Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
The U.S. is dependent on Canada for electricity. This is a huge vulnerability in a trade war.
The U.S. won’t be able to compete with China on manufactured exports because tariffs will make all our goods too expensive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__qozWvbGn0
““I’ve been talking about it for 40 years, because I saw what was happening,” he said, referencing old interviews from when he was “young, very handsome.”
“I’d be talking about how we were being ripped off by these countries,” he continued. “I mean, nothing changes very much. The only thing to change was the countries, but nothing really changes.””
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/02/trump-levies-tariffs-00267650
“The list of 185 places hit Wednesday with a minimum 10 percent tariff include Heard Island and the McDonald Islands, Australian territories in the vast Indian Ocean between Africa and Antarctica.
Also on the list are tiny Norfolk Island in the South Pacific and an uninhabited spot in the Arctic Ocean called Jan Mayen, part of a Norwegian territory with the islands of Svalbard near the North Pole.
It’s all led to some head-scratching around the world as leaders digest Trump’s effort to punish countries that he says have taken advantage of U.S. trade policy to steal American jobs.”
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“The country that received the most severe tariffs, Lesotho, is one that “nobody had ever heard of,” according to Trump. The White House list said the landlocked African kingdom has its own tariffs of 99 percent — and thus will face a 50 percent penalty from the U.S.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/02/us-tariffs-around-the-world-030348
“President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will impose a baseline 10 percent tariff on imports from all countries in the coming days, with a higher tariff on dozens of other countries the United States believes have the most unfair trade relationships with the U.S.”
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“The tariffs that Trump detailed Wednesday mark the most significant U.S. protectionist trade action since the 1930s, when Congress imposed tariffs on more than 20,000 goods and dug the U.S. economy deeper into the Great Depression.”
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“The new duties include a 34 percent tariff on China, 26 percent on India, 25 percent on South Korea, 24 percent on Japan and 20 percent on the 27-nation European Union, whose largest members are Germany and France.
The administration also slapped a 46 percent tariff on Vietnam and a 49 percent tariff on Cambodia — a blow to China, which has shipped goods through those and other countries to effectively skirt previous rounds of U.S. tariffs imposed over the past seven years.
That comes on top of a second executive order Trump signed Wednesday eliminating the “de minimis loophole” for small-dollar packages worth under $800 from China and Taiwan, starting on May 2. The loophole has been used by Chinese companies like SHEIN and Temu to deliver billions in goods to the U.S.”
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“economists warn that the tariffs are almost certain to drive up prices for everyday goods imported from abroad — from fruits, vegetables and other food products to clothing, toys, cell phones, laptops, sporting equipment and countless other consumer products. The tariffs also will hit machinery and other manufactured goods, along with the raw materials and parts used to make things like cars and build houses in the United States.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/02/trump-tariff-trade-partners-liberation-day-00267350
“Americans are tapping the brakes on spending – pulling back on dining out, hotel stays and other expenses, as they boost their savings ahead of new tariffs and continued economic uncertainty.”
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“Strikingly, economists say Americans of all income levels, including the wealthiest, are rethinking their spending – in what could be a pivotal warning. The drop-off in consumer spending is expected to drag down economic growth in the first three months of the year, with many economists now forecasting a contraction after years of consistent growth.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/americans-spending-less-brace-tariffs-120504861.html
“The “Buy Canadian” movement is sending new ripples of concern through the executive offices of U.S.-based consumer companies that banked on selling their products on Canadian retail shelves.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/buy-canadian-grows-more-us-100455086.html
“The number of credit card holders making only minimum payments on their bills has jumped to a 12-year high, a study by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve found.
The level of cardholders only making minimum payments rose to 10.75% in the third quarter of 2024, the study found, continuing an upward trend from 2021.
The number of 30+ day delinquencies also rose during this period, up to 3.52%. That’s double the delinquency rate of 1.57% from the pandemic low in the second quarter of 2021.”
https://www.axios.com/2025/01/28/consumers-car-payments-credit-cards
“Remember two years ago, when GDP was reported as having shrunk for two consecutive quarters, and there was an entire exhausting discourse about whether it qualified as a recession? Turns out it was a statistical illusion.”
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“The Commerce Department published on Thursday morning revised GDP data for the past several years based on more complete information. One of the adjustments: GDP is now estimated to have grown in the second quarter of 2022 at a 0.3% annual rate.”
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“The revisions also point to more robust GDP growth throughout the post-pandemic expansion, with 2021 GDP growth revised up by 0.3 percentage points, 2022 up 0.6 points, and 2023 up 0.4 points.”
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“GDP growth numbers for the second half of 2023 were revised down, pointing to some deceleration of activity heading into 2024.”
https://www.axios.com/2024/09/26/2022-recession-gdp-revision
“Inflation climbed in February as consumers braced for the potential onslaught of higher prices from President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on U.S. trading partners.
The Commerce Department reported Friday that prices rose at a higher-than-expected annual rate of 2.8 percent last month, excluding food and energy items, a signal that prices could spike even further in the coming months.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/28/stagflation-risk-inflation-trump-economy-tariffs-00256500
Tariffs are usually harmful to most people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-eHOSq3oqI