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Trump's 15 percent tariff on Chinese goods kicks in
It's the first day of September, marked by a new round of tariffs on Chinese imports, which went into effect Sunday. In latest escalation of the trade war with China, the Trump administration has slapped a 15% tariff on $112 billion worth of Chinese goods (PDF), something consumers can expect to feel when buying everything from milk to diapers to some China-manufactured tech products like the Apple Watch.
But on Aug. 13, the USTR said it would offer a temporary reprieve to a batch of about $160 billion products (PDF) like laptops and cellphones. Those goods won't be subject to the new tariffs until Dec. 15 -- an attempt to blunt the impact of the duties on the holiday shopping season. Trump later raised the new tariff on Chinese goods to a 15% rate rather than the initial 10%.
China retaliated Sunday with its own tariff plan taking effect at 12:01 p.m. local time. It's rolling out higher tariffs in stages on a total of about $75 billion in US goods like soybeans and crude oil. It'll also resume an extra 25% duty on cars imported from the US on Dec. 15.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by The Shire on Thursday September 05 2019, @06:03PM (31 children)
Businesses are always looking to save money, it's what makes business work. No one volunteers to stock toys on a shelf out of the goodness of their heart.
What this helps accomplish is improve the economics of moving some of that industry back inside our borders where it will help Americans earn a living. This is part of the reason that employment is at record highs across the board. It's like being in a family where your father is a doctor, your mother is a tax attorney, and your brother is an IT specialist. You save all kinds of money when services are kept in the family. The US is like that, a big family and everyone wins by keeping the money in house.
(Score: 3, Touché) by DannyB on Thursday September 05 2019, @06:13PM (12 children)
Woo Hoo!!!
Fantastical !
So let me get this right. It sounds too good to be true. So . . . you're saying that I can expect free services from US companies because I'm also in the US family? That is fantastic !
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Flamebait) by The Shire on Thursday September 05 2019, @06:36PM (10 children)
You're missing the point. If your father is a doctor and gives you a free checkup, he loses time and money, but the family benefits. When you keep goods and services inside the country, then the country benefits. And a prosperous country is good for everyone. If you love handing out welfare to people you had better have a prosperous nation to afford it. And if you want a chuck of the American dream, you better have an America that's thriving to give you those opportunities.
Anyone looking to sit on their laurels and receive handouts likely hates a thriving economy because it removes their excuse for sitting on the couch accomplishing nothing.
Anyone looking to improve their life and that of their kids loves a thriving economy because it removes the barriers to success.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 05 2019, @06:59PM (9 children)
No. They dream of a thriving economy, that other people create by their labors, while not having to expend any of their own effort to create that thriving economy which provides them welfare. It's the New American Way!
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by The Shire on Thursday September 05 2019, @07:11PM (8 children)
My god man, if you don't see a thriving economy right now they you never will. This is as good as it ever gets - you should be out there taking advantage of it. If you're not improving your lot in life RIGHT NOW then you're not trying. Too many people prefer to gripe and grumble and shake their fists at perceived inequities instead of getting out there and claiming a chunk for themselves.
If you aren't out there taking advantage of this economy then I have no sympathy for you. But don't expect the vast majority of people in this country who are working and moving forward to willingly vote to subsidize your lazy ass next year.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday September 05 2019, @07:31PM (2 children)
I've been productively working continuously for almost four decades. I don't need any sympathy. I think my life is pretty improved already.
You seem to miss my point that corporations will create the absurd situation I describe -- for their own profit. No matter how easy it is to see that it could ruin the country. Corporate profit comes first. Must outsource or offshore all jobs.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 05 2019, @07:33PM
Sorry, wrong thread for that one.
I'm thinking of the current generation that seems to feel entitled to be supported from birth to death.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Shire on Thursday September 05 2019, @10:26PM
They'll outsource until we make it economically more advantageous to hire Americans. You can count on businesses to work a specific way, to increase profit. You just have to adjust things around them to insure that their best path towards profit is the same path that profits the American worker.
If you tariff chinese goods enough to make local sources the profitable route then that's what you need to do.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 05 2019, @07:53PM (1 child)
The economy isn't thriving for normal people. Normal people work more for less while the millionaire class gets to keep the proceeds.
Perhaps for those that are old enough to have been able to benefit from the gains, but not for normal working stiffs that entered the workforce over the last 20 years.
It's more or less a Ponzi scheme where newer workers are paying for the older ones. Just be happy that you got yours.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 06 2019, @12:26AM
Yes. Almost half the country can't afford a $400 emergency. Very, very few can afford a $1,000 emergency. So many are having trouble even affording car payments. The stock market and GDP being up only tells you that the mega-rich are doing better.
People who think the economy is great for ordinary people are suckers who slurped up mainstream media propaganda. Even though CNN and MSNBC are supposedly anti-Trump, they oppose him for some of the dumbest reasons possible, and implicitly accept that the status quo is great. To them, Trump is the problem, rather than a symptom of a system which is fundamentally rotten.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 05 2019, @08:23PM
Employment rate: 60.7% [tradingeconomics.com] - thriving economy, my ass.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 05 2019, @09:28PM
Someone needs to check their privilege.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 06 2019, @01:54AM
We are probably in a recession already.
The US has been contemplating negative interest rates . Europe has been issuing negative interest bonds for a while now (and people are buying them, so must think things will get worse). Iceland just started issuing negative interest mortgages! Institutional savings accounts have been charging interest. There are massive efforts to keep the bubble from popping, and trying to get folks to spend rather than save is the number one tool). And, unlike 2008, the Chinese are in no position to (nearly single handedly) pull the rest of the world out of recession.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 06 2019, @12:30AM
No, but what you can expect is, US based companies hire US workers, who spend money in the US, which then circulates in the US. As opposed to sending money overseas, where the money then circulates in China, India, Korea, or wherever. Every dollar removed from circulation within the US cuts into your and my wealth.
(Score: 5, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Thursday September 05 2019, @06:24PM (13 children)
If that were true industry would be growing right now. Instead, it's shrinking.
U.S. Factory Activity Shrinks for First Time in 3 Years [wsj.com]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by The Shire on Thursday September 05 2019, @06:48PM (12 children)
That's alarmist. Factory activity ebbs and flows like the tide. This is seasonal and I suggest you mark my comment so we can come back and discuss how it rose again next month.
The fact is that during the 8 years under Obama, the US lost jobs month over month and $8 trillion (with a T) was added to the national debt. It wasn't until after the election that there was a consistent upward trend in both manufacturing and employment, the exact opposite of what the alarmist like like this predicted.
(Score: 4, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Thursday September 05 2019, @06:52PM (1 child)
Something seasonal does not happen for the first time in three years.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Shire on Thursday September 05 2019, @07:06PM
Fuctuations in the industry have been going on since the market was being tracked and factory activity tends to hover right around the 50 mark already. A single months dip of a half percent does not indicate a trend nor a recession.
(Score: 5, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Thursday September 05 2019, @06:58PM (4 children)
You're going to pretend to care about the debt now?
President Trump’s $4 Trillion Debt Increase [crfb.org]
U.S. National Debt Hits Record $22 Trillion [npr.org]
That is a blatant lie. [bls.gov]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 05 2019, @07:13PM (1 child)
Oh now we care about debt, where were you when the Kenyan Jew was selling us out?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 05 2019, @08:18PM
In Occupy Wall Street, protesting the 'too big to fail'. That's where your future too was sold.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday September 05 2019, @09:03PM
How naive - citing the federal government sources on labor statistics - don't you know they all hate the current president and will do anything to make him look bad? /s
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 06 2019, @12:36AM
Debt? Almost no one in the US cares about the debt. Only a few of us crazy people ever even think about it. In point of fact, every single president who has held office since I was born has increased the national debt, not by some slim margin, but by doubling and tripling. The US gave up caring about debt sometime during or soon after the Second World War. There are those who work hard to convince us that debt is a "good thing". That is pretty much every parasite who profits from America being in debt, starting with the Federal Reserve.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 05 2019, @07:49PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget#/media/File:U.S._Federal_Deficit_Stacked_Bar_Chart_-_2018_to_2027.png [wikipedia.org]
https://www.usdebtclock.org/ [usdebtclock.org]
$23T today. $24T by time Trump is kicked out. Trump started with $19T. He has been amassing MORE debt per year than Obama and Obama started with 2009 recession that bankrupted GM and others. Trump started with only $400B deficit and booming economy and then he turned that into $1+T deficit and economy that will crap out next year thanks to his unhinged tariffs.
US has been gaining jobs since 2010... don't worry, that will stop soon.
https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/ces0000000001?output_view=net_1mth [bls.gov]
Don't let reality stop your thinking thought.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday September 05 2019, @08:31PM (2 children)
1. employment rate since 2012 showed steady increase [tradingeconomics.com] after the drop caused by GFC (switch to 10y view) And it wasn't Obama that caused the GFC.
2. those trillions? Remember the 'too big too fail'? That's where your future tax money went, to American corporations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Shire on Thursday September 05 2019, @10:17PM (1 child)
And for years we waited for the Obama administration to prosecute those assholes. Remember how that turned out?
(Score: 4, Touché) by c0lo on Thursday September 05 2019, @11:22PM
Remind me what Trump is doing in this regard?
The last I know, Obama rescued them and Trump rewarded them with tax cuts.
But maybe you have more positive news now?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 06 2019, @10:03AM
What's that, just another alternative fact from a trumpette.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday September 05 2019, @06:47PM (3 children)
The Catholic food bank and charity center down the street proves that statement wrong... The whole neighborhood donates their consumer spending excesses there to assuage their guilty consciouses - it makes them feel much better than filling the landfill, and volunteers do indeed sort the trash from the useful, stocking toys on a shelf for donation to the needy.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by The Shire on Thursday September 05 2019, @10:34PM (2 children)
And I respect that. There was a time when religious organizations were the ones helping folks in need that way and it's why they were granted a tax exempt status. I wish more of them would step up and do the same instead of people relying on a governmental nanny state welfare program.
But that's entirely different from the way businesses operate. You don't flip burgers because it's your goal in life to do so, you flip burgers because you want to earn a living. And the business employing you has to make money in order to pay you. And they need to make a profit so they can expand and hire more people like you. That's business 101.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday September 05 2019, @10:36PM
Stick that in your thousand points of light, and smoke it.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 06 2019, @12:35AM
They were granted a tax exempt status because the government doesn't care about the first amendment or the separation of church and state. If they wanted to run charities, they could start a separate charitable organization and that would be tax exempt. The way we do things now, where they're automatically tax exempt whether or not they do any significant amount of charitable work, is ridiculous and violates the Constitution. Also, a lot of their "charity" is just them preaching in poor countries, spreading their toxic religion.