Tariffs Catch-All

[heelinhell]

Was it the "Art of the Deal" or the "Fart of the Deal" ...?

(Bloomberg) — Xi Jinping’s decision to stand his ground against Donald Trump could hardly have gone any better for the Chinese leader.
“This is arguably the best outcome that China could have hoped for — the US backed down,” said Trey McArver, co-founder of research firm Trivium China. “Going forward, this will make the Chinese side confident that they have leverage over the US in any negotiations.”

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/xi-defiance-pays-off-trump-212056893.html

 

[Mulberry Heel]

Was it the "Art of the Deal" or the "Fart of the Deal" ...?

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/xi-defiance-pays-off-trump-212056893.html

I love how his cult honestly believes that he's a great dealmaker and negotiator, but the bestselling book that helped create that legend - "The Art of the Deal" - was written by a ghostwriter who traveled with Trump for several months while he, not Trump, wrote the book. My guess is that the great negotiator never even read his own book. And to top it off the ghostwriter in 2016 went to the news media and told anyone who would listen that in his opinion, and after close observation, Trump wasn't qualified or fit to be POTUS.

 

[WaynetheDrain]

Trump is a global laughingstock.

 

[UNCatTech]

I love how his cult honestly believes that he's a great dealmaker and negotiator, but the bestselling book that helped create that legend - "The Art of the Deal" - was written by a ghostwriter who traveled with Trump for several months while he, not Trump, wrote the book. My guess is that the great negotiator never even read his own book. And to top it off the ghostwriter in 2016 went to the news media and told anyone who would listen that in his opinion, and after close observation, Trump wasn't qualified or fit to be POTUS.

It's required reading at fix need, well at least the title.

 

[ZenMode]

So have there been 8 multilateral rounds of GATT negotiation or not? This is a simple question. Since you don't trust the link I gave you, tell me how many rounds of multilateral negotiations there have been under GATT.

Like I said, I'm not saying that there haven't been attempts to adjust tariffs, I'm saying I don't trust Wikipedia for anything. I don't trust the bureaucrats, Even if they've tried 50 times, to adjust them correctly, especially when you're talking about poorer countries.

 

[ZenMode]

What does the US-UK deal mean for Trump’s trade agenda?​

The U.K.’s relative success in avoiding the full fury of U.S. trade levies points to a potentially viable strategy for other U.S. negotiating partners​

What does the US-UK deal mean for Trump's trade agenda?

A closer look at the U.S.-U.K. trade reveals the arrangement to be limited and selective, but mostly generates more questions.

www.brookings.edu

 

[Centerpiece]

My questions: At what levels were the trade deals with UK and China BEFORE all the trump BS? What were the reciprocal tariffs at that point in time? And what are they now? In other words, what did everybody "net" in the end? Will trump and the U.S. actually come out better at the end of it all, or will it be more of a quid pro quo and we all get "something for something" but in reality it's a net zero? Or, did trump get screwed and he started all this shit for no reason and we wind up worse off than before??? With manufacturing staying off-shore and goods and services costing US consumers more, in the end. I will not be surprised if it's the latter.

One thing is for certain - trump and his rich buddies made out like bandits with the stock market's wild fluctuations. AND we lost our standing in the World as being a leader in terms of security, NATO, U.N., etc. etc. (A lot of which was the B.S. about Canada and Greenland/Denmark, but I digress)

 

[farce©]

Like I said, I'm not saying that there haven't been attempts to adjust tariffs, I'm saying I don't trust Wikipedia for anything. I don't trust the bureaucrats, Even if they've tried 50 times, to adjust them correctly, especially when you're talking about poorer countries.

By “bureaucrats” you mean people who have spent years learning the intricacies of the global trade system and who know a hell of a lot more than you or I. I believe the proper term for these people would be “experts.” But you just keep on using your purposeful slander…your “independent thinking” repeatedly shows us your ignorance.

 

[ZenMode]

By “bureaucrats” you mean people who have spent years learning the intricacies of the global trade system and who know a hell of a lot more than you or I. I believe the proper term for these people would be “experts.” But you just keep on using your purposeful slander…your “independent thinking” repeatedly shows us your ignorance.

You can look at our national debt and say you trust our leaders to act intelligently and act in the best interest of the country?

 

[superrific]

Like I said, I'm not saying that there haven't been attempts to adjust tariffs, I'm saying I don't trust Wikipedia for anything. I don't trust the bureaucrats, Even if they've tried 50 times, to adjust them correctly, especially when you're talking about poorer countries.

1. You not trusting Wikipedia is a you problem. It's based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how wikipedia works. wikipedia is by far the most reliable general purpose linkable reference work on the internet. You don't want to trust it, that's your choice but I'm not changing my posting habits for your stupidity.

Plus, the real problem isn't wikipedia, it's that you got dunked on so hard.

2. Here's what you wrote: "The strategy, in general, should be to come to agreements with each country so we aren't getting hit with large tariffs while charging low tariffs."

So I see now that you've conceded that this has in fact been the strategy. The country did what you wanted it to do for 50 years. It worked.

3. You don't trust the bureaucrats? Another you problem. How do you think huge negotiations get done? The presidents of each country get together in a room for years to hash it out? Every country on Earth has trade representatives. Every country on Earth has bureaucracy -- just like every big company has middle managers. Middle management and bureaucracy have acquired negative connotations, but of course there's a reason why they exist everywhere: you cannot run a complex organization without multiple levels of decision makers.

4. Even more foundationally, the lesson you should be drawing from Trump is that bureaucrats are actually pretty good. You should be trusting them. They are by no means ideal -- nothing is -- but they are far, far better than the alternative.

Look at how much Trump has destroyed in a few months by disregarding bureaucracy. Our national aviation system is fucked because they didn't consult any experts before taking a chainsaw to the FAA. Schools don't know where or if money will be coming to them, because the Trump people have been cancelling grants and withholding money. One of my autistic sons is probably going to lose his staff support at school because they can't afford it, for example. Public health is at a low point; FEMA basically doesn't exist. We're losing our weather forecasts because Trump shuttered the agency.

The bureaucracy >>> Trump and his clowns. That should be a lesson of our time.

 

[nycfan]

 

[ZenMode]

1. You not trusting Wikipedia is a you problem. It's based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how wikipedia works. wikipedia is by far the most reliable general purpose linkable reference work on the internet. You don't want to trust it, that's your choice but I'm not changing my posting habits for your stupidity.

Plus, the real problem isn't wikipedia, it's that you got dunked on so hard.

I don't think we define "dunk" the same way.

2. Here's what you wrote: "The strategy, in general, should be to come to agreements with each country so we aren't getting hit with large tariffs while charging low tariffs."

Seems like a good strategy, yes.

So I see now that you've conceded that this has in fact been the strategy. The country did what you wanted it to do for 50 years. It worked.

I think I missed something. Where was the "worked"?

3. You don't trust the bureaucrats? Another you problem. How do you think huge negotiations get done?

Beurocrats.

The presidents of each country get together in a room for years to hash it out? Every country on Earth has trade representatives. Every country on Earth has bureaucracy -- just like every big company has middle managers. Middle management and bureaucracy have acquired negative connotations, but of course there's a reason why they exist everywhere: you cannot run a complex organization without multiple levels of decision makers.

I agree. I'm not saying negotiators, aka beurocrats when it's government involved, aren't needed to do their work. I'm saying I don't trust them to do it correctly.

4. Even more foundationally, the lesson you should be drawing from Trump is that bureaucrats are actually pretty good. You should be trusting them. They are by no means ideal -- nothing is -- but they are far, far better than the alternative.

I think the general anti-business as usual approach of the current administration gives me reason to trust them more than past administrations, which were much more likely to be the go-along-to-get-along types

Look at how much Trump has destroyed in a few months by disregarding bureaucracy.

Especially with DOGE, right? How much pain has been felt from the those cuts? How have you, or anyone you know, been impacted?

Our national aviation system is fucked because they didn't consult any experts before taking a chainsaw to the FAA.

We've been thousands of people short for years and are running on systems that were made in the, what, 70's? 80s? Do you think those two situations came about because of Trump?

Schools don't know where or if money will be coming to them, because the Trump people have been cancelling grants and withholding money. One of my autistic sons is probably going to lose his staff support at school because they can't afford it, for example. Public health is at a low point; FEMA basically doesn't exist. We're losing our weather forecasts because Trump shuttered the agency.

The bureaucracy >>> Trump and his clowns. That should be a lesson of our time.

Some of the cuts may not have been ideal, I agree.

 

[superrific]

I think I missed something. Where was the "worked"?

U.S. GDP 1960-2025 | MacroTrends

GDP at purchaser's prices is the sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not included in the value of the products. It is calculated without making deductions for depreciation of fabricated assets or for depletion and...

www.macrotrends.net

 

[superrific]

Especially with DOGE, right? How much pain has been felt from the those cuts? How have you, or anyone you know, been impacted?

We've been thousands of people short for years and are running on systems that were made in the, what, 70's? 80s? Do you think those two situations came about because of Trump?

1. If you count the people on this board as people I know, then absolutely. Many posters here have described how they have been fucked by DOGE cuts. And keep in mind, it would be worse but for the "bureaucrats" who have been blocking the lawless DOGE behavior.

2. Your point about the age of the ATC system cuts against you. It's been working since the 1970s. And it just stops working now? Is that a pure coincidence? Or was it because Trump fired the people who are needed to make it work.

It's almost as if people were trying to tell Trump that he was making a huge mess:

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/20/faa-firings-aviation-safety-experts-00205160#:~:text=More%20than%20130%20of%20the%20eliminated%20workers,represents%20them%2C%20the%20Professional%20Aviation%20Safety%20Specialists.

Oh. That's what being anti-business-as-usual means for Trump. It means fucking up the things that Americans have been able to take for granted for decades. You know, business as usual.

3. You mooks are so addicted to your fox-fueled outrage that you have lost touch with everything good about America. There are things that need fixing, absolutely 100%. I have ideas about that myself. But I can at least appreciate the things that work well. That's because I know things -- and knowing things, I can respect other people who know different things and use that knowledge to a desired end.

You, knowing nothing, can appreciate nothing.

 

[ChileG]

The “our aviation system is old” must be a new MAGA talking point. I heard it for the first time Friday night when out to eat with my MAGA step-FIL.

 

[wmheel1287]

Like I said, I'm not saying that there haven't been attempts to adjust tariffs, I'm saying I don't trust Wikipedia for anything. I don't trust the bureaucrats, Even if they've tried 50 times, to adjust them correctly, especially when you're talking about poorer countries.

And yet you seem to place great faith in someone you openly admit is a pathological liar.

 

[superrific]

The “our aviation system is old” must be a new MAGA talking point.

Yeah. And it's hilariously stupid too.

If you have a car that's old and maybe on its last legs, to whom do you take it:

1. An expert qualified mechanic who has been working on cars like that for decades? or
2. A 19 year old with no training named Big Balls.

 

[superrific]

It's also funny to hear people shit on bureaucrats when Trump's political appointees have compromised basically all of the DoD's information technology. Everything I've read is that it's an almost certainty that China, Russia, Iran etc. have spy ware on the SecDef devices and throughout the DoD and NSA. Bureaucrats didn't do that. That was Trump's people.