Tuesday, April 8, 2025
The Trump administration lives in the libertarian past of Atlas Shrugged, in John Galt's 1957, when US GDP was 40% of world GDP and everybody needed us more than we needed them
They are as stupid as they are insufferably arrogant.
 |
| US GDP as a share of world GDP has been in steady decline since 1960 to just 26% in 2023 |
Ceding tariff authority to the executive was the Congress' way of escaping the political consequences of fulfilling their responsibilities under the constitution, but that may be changing
The phenomenon is mirrored in the states by the enthusiasm for referenda, aka ballot measures, which are promoted as democracy but are in fact simply a reflection of elected representatives' desire to escape the consequences of their votes.
"Hey, don't look at me, that's what the people wanted".
7 GOP senators sign on to bill to check Trump’s trade authority
Seven Republican senators, including Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), the Senate’s president pro tempore, and Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), the former Senate Republican leader, have signed on to a bipartisan bill that would require Congress to approve President Trump’s steep tariffs on trading partners.
Grassley and McConnell have joined five other Republicans — Sens. Jerry Moran (Kan.),
Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Todd Young (Ind.) and
Susan Collins (Maine) — in supporting the Trade Review Act of 2025. ...
It would require that new tariffs sunset after 60 days unless Congress passes a joint resolution approving them.
And it provides a pathway for Congress to cancel tariffs before the 60-day period expires by passing a joint resolution of disapproval.
Trump has already threatened to veto the bill. ...
Trump last week announced reciprocal tariffs on more than 180 countries and territories by invoking his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Yeah, that saying everything is an emergency business has got to go, too
The people didn't vote for relief later, they've endured horrible inflation since 2021 and expected Trump to fix it, not make it worse
Asking the people to make more sacrifices, to get even poorer through tariff-induced higher prices, all for the sake of The Party und Der Führer is really . . . rich.
DOGE World's Elon Musk tries to escape universal opprobrium, calls Tariff World's Peter Navarro Peter Retarrdo, dumber than a sack of bricks
Might as well go out with guns a-blazin'.
Musk is a free-trader who is not down for the tariff struggle.
Monday, April 7, 2025
Kilmar Abrego Garcia will have to wait in an El Salvador prison for the US Supreme Court to decide what to do with him
... Roberts issued a terse administrative order indefinitely lifting the deadline of 11:59 EDT to return Abrego Garcia set by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis. The Trump administration had said that deadline was “impossible” to meet. ...
More.
Trump's biggest tariff, 50%, was on tiny landlocked poverty-stricken Lesotho inside South Africa, over a minuscule trade imbalance of $234.5 MILLION in 2024, which is under a treaty for godsakes
Lesotho's exports to the US in 2024 were valued at $237.3 MILLION lol. Trump now wants 50% of that.
King George III, who also was nuts, was a benevolent king to America compared to this guy.
Trump's biggest tariff was on tiny Lesotho. Here's what to know about the African kingdom.
... Mr. Trump's so-called "Liberation Day" tariffs
included a whopping 50% levy on the small, impoverished nation's
imports, and the Lesotho government quickly said it would send a
delegation to Washington. ...
Lesotho's annual gross domestic product of $2 billion is highly reliant on exports, mostly of textiles, including jeans. ...
The White House claims, by way of [its] formula, that Lesotho imposes 99% tariffs and other barriers on U.S. imports. ...
With an annual gross domestic product of just over $2 billion, Lesotho is largely dependent on South Africa — it biggest trading partner — from which it imports most of its food, selling water in return.
The economy has been heavily reliant on textile exports bound for the United States through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade deal, which provides duty-free access to the U.S. market for some African products. The Trump administration's imposition of tariffs on African nations has raised questions over how likely the White House is to renew the AGOA pact when it expires in September. ...
Trump's top trade advisor is nuts, 0% tariff offer from Vietnam isn't good enough
They're making it impossible for the world, which will end up trading with everybody except us.
... A value added tax is a system used by many countries around the world and is in some ways similar to sales taxes in the U.S. The Trump administration’s argument that the tax should count as a trade barrier is not widely accepted.
“We have tried at the World Trade Organization since the 1970s to get VAT-tax relief, and they’ve told us no every single time,” Navarro said Monday.
The trade adviser also said Monday that the value added tax would be an issue in any negotiations around tariffs with the European Union.
Gold hit another new record high on Thursday April 3, 2025 at $3,167.57
... Gold prices fell to a
more-than-three-week low on Monday amid a wider market sell-off,
continuing their retreat as investors dumped bullion to cover their
losses in other trades on fears of a global recession due to an
escalating global trade war. ...
More.
Car manufacturing jobs, so-called good jobs, already don't pay enough to enable these Detroit auto workers to buy their own homes and have families, and they fear layoffs because of the tariffs
The Wall Street Journal doesn't mention it here.
This guy's been working for the company for 10 years and he's still renting.
... Daniel Campbell, who maneuvers steel auto parts around a Stellantis factory north of Detroit, says he and many of his colleagues are worried about layoffs.
“I’m scared,” he said from his brick bungalow on the west side of Detroit, which he rents with two roommates. “We’re complaining about gas and eggs now. Who is going to be able to buy these cars that are already $80,000, and then you make it $90,000?”
The 46-year-old UAW member, who makes about $30 an hour, and one of his roommates have talked about trimming their spending, including eating out less and cutting clothing and electronics purchases.
“There’s going to come a time where we’re not going to be able to go and spend,” he said.
At work, the assembly lines have been running faster in recent weeks as Stellantis has tried to stockpile parts ahead of the tariffs, Campbell said. He and his co-workers are running out of room to store the parts. ...
Sunday, April 6, 2025
The economy under Biden was a catastrophe now requiring draconian tariffs, just like we're being invaded by Venezuelan gangs everywhere requiring extraordinary measures which violate due process of law
Everything is either awesome or awful, Republican or Democrat, white or black in our hysterical country.
The economy went from being enviable by others in the world in October to a catastrophe just like that in January.
And now it really might become a catastrophe but you'll hear only that it's AWESOME.
Can wage and price controls be far behind?
Elon Musk forgets that Peter Navarro built license plates for four months last year lol
... “A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing. Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem,” Musk wrote in one post. (Navarro earned a PhD in economics from Harvard in the 1980s.)
The Department of Government Efficiency head replied to another user’s comment on the video lauding Navarro’s explanation, writing of the economist: “He ain’t built shit.” ...
More.
 |
| this was subsequently deleted by Musk |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)