“economic development officials and lawmakers from several states say that the uncertainty fueled by Trump’s on-again, off-again trade wars is keeping many foreign businesses from pouring money into the U.S. market right now. And it signals the uneven impact the tariffs are having on reshoring American manufacturing — Trump’s stated goal for raising rates to the highest levels in a century.”
Dollar dominance is a benefit to Americans. Even individuals could borrow cheaper because the U.S. dollar was the global reserve currency. The dollar losing its value hurts this benefit. Trump’s tariffs weakened U.S. dollar dominance by losing trust in the United States as a responsible leader.
The U.S. didn’t primarily lose some manufacturing due to the strength of the dollar.
U.S. problems are worse than just Trump. There are a lot of bad political ideas on both sides.
“Reuters reported this week that as a result of Trump’s tariffs, Ford Motor Co. will raise prices on three of its models by as much as $2,000 apiece. Days earlier, the company said it expected the tariffs to reduce annual earnings by $1.5 billion, even after making efforts to avoid U.S. import duties.
Rivian, which makes luxury electric vehicles from a single plant in Illinois, also announced this week that it expected to deliver fewer vehicles and spend more money this year as a result of the tariffs.
Then on Thursday, The New York Times reported that Toyota “predicted a $1.3 billion hit from President Trump’s tariffs in April and May alone.”
In a March executive order, Trump slapped a tariff of 25 percent on all imported automobiles, as well as automotive parts like engines, transmissions, and electrical components. The only exception was for those covered under the U.S.–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), in which case the tariff only applied to the portion of the vehicle’s value not “attributable to parts wholly obtained, produced entirely, or substantially transformed in the United States.””
Biden ran as a relative moderate, but governed more to the left, creating inefficient policy and contributing to inflation.
Large and growing government debt reduces economic growth because that means the government is borrowing more money, which drives up interest rates, which drives down business investments and homebuilding. When borrowing from foreigners, you have to give some of your economic growth to them to repay them.
“Donald Trump doesn’t think Americans deserve stuff. The right number of pencils for a family? Five. The right number of dolls for a little girl? Two, maybe three. His comments in recent interviews bear a striking similarity to those of left-wing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.), who in 2015 famously bemoaned that consumers have too many deodorant options.
How did Trump—who campaigned on a promise of reducing inflation—become so eager to have Americans pay more for everyday commodities? While Trump may have made overtures to reducing prices, he’s long supported the kinds of economic interventions most likely to lead to inflation. And if you believe that protectionism is the path to prosperity for everyday Americans, your definition of prosperity starts to change pretty quickly.”
“In 2023, the most recent year for which full data are available, the average U.S. tariff on British goods was 3.3 percent.
That means this “deal” charges American consumers a 10 percent baseline tax on goods that were previously taxed at 3.3 percent. That’s not a win for free trade or lower prices.”
“Thousands of unharvested tomatoes are being plowed over in South Florida in a sign of what is to come under President Donald Trump’s tariffs—or tariff threats—and immigration policies. Reporting by Miami’s local Fox affiliate, WVSN, revealed that farmers are cutting their losses and letting crops go to waste due to increased picking and packing costs.
“You can’t even afford to pick them right now,” Heather Moehling, president of Miami-Dade County Farm Bureau, told WVSN. “Between the cost of labor and the inputs that goes in, it’s more cost-effective for farmers to just plow them right now.””
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“Even though the tariffs on Mexican imports never took effect for goods compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, including U.S. tomatoes, the threat of tariffs alone was enough to disrupt the U.S. market, DiMare told WVSN.”
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“While Trump is touting his recent deals with the United Kingdom and China as examples of how his trade policies are working, the Florida tomato industry serves as a real-world reminder that unpredictable policies can have far-reaching and unintended consequences on Americans’ livelihoods. On some level, Trump knows this and has admitted that Americans will have to make do with less, despite being voted in to bring down the cost of living. The president’s attempts at centralized planning will continue to drive prices up, and Americans will be the ones paying the price.”
“Some people, including a former Trump administration official speaking to Politico, speculate that China’s threatened rare earth cut-off was more damaging to automakers and the defense industry than anyone’s letting on, and that China actually can log this one as a W; “China’s export restrictions to the United States worked. It created enough pain to compel the U.S. government to plead with the Chinese government to reverse course,” the official told Politico.”
“The first time he was president, Trump raised tariffs on steel. That helped American steelmakers. They hired 1,000 more workers. Yippee.
But more American companies make things out of steel. They were hurt. The result: America lost about 75,000 jobs.”
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“American industrial output is near an all-time high.
Unemployment, now at 4.2 percent, is much lower than it was when I grew up.
Politicians never learn. In 1930, at the start of what became the Great Depression, clueless legislators Reed Smoot and Willis Hawley got Congress to pass what became known as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.
“It deepened and lengthened the Depression,” writes the Foundation for Economic Education”
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“Trump says he’s making deals! He got China to reduce tariffs to 10 percent.
But China charged 8 percent before Trump raised tariffs during his first term.”
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“Some countries, in response to Trump’s moves, raised their tariffs. Canada announced retaliatory tariffs on $107 billion worth of U.S. goods.”