Moron Trump is now challenging China to a trade war!

[Yppej]

Wall Street is taking a hit today because Trump is a moron.

But this can help him with all the voters who don't have any money in stocks and resent having had to bail out the too big to fail banks. There is a political calculus that is un-moronic enough it got him elected.

[bae]

At this point, seriously....realistically, is anyone of quality going to willingly serve in the Trump Administration as a replacement to someone outgoing?

We were talking about this over dinner last night.

Wife asked me: "If the phone rang, and Trump was offering you Name_The_Great_Position, would you take it?"

Me: "Not a chance in hell. Why would anyone of good moral character work for this guy?"

I mean, you could delude yourself into thinking, early on in the administration, that you might be able to limit the damage, or direct things towards reasonable solutions. I have friends who did that, none of them lasted more than a few months before they withdrew out of disgust.

#on_strike

[creaker]

So - who are they going to the blame higher prices on when they hit the stores? This is basically going to be a $60 billion tax on consumers. While it's playing out on Wall Street today, once it gets going it will be playing out in the stores and consumer's wallets.

Maybe more folks will buy American - not that they can more afford it, but because they can no longer afford Chinese products, either.

[Yppej]

When you deport much of the cheap labor, pump a tax stimulus into the economy when it is doing fairly well, set records for national debt, and impose tariffs on major imports, which could start a trade war, I'm not seeing a bright future.

I'm seeing a recipe for jobs, free of competition from immigrants, with reduced competition from abroad, in manufacturing for people with a high school education or less. It's a dying field due to robotics, but it has short-term political appeal that the more affluent classes are not seeing.

[CathyA]

So - who are they going to the blame higher prices on when they hit the stores? This is basically going to be a $60 billion tax on consumers. While it's playing out on Wall Street today, once it gets going it will be playing out in the stores and consumer's wallets.

Maybe more folks will buy American - not that they can more afford it, but because they can no longer afford Chinese products, either.

But there is hardly anything left anymore that is made American. If we really wanted to shut China down, we'd quit consuming so much crap that is made there. (Along with even more essential things). What a mess.
I really believe that Trump is ignorant of how anything works. Also......he just loves setting fires and stepping back and watching it all burn. "Moron" is too nice of a word for him.

[ApatheticNoMore]

But this can help him with all the voters who don't have any money in stocks and resent having had to bail out the too big to fail banks.

this is probably the majority of the country, those who don't have money in stocks.

I'm seeing a recipe for jobs, free of competition from immigrants, with reduced competition from abroad, in manufacturing for people with a high school education or less. It's a dying field due to robotics, but it has short-term political appeal that the more affluent classes are not seeing.

if it's a dying field due to robotics so are most middle class jobs, at least according to many predictions (or well if not robotics AI maybe). Mostly reducing immigrants might provide some jobs but it's too late probably to put the globalization genie back in the bottle (which cost more jobs than immigrants anyway). But it's not like anyone has any better ideas, or well it's not like the political class has any better ideas.

[dado potato]

I agree with creaker that the effect of each tariff is to raise prices to consumers, while increasing revenues to the federal government.

New tariffs targeting China (or "punishing" China for theft of intellectual property) also invite retaliation. As the saying goes, "If you want a trade war, you will get one."

[dmc]

People are more interested in the price of the cheap Chinese stuff. These same people complain about Walmart closing down the mom and pop stores, but the same people were at Walmart buying the cheap stuff.

if the price of China stuff goes up it doesn’t bother me. Maybe it will make some local stuff more competitive. I still buy made in the USA when I can.

[Tenngal]

I doubt Pence will be any better. They both need to go as does Ryan.

yes, yes, yes. Ryan is bad news for average Americans. Every time his mouth opens he is trying to take something away from us.

[frugal-one]

But this can help him with all the voters who don't have any money in stocks and resent having had to bail out the too big to fail banks. There is a political calculus that is un-moronic enough it got him elected.

This is not just about stocks. Causing or instigating a trade war will raise prices on many things. You can say what you want but it is moronic!