I have successfully avoided talking in-depth about the tariffs here at The Morning Dump for a couple of weeks, largely because it wasn’t clear what might actually happen (or not happen). As I sip my smoothie and start this post the 25% tariffs against Canada and Mexico are in effect. This might change by the time I’m done with my smoothie, but they’re in place at this very second. Let’s talk about the world we’re entering into and what it means for consumers. More importantly, I don’t want to get to bum everyone out, so I also want to talk about the positive side of these tariffs. It’s going to be great for Chinese companies in the automotive industry. At least I think it will.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ve spent the past few weeks and months reading more about government intervention into the economy. Specifically, I’ve been reading about FDR’s Depression-era programs and U.S. trade policy for the last 150 years. The reality is that no one knows for sure what will happen, and that policymakers are historically very bad at judging all the political and economic outcomes of their decisions.
Will I also be bad at judging the future? Probably! Reader, I am no futurist. I’m my only critic.
Today’s TMD will start with the doom-and-gloom from people who claim to know what’s going to happen. Then we’ll look at some positive outcomes. This could be good for Chinese automakers, give European governments a reason to give a break to European automakers and, hmm… maybe bad for Tesla?
And, finally, whenever we have these hard chats I like to end with a little treat. Usually that treat is a Škoda, and today is no different. If you just want to shut off the rest of the world you can skip to the bottom and Czech that out instead.
Ok, donning protective goggles. Let’s do this!
Expect To Pay $2,700 More Per Car, Or Maybe $12,000, Or Maybe Nothing
Ah, the goggles do nothing!
Sorry, I’m feeling a little extra this morning. This is The Autopian, not Bloomberg, so you’ll have to endure the odd reference to The Simpsons or insertion of a completely superfluous Pavement lyric from time-to-time. I have to assume that’s what some of you want, otherwise you’d just read Bloomberg instead of having me read Bloomberg to you.
Let’s start with Bloomberg, then, and my old buddy Keith Naughton on the potential impact of President Trump’s tariff on Canada and Mexico:
Impending tariffs on Canada and Mexico risk driving up US car prices by as much as $12,000, further squeezing consumers and wreaking havoc across the intricate web of automotive supply lines spanning the continent.
The cost to build a crossover utility vehicle will rise by at least $4,000, while the increase would be three times that for an electric vehicle examined in a new study from Anderson Economic Group, an automotive consultant in East Lansing, Michigan. And those costs would likely be passed on to consumers, the study found.
“That kind of cost increase will lead directly — and I expect almost immediately — to a decline in sales of the models that have the biggest trade impacts,” Patrick Anderson, chief executive officer of Anderson Economic Group, said in an interview.
That $12,000 price increase is interesting as it assumes that EV costs will increase more, I assume because EV cars are more expensive to build and the supply chain stretches more into Canada and Mexico, as well as China (which has an additional 10% tariff).
That seems bad! Hey, I said you should buy a car before the next trade war happens way back in November. I took my own advice and bought a car. I think you’ve got roughly a week or two before we see an impact on car prices, so this could be a great weekend to buy a car.
Just how bad this gets, though, is really anyone’s guess. Analysts at Bernstein assume an average cost increase of about $2,700 across the industry, mostly because even cars built in the United States need parts from Canada and Mexico. It’s obviously worse for cars built in those countries. Even more challenging, carmakers may eventually build more cars here, which is one goal, but it’s not like automakers can make that happen overnight as one Business professor pointed out to the Detroit Free Press:
“An auto company launching a new vehicle isn’t like a cereal company adding more marshmallows to a box of cornflakes,” said Erik Gordon, University of Michigan Ross School of Business professor. “It takes three to six years to develop a new car, and it takes the design, testing and integration of assemblies from many companies. If government policy changes in the middle of the process, years of work and tens of millions of dollars can go out the window.”
Gordon said a change in regulation that forces a change in just a couple of parts can cascade into changes in design of a lot of other parts from a lot of suppliers. When the rules keep changing, it makes intelligent long-term planning impossible.
Damn, maybe a smoothie was the wrong choice. Now I really want cornflakes with marshmallows.
Jessica Caldwell from Edmunds makes the same point this morning:
In the short term, automakers will need to pull every available lever to minimize disruptions and soften the immediate impact, but there’s no escaping the fact that higher costs will ultimately be passed on to consumers. With vehicle prices already elevated and interest rates remaining high, American car buyers could face an even more challenging road ahead.
Her point is fair, that automakers can probably hold the line on costs for at least a little while. But not forever.
It’s important to try and understand why this is happening. Also, I don’t really understand why this is happening.
There’s a certain attachment to blue collar auto worker jobs that both parties engage in but, as we discussed in my post on the Theory of Competitive Advantage, it’s not like everyone wants to be an auto worker. Is it worth risking the economy over a few thousand of these jobs? 20,000 jobs? 100,000 jobs? President Trump has made it clear that he only wants car plants in the United States and wants to specifically take them away from Canada and Mexico. It would be wildly inefficient if every country made everything only for itself, which is why we have global trade in the first place.
And, to be fair, President Biden’s administration also tried to do some of this, though it was focused mostly on trying to kickstart the development of EV infrastructure here to better compete with China. The Trump administration seems disinterested in supporting electric car development, if not downright hostile towards it in spite of the role Elon Musk has in The White House.
More specifically to the present, though, an attempt to increase jobs is not precisely why the President says this is happening. His reasoning, according to The White House?
President Donald J. Trump is proceeding with implementing tariffs on Canada and Mexico under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to combat the extraordinary threat to U.S. national security, including our public health posed by unchecked drug trafficking.
Drugs are bad… fentanyl is bad! A fact sheet from the Drug Enforcement Agency shows that most fentanyl is largely coming from China, though both Mexico and India are also big sources. Canada doesn’t get mentioned in that report, though Canadian law enforcement as recently as a few days ago put on a show of stopping the flow of illegal drugs via arrests.
It doesn’t feel legitimate to me to say that this is about drug trafficking or, at least, if that’s what this is about it feels like setting your house on fire to make s’mores. Damn, I really can’t stop thinking about marshmallows.
This Is Going To Be Potentially Great For China
Let’s not be doomers this morning, if only because in like 30 minutes President Trump could just say “psych” and none of this could mean anything. It might be bad news for American companies, investors, and consumers, but it’s potentially great news if you’re a Chinese supplier. All of this could change, but at the moment it might be cheaper to import parts from China to the United States than from Canada, even though China is apparently a larger source of fentanyl. Sure, cars are way more expensive to import to the United States because of tariffs that go back to the Biden administration, but Chinese automakers don’t sell cars here so that’s not a big deal.
Even better, if you’re a Chinese supplier, what you’re probably doing is making a bunch of parts for carmakers in Japan and South Korea. For… reasons, President Trump isn’t currently doing big tariffs against Japan or South Korea (though those might come). This makes importing cars from Japan or South Korea or anywhere else in Asia (that isn’t China) potentially cheaper than importing cars from Canada or Mexico.
This is also good for Chinese automakers. Not only is the United States proving to be a fickle trade partner, a trade war always involves reciprocity. Hell, the premier of Ontario is already threatening to stop selling nickel to America. If you’ve never been to Sudbury to see the Big Nickel (go Blueberry Bulldogs!) then you might not be aware that America basically solely relies on Canada for this essential material.
If you’re a government anywhere else in the world and you want cars, China might suddenly be a better option. If you’re an auto supplier and you’re looking to sell your supplies, China might suddenly be a better place to do it. If you’re a Chinese company and you want materials or goods, you might now be able to get them at a better rate from countries that don’t want to trade with the United States.
Clearly, I’m not the only one who had this thought.
If you think you’re going to be able to expand then, in the modern era, you borrow money to do that. The biggest maker of electric cars this year will probably be China’s BYD, and BYD just raised a bunch of money by selling a crap ton of shares. Specifically, it sold a bunch of shares to foreign firms like the UAE’s Al-Futtaim Family Office. Why? Usually, so you can spend that money. If you’re a car company, it’s to spend money making cars.
The deal reflects increasingly positive sentiment in Hong Kong and China, especially in the tech sector following a high level summit of tech executives led by Chinese President Xi Jinping. China policymakers have also signalled a higher level of support for the country’s business private sector.
Again, trade wars are unpredictable, and the United States declaring economic war on everyone else will have consequences that no one will be able to likely predict with 100% accuracy. Chinese firms and outside investors seem to be betting that it’ll be good for China in the long run.
Europe To Pause Emissions, Which Is Also Bad For Tesla
It’s possible that President Trump puts big pressure on European car firms by creating higher tariffs on inbound European cars. This high level of uncertainty is bad for European automakers, which is why the European Union, at least, seems to be willing to give them a break.
Specifically, much tighter emissions rules are supposed to go into place this year and the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is giving companies three years to comply with CO2 targets, as opposed to just one year.
The announcement is part of the bloc’s push to protect the auto industry, which employs 13 million people and accounts for about seven percent of Europe’s GDP.
“There’s a clear demand for more flexibility on CO2 targets,” the European Commission president told reporters in Brussels. “Instead of the annual compliance, companies will get three years.”
Von der Leyen added companies would still have to “fulfil” the same targets.
“But it means more breathing space for industry. It means also more clarity,” she said after talks on Monday with industry representatives including from BMW, Renault, Volkswagen and Stellantis, which owns several brands including Jeep, Fiat and Peugeot.
This could also be bad for Tesla. If the company sells fewer electric cars in Europe, which is what’s happening, then it has fewer credits to sell. If companies like Stellantis and Volkswagen have more time to meet goals, they don’t have to pay Tesla immediately (or ever) for the credits they have to sell.
The timing of this is interesting, as Bank of America just dropped its price objective for Tesla’s stock from about $490 to $380, though today the price is at… $264 and falling currently. Coincidentally, Tesla’s Board Chair Robyn Denholm has been selling a bunch of her shares, though perhaps that’s just to cover the $919 million settlement she and other directors agreed to pay to resolve allegations that the board overpaid itself.
It’s fine, the Chinese market will bail out Tesla. Right? I’m sorry, I’ve just been informed that Tesla shipments in China dropped by nearly half in February.
Here’s A Škoda For Your Troubles
That was like 2,000 words on a trade war that, for all I know, will be cancelled by the time I get out of the shower. Or maybe it’ll be expanded! As a journalist, it’s all very interesting. As an investor, I’m worried that my 401k is about to turn into a 4.01k.
It was 50 years ago that Czech (then Czechoslovakian) automaker Škoda debuted the 130RS, one of the carmaker’s most iconic models and the winner of numerous races:
It won trophies both within the Eastern Bloc and on the international stage, where it faced tough competition from leading Western brands.
Among its triumphs, the Škoda 130 RS secured a class victory at the legendary Monte Carlo Rally in 1977, finishing 12th overall. Other standout performances include eighth place in the overall rankings at the Acropolis Rally in 1979. In 1981, it repeated this remarkable success, once again demonstrating its ability to outperform significantly more powerful rivals.
The Škoda 130 RS also made its mark on the circuit racing scene, claiming the overall title in the 1981 European Touring Car Championship – its greatest success on the track – after consistently finishing among the top three in previous seasons.
And it looks great. Don’t forget that.
What I’m Listening To Today While Writing TMD
I could use the official video for “Burning Down The House” from Talking Heads, but I’m a damn professional. I’m using the version from all-time concert film “Stop Making Sense.”
Hold tight
Wait ’til the party’s over
Hold tight
We’re in for nasty weather
There has got to be a way
Burning down the house
Apt!
The Big Question
Is this a big deal? Maybe it’s not a big deal?
The path to enlightenment starts with admitting your errors, learning and maturing from the experience, and endeavoring to do better.
The path to morally bankrupt starts with viciously attacking any check on your errors.
It is beyond comprehension that someone that demonstrated the latter his entire life is in a position of power.
Well, the US is in the throws of an end-game from an old Soviet campaign to reduce the US global power from within. Start with disinformation, which eventually leads to some asshat like Trump getting elected by misinformed, fearful nationalistic idiots. See, all those of you who though reading was a waste of time in school, you fucked around and found out.
The fentanyl excuse has already worn very thin. Not to the redlands yet, because apparently the us-vs-the-world approach is enjoying 50% support nationally.
As far as real reasons go, my obvious one is to tax consumers so they can pay the rich through the tax cut. But it could also be that we invade Canada and Mexico and make America REALLY GREAT. Leave the Again part in the dust, baby.
Plus, wait until EU puts tariffs on US made cars such as BMW and VWs currently exported there.
My real concern out of all this is that we will likely end up with worse products. Cars will be value engineered, designed around supply chain issues and the chaotic process will affect planning, design, engineering etc. And the uncertainty of will they roll it back will they not is bringing nothing but paralysis. Great competitive combination.
Wheeesh, I think Tavares did well to get out of the auto industry.
I really have a very hard time believing that his approval numbers are actually as high as they are. I know most people are stupid, but that’s just complete insanity.
I am not touching his approval rating convo but according to NYT, tariffs approval is pretty solid. If you have a subscription go check this out: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/04/polls/tariffs-trump-poll.html
I’d like to see a related poll asking who pays the tariff – the exporting company/ country, the company that imports the product, or the consumer.
Way too many people believe it when they’re told the tariffs are paid by the exporter, and that the costs are just magically absorbed and don’t get passed down to the consumer.
And by “told” of course we mean tiktok, x or newsmax.
… or by Trump directly.
It’s trickle down economics. I heard it from a guy who is REALLY charismatic on the YouTube.
/S
Tariffs approval rating is solid because their voters haven’t paid any tariffs yet. Wait until those get passed to the customers and see what a follow-up poll says
I’d like to get behind that, but I just watched a video clip on CNN where they interviewed a bunch of people in GA. Most of them said that “Trump said the economy would get worse for a while” and they support it because now the reward comes later. Sort of like a religion.
I forgot they can handily one up themselves.
Yup. Or, you know they may start reading shit.
I think we can all agree that Donald Trump is an asshole, and this industry and hobby we all love so much is on the brink of collapse.
*country is on the verge of collapse. They’re determined to drive the economy into the ground and loot the treasury, private equity style. Then when people start losing their homes, Black Rock, etc will start buying them up to rent back to people.
Could not agree more, just trying to keep my supremely negative view of the asshole loosely about cars.
I respect that, but I’m having a hard time. It seems relevant for this discussion, at least.
Also, Elon can eat shit. I’m so over this. Let’s fire a bunch of park rangers barely making 40K so some billionaire assholes can get more tax breaks. GTFO with that.
The answer “because drugs” is no longer a valid response to the question:
WHY are you doing any of this???
To me, this is the biggest failure of the press these days, regardless of you perspective. Not asking WHY. And, not stopping when the answer is “drugs”.
I think it clearly has Purdue Pharma written all over it, illicit fentanyl has seriously dented their revenue, plus they had *some* legal fees. Protect US industry first!!
The press and the democrats. There is almost no pushback from them.
I’m thinking the play here is to be feeding them enough metaphorical rope to metaphorically hang themselves, but I’m afraid there won’t be a gallow left standing by the time they try to make use of the rope.
And the party leadership is trying to silence or dismiss the ones who are actually reacting to this situation with the outrage it deserves. They so desperately want the status quo back, but it’s gone. They’ll need to focus on rebuilding as much as possible, but I don’t think the senior leadership has the energy or vision to carry that out.
Their pushback is all from the exact same script. This is a problem…
https://x.com/HotSpotHotSpot/status/1896932092984102943
“The press” is mostly owned by the rich. They didn’t get to where they are today by pissing people off who were more powerful.
You know… there’s one simple way for Americans to stop Fentanyl “epidemic” once and for all. Even better–it costs absolutely nothing.
Well BlackRock just gained the Panama Canal as an asset.
Let’s not repeat the BS from Rubio and the ilk. Blackrock bought the operating right to two of the ports in the vicinity of the canal. Ownership of the Canal was always by Panama.
Trust me, I am very appalled by BlackRock existing in the first place, but giving them anything to do with it is scary as fuck
I’m a bit too close to their orbit. I’d keep my mouth shut on this.
I’m doing my best to get in an all cash, no debt position ASAP. I withheld some spend last year fearing this eventuality.
It’s a big reason I have no project car/toy. I’m being completely practical right now.
That’s where I am now, no debt, just cash. I’m not a homeowner though, which weighs heavily on me.
Yep, I’m about at the point where the mortgage will be my only debt.
Yes, the endgame is neo feudalism.
I was scrolling and saw “Black Rock” between saccades and read it as “Buick Regal” and I’m okay with this.
The misreading part. The societal collapse is less great.
Somehow I read it as “When people start losing their homes, Black Rock. etc will start buying them up to rent to black people.” Which I guess is actually an outcome, but really, it will be everyone renting
Statistically speaking, I have about 18 years left to live. I don’t think I’ll make it that far once Medicare and Social Security are pillaged. Expect mass deaths in the next 10 years.
This fall’s flu vaccine development has basically been shelved by Worm Ate My Brain. I expect mass deaths starting in about 7 to 10 months.
Gonna do a roadtrip to Canada to get fall flu and Covid boosters, plus Gardisil for the kids.
Ohh god – my wife fell down the Gardisil rabbit hole… she has feared for our daughter’s life ever since.
My grandfather remembered his mother begging his father to shoot her as she was dying of cervical cancer…Gardasil is a 100% YES in our house.
I was having a convo about this recently; with the ever-rising cost of healthcare and the erosion of social safety nets, I can imagine the suicide rate drastically climbing as people feel more and more helpless.
I bet you can’t wait for your username to be as cheap as this joke I am now typing.
My company did not offer the usual free flu shots this year…
As one of our resident Canadian readers, I’m just hoping we start importing cheap Chinese EVs, to further fuck over the domestic brands. I want PERMANENT damage for this lunacy.
Arguably another slightly-less-painful-self-inflicted option would be to harmonize automotive standards with the EU and to cut ties with US-market vehicles entirely. It would isolate US-market vehicles substantially.
But, in the, now, unofficial language of the USA: “¿Por qué no los dos?”
Ohhh baby, yes. Sell me them Estates!
Agreed. It would take about 2 seconds to add EU compliant vehicles to the Canadian Motor Safety Regulations.
We could have ships of Brown Diesel station wagons leaving the EU tomorrow!
Get Mexico to do the same and the orange baby will blow a gasket.
I’m in the US, and hoping that one of the ways Canada responds is some sort of reverse export tariff on energy, specifically oil, that Canada sends to the US. Since the US refineries, especially in the midwest, are quite reliant on Canadian heavy oil, they probably don’t have any other choices but to keep importing it, and it would be hilarious if Canada made the US pay extra for it, instead of import tariffs that Canadians would pay for. I’d personally be quite amused if this whole tariff thing ended up doubling gasoline prices in the midwest.
We’re about to do it with electricity in Ontario, I can’t see why the same can’t be done for oil.
Yeah, but…Alberta…
Everything seems to affect the price at the pump.
Maybe that’s the reason NOAA was cut, so we won’t see the hurricanes coming.
The old stick your head in the sand, and pretend nothing bad will happen method? If we can’t see anything, then we can’t see anything negative, and it doesn’t exist?
Hey, it worked for covid, didn’t it?
What’s covid? Is that some sort of Canadian vodka or something that’s going to be extra expensive now? lol
I’m sure we’ll continue to get hurricane forecast maps. They’ll be hand drawn and issued from the Oval Office, but we’ll get them.
I hope Elon’s kids are good at art, this cracked me up
How can you forecast hurricanes? You never know where the Democrats will aim them next, other than a red state.
NOAA’s new primary mission is to set up the Jewish Space Laser Detection System to track where those lefty bastards are going to send them.
An export tax on softwood lumber was proposed in the Canadian media recently. Just in time to start house building season!
I think the logical play will be for Canada to join the EU.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines.
Oh, no, being asleep at least a third of the time looks pretty sweet right now. You don’t want to witness any more of this bullshit than you have to…
I hear Fentanyl’s still pretty easy to get…
Then again the tower is now woefully understaffed, apparently because someone else has been sniffing glue.
I need to revisit the old Emilio Estevez movie Freejack. The plot’s not all that relevant (buying immortality), but the world it’s set in may start to look awfully familiar.
I love that movie even though it tanked at the box office. I even like Mick Jagger in it. I wonder if it’s streaming anywhere? Oh wait, I have the Blu-ray. 🙂
I completely forgot about that movie. EE could sometimes chew the scenery a bit but he was committed enough to pull it off. Thanks for the reminder.
As a Canadian I’m just here to hand out some Fuck You’s to all you Americans who voted for this disaster. Thanks, “friends”.
You’re never gonna win the Lady Byng with that attitude!
I was already out of the running when I needed a chair to stand up on skates. My youth was spent skiing!
While you’re at it, don’t forget about those among us that didn’t bother to vote.
The thing that really amazes me are the folks that are getting royally screwed at the moment, but still hold on to this “well it must be for the best” notion. I don’t know if it’s just cult-following, an inability to admit a mistake, or something else, but man is it wild to see an interview with somebody that’s just lost their employment (and likely soon their transportation and housing) and yet still parrot the MAGA talking points. Other good news for you folks – next they’re targeting the social safety net programs designed to help people in your situation.
We’re still early in the “find out” stage of the whole FAFO process. The real pain hasn’t even started yet.
That’s aggravating. The right claims they have this massive mandate, but barely 30% of the country voted for them when you factor in the 30% that didn’t bother to vote.
They have a mandate from the people that matter – you know, the billionaires that spent good money putting him in office.
And those are the only ones that count.
Please keep in mind one side has done everything they could to keep who wanted to vote from doing so.
And did all they could to throw out the votes of some who still managed to vote in spite of all those efforts.
Many good comments below.
The whole Zelenskyy shit show was obviously a set up.
Now a small brained turd is gonna let actually innocent folks die because his fucking pride was falsely offended? Let’s be frank here. To stop aid that Congress voted for to Ukraine is vindictive as hell, and probably highly illegal.
He does not give a fuck at all.
And he obviously DNGAF about the American people, red or blue state.
The real endgame was the desire for a Nobel prize. FOX has commented on this bull shit quest almost non stop since Friday’s disgusting ambush in the Oval Office.
The obvious admiration and further strong embracement of Putin is an insult to not only us (US peons,) but to the rest of the free world as well.
We are truly fucked.
The “master negotiator” who promised to fix this on day one couldn’t even get close and didn’t even appear to try, choosing a setup at his master Putin’s request. Trump is an abject coward and the embodiment of every kind of personal weakness. Not only does he not understand non-transactional relationships or motivations, he is openly offended by honesty, bravery, and strength. I wonder if his cult will ever get to the point where they ask if they are the baddies.
They want to be the baddies. They actively want to oppress and control anyone who’s different than they are.
“in spite of the role Elon Musk has in The White House”. The official role title, i think rhymes with “Rock Nobbler in Chief”.
Great, now I have ROCK NOBBLER! (to the tune of “Rock Lobster”) stuck in my head.
It’s a Fat Tuesday miracle, this free therapy/venting session for the community!
Thanks, Matt 🙂
laissez les bon temps rouler
All my farmer buddy’s are getting back to work for the planting season. They all look as though they are about to shit themselves. Maybe that’s what culpability looks like.
The NYT times interviewed a bunch of Trump voting farmers who got screwed over because they took on debt the Department of Agriculture was going to reimburse them for. Well guess what DOGE cut? They are all on the hook for those loans now and some of them are STILL unwilling to admit Trump fucked them.
It’s insane …
There seems to be fewer t supporter comments in this thread than before. I wonder what changed.
Post-electoral nut clarity.
Dude, it’s not even noon.
His followers can neither read nor operate a computer.
I’ve lowered my 401k contribution, bought the car I was planning on buying later this year, and stocked up on clothing. There’s not much else I can do until November 2026.
If we have an election then. I think federal elections are over for a long time.
I think they’ll still happen, but they’re going to be so actually rigged this time that the results won’t matter.
They’re already rigged. Red states spent 2020-2024 doing as much gerrymandering and voter suppression as possible. Without that, it’s doubtful Trump would have won.
Debating on doing this. They always say the time to invest in 401K is when it’s low, it’s like buying stock on sale, but at this point I hate putting money in it. I’d have to keep putting in at least enough to get the full match; I feel not getting the match is basically allowing my employer to pay me less.
I was thinking of getting a newer F150 in the next few years, I’m wondering if I should just do it now. They’re made in the USA, but the AL they’re made of probably comes from CA. My 4R will last a few more years, but having an old Toyota in New England can become a maint nightmare. It’s already 12 years old with close to 200K now.
I just hate the interest rates right now.
That 4Runner is still good for a few more years.
Might I recommend Krown Rustproofing? Canadian company, and it’s good stuff.
Yeah, I fluid film the heck out of it, so the frame is in great shape. It’s just other stuff. The other night I rolled the rear window down to put some stuff in the back, then it wouldn’t roll back up. I had to have a second person fiddle with the switch while I pulled up on the glass.
That’s the coolest part of the vehicle! It’s a big reason I wanted one in the first place.
Stuff like that really frustrates me. Or last year I had to ratches strap the hatch closed because the latch had corroded to the point that it wouldn’t engage.
I lowered mine to the minimum for the full match.I don’t think we’re anywhere near the low point right now. Interest rates aren’t great, part of why I was going to hold out on buying until later in the year was to see what interest rates were going to do but when the Fed passed on the rate decrease in January I saw the writing on the wall.
I live in a freezing cold half assed castle in the bit of England that gets left off maps, drive a 90 year old car and play with steam engines. I do not have a portable telephone,or mains water or drainage or gas. Now who is the idiot.
Please adopt me.
Can somewhat relate. I’m on a dead end dirt road in the swamp, haul my water and wood, but drive a ’24 Maverick hybrid.
I think these tariffs are a very big deal. The direct economic impact may not last long (I expect the tariffs to go away as soon as prices go up), but the impact to relations with other countries could last a while. I don’t see why any country would trust or want to partner with the US given Trump’s behavior and that republican politicians and voters appear to support this. Our national reputation has already taken a huge hit by Trump siding with Putin on Ukraine; adding economic warfare on top of that isn’t going to help anything.
I am generally not prone to histrionics around politics, but I wonder what the future of America is. Trump is showing that objectively bad policy and authoritarianism are very popular. I hope politics returns to normal when he is out of office, but I am no longer convinced that will be the case.
On the plus side, if the economy tanks, used exotic car prices should decline. I have wanted a Huracan for some time; maybe a massive recession might bring one into my price range (assuming I still have a job when that time comes)?
This is a “rising tides” moment. That Huracan will never be attainable, sorry.
I mean, I would settle for a Gallardo…
I’m just trying to see the positives of our geopolitical train wreck.
It’s insane how much the negatives outweigh the positives right now.
I really wish I could disagree with that. Here we are, I guess.
If there is a positive for Canada here (pretty big effing if), it’s that we are likely going to knock down a lot of our internal barriers to trade between provinces, and make some changes that make us more economically self sufficient.
My worry is that we (all of North America) end up with a second “Great Depression.”
Boy, if only there was some kind if mutually beneficial trade agreement between our nations…
I think that depressions are very good fixes for inflation though. They can probably even cause deflation, which would be a very good thing since it is the opposite of inflation. And that would make things cheaper, and life better, for those who are worth at least $10million. And remember, you no longer qualify for personhood unless you are worth at least $10million. Or if you are a corporation, but not a B corp, those are bad
The problem with deflation is there is no incentive to buy anything that isn’t absolutely necessary since it will be cheaper next week. Slight to very moderate inflation is what you want to grow an economy.
Watch, housing prices for example can go down and after an initial rush, everyone else will sit around waiting for prices to go down even more, and more, and more…Never mind people then getting underwater as time goes by if deflation is greater than the percentage the monthly mortgage principal reduction covers, not being able to sell and obviously then not being able to buy.
It’s a downward spiral.
But then think of how much more the billionaires can make, buying up all the abandoned houses of the peons who have mortgages, then renting them back to them. I guess I should have added an /s…
Ah, I am taking everything very literally today 🙂
I recommend viewing the world at this point as the equivalent of a monopoly game board that’s been thrown off the balcony mid game by a 12 year old throwing a tantrum, much more entertaining that way
Deflation is bad because it makes it harder to pay off debts
I will always see the irony in Trump enacting tariffs on Canada and Mexico after the USMCA. He touted USMCA as a major accomplishment, and one worthy of his reelection. I’m not sure what happened to that, or why his supporters seem to have USMCAmnesia.
Their own Ministries of Truth reside in their heads. They believe whatever they’re told to believe at that moment, however the official word may have changed from the last and they will vehemently defend that new position regardless of the logical fallacies necessary.
Yeah, I agree. I try not to get too worked up about stuff in the “news” as it is all now designed to do exactly that. But, I can’t deny that I’m getting those early pandemic vibes where I get the strong urge to start stashing away some cash and supplies. Will be interesting to see if that is what we start seeing happening again.
You can’t count on luxury goods to fall much during economic depression because the wealthy can afford to just sit on them.
For the wealthy, there’s no pressure to sell like someone begging for a few dollars more for their engagement ring down at the pawn shop.
We are about to find out how intertwined the North American vehicle production ecosystem is.
‘Move production’ and ‘Do like in WWII’ sounds like an easy solution, except that the margins on vehicles and components is pretty thin. Huge capital expenditures have to be borne by someone. During the war, government subsidized the high capital expenditures, because war. Profitability was not a concern. Winning the war was.
I do not foresee the capital expenditures of relocating every component to be produced in the United States as a viable alternative at this juncture. It’s too costly, one might as well reduce one’s production to the minimum necessary and pass on the costs when you figure out the damage. Automakers and component makers won’t lose infinite money – they’ll just ramp down production if the losses are severe enough.
I’m curious where the failure point is going to be. What missing components will effectively halt large-scale vehicle production?
The second curious question I have is when do dealers start adding ‘tariff’ pricing to the vehicles? If I was in a dealer’s shoes right now, I’m thinking supply might get real tight in the near future, so I’d pad the margins so I won’t go hungry when my lot is bare.
I hope everyone has a decent vehicle in the driveway right now, because buying a new car may just suck (again) in the near future.
Well said, Just the large number of components in cars today compared the 1940s makes that shift so so much harder.
There are also the time and knowledge factors. Knowledge it terms of does the US know how to make all of this stuff, and how long will it take to get, for example, steel and aluminum production up and running?
As far as time goes, I suspect Trump’s term will be over before a lot of his proposed solutions can happen.
Then there’s the point that if things get bad enough, the midterm elections could seriously hurt the number of Republicans in the House and Senate.
Trump’s life will be over before we get production running on a lot of this stuff, because it’s just not profitable enough to set up factories to do it.
That’s why so many things were imported in the first place.
I hope all industries and consumer goods effected by the tariffs add a line time to the price so everyone knows the price went up because of Tr*mp and not inflation or government waste.
ANY missing components will halt production, and the failure points will be many. And repeatedly.
So many of the smaller companies (assemblers, injection molders, stampers) barely survived the last round of Trump tariffs and COVID inflation. A lot of companies are just going to close the doors.
The danger is from the small suppliers that simply can’t afford to pay the increased prices for parts and raw materials. These could be direct Tier 1 suppliers or the Tier 2, 3, 4 suppliers. What I have seen happen several times in the past is that we will basically bail out of supplier – float them a loan – to keep the assembly lines running until we can get a replacement supplier lined up.
These tariffs will bankrupt some companies and result in lost US manufacturing jobs – just like happened the last time.
Today my coworker that voted for that particular person, started to complain about tariffs and the risk of losing our jobs since our company has 90% of the production of parts in Mexico, with some plants in Nicaragua. Dude shut up, don’t complain, you voted for this knowing Michigan is the auto industry power house of the country.
I hope you pointed out the consequences of his own actions.
Me too
That is a person I would bitch slap immediately.
Those folks effed around, and now we are all finding out
Leopards ate my face? How could this be?
Mitochondria is the power house of the cell!
…this isn’t relevant to the conversation, just a random core memory that gets unlocked for me whenever someone uses the words power and house back to back.
I would just laugh at them and say “if there was only some way we could have seen this coming and acted in a way to prevent it”.
I’m closing on my first house in a few days, and spending the next few months renovating prior to moving in. Needless to say, I’m already expecting to throw my projected costs out the window, have already preemptively bought the big ticket items I can like flooring and appliances, but I am downright terrified about what the economy is going to do. As with all house purchases, it’s a huge commitment with large potential costs looming overhead that are scary regardless of how much budgeting and forecasting I do.
all of this is difficult enough, but that doesn’t even consider how tariffs and a trade war could effect my job as a part of a company that sells products internationally. I’m sure we’ll get a clearer picture on the exact ramifications over the next few weeks, but that certainly won’t help my ever rising anxiety for the foreseeable future. But on the bright side, at least DOGE is cutting social programs, the CFPB, and National Parks while the administration cutting taxes for billionaires and effectively raising them for everyone else right? Oh wait, that’s not very bright is it…
We pulled out of actively looking for a bigger house in November because of concerns about these tariffs.
I feel for all of those out there trying to live out the American dream while America is trying her best to roundhouse kick them in their teeth.
Godspeed!
Hopefully it will end with other countries lowering their tariffs, and international demand for your company’s products will increase.
Hopefully the company (and Alex’s job) survive on through to this “end” you speak of.
Good luck! Big home renovations suck but you’ll be better off for it. If nothing else, it will feel like “your” home and, imo, you’ll be more relaxed being in it having that extra feeling of sweat equity and ownership.
(early) Congrats! This all resonates as I did the same about 6 months ago, I didn’t have any reno work I needed or wanted to do, but have similar fears over how it will affect my job and clients. And I have friends – two separate households – that are doing some work of their own. One that is also doing some work before they move in, the other that opted to renovate/expand rather than move but had the exact same back and forth on pre-buying the appliances and things because of the potential tariffs.
This is also about cutting any sort of assistance to Ukraine and Europe for fending off Russia. If the economy is in a (self-imposed) depression, they’re going to make the argument that “we can’t afford to help Ukraine and Europe.” Ignore the fact that the billionaires are busy buying everything in sight with the tax cuts that are coming.
Putting people out of work while driving up the cost of living also decreases individuals directly donating money to Ukraine.
My personal take is that like with most things with Trump, it’s all about things that he took as personal slights combined with him saying tariffs once and getting applause for it. He truly doesn’t understand how they work or what they actually do, he just knows that TARIFFS get him media coverage and so that’s just what he’s gonna do.
All hail the Dear Leader, our stable genius!
It’s because the Supreme Court effectively guaranteed unlimited power to a senile, vindictive, piece of shit boomer moron that has had his entire worldview shaped by cable news and doesn’t understand how anything works as a result.
He does not care if people suffer, because he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and made his living buying and selling real estate. His only goal is to punish countries that have been mean to him. That’s literally it. The entire American populace could die, and he wouldn’t give half a fuck as long as it meant that a prime minister of a country he and that moon-faced little dick-sucking lapdog of a VP of his couldn’t find on a map was mildly inconvenienced.
I also think he wants to inflict punishment on the American people for not re-electing him in 2020. He may end up being right about the next great depression except he’s gonna be the reason for it.
This is also true. The only thing that will save us is when those 80 years of McDonald’s finally find their way to his brain. There’s going to be so much infighting about who’s going to replace him that the Left will have a (very) brief window of time to act.
The only saving grace there is no one has the juice like he does with the maga conservatives.
And I’m pretty sure he hates every other Republican, so there’s no push to set up a successor. The only possibility I can see is one of his ugly failsons trying to fill his shoes, but neither of them have the charisma, for lack of a better term, to actually win people over.
This is one of the things I’m desperately clinging to. The MAGA platform (if you can even call it that, it’s more so just a list of grievances scribbled on a napkin) isn’t actually particularly popular and most of the slimy little Trump wannabes get crushed in both state and local elections. For better or worse Trump is the draw.
I’m not going to say that this entire movement dies with him, but I genuinely don’t think anyone will ever be able to replicate what he did. He’s a perfect shit storm of factors that don’t usually go together. He’s been a household name celebrity for decades, he’s hilarious, he’s charismatic (not as much now as he he used to be, but the point stands), and he screams loudly about tearing everything down.
I don’t think his voters can name a single policy of his that they like. Hell he probably can’t even name one. Most of them are just like “hahaha I’ll vote for the funny rich man who wants to blow shit up because I’ve been seeing on the TV my whole life and I wish I could be as big of an ass as he is without suffering consequences either”.
99% of the current Republican politicians and talking heads are joyless charisma voids that come across as little weasels poking away at keyboards in their parents’ basements. Do we really think fucking JD Vance could win a general election? I can’t stand Trump or the vast majority of right wing policy but I am willing to give him this much-he definitely knows how to entertain a crowd and more often than not he’s pretty goddamn funny.
Find me another current Republican that you can say either of those things about. I’ll wait.
I really like your comments, but I don’t think I could ever classify Trump as “funny”.
His sense of humor seems to be an endless stream of barely concealed hatred, punching down on those he thinks of as lesser.
You don’t need to agree with anything he says to recognize that Trump has a comedian’s sense of timing and a clever, entertaining way of speaking.
His Twitter account before he got into politics was legitimately funny.
You’re right about his timing, there’s no doubt. More huckster than comedian, though.
But political involvement seems to have exposed him as nothing more than a sundowning old ball of hate, still bitter that the other kids in grade school didn’t like him.
The man single handedly ended Ron DeSantis’ presidential run by calling him Meatball Ron and saying he needed a personality transplant. His official presidential statement after John McCain died was almost literally “rest in piss you won’t be missed”. Many of his tweets are all time greats.
Again, I’d never vote for the guy and think he’s a reprehensible human being and a terrible president…but I don’t think anyone claiming he’s never made them laugh is probably lying to themselves. I remember a quote of him (I forget what it was from) where someone asked him what white trash meant and he apparently responded “me, but without the money”.
He’s hilarious. It doesn’t make up for all the horrific shit he’s done in the slightest, but I’m willing to call a spade a spade.
If you think raw viciousness without the wry “wink, wink, I’m ripping into you but we actually like you” on the side is funny, then he’s the greatest.
That’s why I’ve never found Trump funny. He’s not joking. He legitimately hates other people, including that disabled reporter he mocked. And John McCain, for having the audacity to be a POW and not kiss Trump’s ass.
His attempts at humor during his political phase are simply more examples of the horrific shit he’s done.
“Me, but without the money” is one of the few times he’s used humor in a non-vindictive way. Things like that are far too rare in the stream.
As a Florida resident, “Meatball Ron” was Trump’s only great contribution to society. (the nickname, not DeSantis himself. Who sucks. Haaaaard.)
This will be the case if he dies from a coronary or something. If he slowly fades out over the next 20 years, Carter-style, then they will have a chance to create some kind of neo-Trump, which is the only thing that concerns me.
Couch Fucker will be the president then. Luckily, he is so unliked that not a soul will follow him.
Trump himself literally said that he doesn’t consider him his successor, which is hilarious for so many reasons.
What a fucking tool.
Thanks. Well said.
This week is the first real test of whether the President is a true believer or if he and his wealthy advisors drop the tough guy “negotiating” tactic once they get spooked by the markets tanking.
My money has been on the latter for a long time, but now we are getting close to OH SHIT time and he still hasn’t swerved.
I’m more pessimistic today than I have been in quite some time. Doubling down on tariffs for China would at least have been defensible on national security grounds, even if economically inefficient. This is an inexplicable bullet fired directly at the American consumer.
I don’t see how that’s possible. Isn’t he the strongest man in the world? That’s how his supporters present him, as this 340-lb muscle-bound stud who isn’t afraid of anybody.
Are you implying that this isn’t true?
This isn’t a negotiating tactic, it’s ideology. Peter Navarro is the president’s Special Counselor for Trade & Manufacturing, this trade war thing has been a massive, central goal for him for a long time, he’s written about his tariff plans for decades and he’s been given free reign to implement them. It’s more of a religion for him at this point, rational arguments or clear evidence aren’t going to make him change course, he’s very used to ignoring all of that by this point
I have zero doubt that Navarro is a true believer who won’t be swayed, my hopes are pinned on Trump himself seemingly being the type of guy with few real convictions who makes policy based on the last guy that spoke to him.
And the idea that Trump seems motivated by little other than admiration for himself personally, and wanting to be loved/famous/awesome.
An admittedly slim hope that gets slimmer the longer this goes on, but it’s all I have right now.
I think he’s pretty throughly brainwashed Trump to his way of thinking by now, to where any negative impact on the US will be explained away as other countries wrongly attacking us and us therefore needing even higher tariffs. He’s pretty much the only one from the first administration who’s still around, and he’d been put into an even more senior and influential role than he had before, I’d assume he and Trump were talking a lot and having a lot of one on one time in the past 4 years.
They’re also talking about charging any Chinese-built ship that docks in the US $1.5 million per port call. Not Chinese owned, not Chinese flagged, Chinese built, so any shipping company anywhere in the world that operates ships built in China would be priced out of importing or exporting anything via US ports, since that’s obviously too much money to just absorb. More than 50% of all ocean going merchant ships in the world are built in Chinese yards. There’s only like 1 yard in the US capable of building modern container ships, and they can only build maybe a maximum of 2 per year running at full capacity, for comparison.
I guess the fate of my retirement accounts depends on whatever passes for a normal Republican anymore convincing a senile old man that the market crashing is bad for him personally.
Might have to start day drinking.
There is no such thing as a “normal Republican.” They were purged long ago. It’s Christian Nationalists all the way down.
Presumably they still care about their stock portfolios up until the Second Coming, though?
Nope. They know that there is more money in supporting the fascists in charge than the stock market. Why risk the market when you can just tap into the pipeline directly?
Well when they can buy the dip they still come up on top
My favorite quote in the world is from Steve Martin, I first saw it on the side of a Starbucks coffee cup a few years back, it’s obviously quite old but very relevant:
“If you’ve got a dollar and you spend 29 cents on a loaf of bread, you’ve got 71 cents left; But if you’ve got seventeen grand and you spend 29 cents on a loaf of bread, you’ve still got seventeen grand.”
This sums it up perfectly. None of this personally affects anyone in charge.
They’d be lying to him, then, because it isn’t bad for him personally. He’s not running again, so why should he care what happens?
I think there is a very good chance people are conspiring a 3rd term out of him…. Like a JD runs with Convicted Felon Donald Trump as his VP and immediately resigns on Inauguration Day….
I will always console myself that Trump’s actions will always hurt his supporters far more than they will hurt me.
It’s selfish as fuck but his supporters dragged the whole world into this mess.
Glad for you. Unfortunately, a million jobs are already jeopardized. Not just the dedicated government workers and manufacturing (which was supposed to be helped by the tarifs), but scientific research is already drying up. I hope no one cares about the health of themselves or their loved ones. This administration doesn’t.
Oh, and the ‘drug war’ is bull. We all know it. Unfortunately, he started controlling the media five years ago.
That is your issue right there. Every terrible thing said about Trump and his minions isn’t just true; it doesn’t scratch the surface of their depravity.
Even a terrible man can have interests that align with mine, such as “not crashing the stock market we are both invested in is good, actually” and “China is our enemy, not Canada”.
Neither China or Canada is our enemy. That whole narrative is set up by people who know that scaring people is the best way to control them.
Lol OK.
I assure you China sees us as their enemy, and our complacence in the face of that fact the last 30 or so years has caused us to fall into the mess we currently find ourselves in.
Not even close. Making lots of inexpensive goods doesn’t make them an enemy. Unfettered capitalism that cares about nothing but stock prices as a way of concentrating more and more wealth into the top 1% is why we are now a vassal state in the Russian oligarchy.
Anti-capitalist has fond words and nothing negative to say about the profoundly evil CCP, many such cases.
Two things are able to be bad at the same time 🙂
The CCP has done terrible things. Maybe or maybe not comparable to the centuries of slavery and genocide in this country.
The anti-capitalist at least acknowledges the difference between capitalism in the fascist/oligarchy form currently in place here, and the idealized free-market fantasy so many people pretend it to be.
Well, that is really confusing and conflating two very separate institutions in the country’s history.
Yes the past that includes slavery and oppression is a dark spot on all that lived and supported such but really has nothing to do with whether capitalism is as bad as communism.
I would argue that there are many aspects of our culture (and laws and regulations) that impact the prevailing views of the stock market and have enabled the wealth disparity we now witness in this country.
Likewise I would argue that our country enjoys a higher standard of living for even the lower income of the population than has been seen historically because of the influences of capitalism.
None of this is to say that capitalism is perfect or that we shouldn’t place various levels of regulation and oversight on individuals and corporations to prevent tampering, fraud and other, less ideal behaviors.
But the idea that capitalism is somehow equal to the actual totalitarian CCP that places the party above all else in importance is just not an idea based in reality.
But the idea that capitalism is somehow equal to the actual totalitarian CCP that places the party above all else in importance is just not an idea based in reality.
Capitalism literally does this with capital, though. Money is the party. You can’t tell me that a health insurance company making decisions about who lives and who dies based on how much money that stand to make or lose is not the same degree of evil you see from a corrupt Communist ideology.
Well, there is really too much to get into in all of this (I really hesitated on posting this topic here) and I don’t want to get into heavily emotional arguments with someone I likely have a lot in common with, but here goes;
I would argue that is not capitalism. I vaguely referenced the regulations and laws that have contributed to our current state. Insurance specifically is one of these areas where we don’t have proper competition and somehow we got to the state of our employer choosing our insurance provider, removing us from having more control there.
In answering your questions about motivation behind the decision making, I would just say that is tougher to answer. It does go back to laws and regulations (in this case largely Sarbanes-Oxley that came about due to the ENRON fiasco) and pushed all corporate executives to being solely responsible for the economic health of the corporation to protect investors and employees. It was an overcorrection to a terrible situation.
But that isn’t really about capitalism.
Healthcare is an area we need big, big changes and I don’t think we’ll solve it commenting on a car blog. I think we have too many of the wrong regulations in this area and are likely headed for a system like EU or Canada, just not in my lifetime. I think there are regulations needed to be removed and added to fix it but there just aren’t enough people miserable enough to cry out for change enough to make it a big enough priority.
Capitalism is about the free exchange of goods and services. When we have that it is almost always for the betterment of both parties. When we allow people or institutions to skirt the rules or write the rules because they paid the rule-makers, that’s not capitalism. That’s closer to being an oligarchy.
Methinks you don’t know what capitalism is. Capitalism in its modern form started in Holland and then proceeded to be the primary mechanism for Europe to institutionalize genocide and slavery around the world for centuries. The U.S. was founded on this structure and leaned into it throughout its history. It was the founding principle of its form of government despite the patriotic propaganda about freedom and liberty. Keep in mind, the U.S. has a higher percentage of its population in prison than any other.
The higher standard of living here is completely due to the fact this country is by far the most lucrative piece of real estate on the planet. The idea that it was capitalism is partially true because capitalism was the structure for the genocide and slavery that fueled the capitalist class rise and allowed them to hoard their wealth. A status they continually fight to maintain.
A free market and capitalism have little to nothing in common. American capitalism is so similar to an oligarchy that it is indistinguishable.
I’m not going to argue that capitalism existed separately from slavery or anything like that but the cause and effect you are looking for is not there.
I am not going to argue with how many points are so completely wrong in this statement but I am only posting this in hopes to encourage anyone else that may read it to go and do your own research about the subject and do not accept this on face value.
Capitalism and the free market system are basically synonymous and it was not implemented to enslave anyone. That is just ridiculous.
Look up the first corporation, why it was founded, and what it and its contemporaries did during their existence. Keep in mind corporations don’t exist in a free market. They require a charter from the government because their only reason for existing is to absolve the owners of a business from any personal liability. A free market requires the owners of a business and the sellers of a product to be liable for their actions. Capitalism does not. Capitalism is simply the exploitation of people and resources without consequences. The reason you don’t want to make any counterpoints is that there aren’t any.
Nah, China is a capitalist country these days, it just has an authoritarian government. The parties in power in the US want that, too.
China sees us as competitors.
Anyone who aligns themselves with a terrible man out of fairly inconsequential self-interest becomes a terrible person themselves.
In Trump’s first term there were some appointees who helped keep everything on the rails, but this time around anyone who might do that either wouldn’t be considered for that reason or wouldn’t take the job because they saw what happened last time. Coupled with mental faculties that are worse than Biden on a bad day but camouflaged by bouts of manic energy and a party that has eight years of experience in how to manipulate him into taking certain positions, it all looks bad.
My financial state is already pretty fragile and I have to start dipping into my 401(k) (no penalties because the company that laid me off set up the plan), so I hope I can manage a little solace in that it would be decimated if I didn’t touch it anyway, so I won’t be much worse off. And at least I have equity in the house this time, so I should be able to sell it for a profit even in a 2008-type scenario. (Where I’ll live is another question, but hey )
“ In Trump’s first term there were some appointees who helped keep everything on the rails, but this time around anyone who might do that either wouldn’t be considered for that reason or wouldn’t take the job because they saw what happened last time.”
You just wrote the Executive Summary to Project 2025.
Yeah, the people who think that Trump 2.0 is just going to be Trump 1.0 on steroids don’t seem to be paying attention to the legit lunatics that he’s been appointing to every single position. People claimed that in the first term Trump would be great at hiring people who would do the best job (LOL). But now it’s clear that the only thing Trump cares about is loyalty. Anything other than fellatio is considered grounds for dismissal.
It’s pretty dark, really.
Really frames the cutting of DEI in order to “promote people based on merit” in a particularly unflattering light doesn’t it? As if the hypocrisy and blatant dog whistles weren’t clear enough.
The hypocrisy is the point. It’s a power move: “look at the shit we can get away with, what are you going to do about it?”
“power move” is correct. Do you think he’s really worried about TikTok? No, he can’t control it, so he wants to kill it. It’s one of the last media sources he doesn’t control through Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, or the televised news.
Unless he’s changed his mind again, he’s pretty on-board with TikTok or at least doesn’t care about it any more. They literally touted him as their savior back when it went away for like 12 minutes.
Someone kissed is butt hard-enough for him to feel appeased, then.
I have some “friend of a friend” type of connection to the former Surgeon General under Obama and Biden. He was a truly brilliant person, supremely well qualified, but at the time of first appointment I had some concern about his relative lack of experience.
How fucking wrong I am. Murthy is like Andrew Wiles compared to the clowns we have that failed kindergarten math.
Be fair. He might not have passed, but Pete Hegseth would have done much better in kindergarten math had he been sober.
DUI HIRE!
That’s a deep cut for this crowd. Nothing like some algebraic geometry in the morning on le autopian.
LOL I was racking my brain when I was thinking about which famous mathematician to follow. Below is the list I could come up with:
Andrew Wiles
Terrence Tao
That dude from New Hampshire that went from adjunct to being able to demand any job from any top university in this world, seemingly overnight
Ted Kaczynski
I wish we had Dave Navarro instead.
Markets tanking don’t affect him or the 15 billionaires that have been courting him. You have to understand that the entire government is currently being restructured into a money funnel for the top .01%. If markets tank and everyone loses their homes, oh well.
They want the markets to crash, so they can buy up everything on the cheap and jack up the prices.
He’s not a true believer in any policy, but he hates the United States of America.
Never play “chicken” with someone who has the actual intelligence of a chicken.
The overwhelmingly surprising part of all this is that it does seem to be a tactic that works for Trump often.
In his last term he was able to renegotiate NAFTA using the exact same tactic. Maybe this time CA & MX just figured it out and want to call the bluff. Can they hold out longer than us? My guess is not and Trump knows it.
I do think Trump is willing to let this go on just long enough to get something out of it and there will be short term pain for everyone. The real question is, how much? How long can he let it go before his supporters turn on him? Because it will happen as the markets continue losing.
All of this is basically a repeat of the last time and all the hand-wringing about it seems premature to me. But then I typically don’t worry too much about politics. It’s all temporary and we’ve seen it all before to one degree or another. Don’t worry, the sky isn’t falling. It’s just a hard, miserable rain.
This is good perspective as usual.
It’s bad out there, but I don’t think it’s as bad as many here seem to think.
I think saying people in power are motivated by self-interest and will adjust their behavior based on feedback from the public is not controversial.
This too shall pass.
You sound like someone who’s very, extremely, insulated from all this.
There are people with more at stake than me, and people with less.
I admit to attempting to make my comments here with a level head and optimism rather than histrionics and despair. I think we see enough of both here already.
Plenty of folks here accuse me of being a fascist or worse because apparently my denunciations of the administration’s actions are not vehement enough.
You can think what you want I suppose. If I made my comments more shrill and angry here, would that help anyone who is out of work or can’t afford eggs? If I assumed the worst like so many do (no more elections, country is going over to the billionaires, authoritarian government coming in, etc) would that inspire people or just add to a circle jerk of misery?
Renegotiate is a bit of a strong term. Back when NAFTA turned into USMCA my employer had a series of meetings where our trade specialists took Q&A. They basically said it was VERY clear that Trump’s main goal was to change the name so he could say he killed NAFTA. The USMCA rules were carefully crafted to sound like they were making changes without actually changing our business model or vehicle production plans. Business as usual with a few more forms to fill out.
The 2018 steel and aluminum tariffs on the other hand directly lead to more part production and vehicle assembly being shifted out of the USA.
Whatever happens he will 100% claim victory and 100% never, ever take responsibility.
It very clearly isn’t about drugs, that’s just being used as legal justification for invoking the IEEPA, since “I personally don’t like Canada” wouldn’t constitute an emergency under the act’s definitions. Otherwise, you’d have to go through Congress to get tariffs implemented, which, they’d probably still do it anyway, it would just take longer
Tariffs against Canada wouldn’t pass the current Congress even at gunpoint, Republicans have a two seat majority and many of their seats are held by folks by the Canadian border whose constituents and themselves would be hit hard by it.
His “genius” is in declaring an emergency allows him to grab absolute power.