for the USA. The rates will vary depending upon if he thinks a product is cool, a donor has an interest in the product, or whatever Trump had for dinner and how it agrees with him, or not.
Tariffs are not VAT's and do not function as one.
Tariffs punish some and reward others...VATs hurt everyone except the government collecting.
Repeating your weak argument does not validate it. It is a de-facto VAT. I pay the "Trump tax" and then pass it on to my customers as part of the sales price. Why is this so hard for you to wrap your mind around it? No foreign company or country reimburses my company for the tariff. Thus, the consumer pays...every...time!
... and others that manufacture domestic goods do not pay the "Trump tax".
Some will even realize a reduction in taxes!
-
If you are importing now, you are already paying foreign VATs.
VATs are accumulative taxes, layers of taxes based upon each step in manufacturing that is subjectively perceived as added value.
VATs enable stealth taxation.
-
A tariff is one publicized tax of a finite amount or percentage.
Labeling it a "de-facto tax" would be more accurate.
But as it only applies to foreign goods, it is in fact a tariff.
Go live in Moscow, Putin will give you medal for your shit attitude - what an Arseical
Typical Worthless - just so typical. You give me great pleasure and put a HUGE smile on my face with your incredible idiotic responses. Just so sad. Please keep it up, Worthless, you make my day!
no one gives two S***s about your ability to self-pleasure, get a life old man - I seriously doubt you were an LSO, more like a front to get people to believe your sorry ass dribble.
Worthless - once again, thank you. It is hard to imagine you have any punditry in anything. But, please keep up your yapping. Just so nice to see what type of people idolize the TACO Clown. Just a huge smile here!
Wow I was going to say boys let's play nice. And then someone said taco clown. That was very isightful.
..tariff's are not VATs.
VATs are much more nefarious.
Part of the motivation to tariff is due to foreign VATs.
Why should Americans pay foreign VATs?
Tariffs punish some and reward others, VATs punish everyone except the gov't collecting.
Angry, so sad..........you really just don't get it and drinking the lemonade. The TACO Clown doesn't have a clue. He thinks the whole world is like a real estate deal. He has no respect for anyone including us minions/peons here in the U.S. He is spending no money on improving the U.S. And, all some people can think about is somebody else should pay. But others are not going to pay - it is going to come out of the pockets of us Americans. So delusional and so harmful. Just disgusting!
So you thought things were peachy during the four years of the previous administration?
Seriously, who cares about the Biden Administration. That is history.......really, that is your defense of the TACO Clown - he isn't Biden.
Deflect, Deny, Ignore.
Good to know that some things never change....
Pleasure to see you back, SE. I thought maybe you had skipped town for good.
as a defense, it's 100% correct!
Trump is (thank God) not Biden!
Imagine what the U.S. would be today had Harris won!
Correct!
The same mess it was!
-
So, we have a new mess, IMO a better one.
Seems the TDS inflicted can only recite handwringing and doom.
-
Trump is the world's premier narcissist clown.
This elevates him above the rest of the clowns... aka world leaders.
-
Your POV Trump has no respect is puzzling.
TDS folks everywhere tell us Trump loves Putin and Xi.
TDS inflicted ramble on about Trump's affinity for Epstein.
We know Trump is longing for Bessent or Warsh.
Your rant is typical of TDS generalization.
Trump has respect for people and things you don't appreciate or perhaps conceive of.
It doesn't mean Trump has no respect...
To the TDS'd... everything Trump is bad... even the good.
By omitting anything positive (because there are indeed positives to Trump), your frustration and bias is evident.
-
Trump is promoting some long overdue policies that no other politico has even come close to addressing.
You can continue handwringing, I will continue making very healthy gains in my portfolio...
Angry, let's agree to disagree. You are so far off to this ol' man to figurely be laughable. But, you have your view and here is hoping your portfolio continues to grow but if it is in the Market - good luck with that. The TACO Clown is just that. A Clown. No respect for anybody but himself.
😂😂
Which is it us minions and peons, or us Americans? I consider myself to be the latter.
Yay! Defend the police! UP WITH DOWN! Pass the joint and hand me that Taco.
I dont agree with your premise. VAT is open and included on an invoice / sales receipt, while tariffs (which are levied on value of a product so are, if not brothers of VAT, first cousins) are hidden in the overall price. Either way, in a competitive market with low margins, VAT or tariffs will be paid by the consumer.
My prediction is that tariffs will fail to lead to any meaningful renaissance in US manufacturing given the huge arbitrage on wages and regulation in SE Asia. For tariffs to drive jobs back to the US, US factories would have to be able to produce at less than SE Asia + 15%. Not going to happen when wage are 10x higher and there are tariffs on the import of raw materials. So we are back to tariffs are a hidden tax on US consumers.
I'm not having a dig at USA as all Western countries are grappling with similar problems. In the UK, manufacturing has no hope given you can "earn" more on welfare than you can working minimum wage. That ratchets up if you can convince a doctor, who has no incentive to properly diagnose, that you have a mental health condition.
...tariffs only tax those foreign goods.
VATs getcha no matter...
You claim VATs are open and included on an invoice, I wasn't aware the EU gov'ts itemize every value-added increment.
The whole nefarious concept behind VAT's are to raise taxes indiscriminately.
-
Depending upon the product, yes, some labor-intensive items may never be completely on shored, however there is so much than can be reengineered, optimized, automated etc...
Automation will likely create greater problems for the low wage, low education, high density countries than the U.S.
At the present time, Toyota is paying for the tariffs themselves. I was formally in the car business and have a friend who runs a major Toyota store.
Next time you're in Baltimore, Bill, take a drive around the city. Count the shuttered or repurposed factories and then count the cheap retail stores. Trading our manufacturing for Walmarts and Dollar stores, to achieve your "free" trade TALKING POINT is flat out silly!!! Something different had to be tried and I'm ok with it.....let's see in another 6 months, my words will be right here!
If we end up with Tariffs and a national sales tax instead of complicated income taxes, then denying the rich like you from using the loop holes, you talked about, is fine with me. In theory the rich will still buy the best products made here in the U.S. and still pay the most in tax.
Section 232 of The Trade Expansion Act of 1962 gave the president the power to adjust imports if they threaten national security. The Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate commerce.
Tariffs regulate commerce. Clearly unconstitutional. But why should that matter. The Congress has been abdicating their role and handing it over to the Executive Branch for many years now. The Supreme Court has not disallowed these unconstitutional edicts. All the President has to do is declare his actions are necessary to insure national security. The Constitution has been effectively relegated to a dead letter instrument. We've become a country ruled by men, not based on the laws founded on the principles expressed in The Declaration of Independence.
Or another word, banana republic. The exact plan Obama and his handlers had with his “ fundamental transformation of America”…
Popped back in for the first time in a month - only to find Bill is still spewing half-truths and completely ignoring Reality. A whole lot of excellent Economic info in the last several weeks - and many, MANY outcomes that show how consistently wrong Bonner has been for the last 16 months. Yet he persists in spite of the laughter and jeers. Are people still paying for this drivel?
I do notice there are a few new arrogantly ignorant twats in the comment section, vomiting out conclusions that don't match what we see happening daily - and doing so with "authority", like that will make more people believe them. Keep going - you've almost convinced me that yes, Orange Man IS bad. LMAO....
Welcome back brother Starboard! You haven’t missed much. Bill does write a few days a month, but it’s mostly his ghost writer spewing out much nonsense about nothing helpful or even honest. The evident truth is that Trump keeps winning, and the leftist keep losing badly. Issues of corruption and treason are coming out daily and our ghost writer here tries to distract with his or her daily TDS bullshit. It does keep the few left wing useful idiots happy, and continues to entertain us Americans. I’ve been so busy enjoying many trips I wish I took at a younger time, but grateful I’m doing it now. The mountains of NC are recovering beautifully, and it’s probably a good time to invest in you bolthole here. Something to consider 😊
Welcome back SE. None of the TDS crowd point out any of the good being done. No mention of the tax breaks for SS or tax deductions for state and local taxes in the BBB or military recruitment passing quotas. No mention of in women sports, or closing the border and rescuing children being used for slave labor.
When you bring up the other choice (kamala) the tds crowd don’t look in the past!!!!!! That could have been our future.
I do enjoy reading all the arguments here though. ;)
Starry,,,,,How about popping back out for the duration .
Bill is dead right on this issue .
Bill is hand wringing... he nor us know what lies ahead.
I have found thinking positive works much better than hand wringing.
Agree with the positive thinking part. Just do not leave out reality.
I was learned as a youngster reality is for those that can't envision the future.
Reality is now for us old folks to remember we are living our future.
Positively depressing...
Stop being such a philosopher! LOL
Dead is the right word,,,,,for his brain!
Grammar is so cool.
Bill is dead,right.
Bill: tariffs are created to have a playing field in trade of products between countries. The one thing that stood out in your raving and ranting was how government officials sold their stock before the tariffs were implemented. Where were you when Nancy Pelosi (and husband) bought a bunch of Mastercard stock before congress passed a favorable bill. If you are not going to be fair in your reporting then it’s best to keep your mouth shut. AP
Agree Abe, its better to be silent and thought the fool, than to write it down, and remove all doubt 🤔
BILL!! Are you actually quoting Yale! Give us d all a break! C’mon we know you are smarter than this!
Nissan announced that they are closing their flagship factory in Japan to concentrate on the American market.
X please don’t blow the TDS minds with facts.
Always in agreement with you Bill, Yup, no sh*t tariffs were a bad idea. That’s like saying, “Maybe mixing tequila and fireworks wasn’t the smartest way to start the Fourth of July.” But here we are, watching the federal government treat the economy like a clearance sale at a meth-fueled pawn shop.
Trump wants to fix trade? Cool, but maybe you shouldn’t start by threatening 35% tariffs on Canada, the economic equivalent of trying to mug Mr. Rogers. What’d they do? Beat us at curling too hard? Look, you don’t need a PhD in economics to know that punishing Americans for buying things they like is…well…f*ckn stupid. This isn’t 1776, no one’s throwing imported iPhones into Boston Harbor. You’re not Paul Revere, Donny, you’re just a guy yelling “China’s coming!” while pantsless on Truth Social and calling it a “massive deal”?
Yeah Donny, so was a cruise ship Norovirus.
You’ve got farmers selling soybeans out of the back of pickup trucks while federal officials are day-trading on insider info like a chimp in a MAGA hat day-trading pork futures on a Fisher-Price laptop during a Red Bull shortage. This ain’t economics, it’s a Mad Libs version of capitalism written by someone who thinks “GDP” stands for “Grab Donuts, Please.”
A 17% tomato tax? Who does that hurt? Not the cartels, genius, it’s hurting taco night! And now we’re flirting with a universal tariff baseline, which sounds less like policy and more like a failed prog-rock band from New Jersey.
This isn’t a trade war. This is a fiscal suicide note, written in crayon by a man who thinks NAFTA was a character in The Lion King.
And the worst part? Congress didn’t even vote on this. We’re just letting the president freestyle taxes like he’s Eminem at a truck rally. Bills of attainder? Nah, let’s just tax individual companies now. At this rate, we’ll have a 25% tariff on oxygen if Canada starts exporting clean air.
But hey, maybe we deserve it. We let it happen. We watched it all unfold like a bad Lifetime movie starring tariffs as the abusive boyfriend you keep taking back because “he said it was gonna be different this time.”
America, we got played by a man who bankrupt a casino, twice. That’s like losing a food fight at a buffet. It shouldn’t be possible.
That's the problem. Is only time for a few comments here. Nobody was yelling that China is coming. China is here. It's in your house it's all over your body. It's in most of your meat processors.... People don't worry about tomatoes.... The drug cartels have overtaken the avocado market completely.
On and on....
Egypt S -- I enjoy your creative assessments of our chaotic times.
I especially liked, "This isn’t a trade war. This is a fiscal suicide note, written in crayon by a man who thinks NAFTA was a character in The Lion King. And the worst part? Congress didn’t even vote on this."
I believe the discussion of free trade needs to broaden. As I understand, true free trade is not only the lack of tariffs but the lack of any quota or other restriction. For example, it's not free trade if a exporting country subsidizes a product to reduce its price. There are myriad other restrictions obvious and hidden that can be applied. One needs to evaluate the entire market.
Please stick around
Enjoy your voice of reason