Tariffs Catch-All

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Trumpty Dumpty woke up pissed with the markets down big again and his approval ratings, especially on the economy, also tanking.

He DEMANDS that Jerome Powell lower rates. Trump claims if he doesn't the economy will slow down. No terrible businessman with no clue of economics. Your shotgun waffling approach tariff policy is about to bring massive inflation which is slowing down spending. He calls Powell a "loser."

Powell is the mastermind that threaded the needle with rates, got inflation under control, and somehow did it without tanking economy. Brilliance.

Analysts say that if Trump fires Powell, the next market drop will make existing drop look like a tiny blip.

So, I should move to cash before lord trump ends the US economy. Since the only way he knows to deal with people smarter than him that don't kneel is to fire them.
 
Now markets are down double what they were earlier right after Trump's Twit.
There's a damn good reason we haven't heard from a single Pub in months now, except for Silence who is clearly a Russian troll. I think Pandemic may have chimed in once, and Ramrouser has commented on a couple of non-economic issues. But I have a VERY strong feeling callatoroy and HeelYeah are realizing what catastrophic mistakes they made by supporting this shitshow. Maybe the next time we see them, they'll be willing to own up to it like so many of us have done before.
 
There's a damn good reason we haven't heard from a single Pub in months now, except for Silence who is clearly a Russian troll. I think Pandemic may have chimed in once, and Ramrouser has commented on a couple of non-economic issues. But I have a VERY strong feeling callatoroy and HeelYeah are realizing what catastrophic mistakes they made by supporting this shitshow. Maybe the next time we see them, they'll be willing to own up to it like so many of us have done before.
Pandemic stopped by to say it's ok to call people illegal as we are all illegal, which makes us better.
 
The Japanese have just been in Washington. Their experience apparently was they went to talk to the American leadership on this matter, and the American leadership said 'what are you offering?' And the Japanese said 'well, what is it that you want?' And the Americans could not explain what they wanted.'


It’s like the old meme:

1. Start a trade war.
2. ???
3. Profit

Turns out it’s a bit harder in real life.
 
The Japanese have just been in Washington. Their experience apparently was they went to talk to the American leadership on this matter, and the American leadership said 'what are you offering?' And the Japanese said 'well, what is it that you want?' And the Americans could not explain what they wanted.'


It’s like the old meme:

1. Start a trade war.
2. ???
3. Profit

Turns out it’s a bit harder in real life.
I fell like I could do a better job and I know Jack shit about economics/stock market etc.
 
In the Harquahala Valley, hay fields stretch as far as the eye can see.

Alfalfa hay is mainly used as feed for cattle and is big business in Arizona, with Arizona farms exporting over $100 million of alfalfa overseas a year.

Shannon Schulz has been farming in the Harquahala Valley for decades.

"There's no better way to raise a family than on the farm," Schulz said.

Schulz is unique in the Valley, as he not only harvests his alfalfa but also is part of the export process overseas. His main customers are countries in the Middle East, and China.

“Usually, this warehouse is full of hay. It’s not right now because business is just slow," Schulz said.

Business is slow because Chinese dairy farms have all but stopped buying U.S. alfalfa to feed their cattle after the country imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports. China makes up about half of Arizona's alfalfa export market.

“With the current tariffs in place, which is in total about 66% from China to us, it puts our product out of the marketplace," Schulz said.

Schulz says that now Chinese farms are buying from other countries in Africa and Europe. For the alfalfa now growing in Arizona’s fields, by the time it's ready to be harvested, there may not be a customer to buy it.

Losing about half of his business overnight has not been easy.

“It could break us," Schulz said. "It could break a lot of farmers.”

Schulz says he voted for President Donald Trump and believes in the goals of his tariff plan, to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. and expand exporter access to foreign markets.

“In the long run I think it will be a good thing," He said.


Also
os3dks1lhete1.webp
Shipping alfalfa grown in the high desert overseas is a complicated means of sending scarce water overseas.
 
A Boeing jet intended for a Chinese airline landed back at the planemaker’s US production hub on Sunday, a victim of the tit-for-tat bilateral tariffs launched by Donald Trump.

The 737 MAX, which was meant for China’s Xiamen Airlines, landed at Seattle’s Boeing Field at 6.11pm, according to a Reuters witness. It was painted with Xiamen livery.


The jet, which made refuelling stops in Guam and Hawaii on its 5,000-mile (8,000-km) return journey, was one of several 737 MAX jets – Boeing’s bestselling model – that had been waiting at Boeing’s Zhoushan completion centre for final work and delivery.
Trump this month raised baseline tariffs on Chinese imports to 145%. In retaliation, China imposed a 125% tariff on US goods.

A Chinese airline taking delivery of a Boeing jet could be crippled by the tariffs, given that a new 737 MAX has a market value of around $55m, according to IBA, an aviation consultancy. Beijing is reportedly considering ways to support airlines that lease Boeing jets and are facing higher costs.

...

Boeing’s order book had 130 planes scheduled for deliver to Chinese companies at the end of March for both commercial airlines and leasing firms, Airways Mag reported.
 

Hitler’s Terrible Tariffs​

By seeking to “liberate” Germans from a globalized world order, the Nazi government sent the national economy careening backwards.


Behind a paywall. Looking for a free link.
 

Though the US dollar and US government bonds are typically considered safe assets in times of market turmoil, they have not escaped the recent turbulence.

The dollar index - which measures the strength of the dollar against a set of currencies including the euro - on Monday fell to its lowest level since 2022.

Interest rates on US government debt also continued to rise on Tuesday, as investors demanded higher returns for holding Treasuries.
 

“… During the first Trump administration, there was a formal process for seeking an exemption from tariffs. Companies submitted hundreds of thousands of applications making the case for why their products should be spared. The applications were public, so the machinery of the tariff crafting process could be more closely examined. Such transparency allowed academics to subsequently analyze thousands of the applications and determine that political donors to Republicans were more likely to be granted exemptions.

In Trump’s second term, at least thus far, there has not been a formal application process for tariff carve-outs. Industry executives and lobbyists are making their case behind closed doors. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board last week called “the opacity of the process” for getting an exemption “the Beltway Swamp’s dream.”

In the executive order formalizing Trump’s new tariffs, including baseline 10% tariffs for almost all countries, exemptions were broadly defined as products in the pharmaceutical, semiconductor, lumber, copper, critical minerals and energy sectors. An accompanying list detailed the specific products that would be spared.

But a ProPublica review of that list found many items that don’t fit neatly, or at all, in those broad categories, and some items that fall squarely within the categories were not spared.

The White House exclusions list, for example, included most types of asbestos, which is not generally considered a critical mineral and doesn’t seem to fit in any of the exempted categories.

The cancer-causing mineral, which is not generally considered critical to national security or the U.S. economy, is still used to make chlorine, but the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency banned imports of the material last year. The Trump administration has signaled it may roll back some of those Biden-era restrictions. …”
 




She also said the Trump administration is currently reviewing 18 trade proposals and Trump’s trade team is meeting with 34 countries this week.
 
Why would the market rally on Bessent saying that he posits a de-escalation? He's saying, this can't rationally continue. That sort of thing is not really a predictor of Trump's behavior. This couldn't have rationally gotten to where we are and yet.
 

A U.S.-owned company has announced it will spend $7 million expanding its operations in Sudbury.

Jennmar Canada is relocating equipment from its U.S. operations, purchasing new equipment and plans to expand its facility to bring additional manufacturing capabilities to Ontario.
 
A U.S.-owned company has announced it will spend $7 million expanding its operations in Sudbury.

Jennmar Canada is relocating equipment from its U.S. operations, purchasing new equipment and plans to expand its facility to bring additional manufacturing capabilities to Ontario.
This makes me happy in a weird, perverse way. Somebody should ask Trump why there are so many businesses leaving America after the tariffs.
 

A record number of oil cargos set off from Vancouver Port in March thanks to the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, the Vancouver Sun reported, citing data showing that as many as 30 tankers loaded with crude left the port last month.

This is up from an average of two per month before the Trans Mountain expansion and a high of 25 in the fall of 2024, after the expanded pipeline began operation in the spring of last year.

"After the Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) was put in service on May 1, 2024, tankers were loaded at a rate of about 20 per month. The rate suddenly increased to 30 for March 2025," retired physics professor David Huntley who tracks tankers at the Vancouver Port, told the publication.

Vortexa data confirms the trend, with the energy analytics provider reporting that Chinese buyers took in a record-high 7.3 million barrels of Canadian oil and are going to take in even more this month. The scale swing happens as Chinese energy traders wind down U.S. oil purchases amid the tariff spat, which also saw Chinese imports of U.S. liquefied natural gas drop to zero in March.

The Vancouver Sun reported Chinese imports of U.S. crude had dropped to some 3 million barrels in March from an all-time high of 29 million barrels in June 2024. It bears nothing that the U.S. was never among the top suppliers of China with crude oil-the top positions are occupied by Middle Eastern producers plus Russia.
 
“… During the first Trump administration, there was a formal process for seeking an exemption from tariffs. Companies submitted hundreds of thousands of applications making the case for why their products should be spared. The applications were public, so the machinery of the tariff crafting process could be more closely examined. Such transparency allowed academics to subsequently analyze thousands of the applications and determine that political donors to Republicans were more likely to be granted exemptions.

In Trump’s second term, at least thus far, there has not been a formal application process for tariff carve-outs. Industry executives and lobbyists are making their case behind closed doors. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board last week called “the opacity of the process” for getting an exemption “the Beltway Swamp’s dream.”

In the executive order formalizing Trump’s new tariffs, including baseline 10% tariffs for almost all countries, exemptions were broadly defined as products in the pharmaceutical, semiconductor, lumber, copper, critical minerals and energy sectors. An accompanying list detailed the specific products that would be spared.

But a ProPublica review of that list found many items that don’t fit neatly, or at all, in those broad categories, and some items that fall squarely within the categories were not spared.

The White House exclusions list, for example, included most types of asbestos, which is not generally considered a critical mineral and doesn’t seem to fit in any of the exempted categories.

The cancer-causing mineral, which is not generally considered critical to national security or the U.S. economy, is still used to make chlorine, but the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency banned imports of the material last year. The Trump administration has signaled it may roll back some of those Biden-era restrictions. …”
It's trump, it's corrupt incompetence.
 
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