Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
“”Well, they did sign up for it, actually. And this is what I campaigned on,” Trump said of the tariffs during an interview with ABC News that aired Tuesday.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/trump-says-voters-unhappy-about-the-economy-and-his-china-trade-war-should-deal-with-it-because-they-did-sign-up-for-it-actually/ar-AA1DT0jh?ocid=msedgntp&pc=NMTS&cvid=b8851a238f384a6bb573752bf60cc090&ei=17
Tariffs are hurting the Chinese economy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP3hpt8YAS0
From Fake Eyelashes to Care Bears, U.S.-Bound Goods Are Stuck in Tariff Limbo
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fake-eyelashes-care-bears-u-030000313.html
“At the end of the day, protectionism is rooted in fear and pessimism: fear that we’ll be outcompeted, and pessimism about the idea that a growing, dynamic economy can make us all better off. Libertarians are fond of making just such claims—so fond that Cass coined a term to mock us for it. Instead of tussling over the size of different constituencies’ relative shares of the fixed economic pie, the libertarian view is that our goal should be to grow the pie so everyone’s share is bigger. Cass calls this “economic piety,” and he rejects it. For him, the goal is not to grow the economy; it’s to direct the economy for the benefit of deserving constituencies such as blue-collar workers.
This is pure zero-sum thinking. It cements in place a mindset where one group’s gains necessarily come at some other group’s expense. To libertarians, technological innovation is a boon because it makes the whole economy more productive and everyone richer in the long run. But some people usually are hurt in the short run—think of the proverbial buggy-whip salesmen when automobiles come along. Protectionists are inclined to be suspicious of the tech sector and sympathetic toward policies that would tamp down economic dynamism in the name of protecting the would-be losers. The result, inevitably, is stagnation.”
https://reason.com/2025/03/01/trumps-dramatic-crossroads/
“If you’re keeping track—and economists are making their best efforts—President Donald Trump’s trade war with the entire planet is running up quite a price tag. Even with a 90-day pause on some tariffs (except for China), the imposition or even just the threat of import taxes on goods from around the world and the inevitable retaliation by other countries is expected to take a bite out of the economy and people’s prosperity. Figuring out how much of a bite it will take is a trick, but there’s little doubt that it will be painful.”
https://reason.com/2025/04/14/even-on-pause-trumps-trade-war-runs-up-a-big-price-tag/
China is the only main supplier of rare earths. Rare earths are key to military and industrial technologies. The Trump administration seems unprepared for China’s predictable move to ban rare earth minerals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcR50vC6nGE
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
“President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff regime will completely transform America’s economic relationship with the rest of the world, all in the name of revitalizing domestic manufacturing.
And yet, many businesses won’t be rushing to shift their supply chains to U.S. shores.
For all the detail in Trump’s Wednesday announcement, his endgame is still shrouded in confusion. That’s lethal for long-term investment, making confident planning all but impossible.”
…
“I’ve asked multiple corporate executives in recent weeks whether companies are likely to start investing in manufacturing in the United States in response to Trump’s policies, and the message has basically been: That’s an unanswerable question right now. Because making those decisions requires understanding the relative costs of doing it versus not doing it, and Trump is far too unpredictable to allow for that kind of calculation.”
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/03/trump-tariffs-manufacturing-confusion-00267945
“the White House is reportedly confronting a very different reality: one in which Trump’s trade war leaves many Americans worse off, with farmers likely to be hit the hardest.”
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“Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters last week that the White House has asked her to “have some programs in place that would potentially mitigate any economic catastrophes that could happen to some of our farmers” as a result of a trade war.”
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“The time to work that out might be running short. Trump has promised to ramp up his trade war with Mexico and Canada in early April, and the administration also plans to start slapping so-called “reciprocal tariffs” on imports from other countries on April 2. As the various trade wars escalate, farmers are likely to be on the front lines—because American agricultural exports are an easy target for retaliatory tariffs from other countries.”
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“That’s exactly what happened during Trump’s first term, when his trade war with China caused American farmers to lose a sizable chunk of one of their largest export markets. When farmers complained about it, the Trump administration provided a $28 billion bailout via a New Deal–era program at the Department of Agriculture.
Some of that is already happening. In response to tariffs imposed by Trump in February, China slapped new tariffs on a wide range of American farm exports, including beef, chicken, corn, cotton, dairy, fruits, pork, soybeans, and various vegetables. Both Canada and Mexico have indicated that they plan to retaliate against American tariffs with new levies targeting American agricultural goods.”
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“That’s the nasty thing about trade wars. Not only do they harm manufacturers and consumers seeking to buy raw materials and finished goods from abroad, but they also harm domestic producers (like farmers) who lose access to foreign markets and therefore earn less money. Tariffs hurt Americans who want to eat avocados from Mexico, and Americans growing soybeans to sell there. There are a lot more losers than winners—and that’s before taxpayers get put on the hook for bailouts.
There should be no taxpayer-funded bailouts for American farmers who get burned by Trump’s trade wars. If the White House is concerned about the consequences that higher tariffs will have on American agriculture, there is an easy solution: Don’t impose them.”
https://reason.com/2025/03/25/dont-bail-out-farmers-again/