Sunday, August 4, 2019

Trump never had a coherent tariff/farm plan

When Trump was just a failed "businessman," what he did didn't matter so much.
That giant cliff in Thursday’s stock market report comes down to one thing—one big thing. Donald Trump has admitted that his negotiations with China have gone nowhere, his promised deal in which China was going to buy more U.S. farm products never existed, and in a month he plans to increase the tariffs on China to cover another $300 billion worth of goods...
Meanwhile, former Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn admits that the tariffs are doing more harm to the U.S. than to China. Speaking to The Independent, Cohn stated that he didn’t really think the tariffs are impacting the Chinese economy. But they are having a “dramatic impact” on American manufacturing. - Daily Kos
There has been news and discussion, though little of it in corporate "news" media, about Trump's pathological narcissistic and delusional disorders. But what gets far less attention anywhere is that the guy is just so god-damned pathetically just fucking unbelievably stupid.

The latest U.S.-China trade talks broke down after half a day.

1 comment:

  1. Can you link steel tariffs to soybeans ?

    Well, in Trump's mind, he can.

    ICYMI, it tweets this morning, he plans to reinstate tariffs on steel and aluminum from Argentina and Brazil because China is buying soybeans from them.

    In the first 10 months of the year, Brazil has shipped $25.5 billion in farm products including soybeans and pork to China. That’s more than 10 times the value of steel and iron product sold to the U.S.
    In the case of Argentina, soybean shipments to China totaled $2.4 billion in 2017, more than triple the value of the South American nation’s aluminum and iron pipe exports to the U.S.

    Somehow, I don't think Brazil or Argentina are going to back away from selling farm products ... especially since it is US manufacturers that will be buying their steel products.
    The Brazil Steel Institute said the tariffs could boomerang on American steelmakers because they need “semi-finished products exported by Brazil in order to operate” their mills.

    Every day, I just shake my head at the idiotic policy shifts this man does.

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