Running a business in a trade war is like jumping on one of those terrible old spring beds piled high with all your most valuable possessions. Some of your things won’t move at all, others will hop safely toward the pillows, and some of your best stuff will get randomly rocketed straight into your bedside mirror. Oh no, there goes your vintage record player and three signed Dave Brubeck albums! Is there anything more prized by Americans than the Ford F-150? Historically, no, so that’s why it’s a big deal it might get pricier.
This trade war might also cause Audi’s prices to go higher, which is just one of about a million problems at Audi. The automaker was just outsold by Tesla for the first time ever as the company’s CEO tries to grapple with a crisis every minute. It’s not like Tesla is in great shape; retaliatory measures are hitting Elon Musk’s automaker in our great potential 51st state of Canada.
Mazda has a plan to get through all of this, and it’s called an “Asset Light Strategy,” which, coincidentally, was my own personal economic strategy for most of my 20s. That wasn’t a plan so much as something that just happened to me, but let’s see how it works out for Mazda.
Ford Says It’ll Be ‘Difficult’ To Offset Cost Of Metal Tariffs
Automotive tariffs against Mexico and Canada were temporarily halted because, well, I’m not really sure. The unpredictability of it all means that by the time I’m done writing this, there may be a 500% tariff against Martian sand. I won’t make this too long then, but I think it’s important to talk about why Ford is somewhat more screwed than others, why we don’t process a lot of automotive-grade aluminum in the United States, and why all this confusion is bad for business.
Let’s go back in time to the beginning of the Obama Era. The country was getting out of a recession, had just weathered a few major disruptions in oil prices, and was suddenly feeling more concerned about the environment (though to be clear CAFE requirements existed before then). Ford’s bread-and-butter F-150 was in the midst of being revolutionized for a new era, and so Ford engineers decided to switch to aluminum for a big portion of its world-beating half-ton pickup (including the hood, doors, and the bed). The idea here is that aluminum is lighter than steel, and a lighter truck is more efficient. Other truckmakers gave Ford some crap for this, but time has proven the haters mostly wrong. Ford kept selling the trucks and, since a large percentage of trucks are just glorified sedans at this point, it hasn’t been the issue some predicted.
Partially out of a desire to bring more blue-collar jobs to the United States, President Trump has instituted a blanket 25% tariff on imported steel and aluminum. For steel, this doesn’t seem to be quite as big of a deal, as the country has a decent base of suppliers following tariffs put in place in 2018. Aluminum is way harder to produce in America, though. Why?
As The Wall Street Journal points out, aluminum is hard to smelt efficiently here in the United States:
Aluminum smelters use gobs of electricity, accounting for about 40% of their operating expenses, and rising power costs contributed to their dwindling presence in the U.S., where smelters in operation have shrunk to four from seven five years ago.
Smelters in Canada, meanwhile, have access to low-cost power from hydroelectric generators.Alcoa asked the Trump administration to exempt Canadian primary aluminum from the 25% tariff on grounds that the additional production can’t be started in the U.S. without a plan for lower-cost electricity.
“Our deeply integrated aluminum supply chain with Canada has supported many American industries, including automotive,” Alcoa said.
This is the whole point of trade. It’s possible to put American laborers in jobs where they make aluminum, but it would be more expensive for consumers across a wide range of products. It might be worth it if this creates more jobs, but as Alcoa points out, the benefit of the current arrangement is that aluminum is produced more efficiently (and in a more environmentally friendly way) in Canada. When it’s sent to the United States, instead of having certain laborers create a basic commodity, American workers could be using that aluminum to build cars, washing machines, or other more advanced products. The more advanced your product, typically, the more money you earn as a laborer. These are better jobs.
American aluminum, being de facto more expensive, might find a market with American companies, and jobs could be created, but the price of all of those increases will land on consumers. Ford has tried to get ahead of this by stockpiling automotive-grade aluminum, but it’s not a supply chain that can be turned on overnight:
A Ford spokesman said it would take many years to rewire its supply chains to get more automotive-grade aluminum from the U.S. He declined to comment on the potential effect on prices should the tariffs last.
“While we are working to find offsets to the added cost, this will be difficult,” he said.
Ford isn’t the only company being hit here, but the F-150 is kind of the perfect poster child for why this whiplash form of governance is difficult for automakers. Expecting emissions standards to go up and free trade to continue, Ford made a better product it could sell at a price that would make it competitive in the marketplace. Now it’s seeing a risk of higher aluminum costs and diminished trade. The company could make its trucks out of more steel, eventually, but at the cost of efficiency. What happens if the next administration reinstitutes higher EPA standards?
It’s a hard game to win, this back-and-forth thing.
Audi Is In Bad Shape, Part 9000
It seems like most of the news about Audi lately has been bad. The automaker has lost the plot. In one way, Audi is the automaker most associated with aluminum automotive construction and thus most at risk of being hurt here, but it doesn’t make any cars in the United States so it’s probably less impacted. On the other hand, Audi does make cars in Mexico.
If there’s any company that can’t afford a disruption right now it’s Audi, which is part of the VW portfolio.
The brand’s profits were down 33% year-over-year, as competition from China and restructuring hit the bottom line. It’s a great brand and turning it around has proven to be quite difficult for CEO Gernot Döllner according to this latest report in Germany’s Manager Magazin:
Audi sold just under 1.7 million vehicles in 2024, 224,000 fewer than a year earlier and, for the first time, fewer than electric rival Tesla. Profits are sinking in the direction of their Wolfsburg-based sister company VW, regularly ridiculed by the Ingolstadt-based company: 2.5 percent operating return on sales after nine months. Even the likely significantly better fourth quarter is unlikely to lift the annual result to premium levels.
Döllner is experiencing bad figures and trouble everywhere; even in the formerly reliable German market, the mood is at rock bottom. One supervisory board member speaks of “chaos days since he arrived. Nothing works.” There’s no improvement in sight.
A new Q5 might help, as that’s the brand’s F-150, but that vehicle is built in San Jose Chiapa, Mexico. Will the company have to increase costs to offset tariffs? From Reuters, it’s being discussed:
“This is what we are pursuing. And we are pursuing this regardless of the changes in the political landscape in the USA,” Doellner said, referring to import tariffs the U.S. administration under President Donald Trump has launched on products from Mexico and Canada.
Doellner said he expects a decision on localizing production in the North American market, which could include using existing Volkswagen factories as well as a new site, this year.
Could Audi produce the A5 in Chattanooga? It’s not an entirely crazy idea. This is one of the potential positives of a trade war, as automakers are looking to see where they can expand production in the United States.
Tesla Faces Trade War Reciprocation In Canada, Vibe Shift Everywhere
This might be hard to grasp, given Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s own rhetoric about government waste, but Tesla is the poster child for government investment. Globally, Tesla directly or indirectly got money from local/state/federal governments because what Tesla was doing was helping save the world. It’s still getting a lot of that money today.
To many, Musk is now still saving the world in his role as an advisor to President Trump. Polling shows that, to others, Musk’s behavior shows he’s now hurting the world more than he’s helping.
Governments, especially in Canada, are fighting back according to a report from Reuters via MSN:
Toronto is no longer providing financial incentives for Tesla vehicles purchased as taxis or ride shares due to trade tensions with the United States, the city’s mayor, Olivia Chow, said on Monday.
The city is promoting the adoption of electric vehicles purchased as vehicles for hire by giving drivers and owners a reduction in licensing fees and renewal fees until the end of 2029, to help it lower emissions.
But as of March 1, Tesla vehicles are no longer eligible for the incentives, Chow said at a news conference.
This is the trick that I’m not sure Elon Musk has either grasped or, if he has, cares about. One random city cutting a program is going to have a minimal impact on Musk, but if Europe or California decides to exclude Tesla from carbon offset credits that would materially damage the company’s profitability.
And, as Bloomberg’s Amanda Mull points out, the vibes are really bad:
Cybertruck owners have found their vehicles defaced with everything from spray paint to dog feces, and embarrassed drivers of less controversial Tesla models have taken to adding bumper stickers or magnets to their cars to make clear they purchased them before they knew about Musk’s politics. Tesla showrooms and Superchargers have attracted “Tesla Takedown” protests across the US, and a handful of suspected arson incidents of the company’s cars and facilities have also been reported. Sales numbers and registration rates for new Teslas have fallen around the world in 2025: Sales are down 45% across Europe; in Australia, the Electric Vehicle Council estimates a sales drop of 70% over the previous year; in China, shipments of domestically manufactured Teslas have plunged 49%.
It’s nearly impossible to think of a comparable example of a company detonating its own brand. Musk long ago revealed himself to be, at best, a clumsy wielder of symbolism—remember when he hauled a bathroom sink into Twitter’s offices when his takeover became official?—and he appears to have completely misapprehended the symbolic value of Tesla’s brand. Or, at the very least, he seems to have misunderstood his own capacity to change the nature of that value without also diminishing it.
I was listening to Matt Levine on his “Money Stuff” podcast this weekend, and he joked that shorting Tesla wasn’t smart as Musk has always found a way to turn around a bad quarter, so we’ll see what he can do to shift the vibes back.
Mazda Is Going To Get By With A Little Help From Its Friends
Of all Japanese automakers, Mazda has been the slowest to embrace EVs. This has been a decent strategy lately, but even Mazda recognizes it’ll eventually need its own electric cars. After a few years of trying to go it alone, the company has decided to find some partners in what it calls an “asset-light strategy,” which just means it’s not going to build everything itself.
Under the strategy, Mazda’s battery development budget for the period from 2022 to 2030 will be reduced by half from the original estimate of 750 billion yen ($5 billion).
Originally, Mazda planned to procure batteries by itself, but the company has found a more efficient way — joint development with Chinese partner Changan Automobile.
Total investment for electrification is now projected to be 1.5 trillion yen through 2030, compared with 2 trillion yen as originally estimated.
Mazda also plans to build its EVs on its existing production lines, as opposed to building a bunch of new factories.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Does Michel Gondry’s “Army of Me” rolling artwork for Bjork count as one of the all-time great uses of automobiles in music video history? I think so. Peep the Austin Healey.
The Big Question
What would you do if you were in charge of Audi or Mazda?
Top photo: Ford/Depositphotos.com
Matt, if you could do all of your Canadian readers a favour and drop the “potential 51st state” talk, that would be great.
Our Minister of Foreign Affairs and our current PM have stated it, in plain language, that Off is the Direction in which to Fuck with that nonsense. It is never happening. Our sovereignty isn’t up for debate.
I tend to agree. That is a bear I would not poke either. The Tesla bear, sure, that’s easy and painless. But, Canada bear is very painfull.
That said, are you as prepared to be our 51st state as much as we are prepared to…. I don’t know…. start a civil war? Cause that’s where this is heading.
The thing is, we’re in a trade war with one country. The US has decided to essentially take on the world.
That’s why our new PM has been on a worldwide tour to cash in all his trust from his stints running both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, while openly stating that he won’t sit down to talk with the US until the 51st state talk stops.
That’s the whole point.
Canada has very little leverage. You all are throwing pebbles at a battering ram.
BasicallyVERY MUCH this. I think it’s you down below saying that in April this is over, and I almost agree. I think this is all a tactic to get what he wants. He has generally used the stock market as a barometer for the things he does, but this time it is very different. Like you said, it’s a battering ram approach, mad max style. As much as the world thinks it has leverage, Russia and the US have nukes, and they are the thing that really rule the world. This administration is now using them to get anything they want. Anything, including whole sovereign nations.Correct! It took long enough to get to this point, lol.
The world is not a buddy-buddy place. It’s kill or be killed (while taking care of your own, obv).
I don’t know when people started thinking that we can all be friends, It’s never gonna be the case.
The Globe is transactional. Just like this website. Nothing more, nothing less.
Life, and such.
Canada was our own until a few weeks ago.
Strange how morons who think everything is transactional always get beaten down by team players.
An ant by itself is defenseless, an army of ants can’t be defeated.
Let me get this correct.
Did you just call me a moron while posting to the internet on an internet access account that you pay to have, on a website that relies on keystrokes, while at the same time saying that things aren’t transactional? And at the same time interjecting into a discussion on how Canada is fiscally reliant on America and the UK at the same time in an almost unilateral way?
Gotcha. Kuymbya, playa.
He’s right. You might want to log off and touch some grass sometime, Mr. Realpolitik. History is littered with big hitters who thought they could go it alone, until, well, they get taken down.
For real, dude? “Touch some grass”?
Ok.
The might makes right argument is always the last bastion of people who know they contribute nothing and therefore have nothing ov value to offer in trade so need to resort to violence. Which is why it is the calling card of the MAGA and other flavors of fascists.
You might wanna edit that one, lol.
Why is there an egregious error in spelling or grammar that causes you confusion?
A comma, or quotation marks, might make it readable the first time? Ov vey.
Or maybe your reading comprehension is limited. You should likely avoid anything written by Cormac McCarthy. Not that there was ever a worry.
Ov k.
If you wanna be dumb enough to nuke a NATO country that’s physically attached to you, and contaminate all that fresh water and natural resources the you so clearly want, then there’s not much else to say about that colossally stupid plan.
Nuke?
Where in the shit do you get that idea from?
Solid source.
I know, the audacity of answering someone based on the content of what they wrote. The sheer hubris of using the written word properly!
I’m like an encyclopedia!!!!
The current administration is doing their best to whittle that battering ram down to a toothpick.
I was also unaware that supplying the majority of your fertilizer, aluminum, building lumber, and a large amount of your crude oil was considered “little leverage”.
We’ll be fine, as we’re looking to actively work with other countries, instead of blindly turning them into enemies.
That’s like the whole point!
Do your own shit, Canada. lol.
That’s like, what we’re doing! I said it in the main comment.
How about you lads up there deal with the whole Ireland thing before you get all uppity about the US, eh? Talk to your King, maybe?
That’s been a problem for a hot minute, lol.
The Ireland thing? Like inviting that Irish guy to speak at the White House? We have little control over what company the current administration keeps.
Just save your breath, seriously. This guy is deeply ignorant.
I’m stuck at work for another 34 minutes, I have time.
Godspeed you, then.
I could really use a 1st generation NSX to get me out of here.
So, let me get this straight…
You care more about an MMA fighter having cheese or whatever with Trump than you do about your own contractual obligations/responsibilities to the whole of the UK?
No wonder you guys can’t build a good car.
I can’t find where I said that. You made a vague comment about Ireland and the only thing that came to mind is the company the current administration likes to keep, as the company you keep says a lot about who you are.
You assume a lot about me.
“Like inviting that Irish guy to speak at the White House? We have little control over what company the current administration keep”
It was literary 2 comments ago. Sack up, Canada.
“the whole Ireland thing”
“MMA fighter having cheese with Trump”
None of us that live in the real world have any idea what you’re referencing here.
You have no idea about “The Troubles”?
Holy shit.
I know what The Troubles are. What does that have to do with Canada in 2025, or MMA?
Yeah, that’s the part I’m lost on. That’s why I went off on the only Irish adjacent thing to happen recently.
Well, let’s see. Conor McGregor met with Trump yesterday at the White House.
An Irishman who has been quite vocal about a sovereign Ireland (North and South) as an independent country, away from the EU and the UK, seems to be somewhat notable for a Canadian to be aware of, in the greater context.
That’s a remarkably tenuous connection to this conversation, even by the already low standards for logical discussion I have when talking to a MAGA.
Again, thanks for a random “label” that doesn’t define me, but apparently makes you feel neat to type.
It’s not tenuous. You folks have your own house to clean. Canada is not some innocent snowbird. If you are all fired up, deal with your own problems.
Fix your connection to Britain. Most of the Caribbean (and some of Africa) has already done this.
You all can do more than one thing at the same time, lol. Stop the bullshit whining, already.
I live in Pennsylvania.
Pissing off Canada causes me problems because a lot of my customers are in Canada, and this nonsense makes them less inclined to pay me for my time.
Well, then you should know better than to shit where you sleep!
None of this is going to matter in a month, other than to make your dollar stronger on both sides of the border. It should be viewed as a good thing.
Calling providing a service/product to a paying customer shitting where you sleep is a choice. And it will still matter. Would you buy from a neighbors business if they decided one day to break your window out of the blue?
Did I miss the memo where people are supposed to start smashing windows all willy-nilly?
You’d think a stone would understand a breaking glass analogy. but I guess not
I’m still getting there.
Can start at the beginning. Maybe a re-watch of ferris bueller. For no particular reason.
Or any of these fun items
https://ocw.mit.edu/search/?d=Economics&s=department_course_numbers.sort_coursenum
I guess you missed the joke and the end of the thread, lol. Have a great night 🙂
I don’t get why these idiots don’t understand that it’s a *global* economy. It’s convenient and slightly more profitable to sell to your immediate neighbors, but it’s not much more expensive to sell across the world. Especially with a nice new free-trade agreement. And at this point, MANY countries are going out of their way to not deal with the nonsense coming from Washington.
Battering ram lol?
Trump and his moron supporters are the very definition of flaccid.
As opposed to what?
Elbows Up!
If I was the head of Mazda, I’d hire Rob Dahm as my lead engineer.
Lead of motive power planning, with a team of engineers.
Yes!
12 rotor everything.
I’m more excited about the One rotor Miata.
Yeah, this is something that should have been done eons ago, as a niche, low volume seller made up for by all the other vehicle (emissions wise).
Mazda should bring back the Cosmo as Corvette-fighting halo car. Maybe borrow the Lexus LC500 platform or something like that.
Then offer a spec racing series for it like they do for the Miata.
In today’s car market, they would sell dozens! DOZENS! Unless they jack it up in the air, slather black plastic over it and call it an SUV coupe. Then they might sell hundreds.
Hey I didn’t say it was a good decision, just one I would make if I were in power, haha.
+1 for Michel Gondry.
Also listen to Chevelle’s “the clincher” after listening to “Army of me” and tell me if Chevelle didn’t get some influence there?
More like Helmet’s version.
Mazda: Start expanding Toyota hybrid technology into their current models. A Hybrid Mazda 3 makes so much sense to compete against the Civic Hybrid. They could also create a PHEV to have the new Volt in the house.
Audi: They need to find the perfect balance between buttons and screens. A button is more luxury to me that tapping and searching on a screen. They need to start expanding their business into Hybrids too kind of like Lexus.
I have to imagine Toyota may limit how many models they will allow Mazda to use their hybrid tech. I know Toyota makes money selling the tech, but they are also creating a direct (and better IMO) competitor to their own vehicles.
The next CX-5 is said to offer a Mazda-developed hybrid drivetrain, so the -50 using Toyota’s system seems to be sort of a stopgap. Probably helped by it being built in a joint plant with Toyota even if it’s isn’t the exact same powertrain the Corolla Cross offers.
The 3 and -30 are built in Mexico, but it would certainly track for Mazda to scale the hybrid powertrain to those models too if they have the capacity and demand for it.
If I was in charge of Mazda I’d make more Miata variants, including but not limited to:
BEV Miata
Rotary Miata
Hard Top Miata
Rally Miata
El Cheapo Miata (Steelies!)
etc.
V8 Miata
UMMM, V10 Miata???
I’d buy one if no one else would.
But they might have trouble sourcing a current-production V10 from anywhere. Much to my disappointment.
LOL. Might be a little….. front heavy.
Not really.
https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/news/a30194/all-the-details-on-the-525-hp-flyin-miata-v8-swap/
A V10 would be a little heavier but a Gen V Viper engine is ~100 lb heavier than an LS3, it’s not as much as you might think.
I forgot it was such a small change. 200lbs and 2% is nothing.
Modern aluminum V8s are a marvel.
Shit, just source the V-16 and sit in the middle.
All engine and no car make Homer something something…..
V12 MIAATAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
With a 7 speed manual and a 2 speed splitter for 14 possible speeds… and 2 possible speeds in reverse!!!!
Auto executive: The idea of expanding the Miata brand is brilliant! How soon can we have the 4 door, 3 row Miata crossover ready?
You KNOW this is exactly what would result of that.
We live in the worst timeline on sooooooooo many levels.
You forgot Wagon Miata, shooting brake Miata, Ute Miata. I would buy any of those in a second, especially with ls3 power or rotary power. As others have said, you will sell DOZENS! Let’s dilute the Miata brand into nothing.
Manufacturers of steel cars are equally screwed. While we do have US steel mills when the 25% tariff was applied imported steel domestic suppliers simply raised their prices to match. All the tariff does is set a new commodity price. It happened to us last time in 2018 and again in 2025. US steel prices were already up 20% YTD before the tariff even went into effect while prices in other countries were flat as the market started pricing in the tariff.
I work for an automaker. Last time around short term we passed on some of the increase and ate the rest. Long term we laid off about 1000 blue collar US workers and offshored engineering jobs to offset the increases raw material costs. Those jobs did not come back when the tariffs were lifted.
Trump’s 2018 steel tariffs cost 100,000 US manufacturing jobs. This time will be larger
That’s not even factoring in the number of factories that just plain weren’t built in the US, because it turns out jacking up the price of raw materials doesn’t actually encourage investment in US manufacturing. I know people in the industry whose companies cancelled or moved plans for US plants because of Trump’s metal taxes the first time around. The same will happen again, except worse because the retaliatory action by other countries will make it prohibitively expensive to export anything from here too.
So, then it’ll be less prohibitive to build it here, according to your post.
In theory, yes. But not after you amortize the investment to START building here, and more importantly, raise your prices to match the imported competition. Companies are not charities, they will not leave profit on the table to do consumers a solid. Tariffs raise prices across the board, not just on imported goods. There is simply no reason to sell your product 25% cheaper than the competition. 5% maybe, if you are feeling nice about it.
And of course, there are the timelines involved. By the time any significant increase in manufacturing capacity happens, Trump will be long gone, and the next guy (and I believe this to be true even if by some diabolical miracle Shady Vance is the next guy) won’t be a complete moron. And of course, if Trump doesn’t put us in a depression such that nobody can buy anything and it all becomes moot anyway. Absent significant subsidies ala the Chips Act, nobody is going to build anything new in the US in the short term.
I agree to a significant extent, however, it’s not like there is a dearth of factories, or labor, in the US.
I think that is the point. The US has the room, the resources, and the time, to make it happen. It will cost more, but that is always reciprocal.
I don’t see why that is a problem to stop giving shit away because it’s easier.
It’s more profitable, and that is the bottom line.
Under the heading of a broken clock is right twice a day, I don’t *entirely* disagree with Trump. Giving China “most favored nation” status was one of the dumbest things we ever did, and a free trade agreement with Mexico was simply exporting jobs. Free trade agreements between equals (Canada, EU) make perfect sense – allow specialization where it makes sense.
But that horse is long out of the barn and not coming back, because the barn was sold for scrap long ago. The right way to do this is to incentivize business to relocate to the US when possible, not abuse already-suffering consumers with this immediate and nonsensical random tariff bullshit.
Things like the Chips Act and the incentives in the IRA were effective in getting new factories built in the USA. It is odd that Trump thinks he can take way the carrots and simply beat companies enough to make them do what he wants.
It’s not odd at all – Trump is a moron. Full stop, do not pass Go, do not collect $200. He doesn’t understand that negotiations should not be a zero sum game with only winners and losers. It is very possible for everyone to be winners. And everyone to be losers. And he is very much the biggest loser when it comes to business (and governments are not businesses to start with).
This is a result of coming out of NYC real estate which very much is a zero sum game. Likewise, Elon is bringing his Silicon Valley tech startup mindset into government with its huge blind spot for the fact that people join the civil service to get a level of job security unheard of in the private sector, for much lower pay than they’re actually worth.
Breaking that deal will cost us so much more in the long run. And the jobs they do largely fell on government in the first place because those are the necessary but unprofitable things.
And if Elon had a grasp of symbolism he would’ve carried a toilet into Twitter since he flushed it down one.
Very much agreed. Though ultimately, Trump wasn’t any good at real estate either. The only thing he is legit good at is being a “reality” TV star.
I find it amusing that the consensus is that if he had just put Daddy’s money in an index fund he’d be a whole lot richer than he allegedly is, never mind what he probably actually is.
There actually is a dearth of labor in the USA. We are struggling today to replace retiring assembly line workers and it is worst for skilled trades.
Shutting down immigration into the USA and deporting millions of people will do nothing to help the labor situation. Immigration is the only reason the USA is not seeing similar demographic trends as Japan and Europe.
It baffles me that so many don’t get this. Immigration is SAVING the US. And we are literally a country of immigrants to start with!
But icky brown people I guess. <shrug>
No it is not! Good grief.
The labor force is prevalent, it’s just that they choose not to do trades. It baffles me that people will spend 4-5 years (myself included at a younger age) to waste time in college, when they can go out and make 6 figures by 21.
I would have thought that on this site, more people would agree that doing a trade is an upstanding career, instead of cashier jockeying. I guess I am wrong.
The labor is here, they are just too busy studying Art History or some other bullshit, and then serving coffee.
We don’t need any immigration that isn’t warranted for a reason.
Crap, we can’t even pay the bills we have, let alone pay over solvency to provide for citizens that live here.
But…sure. Bring on new debt!
You have traveled too much to know worse, Kevin!
New debt is a good thing if it is spent on something with a high economic multiplier. Tax cuts have a low multiplier so they are the worst thing to use debt for.
You work for MasterCard or something?
WTF is this nonsensical response supposed to mean?
There is a difference between good and bad debt. Voluntarily bringing on debt that we cannot afford to pay to begin with is bad debt.
If you did indeed work for MasterCard you’d know the difference between the two.
All the “buy here, pay now” crowd, and the “Altima is the sign of a broke person” crowd should have learned this lesson already. Especially those that get all high and mighty about it all.
Some real “Good for thee, but not for me” vibes going on in this thread.
The US Federal government could have a balanced budget if we wanted to – politically both parties choose to run a deficit.
We also could easily cover our current budget. The USA’s tax rate as a percentage of GDP is 25.2%. The OECD average is 33.9% The USA chooses to have low tax rates and borrow to make up the difference. Some day that won’t be possible but it seems that we will have to get to that point to make a change. The current administration’s plan is to add to the deficit and the debt.
How could you possibly know that when we are basically two months into a brand-new policy structure?
That’s Nostradamus level foreshadowing to know the outcomes already.
The GOP laid out their budget plan. It adds to the deficit.
A plan is not an action.
Actually it is a plan and an action.
From the conservative Tax Foundation:
That math doesn’t math if the goal is decreasing the deficit and paying down the debt.
More than you likely want to know about what Congress is working on here:
https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/trump-tax-cuts-2025-budget-reconciliation/
Because we have ears to hear what they say, eyes to see what they write, and brains to process both?
The GOP have no interest at all in balancing the budget or paying off the deficit. their primary goal is making their rich donors richer. This is incredibly obvious to anyone with eyes, ears, and a brain. The Democrats don’t really want to either (increasing taxes is, of course, wildly unpopular universally), yet it’s only been Democratic governments who have managed a balanced budget and surplus in the past 50+ years. It has universally been Republicans who have blown up the deficit.
The Dems don’t want to make their friends more money? Are you sure about that as a line in the sand?
Not to anywhere near the same extent. They at least attempt to care about the little people. The GOP just doesn’t even try anymore.
So, performative play-acting is acceptable to you?
I “attempted” to swim across America last week. I got stuck in Oklahoma.
So treasury bonds are like credit cards? Even though the interest rate is more like a mortgage? Maybe we should only allow home purchases to cash offers. This trope is hilarious. I had to ask google “what is with the trope government debt is like a credit card” to see what economically illiterate people think.
“Political Tool:
The trope is often used to promote austerity measures and discourage government spending, as it suggests that debt is inherently bad and needs to be reduced
Limitations of the Analogy:
Long-Term vs. Short-Term Borrowing:
Governments often borrow to invest in long-term projects, such as infrastructure or education, while individuals typically borrow for short-term needs, like buying a car or a house.
Economic Impact:
Government debt can have a positive impact on economic growth by funding public investments and stimulating demand. While excessive debt can lead to problems, it’s not a simple cause-and-effect relationship”
Ah so simple solutions sound good to simple minds. I got it now. The people that say deficits do not matter, especially on left, are obviously wrong. That does not mean some idiotic slogan that fits on a bumper sticker is correct. Economic impact matters.
Nonsense is all you’ll get from Stoney. The best you can do with that idiot is be stupid right back with him… like describing all the different ways his idol (Trump) could have a ‘Luigi Mangione’-incident.
What is your problem, dude?
You’ve now called me an “idiot”, “stupid”, claim that my “IDOL” is the President, and somehow are linking me to a murder that I have absolutely no claims to even typing about.
You’d not be so quick to say such things if you knew me. But, you be angry you.
Settle down, guy. Jeez, I just finished my Deviled Eggs. 🙂
Indeed – it makes no sense to spend cash on something when you can borrow the money for less than the amount you can make investing the cash in something else.
Which is why I have a note on my mother’s car, as one concrete example. Car note, 2.99%, CD interest, 5.25% at the time, still 4.25%.I would have had to be a moron to not borrow the money. I actually was a little bit dumb in that for various personal reasons, I still put a walloping down payment on the thing.I got caught out being upside-down on a car onc, it left a scar on my psyche.
That is simple math that I wholeheartedly agree with.
When you are talking fluctuations in the dollar, that becomes a whole other fluid situation.
It does presume you have the money to make that choice. Which is a privilege denied to the vast majority of Americans. Most people HAVE to borrow to buy cars, they have no choice.
I thought you were hellbent on talking about immigration, though.
Others have made the correct points about it as well or better than I can. Bottom line is the US is screwed without immigration, just like Japan and most of Europe is. But because we are kind of a shithole of a country at this point, only people from even worse shitholes generally want to come here in any quantity.
Or people who are already wealthy. The US is a GREAT place to be rich, a terrible place to be poor. And a not so great place to be middle class anymore either. And on of THE biggest problems with this country is too many people who are actually poor think they are going to be rich someday.
I disagree. (Just catching up to all the replies, lol)
Your position is that people that are not brought up in a Country, have no idea what the culture of said Country is, have no respect for the Country that “allowed” them in, is better than bettering the citizens of the said Country?
Is that correct? Am I reading it wrong?
If I am not, well, then I certainly disagree.
Blue collar jobs that play 6 figures at 21 years old are exceedingly rare. Do they exist – yes but they aren’t a realistic example of typical manufacturing job. That job is standing in front of a press or driving a fork truck, etc for 8 – 10 hours a day doing mind numbing and repetitive work in exchange for $50K – $55K a year
Have you ever run a press for 10 hours a day / 5 days a week? I have – it was incentive enough for me to get a degree.
As to the idea that we have more than enough workers – sorry but we don’t. If we did we could keep workers in the factory but with the current unemployment rate we are scraping the very bottom of the barrel. Which makes sense as the prime labor force participation rate (25 – 54) today is 83.5% That is the highest in 20 years and the very peak was back in 1999 at 84.4%. When manufacturing jobs were at their peak back in the 70’s it was 75%. Who isn’t working today – old people. the labor force participation rate for those 55 and older is only 38.1% and dropping. It was 40% in 2019 but a bunch of boomers retired early during COVID and aren’t coming back to work. Even if they did they aren’t going to be doing the assembly line grind.
Then there is the fertility rate in the USA. Replacement to keep a steady population is 2.1. The USA is at 1.62 and dropping. The USA has been below replacement rate since 1971. Immigration is the only thing keeping the US population from collapsing.
Immigration is the only thing keeping the US population from collapsing.
Can’t wait for someone to reply saying how this is exactly the problem and we should just have more American (read: white) babies because something something the Great Replacement…
Musk is certainly saying that part out loud, and one of the cabinet secretaries (Transportation? They are all so awful I can’t tell them apart) is actually making it policy to give money to parts of the country with higher birthrates. And I am SURE that is the *correct* colors of births, given non-whites pretty universally have more babies than “good white folk”.
You are having an opinion on a subject that you aren’t even clear the details of?
Solid take.
Fine – here you go. It was indeed Transportation, Duffy the other reality TV star prettyboy talking head with ZERO relevant experience in the field:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/transportation-head-duffys-directive-to-tie-funds-to-birth-rates-could-hinder-blue-states
If you don’t like PBS as a source, how about the Grey Lady herself:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/us/politics/trump-transportation-birth-rates.html
Note that he wasn’t just taking about this, he *directed for it to happen* via memo from the top.
What on earth are you even talking about?
You do know that a bartender at your local bar makes $100K, right (and the bar back makes $70k)? A plumber, an electrician, a roofer, a landscape worker can make $80k from the jump with hard work. You can assistant manage a Publix for $80k/year. Your mailman makes $80k/year.
None of these jobs require a degree, and yet they are the people we see every day. The data you glean from unemployment numbers are bogus. One can only gather data from those that respond to the question or fit on the spreadsheet.
Drive downtown one day and ask yourself if those people you see at noon, wandering around, are included in those numbers.
Hint: They aren’t. The workforce is there, those folks have taken advantage of the opportunity to not participate.
Where’d you get those numbers?
Cause for mail carriers and bar tenders math ain’t mathin. Even if you factor in tips
https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes353011.htm
https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes435052.htm
https://apwu.org/pay-information
Isn’t the internet a great place to find information?
I got those numbers because I asked the actual workers.
The USPS workers (which is a whole other topic) are forced into 6-day work weeks, even after labor negations. Factor in forced overtime, plus bennies (that we all pay for) and it’s actually well over $80k for a carrier, and more for an Assistant Post Manager, even at a rural route.
The bartender number is laughable, at best. Sure, they all make minimum wage on paper. Some claim tips, most don’t. At least not cash tips. A bartender at any normal bar is making (at a minimum) $100 cash every shift. Add in the CC tips and the hourly? There ya go. If your favotite bartender doesn’t walk every day without $200 net ($400 in NYC etc), they (and you) are at the wrong bar, lol.
because I asked the actual workers
Ah, the climate change denialist’s argument. “It’s cold today, therefore global warming cannot be real!”
Unless you’ve surveyed a significant and statistically representative population of them, in which case hats off and please publish your data in a journal 🙂
Which bar/nightclub/dive would you like me to cite? lol.
I’m not young, and I’ve worked them all. From Miami to Kalamazoo.
The shittiest barback at the shittiest bar in my town told me (and showed me) that he netted $1430 last week. I didn’t believe him at first, because I’ve been out of the game for a while.This was last week. Not St. Patrick’s week. The week before.
It’s real. The good bartenders in tourist towns clear $3/week on 5 good shifts.
Which is the reality – there are more “wrong bars” than hot ones where the bartender is pulling hundreds in tips per night. There are a lot of bars where the bartender is maybe getting a buck tip on a Bud.
Even if we take your number and say that the average bartender is taking home $200 a night. 365 x $200 = $73,000. That is well shy of “over $100K” and nobody is working every day of the year. Even a full time bartender working 5 days a week is only bringing in $52,000. However, many if not most restaurants are keeping their staff below 28 hours a week so they don’t have to pay for benefits and now we are down to $36,400 a year..
$200 in cash, friend.
That’s 200 Buds. Not a lot of cracking bottles over 6-8 hrs. That’s roughly 25 drinks an hour. So, one every two minutes. Or, One group of thirsty ties every half hour, with a few Patrons on the Company card and a couple of cheesy fries that the food runner runs.
Plus, (state dependant) $10-$15/hr state minimum wage. If you do it right (sorta) and go corporate, you get bennies also.
Trust me on this one. Bartenders make more money than you do.
The mean pay for a bartender is $31,510
https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes353011.htm
The mean pay for a plumber or pipefitter is $61,550
https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes472152.htm
The mean pay for a postal worker is $54,250 per year
https://www.bls.gov/oes/2022/may/oes435052.htm
Labor force participation rates are different from unemployment numbers
And before someone says the median is more representative than the mean, the median is actually lower for all of these jobs.
Correct but I have a typo above. Those are all median numbers. The means are:
$37,090 – Bartender
$67,840 – Plumber
$56,240 – Postal Worker
You have to be an IT guy if you believe that, lol.
The next time you are at an airport, ask your self how much are you tipping on your $40 bill for 2 beers and a burger for the 2 hours you showed up early.
If you answer that it is less than $10 for a crisp $50 on the wood…
Yikes.
For every bar at an airport, there are probably 200 that are NOT at an airport selling $3 beers and cheap hot wings. Get. A. Grip.
Sure, I know people who made their college tuition in a summer working at expensive tourist trap restaurants in Maine back in the day. But for every one of those lucky SOBs (and you have to be DAMNED lucky to get one of those jobs, and a LOT of hustle to keep it, and probably put up with a side order of sexual harrassment too), there are literally hundreds of people working at dive bars and crappy local restaurants lucky to make $20/hr with tips.
I’m not going to argue with you all night, lol.
You just don’t know the game. If the server (I can be PC, lol) make less than $25/hour net, out the door on the daily, you are doing it wrong.
If the Bartender isn’t making $30 at the shittiest bar, they are doing it wrong.
If the owner isn’t clearing 200% (after the whole nut) of sales, they are doing it wrong.
I have had years of experience in that industry.
It’s a fucking cash cow. Drinking will never go away, neither will the margins because it’s a set pattern in this society.
That’s the truth. You wanna make $80k in 4 days a week? Bartend. It’s a rough life, and in some ways it sucks, but there ya go.
You don’t even need to graduate preschool. You just have to have dexterity. (Tits help as well)
ROFL – they sure don’t at any of my local bars. I know plenty of people who own restaurants too. And work/worked in them. One of the side effects of being on the wealthier side of things is you tend to hob-nob with the owners of things.
Again, if they are making that kind of money, they live somewhere that $100K is working poor. NYC, LA, SF, etc.
Or, they live in Englewood and don’t say shit about it.
For every bartender at the beach in Englewood who may well make decent money in season (and jack shit all summer), there are 100 working in shit holes like Arcadia barely making minimum wage most of the time.
And most working class people lie about how much money they make.
Nobody is making six-figures in the trades at 21. Nobody. Unless Daddy owns the company maybe.
As I tell my very much in the trades kid brother, I went to college all those years so that I don’t HAVE to bust my ass, literally, working in the host sun sweating my balls off all day. I make about 5X what he does, and he works a HELL of a lot harder than I do. Both in terms of effort and in hours.A big issue we have is that we expect 17-18yos who barely know which end is up to make life-altering decisions about where to go to college and what to study, and we aren’t very honest about the differing costs of different colleges.
We could easily pay our bills if we stop giving tax breaks to the rich, both individually and as corporations. In the grand scheme of 2025 America, my net worth rounds to “rather wealthy”. My tax burden could double and it would not materially affect my standard of living – and compared to the actually wealthy I don’t have two nickels to rub together. I pay very, very little in taxes relatively speaking – but I also get very, very little value for that expenditure compared to friends in other countries who pay somewhat more but get immensely more value from it. And reducing our frankly ridiculous “defense” spending to a more realistic level. One of the damned few things I am agreement about with the Idiot in Chief is that Europe should have been paying a HELL of a lot more towards that for a very long time. Of course he’s going about it in the worst possible way, same as he does everything.
I like you, but you are wrong on this one. Plenty of people make 100K at 21 years old, lol.
You and I are both a bit older, but remember when we were in our early 20s? I could knock out a 70-hour week and still find time to…do other stuff.
It’s not hard if you hustle and “nose to the grindstone” your way for a few years.
In fact, it’s way easier than sitting in some dopey classroom learning Shakespeare because you needed one more credit in some bullshit.
🙂
Maybe you could, I could not, and had no interest in doing so.
I know lots of people in the trades (I have a weirdly large number of friends who are contractors, and those types of businesses were a large portion of my clientele when I was a tax preparer), nobody is making $100K at 21. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t own the company making that much at ANY age in the trades. If they are, it’s probably in a place where $100K makes you functionally working poor. You are barely out of apprenticeship at that age. And literally everyone I know in the trades is nursing a used up body by the time they are our age. My kid brother has a bad back and other issues from years of physical labor. He’s going to need replacement knees at some point – hopefully Medicare is still around to pay for it. The people making $100K at 21 are new college grads willing to work in the crazed sweatshops that are IT startups and Wall St.
The smartest approach is to get the best education you can get for the lowest outlay possible. I actually think one of the best things you can do is a tour or two in the Air Force (least likely branch of the military to get you dead, and most likely to teach you useful skills) then leverage the GI bill. I wish I had, like much of the rest of my family.
One of the best things I did when I was young and dumb after fucking off my freshman year of college was take a year off working fairly menial jobs. When I went back to school I was a HELL of a lot more mature and focused, and my GPA and eventual graduation from law school reflect that. It also helped that after fucking off that first year, I was largely on my own to pay for it. for a early ’90s grad, I owed a LOT after all those years of school, and I paid back all of it. Even though I never actually ended up using my law degree, I don’t regret those three years or the money spent. And I had a VERY DEI scholarship to go (law schools pretty much had the original DEI program), just to rub right wing noses in it.
So, you wrote all of that to say that you grew up and learned some lessons along the way.
Cool. Me as well.
I’m really not feeling that you have actually grown up yet, since you seem to have the thinking abilities of a child. Just calling out how you are coming across here.
One of the easiest things to find is the distribution of income by age in the US. I suggest you try this thing called “Google”.
https://dqydj.com/income-percentile-by-age-calculator/
The 99th percentile income for age 21 is $107K. And I am sure that is well skewed by a very small handful who make waaaaay more than that. A small handful of multi-million making young pop and sports starts is going to do that. As you can see from the chart, the median and the mean are not far apart in the $20-26K range. The vast majority of 21yos don’t have a pot to piss in.
Personally, I was learning accounting and business management at age 21, but that comes back to our stupidity of our expecting people who are too young figuring out what they want to do with the rest of their lives. But ultimately, the point of a good education is not WHAT you learn, but learning HOW to learn, and instilling lifelong learning habits. Something that seems to get missed by most.
Well, when I was 21, I was running a production company putting on concerts and getting my degree in Telecom Management. I was burning the candle at both ends, so to speak.
Either way, you have the hustle or you don’t. I don’t begrudge those that don’t, but I gravitate to those that do.
You might want to consider the deadbeats that are also in the almighty Google search that are just hanging out, smoking pot, and working part time at the Circle-K in that analysis.
I’m shocked that you don’t know at this point that the world isn’t just composed of San Fran nerds and black dudes that can dunk at 21.
No, driving up the cost to manufacture in the USA does increase US manufacturing. It has the opposite effect but we don’t learn.
Driving up the cost of doing business in the USA with tariffs is simply a stupid industrial policy and only makes us less competitive with the rest of the world – which is 85% of the global economy.
85%? I’d like to know where that figure is from.
The USA made up 15.6% of the world’s GDP in 2023
https://www.statista.com/statistics/270267/united-states-share-of-global-gross-domestic-product-gdp/
Gotcha. That is interesting.
However, I’d posit that the percentage of the world that relies on the US Dollar is a significantly different number.
That’s what ultimately matters, not raw GDP.
The rest of the world CHOOSING to use the US dollar as their reserve currency is not a given. It came about after WWII when the USA was the only major economy not devastated and the USA was 40% of global GDP.
Today we have 2 other economies equal in size to the USA. The EU is 14.5 % of global GDP and China is 18.75%. There is nothing keeping other countries from trading goods in Euros or Yuan if they want to.
The USA’s stability and the stability of the dollar has keep the dollar as a global currency. Doing stupid things like starting a trade war with the entire world at once and alienating our closest allies does nothing but speed up the day when the rest of the world decides it doesn’t need to exchange goods in dollars.
That won’t happen. You forget that there are banks involved, and they won’t ditch the dollar on a whim.
Sure, China can trade away in whatever denomination they want. It will ultimately come back to the dollar at the end of the day.
The whole world isn’t going to go by Euros, lol.
As Droid noted below – the reserve currency has changed in the past and will change again. It is only a matter of when not if something will replace the dollar. Empires aren’t forever.
“principles for dealing with the changing world order” by ray dalio is all about changes in reserve currency thru history (dutch guilder, then british pound, now american dollar in the last 400 years). it’s an interesting book with a model for predicting when such change might occur…all indices point toward soon.
So, Crypto it is, eh?
An F-150 Lightning is on the table for me for my next BEV purchase once it’s available with NACS.
I’d prefer a 3 front seat interior on an extended cab with at least a 6ft long bed, but I very well may settle for their current configuration, but I won’t settle for a lack of NACS.
To be fair, they have NACS today with the adaptor. I’m not sure if they’re still including them free, but my friends who bought Lightnings last year all got free NACS adaptors from Ford.
I got a free NACS adaptor from Ford for my Mach-E, and immediately tested Supercharging. Sure enough, “plug-and-charge” where the Supercharger makes a digital handshake with the car and bills your Ford account worked like a charm.
Between NACS and CCS, I’m sitting pretty for DC fast charging compatibility.
*With the adaptor
Ok, so? It means you’ve got both NACS and CCS support. Flipped the other way, you’d still need a CCS adaptor to use a NACS-equipped car at any Electrify America station, so you’re not escaping adaptors anytime soon.
I’ve owned EVs for over 7 years. I’ve seen the rise of CCS to replace CHAdeMO, Superchargers spring up everywhere, and now NACS start to grow. Having an adaptor stashed away with the mobile charger you might bring out 1-2 times a year really isn’t a problem. Everything fits in a tidy little bag I keep in my frunk and mostly forget about until I need it.
I’d prefer purely NACS. It’s a better standard for North America overall.
Maybe, but I’d prefer compatibility with the most prevalent current standards, and since the network is unlikely to expand much one way or another under the current administration, having the greatest amount of charger compatibility with what’s currently out there is a boon.
That said, I rarely ever need to use public chargers, and 99% of the time the one-a-week overnight charge in my garage is ample for another week of driving.
I already told you all to relax, lol.
The tariffs won’t last beyond April in their current form.
It will be fine, and it’ll all revert closer to the norm. Sheesh.
This will not age well.
Quote me.
That didn’t happen.
And if it did, it wasn’t that bad.
And if it was, that’s not a big deal.
And if it is, that’s not my fault.
And if it was, I didn’t mean it.
And if I did, you deserved it.
You said before he was sworn in that he wouldn’t do tariffs at all.
I did not, lol. I said he’d talk some shit and get other countries to cower. This is happening.
To be clear, I’m not a fan of all of it. It hurts Detroit. That’s a problem.
Change is inevitable, and what has been going on previously isn’t working.
That’s it. No one likes change. But, it’s like nose hairs. One day they aren’t a thought, the next day it’s all, “What the shit is this?”
Turns out you sneeze less.
Just because something is changing does not mean it’s a change for the better. I know you’re very insulated from whatever happens right now politically so it’s all kind of a goof for you, but many, many millions of people are not as fortunate.
And none of the countries he’s shit-talking are cowering, by the way. They’re calling out his nonsense for exactly what it is.
That’s awfully considerate to consider my feeling as “insulated” (whatever that means), but your response has proven my point.
You don’t like change before you see the results.
I’m not gonna turn this into a shitty thing, there is no need for that on this site, but like I said before…relax.
It’ll be fine 🙂
*Insert “This is fine” meme picture*
We are seeing results. For example, a manufacturing company near me lost one of their biggest customers because of the tariffs on Canadian aluminum.
Last time around Trump’s steel tariffs cost more than 1,000 of my coworkers their jobs. This isn’t a game to some people
Yeah but to him everything is cards. Or golf.
That is certainly a bummer, no doubt. It stinks having to start from scratch. I’ve done it twice.
But, let’s put some perspective into 1000 folks. 1000 is a big hit. However, In the grand scheme of 380,000,000 people, it’s not all that much. Considering the “dearth of labor” that has been mentioned before, I’m sure that a place like Galpin (not necessarily Galpin) would be more than willing to hire an apprentice for a somewhat commensurate pay.
Just because you lost a job doesn’t mean you lose your life. There is an almost infinite way to make a living other than some steel plant (probably) owned by Blackrock or some other conglomerate.
1000 people were laid off at my company alone. All in Trump killed more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs with his steel tariff. Pretty much exactly what economist said would happen as there are far more jobs dependent on using steel than making steel. Then there was the real world result of Bush’s steel tariff in 2002.
Killing 100 manufacturing jobs to protect 1 steel worker job is stupid economic policy.
I agree. I lived in Detroit when GM went bankrupt. It sucked. Detroit is better than it was before than, though.
“Won’t last beyond April in their current form” in that Trump will continue wildly flailing around, imposing tariffs and taking them off, all while his credulous followers continue insisting there’s some grand strategy?
Sure, I believe that.
Is Trump going to be dead by the end of April? That would be GREAT! Thank you for taking one for humanity if you are going to arrange it.
I’d settle for impeached and removed, but I would much prefer dead.
I normally agree with most of what you say, but that is a downright nasty comment to wish death on anyone. Just sayin’.
Nasty is as nasty does.
Eat a Snickers or something, pal.
Your retort is weak.
Cool. 🙂
Sic semper tyrannis
You do know that those that spoke Latin were some of the most dastardly people ever to walk the earth, right?
Speaking Latin should go against all of your mores.
Speaking of dastardly people, how much do you know about the Praetorian Guard?
They were the special guards for providing protection to the Roman Emperors. They also did other stuff for the emperor like that served various roles for the Roman emperor including counterintelligence, crowd control and gathering military intelligence.
They were kind of like the Roman version of the President’s government employees that provide him security.
Did you know that some Roman Emperors were nuts… like Caligula?
Do you know how it all ended for Caligula?
Apparently Caligula was really insulting to one of the guards named Chaerea. And this guy was “a noble idealist, deeply committed to “Republican liberties“; he was also motivated by resentment of Caligula’s routine personal insults and mockery.”
Apparently Chaerea and a small pissed off group stabbed the hell out of Caligula in a confined space under the palace.
I’m sure nothing like that could EVER happen to Trump since he’s a “stable genius” who never insults anybody… nor is he ever in any confined places… ever.
LOL
I really keep hoping that this happens to Trump, if all the cheeseburgers don’t get him first. Or the Canadian\Mexican\EU\Chinese version of Seal Team Six. Or a real patriot right here at home ala Caligula. Compared to Trump’s Covid-related death toll and what his current policies are likely to do, Bin Ladin was a rank amateur.
K Rhodes…man.
Trump’s Covid? Umm, Hochel was the arbiter of it all in NYC, Whitmer was lockstep in Detroit, and that dumb-dumb in Seattle was playing hopscotch alongside them.
The 3 major air hubs to the country all fumbled the ball. You already know this part.
This whole thing has gotten way off track ( Sorry DT, JT, MH et al.)
but you might want to consider what you have written today.
You have simultaneously given insight on Federal financial and fiduciary issues, while also advocating for the death of a person.
The death of a human. Sit with that,
Atheist or not…dude.
As I said, some people need to not share the planet with the rest of us. When your adverse impact on society greatly exceeds your positive impact, buh, bye if it was up to me. <shrug> Luckily for them, I am not in charge of deciding who they are, nor am I inclined to take matters into my own hands.
I have never in my life claimed to be a “nice” person, but I am a VERY honest and VERY well-rounded one with a fair amount of experience and knowledge in a lot of different areas.
Pal, I say this with the upmost kindness I can find in my heart, so don’t take it the wrong way.
You need to get a fucking grip.
Nah I’m fine. I’m not the one shilling for a convicted criminal.
I consider myself very much an Old Testament Atheist. Some people just need to not share the planet with the rest of us.
I dunno, dude. That feels wrong to even read that. It’s not a proper thing to think.
“The tariffs won’t last beyond April in their current form.”
The only way I see that being a sure thing is if Crooked Trump has a ‘Luigi Mangione’-style incident.
That seems humanitarian of you!
Oh I won’t be the one pulling the trigger. Hell… I don’t even own a gun.
What I’m talking about has nothing to do with humanitarism.
It has to do with actions Trump is doing and the consequences… and the potential consequences.
With the level of gun ownership in the USA and with the unprecedented number of people Trump is pissing off, all it takes is just one really pissed off person who happens to have a gun and the opporunity.
It’s not much of a stretch given there have been two people who ‘gave it their best shot‘… so far.
Consider as well that it’s government employees that provide Trump’s protection.
I’m sure there are absolutely NO government employees who have a grudge against Trump.
No sir. Definitely no disgrunted employees… or former employees.
Employees LOVE getting fired without warning.
Yes sir they do!
And I’m sure NONE of them own guns…
LOL
I have no idea what you are rooting for, but violence isn’t the answer. Guns are not the catch-all for shit hitting the fan, far from it.
It’s people who actively root for someone else to do their wishful bidding is the problem. It’s kinda mental slavery, no?
You might want to stop wishing for bad shit to happen.
One of my favourite pastimes is trying to explain the Army of Me video to someone without sounding like a crazy person.
“So she’s driving this gigantic vehicle made of metal teeth and AC ducts and oversized wheels carrying the coffin of her boyfirend and the truck has homeless people coming out of the bonnet and then her tooth hurts so she goes to her dentist who is a gorilla and then she has a diamond on her tounge that grows huge and the dentist gorilla tries to steal it…”
Good times
Well…if you are saying “bonnet”, that’s a huge red flag to begin with. Combine that with openly talking about Bjork, and you have your answer already.
You are looney tunes, Chef.
Now you see why it’s a challenge
I don’t know how to make that emoji, but, yep! Hilarious!
Start with “Michel Gondry.” It doesn’t make it make MORE sense, but at least YOU won’t be the crazy person.
Maybe what Ford needs to do is move all F150 production to Canada, and then have all sales for the US happen out of Canadian dealerships? All the jobs and sales can go to Canada, and maybe one of provinces will decide to allow for vehicle registration, old Vermont style, to collect all the registration fees for at least the first year? It’ll then just be up to the consumer to smuggle the Canadian sold, Canadian plated truck back home across the border, not Ford’s problem
If I were in charge of Mazda, I’d give the cars actual names, and otherwise, apparently keep doing what I’m doing, because the whole brand is getting Toyota’s general reputation for reliability as far as I can gauge.
Likely because of Toyota’s involvement with Mazda. They share an assembly plant in Huntsville. It is only a matter of time before Toyota absorbs Subaru, Suzuki and Mazda.
And the next generation 3 and CX3, whatever they’re called, should share a common 6-window hatchback body.
I’ve been so annoyed by this song for thirty years that I never saw the video. Cool truck, thanks for sharing.
If I were in charge of Audi: throw away any parts-bin VW cars, re-launch the ur-quattro and 80-based Coupe as both EVs and five cylinder turbos. It would be financial suicide, but I’d make cars I like, and I’m the boss.
If I were in charge of Mazda: massive raise for everyone involved in that amazing shade of metallic red they do. New RX7 like the FD but…. …actually the FD was perfect. MX5 Coupe and shooting brake. EV MX5 using a 200bhp motor and hire Toecutter to do the battery and aero. Slap that new inline six longitudinally in to the middle of a new sports car (MX6, maybe not?). This is why I shouldn’t run a car company.
Muppets should stick with Studebakers. 🙂
I typically dislike red cars, but Mazda red is absolutely stunning.
Do they still make the 5? I always thought that was kinda neat. One of those with AWD would be awesome.
Agree on the red and the 5 (own a 2010 manual.) They stopped selling them in NA 2015 or so. AWD would be great but they’d have to step up the rustproofing. Love our 5 but it will crumble into a pile of dust in the next year or 2.
Mazda should keep doing what they’re doing and add more hybrids options for their crossovers. I want them to succeed but they won’t do it building stuff Autopians want.
“…in our great potential 51st state of Canada.” We should not make a joke of the sovereignty of a (former) close ally.
And Musk has dodged over 20 federal investigations so whatever he has spent or his company’s lose in value is clearly worth the price paid.
You do realize that if Tesla went flop, he’s still worth $200b right?
You don’t matter to him. Just sayin’
None of us do. Which he is certainly making very clear.
Since when did you matter to any Federal legislator?
I don’t know how old you are, but I am old enough that…if it wasn’t clear 20 years ago, lol
Our favorite “villain” Elon has no more or less power than whomever you voted for in your city Village election. Economies of scale, is all.
It’ll be fine. We aren’t being invaded by Nazi’s, there is no fascism. There will continue to be elections every 2 years.
Grab a paper bag and breathe into it for a minute. Stop the hyperventilating, it’s only Wednesday, lol.
Not a great answer. I’m only alive due to NIH funded research and will only continue to be alive if treatments that are in the pipeline continue to develop (and work as well as expected). Hard to argue that it’s all the same as it always was when stuff like that is on the chopping block. LOL indeed.
What exactly is on the “chopping block”?
As far as I can discern, it’s only secretaries and marketing people that are getting the axe.
Just like you, I tend to have a need for some medicine. I’m not worried. You shouldn’t be either.
I work with lots of Feds, mostly NOAA and NSF. It is certainly not “only secretaries and marketing people” that are being let go. It’s anyone who is easy to let go, which right now means anyone in their current position less than a year. That includes everyone up to program heads. And it’s only the beginning or the targeted cuts
So people still on probation that barely know where the break room is?
Welp.
This is absolutely NOT what is happening.
A top level official, who could have been in a department for 20+ years, and an expert in their field, could have just gotten a promotion to said top level in December, ready to implement their 20+ years of expertise.
That person is getting fired along with your “secretaries and marketing people”.
It won’t be fine. 😉
Yes, exactly. I know several people with many years of institutional experience, who took a promotion last year which made them probationary and put them on the list for firing. There is no correlation between experience or value and who is getting fired- it is indiscriminate.
“Probation” is two years. They’re firing people who have been there 18 months. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a real job, but if you have, you know that people who have been there 18 months suddenly leaving is disruptive.
Well, they axed the people in charge of our nuclear weapons and, whoops, had to hire them back. And they axed the NOAA hurricane hunters and, whoops, had to hire them back. So I’m not sure where you’re getting this impression that the force reduction is being done carefully.
I am. It starts with F and rhymes with Box.
Get out of your silo. The arbitrary 15% cap on indirect costs which they are attempting to place on all NIH grants would result in chaos among researchers. The claim is that anything above that goes into “administrative slush funds” for (I suppose) DEI programs. If that’s the case, then they need to audit some grantees to demonstrate it. In real life, these costs are essential to the research programs. Dropping them to a blanket 15% would mean major cuts in research. They’re also going through grants to specifically pull funding for research on mRNA vaccines. This is insanely stupid. The people doing this are not scientists, and no administration has ever gone through grants like this to pull funding for political purposes.
“As far as I can discern…”
I mean, that’s your entire problem in a nutshell. 100%. You can’t discern fact from fiction, because you’re so tied down to Trump’s alternate reality.
Trump is SO FAR cutting $4 billion in life saving medical research. That’s what Mike F. is referring to. And that’s only what we know about so far.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c15zypvgxz5o.amp
First of all, you (maybe not you) are pretty hellbent on tying someone with a different view (me, definitely me) to Trump, or MAGA or something.
I have never met Trump, but I’m gonna guess he’s probably simultaneously hilarious, and also an asshole. Until I do meet him, that’s where I stand on that. As far as the MAGA die-hard stuff? Have at you, those people are misguided, to be kind. lol.
There is nothing in anyone’s playbook that says that getting rid of grift is a bad thing. You gotta cut fat before you can even get to the gristle, let alone finding the meat.
There is a lot of fat, and just because sharp knives are in play doesn’t mean much, unless you are “fat”.
I don’t know how anyone on earth with any sort of money in a bank account would see any different.
also: The BBC? Umm…I don’t know if you know about them folks. It’s not great.
you […] are pretty hellbent on tying someone with a different view […] to Trump, or MAGA or something
The vibe of a guy who puts “moderate” in his Tinder bio because “conservative” doesn’t get him laid anymore…
just because sharp knives are in play doesn’t mean much, unless you are “fat”
Hmmm, where have I heard this all before? Ah, yes:
– “If you’ve got nothing to hide, you shouldn’t be afraid of surveillance”
– “If you’re not breaking the law, you don’t need to be afraid of a militarized, violent police force”
– “Just come here legally and you don’t have to worry about being deported”
The list goes on.
Tinder? I’m good on that.
As far as your hysteria quotes…ugh. Unhelpable.
They’re literally kidnapping and deporting people who say things they disagree with, they’re scrubbing government websites of any mention of minority groups, scientific and environmental investments are being halted, the President has declared himself a king, the Supreme Court has said he cannot commit a crime, the actual White House posted an AI video of Gaza being bulldozed and turned into a resort populated with gold statues of the president, and that’s to say nothing of the many different government agencies that have been effectively shut down by an unelected civilian who, according to you, has no power. You’re the biggest fool on this entire website.
Dude.
You might wanna chill on the Bluuesky and MSNBC for a hot second, lol.
I’m telling you things that have actually happened. This is not some non-issue that has been spun into something by a news outlet. You can literally go to the social media of the actual White House and see them openly championing having done the things I just said they did.
Aside from the judgement placed upon you at the end, everything said are plain and simple facts.
American here and that “51st state” nonsense makes me furious. The bullying and total lack of respect for a neighbor and close ally by this shit-for-brains administration is appalling and embarrassing.
For Mazda I would make a 3 an EV, say Mazda 3E. Work hard to make it sub $22k.
Basic model with no bells and whistles. Hijack the government and get it to help.
It seems to work around here.
I don’t want to be a downer, but there’s no way any EV Mazda3 would be cheaper than the already low entry of the ICE 3 sedan at 24 and change. The average price premium of an EV over an ICE equivalent is still in the 10-15% range, so without any incentives applied, an EV 3 sedan would be in the mid-high 20s. At 26.5k that gets you a 3 Sedan 2.5 S Preferred with sunroof, heated side mirrors, 18s, power/heated front seats, dual zone climate and more, while a theoretical EV would have likely none of that at the same price. Getting a cheap entry-level EV only is feasible with large economies of scale (See Equinox EV on widely shared platform) which Mazda could never hit. If they really wanted an EV, their best bet would be a 6E in the high 30’s/low 40’s on a platform shared with a different company.
Accurate. Mazda is too small to be able to develop a good EV at a low price and make money on it, and they can’t afford to sell it at a loss. 6E that continues to nip at the heels of the German luxury marques has potential, but even then, crossovers outsell sedans 5:1 (not an actual stat, but it feels reasonably accurate), so a CX whatever E would move in better volume, make more money, and be more realistic. Mazda stopped making the 6 because they make more money off the other offerings and don’t have the bandwidth to make everything all at once.
Oh I completely agree on the CX-EV something potentially being a better volume play. The main reasons I would lean towards pushing a sedan/wagon/liftback first is that there is clearly some latent demand in the market, and it would backfill a segment Mazda does not occupy, rather than competing with existing models. Also it’s generally easier to get a more efficient/handsome vehicle with a sedan/liftback than a hunchback crossover, which might make the brand integration easier. Also there’s a lot of entry level EV Crossovers, and relatively few sedans at the lower end of the Market, the Ioniq 6 and Model 3 are the only sub-50k ones that come to mind in the US, and with Tesla sales cratering, it could be an easy market share pickup.
I do think a CX-5 EV would sell incredibly well given how high the 5’s sales are despite the 50 being an arguable more modern vehicle that IMO is more attractive inside and out, but it’s always a tough product planning call on EVs given it’s easier to absorb and justify the higher cost of an EV on a larger vehicle than a small one, but then you end up in the sea of 75k EV crossovers.
Great analysis. Please add in $7500 EV incentive. As stated, the government assistant is required.
Larger vehicles are closer to price parity, while smaller vehicles still need advancements in battery technology to hit that price point.
Audi and VW needs an easy win. Take the Golf and give it the Crosstrek treatment. Some plastic cladding and a mild lift and market it to the same folks who buy the Crosstrek. Audi can do a similar A3 variant with the AWD Golf R and decontent it to bring the price sub 40k. Also look into bringing over the California camper.
Mazda is fine and just needs to hybridize more of their lineup with Toyota ecvt’s since they already have that partnership. And keep prices in check and avoid excessive markups.
A Mk8 Golf Country, especially one with a Hybrid system would sell incredibly well, and an Audi A3 version would also be a gem. It may not be enough to turn the tide of the company overall, but it would a compelling entry point into the brand that would create some sales of larger model down the road. It’s the same reason the CLA/GLB exists, same with the Q3, X1/X2, and other compact/subcompact sized luxury offerings. If Subaru has shown anything, it’s that an Outdoorsy image sells well, regardless of actual capability, because 95%+ of the people that buy them never go anywhere more demanding than a dirt trail to a trailhead.
Yes absolutely. Going further since VW has that relationship with Rivian I would just crib the design of the R3X and instead of full electric do a hybrid or EREV version. I would buy a hybrid R3X.
If in charge of either Mazda or Audi (or any other non-U.S. brand) I would simply ask the local governing bodies to do what is already happening and remove Tesla from any incentive program.
Are there any automakers that seem to be in good shape given the current or future market conditions? Stellantis seems in a bad way having to run off thier CEO. Nissan is several months away from bankruptcy or being acquired by Foxconn. Volkswagens troubles seem to be continuing. I want to say Kia/Hyundai look to be in about the best shape? No idea.
Ferrari is looking good?
Mainstream, maybe it’s GM? Haven’t heard about much trouble from them lately.
Toyota had a bit more than a 10% profit last year.
If we follow the trade wars, Japan and South Korea seems to be the only countries with less drama with this administration. They are still affected but less so far. I wonder where Central America countries like Nicaragua or Guatemala stand with this administration too.
Based on the previous statement, Japanese OEMs (Except Nissan because they dumb), and Hyundai/KIA seems to be doing great and have a good forecast. Good vehicles in every segment that is popular in the US today. I hope this administration realize the harm it will create on the Big 2.5 OEMs.
I think Mitsubishi just keeps trundling along.
Mazda needs to step back into the car game. Conventional wisdom today says that everybody wants CUV’s but the Koreans and other Japanese manufacturers do just fine with a broader mix of cars and SUV’s. I get that Mazda doesn’t have their economies of scale but they could partner up with another manufacturer. With their emphasis on design and luxury at a reasonable price leaving a mid-size sedan off the table is a waste.
Aluminum bodies were the best thing that ever happened to trucks.
Among the many reasons that fighting a trade war with allies is foolish is the possibility of Ford going back to rust-prone steel bodies.
I just want to say one word to you…
Plastics!
Or fiberglass, whatever works better.
If they can make something that’s cheap, functional, and durable, I’m not opposed to considering it.
SATURN IS BACK, BABY!
Toyotas have composite beds among other things.
Big reason I want an F150 is the non-self-deleting rockers and bedsides. I have coworkers with pre-aluminum F150’s and the rear fenders are bubbling.
Serious question – aluminum body is great, but how are the frames doing in northern climes? Older Fords are HORRIBLE for frame rot, if not quite as bad as Toyotas were.
A buddy of mine has a 2018 F150, I looked under it recently and there’s very little surface rust. I was impressed. This is in RI, btw.
Encouraging!
I feel bad for the maybe 25% of truck buyers who actually need a truck. Everyone else can downsize and deal with it. Oh who am I kidding, they’ll just take an 84 month loan on the truck they don’t need and buy it anyway.
That is not to say I support this insane trade war, we are all worse for it and the only people it helps are already filthy rich.
84 months is so twenty-teens. 96 is the new normal.
If you promise to live in it, some enterprising financial institution can probably set you up with a 15 year mortgage on a new truck.
I think you’re on to something – I see pickup/caravan partnerships coming out of the woodwork. Market is a cure for Gen Z’s housing affordability crisis!
(This would be such a terrible idea – which means it’s bound to happen. Nothing like combining two massively depreciating assets into a single loan. What could possibly go wrong? Is there a phrase beyond “massively underwater”??)
So, now we’re at Jake Sully-on-Earth-before-he-goes-native, living in a fucking shipping container with no windows, for six grand a month.
Doesn’t sound too “great”.
And most of those buyers are probably 20-somethings who really can’t or should not be able to afford those 84 (96?) month loans.
20-somethings? Most of the new truck buyers I’m seeing are middle-aged.
“Musk has always found a way to turn around a bad quarter”
At some point you run out of rabbits to pull out of that hat and all you have left are turds.
That and as the old saying goes, when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
So, basically like all the people on here using the same playground insults to prove the same point over, and over, that they don’t like Tesla?
Turds, you say?
If I was in charge of Audi? First thing is abandon the touch screens for all the things interior design. Offer the 5-cylinder along with a hybrid across the range of models, just to be different from the rest of the crowd. Sell the hatchback and avant body styles of the full range in America. And clean up the exterior designs, eliminate every fake vent, stop it with the divorced headlight/DRL shit. Finally advertise that you can spec your Audi how you like it and in fun colors!
Mazda needs to tighten up ties to Mitsuoka and get a harmonized factory supported reskin of the CX 30 through 90 that look like the result of busy weekend of Baroque art, a sheet of acid and a whole lot of decisions questionable to those with the gift of sight.
Why might you ask? Becasue it would be functional AND fun, that’s why.
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