Tag: economy

Senate Republicans Voted Overwhelmingly To Continue Trump’s Trade War

Posted on by Lone Candle

“As a legal matter, President Donald Trump’s trade war rests on the claim that imports to the United States constitute an “unusual and extraordinary” threat requiring urgent executive action.
That’s an absurd argument, of course. The fact that Americans choose to buy or sell goods across international borders is not an emergency—it’s not even a minor worry—and certainly should not justify a massive expansion of executive power.

But Trump is going to do whatever he wants until someone stops him. On Wednesday, the Senate had a chance to do that. Instead, Republicans voted overwhelmingly to keep the “emergency” going, and thus to keep the trade war going too.

The Senate voted 49–49 on Wednesday evening to block Sen. Rand Paul’s (R–Ky.) resolution that sought to end the emergency declaration Trump signed on April 2 to impose his so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs on nearly all imports to the United States.”

https://reason.com/2025/05/01/senate-republicans-voted-overwhelmingly-to-continue-trumps-trade-war/

Trump’s Foreign Film Tariffs Could Stick Us With Nothing but Disney Movies

Posted on by Lone Candle

“Tariffs on movies produced overseas might drive Hollywood to film more intensively in the United States, but it also makes it more difficult and expensive for American audiences to see movies made by foreign companies. Films from South Korea, India, Europe, and elsewhere compete with the U.S. film industry in terms of culture, ideas, and sometimes politics. Tariffs on overseas productions could effectively trap us with the products of Hollywood and reduce its need to adjust to the tastes of the viewing public.”

https://reason.com/2025/05/07/trumps-foreign-film-tariffs-could-stick-us-with-nothing-but-disney-movies/

Twin Deficit Crisis: ‘This Is How You End Empires’, Recession Imminent? | Darius Dale

Posted on by Lone Candle

Republicans and Democrats are hurtling the U.S. toward a debt crisis. The trade deficit cannot be fixed by bullying foreign countries. To fix the country’s economic woes, the U.S. needs to lower spending to reduce or eliminate the budget deficit. The U.S. depends on the world to buy U.S. debt. If they buy less, interest rates will destroy the U.S. economy. The U.S. needs to fix the budget deficit to prevent this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lixA8SuJf2E

How The Finance Industry Destroys Economies

Posted on by Lone Candle

Is the finance industry helping the economy, or just putting a lot of human and regular capital into moving money around in ways that make money for people with money but not actually investing in things that make everyone better off?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIsQHkTLlxY

Immigrants Are a Boon to the U.S. Economy

Posted on by Lone Candle

“Texas, the only state that tracks immigrant crime, compares convictions per 100,000 Americans. Score: illegal immigrants, 782; legal immigrants, 535; native-born Americans, 1,422. It’s the opposite of what most of us have heard.”

…

“even illegal immigrants are a net gain. Not just because they harvest our food, do construction, etc., but also because Social Security and Medicare taxes are deducted from their paychecks. That’s money they never get back because they’re not legal.”

https://reason.com/2025/03/19/immigrants-are-a-boon-to-the-u-s-economy/

The European Commission Is Assaulting American Tech Companies

Posted on by Lone Candle

“Expropriating billions of dollars from American businesses is injurious and capricious. Citizens of the E.U. benefit from the American technology sector; siphoning capital from U.S. tech firms leaves them with less to commit to research and development, stymieing further innovation. The E.U. should stop penalizing American firms that outcompete their European counterparts.”

https://reason.com/2025/03/23/the-european-commission-is-assaulting-american-industry/

Trump’s Tariffs Are Causing an Economic Boom for D.C. Lobbyists

Posted on by Lone Candle

“Lobbying expenditures on trade issues were a staggering 277 percent higher in the first quarter of 2025 than in the first quarter of 2024, according to data reported to the clerk of the House of Representatives and compiled by Advancing American Freedom Foundation, a conservative nonprofit. In raw dollars, lobbying firms reported spending $4.9 million on trade-related issues in the first three months of this year, up from $1.3 million during the same three months in 2024.

There’s also been a huge expansion in the number of lobbying firms working on the tariff issue. According to the House data, 212 different entities registered some spending on tariff lobbying in the first quarter of this year, up from just 89 that worked on tariff issues in the first three months of last year.

And the average cost to businesses is increasing too. Compared to last year, the average tariff lobbying contract is now 21 percent higher, according to AAFF’s analysis.”

…

“”Although President Donald Trump popularized calls to ‘drain the swamp,’ his favorite policy tool, tariffs, has actually enlarged it and generated a massive financial windfall for K Street lobbyists while hardworking American families pick up the tab,” writes Joel Griffith, policy adviser at AAFF, in the Washington Examiner.

In practice, that means some businesses have sought relief from tariffs for themselves while pushing for higher tariffs on competitors.”

…

“This is also exactly what happened during the first Trump trade war. A Lehigh University study published last year found that politically connected firms—specifically, those that donated to Republican candidates, including Trump—were more likely to succeed when asking the government for an exemption on imports that would normally be subject to tariffs.”

https://reason.com/2025/04/23/trumps-tariffs-are-causing-an-economic-boom-for-d-c-lobbyists/