Fuckboy is going to town on tariffs and we are all gonna lose:
The US will press ahead with steep tariffs on Canada and Mexico from Tuesday, Donald Trump has said, setting the stage for a trade war with his country’s two largest economic partners.
Hours before his administration was due to hit America’s closest neighbors with sweeping import duties, the US president claimed there was “no room left” for a deal to avoid their imposition. The announcement led to a sharp sell-off on Wall Street.
All Mexican exports to the US are set to face a levy of 25% under the plans. Most Canadian exports will face a 25% tariff, with energy products facing a 10% duty.
Trump also indicated that an additional 10% levy on China – on top of the 10% introduced last month – will also be introduced. Tariffs are a “very powerful weapon”, he told reporters at a news conference.
The action is set to prompt swift retaliation. “We’re ready,” said the Canadian foreign minister, Mélanie Joly.
Wall Street fell sharply after Trump’s remarks, with the S&P 500 down 2%, the Dow Jones industrial average down 1.8%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropping over 3%.
They’re going to be selling loosie strawberries in Queens bodegas in a month. Add these tariffs to the fact we have scared migrant workers away and shit is going to be interesting. Not to mention all the American producers who were used to getting by sending their soybeans and other crops overseas.
FAFO
Baud
dc
Why does the Executive have the power to impose tariffs without Congress?
Baud
@dc:
Congress passed a law long ago when norms were a thing.
Steve LaBonne
@dc: Because feckless Congresses gave it to them.
Pete Downunder
Here in Queensland we’re expecting a cyclone later in the week but I’d still rather be here than in the US. We all knew the Orange Shitstain was going to be bad, but I don’t think anyone expected it would be this bad this quickly.
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: And Congress could countermand these tariffs except oh wait Republicans.
Baud
@Steve LaBonne:
That’s correct. Republicans control Congress. No one should look to us.
Phylllis
I withdrew the last of my 401K funds out Friday in anticipation of this. Should be in the bank tomorrow. It wasn’t a lot, but I wasn’t interested in watching it dwindle away either.
Dr Daniel Price (excruciverbiage)
It was never about drugs, or about migrants. It has always been about conquest.
hells littlest angel
@Phylllis: I cashed out of the stock market on 1/17. Not losing a ton of money is the next best thing to gaining a ton of money.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
I have great hearing so I was able to hear the conversation two co-workers were having yesterday, one an 18 year old dipshit who I thought knew better, who I caught making bullshit excuses for Trump: “They (meaning Biden/Dems) had four years to do something about high prices. It’s only been a month. Gas prices are down.”
He has never talked this way directly around me, though he he’s repeated some dumb “wokeness gone mad” shit at me that falls apart quickly when I’ve questioned it. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. This is the same moron who was making excuses for Scott Cawthon (Five Nights At Freddy’s creator) donating to anti-LGBTQ+ Republican politicians, including Trump.
He strikes me as a stupid, misinformed manbaby who needs his instant gratification and has no principles he’s willing to stand for. He’ll babble on endlessly about stupid shit like Thomas the Tank Engine. I remember all last year during the campaign him telling me he really liked Obama.
ETA: I remember encouraging this clown to register to vote FFS! He screwed me over if he voted for Mango Mussolini. I want to tell him people I know are being hurt by this asshole’s administration. If the economy goes south my folks could lose their business and it will be his fucking fault!
dc
@Steve LaBonne:
So my next topic to my asshole senators.
Raoul Paste
I can’t imagine how bad it will get by summer. Deep breaths…
wonkie
I will believe it when I see it. He’s been bloviating about tariffs for the last month but the only one he has actually imposed is the modest 10 percenter on Chinese goods. I hope the Mexicans and Canadians tell him to fuck off, but they have their own interests to look out for and all he really wants is for them to grovel publicly to restore his bruised ego over Zelensky making him look bad.
trollhattan
Meanwhile, this guy who I never heard of.
Loyal Democrat says “what?”
West of the Rockies
Well, on the darkly bright side, Clump’s actions will cause big stress except for billionaires and rabid cultists. His favorability will go down, Republicans will lose upcoming elections, his lame duck status will take further root, his own discontent will grow (ha-ha, pigman!), and the voter pendulum will swing away from the tangerine turd.
A fair bit of suffering to follow. Hang in there, folks.
mrmoshpotato
@Pete Downunder: How much are a dozen eggs at Cole’s or Woolworth’s?
CW
@Phylllis: I switched everything in my 401K to money market almost a month ago. Feeling smart :)
bbleh
It appears Zelenskyy refusing to crawl and sign what he was told to sign really got under his skin.
[sigh] I KNEW I shoulda sold out last Friday. I was hoping the man-child would chicken out again.
Still benefited HUGELY from Joe’s Excellent Economy. Take the earnings and go hide for a while.
NotMax
My Ford Maverick hybrid was built in Mexico*. Add 25% on top of the MSRP and I certainly would have given it a hard pass.
^Same factory there also produces the Bronco Sport.
Lee
I have set my 401k and IRA to the most conservative options available. Not sure it will help much but I can’t afford the penalties for withdrawing it all. :(
Butch
New York, Minnesota and Michigan receive electricity from Ontario. Doug Ford, the premier, says he will cut off energy exports if these tariffs are imposed.
https://www.joemygod.com/2025/03/doug-ford-ill-cut-off-energy-to-the-us-with-a-smile/
Hoodie
@Steve LaBonne: Yeah, but that power is narrow. Trump is more than pushing the envelope if these are not directed at unfair trade practices. In addition, aren’t our friends on the bench not too keen on delegation of congressional power to the executive?
Steve LaBonne
@Hoodie: The ones who in the end matter are perfectly keen as long as the President is a Republican. And it doesn’t look as though we still have an envelope.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Phylllis:
@CW:
It sounds like you two are trying to time the market. That’s not a good idea and will mean you will miss out on gains.
You should follow Jack Bogle’s timeless sage advice: Don’t just do something, stand there!
Make a long-term plan and stick to it. Perhaps reevaluate your risk tolerance and adjust your stock/bond ratio
laura
@trollhattan: “California is not affordable, livable nor workable,”
Dude should run for Governor someplace livable and affordable, and as “A Mogul” he’s got some tough sledding for sure. I prefer a Democratic candidate to at a minimum acknowledge that California remains a beautiful, vibrant and productive state, and that it’s problems are solvable without a sharp, sudden turn to unaccountable power. In conclusion, fuck this guy.
kindness
I would think Republican business folk would be raging because of these tariffs. Not a peep from that community. My only guess is they’ve all sold America short on the stock markets and are hoping to make bank on it. Who cares if their country goes to hell so long as they can shove coin into their own pockets.
cmorenc
Red state & GOP voters everywhere have 401k stock accounts. This could be the first place Trump voters experience sharp nauseating pain from their vote rather than down the road a few weeks or months when other effects begin to tangibly bite hard.
Stock market was booming the last year Biden was in office, and didn’t tank until Trump was in office several weeks, and the tariffs will be hard to misdirect blame away from cause (Trump Tarrifs).
The Thin Black Duke
OK, the yahoos who got their panties in a twist about the painful inconvenience of wearing a mask in public are going to hang tough and stay loyal to the orange buffoon once the price of EVERYTHING goes up and the supermarket shelves are empty? Naw, I don’t think so. The rules change when its [white] skin in the game.
Steve LaBonne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The money we have in a 60/40 moderate growth mutual fund is inherited money that we hope we never actually need to touch, so I plan to leave it alone.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Butch:
None of which are red states, even though Michigan did vote for Trump this time
Jay
The 10% Tariffs on Energy should be interesting, as New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and BC have all said that “pulling the plug” is a tariff response.
BC supplies some 60% of the US NorthWest’s electricity, some 40% of the natural gas and some 50% of oil supplies to refineries.
Ontario supplies much of the electricity to most of the North East.
New Brunswick supplies Maine with electricity, and refined fuels like heating oil, diesel and gas.
And Quebec, well they keep the lights on for most of the Atlantic Seaboard and New York State.
Best case scenario, half of the US pays 10% more to keep the lights on, the car running, airplanes flying and the house warm.
MattF
Plus, everyone has started or is, right now, in the middle of doing their taxes. And the financial markets rose last year, so everyone is going “I owe… how much?” And some fraction of what you owe will go to our brand-new strategic crypto reserve… Ha ha. Just what the pig butchers in Myanmar are waiting for. Number goes up!
Steve LaBonne
@kindness: It never works though- business has been doing better under Democrats for a very long time. Yet they never learn.
gvg
The thing is most people don’t believe in Economics, including republican Congress people. The problem is that reversing tariffs and removing the power of Presidential tariffs won’t restore the money lost when things crash. It will enable us to gradually recover IF other countries also remove tariffs. I don’t know that they all will right away. It’s going to depend n how badly they are hurt and the pain is not going to be equal, plus what they think of trading with us.
If we actually do something to the malignant creeps causing this plus the eletorate looks like it learned something that will last another few generations, then they might be willing to sign contracts with us. A big deal is if our courts enforce penalties against contract breakers like Trump. Also treaty breaking is a big problem. If Trump uses illeagal force anywhere, its really going to be bad.
CaseyL
@kindness: The model was set during the housing collapse and the Great Recession of 2008: let people go broke and abandon their real estate, then snap it up for pennies on the dollar.
Hell, for all I know, the Great Dot Bomb of 1999 was similarly manipulated. The 1990s were the last time a lot of people – including marginalized communities – made solid financial gains, and a lot of that had to do with the burgeoning Web.
WV Blondie
Spouse and I closed on the sale of our house late last year and realized a six-digit profit. (We moved in with his mother, who has dementia and needs someone around 24×7.) I dithered over what to do with the money, so it’s still sitting in the bank. I think I’m just going to put it in CDs with different maturity dates, so we can maintain a bit of liquidity.
Steve LaBonne
@The Thin Black Duke: I hope you’re right. Wypipo will take quite a lot of abuse in the service of white supremacy.
Geminid
@trollhattan: This will be another interesting test of your state’s jungle primary system. This guy might not be able to win a straight-up Democratic primary, but if he can finish in the top two Kloobeck might have a chance running as the more conservative Democrat in the November runoff; or maybe more precisely, as a Republican using the Democratic label on a time-share basis.
mrmoshpotato
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Enough Michiganders fucked around…
trollhattan
@laura:
Believing CEQA and healthcare for contract workers (cough, Uber, hack, Lyft) are what makes California expensive tells us everything we need to know about who he hangs with.
Soprano2
Whoo boy, I find myself wishing I had made more time to look at vehicles this winter. I want to get something different, but I have to have time to look! Oh well, whatever happens will happen, if I have to hang on to this oil burning car I guess I will.
cmorenc
@West of the Rockies: Likely true, but by 2026 a blue wave will win the smoking ruins of the US economy and government. And Trump will still be President 2 more years.
tobie
Ever wonder why Politico’s reporting is so effusive about Republicans and critical toward Dems? It ends up that the owner of Politico and CEO of Springer Matthias Döpfner is a big fan of techbros and (g)libertarian ideology. His son also works for Peter Thiel.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Pete Downunder:
What’s with that weird hairpin turn on that storm?
Hoodie
@Steve LaBonne: Maybe, but there may be grounds for lawsuits that he’s overstepping his authority. This isn’t like Japan dumping steel. It’s arbitrary political bullshit. The Canadians haven’t done anything other than abide by the trade agreement Trump negotiated with them. Companies trading with Canada, such as those with integrated manufacturing, might have standing. Otherwise they’ll receive a bunch of carve outs that will make the tariffs meaningless. I’d say that’s pretty likely.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
Can you adopt me so I can live in Canada?
Jeffro
Good idea! Or just put it into a money market fund with the best rate you can find – you’re still going to beat the stock market for at least the next year.
gvg
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): That advice was meant for sane times though. Having crooks in charge of the government finances is something else, and these crooks are connect to an enemy state. I don’t know if they are right, but I do think the regular advice that has applied for decades might not work now.
Ryan
Thinking about the pain points in American society, I am reminded of guacamole, something we can’t produce here. … Maybe let’s focus on that.
Wapiti
@WV Blondie: I’ll note that the CDs my father has in big namebrand bank are at 4% or such, but will roll over into a lower number unless I (power of attorney) intervene within 10 days of maturity. Parasites.
My Credit Union, otoh, has set CD rates for set amounts of money (like 4% for $10K-50K), and while the rate may change with the market, they don’t have a different rate for customers who aren’t paying attention.
trollhattan
@Geminid:
My over/under for governor candidates on the ’26 primary ballot currently is 90.
If Kamala declares then will slash in half; nobody else has her name recognition. NB I doubt she wants it.
CaseyL
@Butch: Not sure Trump cares if those particular states lose power, except maybe – maybe – Michigan which has gone for Trump two out of three elections.
trollhattan
@tobie: A trifecta of suck, right there.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@tobie:
I’d love to curb stomp anybody who touts techbro “paradigm disruption” contrarian shit.
cmorenc
@gvg: re: possibility of Trump using illegal force – that is exactly why last week he fired the JAG General of all each respective branch of the armed forces – a key part of their role was to judge whether military orders or certain uses of the military are legal.
ArchTeryx
So Trump doesn’t just want to repeat the Great Recession, he wants to repeat the Great Depression. Which, I might add, was proximately triggered by tariffs and the extreme inequality of the Gilded Age, along with no social safety net.
And here we are again.
Pete Downunder
@mrmoshpotato: About AUD $5.40 (roughly USD 3.40). Supply a bit limited due to bird flu flock culls.
Jay
@ArchTeryx:
The Great Depression was Global. This one won’t be.
French Onion Soup
@Dr Daniel Price (excruciverbiage):
Conquest is too narrow. They believe that it’s gods will that they get to rule and dictate to everyone else and extract tribute. They will not accept anything else.
It’s also telling that the nation they are most hopping mad with around tariffs is Canada. A white nation. The alliance they are most upset about is NATO, basically a white alliance. Or historically that’s the way the right has viewed them.
There is something going on here that I don’t think we’ve fully processed yet. They aren’t going after their shithole nations or whatever dark skinned nation they whipped themselves into a froth over before. This is playing out vastly differently and I’m not sure what’s driving it.
CaseyL
@ArchTeryx: …only without a Franklin or Eleanor Roosevelt this time.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@French Onion Soup:
Disruption of anything involving a nation with any drive toward a more egalitarian economic order that disproves the Calvin/Rand economics favored by the American right.
Jacqueline Squid Onassis
Here’s the thing, though… Timing the market is almost always a failure. You can’t know when it’s going to collapse nor when it’s going to surge. Unless you’re retired (or within a couple of years of retirement), your best bet is going to be having your money in total stock market index funds and riding the coattails of those who control the stock market. For those who are retired (or within a few years of retirement), you should have 2 to 3 years worth of withdrawals in a stable value fund so that you’re not depleting your investment at it’s low ebb. This allows for the market to come back without losing anything substantial.
If you’re not retired or close to retirement, a stock market collapse (as long as the entire economy doesn’t also collapse permanently) is fantastic. You keep chunking money into it paycheck after paycheck because all those stocks are on sale. As a smarter person than I am put it, “Bread is on sale. Now’s the time to buy!!!” When the market bounces back, you profit greatly.
If the entire economy collapses, it doesn’t matter where you had your money – it’ll all be gone.
Example:
When the market crashed in 2008, I lost 33% of my retirement funds. I kept throwing money into a whole stock market index fund (10% of my gross plus the 3% company match). When the market came back in 2010, I was up 40% from where I started.
West of the Rockies
@cmorenc:
The House could flip this November, I believe.
Geminid
@Jay: This recession will be global. When the US goes into recession much of the world will follow, like it or not.
ArchTeryx
@Jay: Um. We default on our debts and get into a worldwide trade war, everyone is going to feel the pain. Like the Great Depression, different parts of the world will feel it more or less intensely, but we’re going to be right under the hypocenter.
Peale
@Jay: The problem with “pulling the plug” is that it is going to be the excuse Trump needs to make his case that Canada can’t be an independent country.
Pete Downunder
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
No idea. our Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has been predicting it for a week based on their modeling, and so far the models have been accurate although BOM has a history of exaggerating hazards after being burned by a severe storm that they failed to predict.
swiftfox
Bloomberg reports that the first $10 billion of ‘Farm Aid” is ready (30 billion total). Don’t know if it came from USAID or some combination of shuttered/crippled agencies but it’s out there.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Peale:
That was also my thought. It could serve as a casus belli in Trump’s demented mind
mrmoshpotato
@Pete Downunder: I see. So bird flu is hitting down under too.
Ocotillo
@Lee: You can always roll it into an IRA without penalty.
ColoradoGuy
@French Onion Soup: It’s a power grab by a subset of international oligarchy. They’re not content with merely being billionaires; they have a burning hunger for world that looks like Curtis Yarvin, Ayn Rand, and Putin-style oligarchy. And they have not one, but two, maybe even three, Manchurian Candidates in the White House, and a Supreme Court waving a get-out-of-jail pass. And the Republicans in Congress are in a state of hypnosis, or in terror for their lives, or in religious ecstasy.
Other MJS
@West of the Rockies:
?? Please explain.
mrmoshpotato
@West of the Rockies: This November?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Other MJS:
I’m guessing WotR means because the House is so evenly divided, special elections this year could tip control
David Anderson
@Ryan: coffee
White & Gold Purgatorian
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Sound advice. To all who have moved their nest eggs out of the market, how will you decide when to go back to your former allocation, which was presumably appropriate for your age and circumstances? Maybe a few folks can successfully time the market. I wouldn’t bet my retirement on being one of them.
This administration is going to be awful in so many ways. Please y’all, don’t let them panic you into a hasty financial decision which might add to the pain.
Jay
@Geminid:
@ArchTeryx:
4% of the EU’s trade is with the US. Chinese manufacturing has rebounded and is growing again. 38% of Canada’s trade with the US can be replaced by removing interProvincial tariffs. Both Canada and Mexico are net exporters to the US and much of our imports from the US can be replaced with direct trade between Canada and Mexico.
If it looks like The Treasury is getting really wobbly, going to implode or adopt Crypto, National Banks will react quickly by shifting to other currencies, (you can do it with a mouse click these days), that will probably cause the collapse of the Treasury.
Geminid
So Tesla stock was down again today. It’s lost over 25% in value in the last month.
Baud
@White & Gold Purgatorian:
I’m staying with gold and crypto tyvm. I prefer stability.
Fair Economist
I think Canada would do better filling in the rest of the tariff with a 15% export duty on energy exports to the US, rather than completely cutting them off. Oil refiners will scream bloody murder and people will notice gas prices going up. Plus, Canada gets some income to offset the losses they’ll face.
oldgold
Should you cry or laugh at this:
“President Donald Trump’s administration was back in court Monday to justify its actions in dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). During the hearing Judge Jackson asked whether the new Trump administration objected to the CFPB’s stated mission of “protecting consumers from unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices.”
The DOJ confessed it didn’t know, which lead to ‘laughter ensuing’ in the courthouse.”
Gloria DryGarden
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): be it so.
How many seats are up for a special? How many seats do we need to gain? If you know. I’m not googling it.
Phylllis
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I wouldn’t begin to know how to ‘play the market’. I have read enough history and heard enough about it first-hand from relatives who lived through it what a depression looks like though.
Gloria DryGarden
Note: fund raiser in the side bar only needs $214, to complete it.
Geminid
@Jay: So what about the other 62% in Canada’s trade with the US? More broadly, can Canada avoid a recession if there is one in the US?
I guess we’ll get to see.
Eolirin
@Gloria DryGarden: It’s 3, and there are three. But two of them are in Florida and are double digit R+ states.
These will be sorted in April iirc.
Spanky
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
The Sharpie did it.
Gloria DryGarden
@oldgold: i would like to be protected from unfair deceptive and abusive practices, including those stemming from the executive branch of my country.
At what point do we we declare it not really a country anymore? That’s my despair talking. But what is it if it becomes a totally lawless place full of despots and factions etc?
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: I suspect that is mocking Nancy Pelosi who is either losing it or misspoke a few days ago.
VFX Lurker
I hope you are right, and I hope their anger gets directed at Republican officials.
Gloria DryGarden
@Hoodie: lawsuits, cool, but during the legal processing, tariffs, right? And higher prices. No?
Ken
@cmorenc: Except that if the democrats somehow take back the senate, Alito and Thomas will be forced to retire and replaced by 30-40 something Heritage foundation jesus freaks sometime in November. We’re screwed for at least 30 years.
Ksmiami
@West of the Rockies: yep it’s actually better for us to have this accelerate quickly. Get everyone mad at him, turn the tide Blue.
Ksmiami
@Ken: eh . Blow up the Court. It’s illegitimate anyway
Jay
@mrmoshpotato:
Bird Flu is hitting everywhere. The US is particularly hard hit, because layer operations in the US contain millions of birds, where in the ROW, because of “Market Controls*” layer operations are few hundred thousand. So when a layer drops dead of the bird flu, the cull is much smaller and there are many smaller operations in the same market area.
*Remember “milk” when the DJTdiot was renegotiating NAFTA? Basic food stuffs in Canada, have a quota system. This ensures that the farmer gets a fair price for their product, that there isn’t overproduction, (the exception is Maple Syrup, overproduction is bought by the Government of Canada and goes into our strategic Maple Syrup Reserve), that there are no monopolies on production and each Province produces most of their own. We also have in each Province, the ALR, so that productive farmland can’t be turned into Condo’s or Malls.
A big part of the “fight” in renegotiating NAFTA is that the US wanted barriers to AG trade, (The Market System), tossed aside.
Geminid
@Gloria DryGarden: There are two Florida special elections coming up April 1, to fill seats vacated by Gaetz and Waltz. There will be another special election in New York to fill Ellise Stefanik’s seat. She has not resigned yet, but it sounds like that one will be in July. All three districts are rated ~R+20, I think. The NY21 district might be winnable, but probably not the two Florida districts.
Gloria DryGarden
@Eolirin: thank you. If they’re R++ places, I am not going to get my hopes up.
Wake up voters ¡! Vote in your own interests! Get some real information some place!
Oh, dang it!
Are there any democrats running for these seats, that are worth fundraising for? Is there hope?
David Collier-Brown
@Butch: A good target, too: two of the three are purple, and poverty will affect election results (:-))
Eolirin
@Ken: We would need to change how the court operates. Which is honestly how it was always going to be.
We can do that. The Court’s makeup is determined by statute, not the constitution. Also, some of those justices may have done some illegal shit they can be arrested for. A reconstituted DoJ willing to go root and branch on Republicans could potentially force resignations that we could fill as well.
I’m much more concerned that we may not get to have elections. Or that they may start disappearing Democratic politicians.
p.a
I cashed out my pension upon retirement because Verizon had sold off mgmt pensions to an insurance company (no fed insurance on insurance owned pensions 🤔), hourly employee pensions, like mine would have been, were sold off last year.
So I bundled that & most of my 401 into a conservative, basically 50/50 IRA. A smidge left in the 70/30 401k. I’ll just ride it out. I live near several florists, I’ve seen their drivers, most elderly guys, could pick up part time if needed; death will be a growth industry under there fuckwads. Autoparts stores also always looking for drivers; lots of work in down economies as people fix rather than buy.
Eolirin
@Geminid: I believe one of the Florida ones is only R+14, and The NY one is R+8 or 9. But yeah.
I do not expect us to win either of the Florida seats.
WV Blondie
@Wapiti: Good advice – although, having spent more than a decade struggling to keep one nostril up out of the water, I don’t think I’ll stop obsessing and paying attention any time in the next three years or so …
Ohio Mom
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): That is certainly Ohio Dad’s dea but I think it wrong. We are not young. We don’t have decades to wait for this stuff to correct itself. Oh well, I have a long list of nags, I have to parcel them out.
David Collier-Brown
@Jay: Plus having more electricity available (supply) will pull down electricity prices in Ontario, making citizens and some industries happy.
Jay
@Geminid:
Alcan shows the way. They are the only producer on the globe of certain specialty aluminum alloys that are used in rockets, missiles, space, aircraft and other specialty applications.
When DJTdiot first threatened tariffs, they cancelled all US contracts, (67% of their market) and in days, resold that product to the EU, China and other customers. They are also the largest manufacturer of Aluminum outside ruZZia.
Bill Hicks
“They’re going to be selling loosie strawberries in Queens bodegas in a month”
Is this about exposed nipples or something? I’m very confused.
A Ghost to Most
@Soprano2:
Toyota is closing in on mass production of second gen solid state batteries. A big change is coming. Try to hold out until the new batteries arrive.
David Collier-Brown
@WV Blondie: Buy Swill Francs: I did that many moons ago during inflation, and was very pleased.
Geoduck
@Bill Hicks: Google is still useful for some things: loosie = one single
Geminid
@Gloria DryGarden: NY21 Democrats have already selected 48 year-old dairy former Blake Gendeben as their candidate. The Republicans have yet to pick theirs.
Gendeben looks like he stepped out of a Carhart ad; an attractive candidate who likely won’t hurt for money. And the 21st CD borders Canada. The Adirondack Explorer posted an article last week about how local businesses are already feeling the loss of Canadian tourism.
David Collier-Brown
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): No, but make a normal application, and if you’re not dead you’ll probably get in.
Just don’t ask for asylum, or you’ll get snickered at (;-))
David Collier-Brown
@Peale: It’s OK, we’re a NATO country, and under Article Five can call on US military aid… against an invasion from the US (;-))
Dorothy A. Winsor
Ohio Mom
@West of the Rockies: Nope, the two year House terms are up in 26. A few special elections, a Republican death here or there, could possibly nudge the Democrats into the majority. Hardly guaranteed.
David Collier-Brown
@Fair Economist: Strongly agree. Mr Ford is well-known for oversimplifying everything, so he probably plans just that.
Ohio Mom
@David Anderson: I don’t know if I could live without coffe. I got myself down to two cups a day. I feel like that is my floor.
mrmoshpotato
@oldgold: We should be deporting Melon Husk’s South African Nazi bitchass into the Sun.
WV Blondie
@David Collier-Brown: ?? Do you mean Swiss francs?
Jay
@David Collier-Brown:
One of the interProvincial Tariffs being removed is energy.
So prices won’t always go down, in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, BC, ($0.10 kwhr roughly in BC, $0.13 USD in Washington State, US average is $0.20 USD), but they will go down in PEI, Nova Scotia, NFLD, Sask, Manitoba, Alberta and the Territories.
Doc Sardonic
@Eolirin: Ironically enough, April 1st, in Florida
Matt McIrvin
@The Thin Black Duke: Maybe. Some of them died of COVID insisting that they didn’t have it and the doctors trying to treat them were part of the conspiracy.
AM in NC
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): But the borderlands are red areas with red Congressional Reps. We can make gains in Congress with pain felt upstate, UP, and northern MN.
Matt McIrvin
@West of the Rockies: And that’s when the army starts shooting protesters and the opposition politicians mysteriously walk out of tenth-story windows.
dww44
@Ohio Mom: I’ve been drinking black coffee since I went on my first diet at age 13. not a day has gone by without my coffee fix. At my senior age I’ve no plans to give it up.
West of the Rockies
Sorry, all, I was out walking the fussy sheepadoodle. As has been pointed out, there are three special elections this year that could flip the House. Inconceivable!
dww44
@French Onion Soup: I’d say what’s going is that they are all successful liberal democracies who don’t bow and scrape to Putin and other autocratic leaders.
schrodingers_cat
@West of the Rockies: I checked the margins of all those special elections the R has won them by over 20% margin. They are not going to be easy to flip
Stefanik won by a 24% margin
The two Florida Rs by over a 30% margin in 2024.
Ohio Mom
@Bill Hicks: In lower income areas in NYC, enterprising individuals sell individual cigarettes — “loosies.” Which is illegal.
Cole is making a joke about strawberries becoming so expensive, customers will want/only be able to buy them one at a time.
See: https://www.thedailybeast.com/eric-garner-was-choked-to-death-for-selling-loosies/
different-church-lady
“I HOPE YOU ASSHOLES ARE ENJOYING YOUR CHEAP EGGS!!!”
lowtechcyclist
@gvg:
Yeah, this is more like boarding up the windows ahead of a hurricane than like timing the market.
My decision was simple: my wife and I have more than enough at this point, so we’re almost entirely out of the market. If the market somehow goes up under Trump and we miss out on gains, we’re OK with that. We just don’t want the Trumpicane to blow away a good chunk of what we’ve already got.
Tim C.
@schrodingers_cat: On the other hand, if there’s a 15 point swing…. it’s a heads up.
matt
Warren Buffett said recently that consumers are going to figure out that they’re paying the tariffs pretty quickly ‘It isn’t the Tooth Fairy paying them’.
Jay
@Geminid:
Oh, btw, a lot of that US trade is “artificial”. Eg. Asia. It’s cheaper to buy Asian products from a broker in LA, than to import directly from Asia, due to shipping costs. The cargo container travels to LA amongst hundreds of thousands of US bound containers, get’s loaded up on a truck or a train and driven north.
When I bought CRT’s and LCD’s from Taiwan, for an Industrial Computer MFGR it was via a broker in LA, because it would have taken all the annual demand from Canada for Taiwanese products, to fill one ship.
A huge chunk of what we buy “from the US”, is actually the products from Mexico, Central and South America. Sticking between us like a giant sore thumb makes it cheaper and easier to buy them as reimports. But a 25% tariff removes those buy direct costs entirely.
cain
Anybody see this?
https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1j2cww2/rfk_jr_urges_people_to_get_vaccinated_amid_deadly/
RFK urging vaccinations for measles. If they don’t control this a lot of kids are going to suffer. Should be quite the choice for some of these parents who believes that vaccinations are harmful.
I can’t believe we’re at this stage of the game.
I’m taking my wife to ER today because she can’t get to see a neurologist until May. She fell in November and got a concussion. This is how shitty our healthcare is. She’s still showing all the sames of a neurological disorder. Reduced to having to spend thousands out of pocket.
The Pale Scot
@WV Blondie:
Make sure the CDs are covered by Fed insurance
Some aren’t
WV Blondie
@The Pale Scot: Will do! If I have to, I’ll just slam the whole lump sum into a savings account. It won’t come anywhere near keeping up with inflation, but I cannot take risks with it!
justsomeguy05
@Jacqueline Squid Onassis:
In general, I agree with you.
However, just because during our lifetimes the stock market has always bounced back, and the US currency has never collapsed, doesn’t mean those are universal laws.
Jay
@cain:
Barn door, horsie.
It takes two doses, 2 weeks apart, then another 2 weeks before the MMR vaccine is effective.
So, a month when you are still vulnerable.
Sorry that your wife is having a long term condition from a concussion event.
NotMax
@Ryan
You might want to have a chat with the avocado tree in the back yard here.
;)
different-church-lady
DUMBSHIT HITLER: “If you don’t do the thing, you get tariffs!”
NEIGHBORS: “Fine, we’ll do the thing.”
DUMBSHIT HITLER: “YOU GET TARIFFS ANYWAY!!!”
DUMBSHIT ELECTORATE: “YOU SHOW THEM CANUCKS AND SPICS!!! Oh, and my retirement funds collapsing are BIDEN’S FAULT!!!”
TBone
I took the whole entire day off and whoops! came back to another episode of The Fuckening.
When your day is going great and then something happens and you’re like ah, there it is.
🎶
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SsmVgoXDq2w
azlib
@Jacqueline Squid Onassis:
Good advise. As a retired person, I trust my financial advisor. I already had a conversation about tariffs a month ago. Keep in mind a 25% tariff does not mean the price of the end product does not rise 25%. it is far more complicated than that. The big damage with the Canada and Mexico tariffs is the supply chain disruption. Certain items will cost more and could be in short supply. That in itself will cause prices to rise.
different-church-lady
@TBone: The Fuckening is not a show. The Fuckening is 24 hour channel.
different-church-lady
I picked a hell of a time for my washing machine to die…
cain
@Jay:
I had mine a while back, but I’m wondering if I should do a refresh. My wife I feel should because she works at a school and is exposed to kids all the time. She doesn’t need another reason to get sick.
dnfree
@Phylllis: All I did was put part of my IRA in a cash fund, still within the IRA.
cain
@different-church-lady: I think you can still buy before those things come into effect.
A lot of stuff is going to be expensive going forward. I bought all my computer stuff during black friday.
After reading this thread I also reached out to my investment firm and got them to change things to be more conservative.
TBone
@different-church-lady:
It even has a ‘weird meter’ called the Greed and Fear Index, soon pegged in the red at EXTREME FEAR.
https://www.cnn.com/markets/fear-and-greed
Jay
@cain:
Your Dr/Clinic can do a simple reactionary blood test to see if you still have MMR immunity.
TBone
Don’t just be part of the problem…
Be the entire problem.
Baud
@TBone:
Heh.
TBone
– Will Rogers
Hugs to all you readers out there!
Geminid
@Jay: Like I said, we’ll see soon enough if Canada will avoid a recession if the US has one. Canada usually has one when the US does. Maybe the economic relationship has changed substantially enough since 2009, the last time this happened.
cain
@Jay:
Good call. I will do that. Thanks for the advice
Jay
https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/international-issues/u-s-refineries-and-canadian-crude-oil/
snip
The Pale Scot
@WV Blondie:
Limit is 250Gs per bank,
Matt McIrvin
@different-church-lady: It’s a fuckening marathon, not a fuckening sprint.
suzanne
I got more aggressive in the last 18 months about 401K contributions. I am far away from retirement, so I am leaving it alone. I don’t know that I’m doing the right thing, but I am not super-strategic financially. So. Fingers crossed.
Phylllis
@dnfree: It was a pittance, about $5000*. I’m in pretty good shape with savings & available cash; thinking about parking it in CD’s.
*In terms of a retirement account–I’m well aware that amount could mean the world to any number of people. There was a time in my life not so long ago that it would have been amazing/inconceivable to me to have that amount on hand.
Steve in the ATL
@different-church-lady: launder clothes on your washboard abs, like in olden times!
Ohio Mom
@cain: While you are at the doctors for you titer test (titers measure your antibodies) put up a fuss about your wife needing to see a neurologist. Her doctor should be calling the neurologist and asking for her to be seen ASAP. No matter what the ER says, she will need follow up.
Martin
Well, 90% of strawberries in the US come from California, so they won’t suffer from tariffs, but they might suffer from labor shortages – strawberries require a lot of labor.
Thankfully CA gasoline comes almost exclusively from CA refineries that don’t export much. But about half of the oil we refine is imported. (The rest is split between CA and AK oil)
Gvg
@cmorenc: And I think it would be a legitimate defense for refusing an order to say that since he fired the AG’s, it’s only because he was giving or planning to give illegal orders. So anything slightlysuspect, has to be refused until reviewed by more trusted sources.
VFX Lurker
I have everything in self-rebalancing all-in-one index funds. I made this change in January 2017, the day before Idiot 1.0, and I aimed for a classic 60/40 stock/bond split.
On November 6th, 2024, I debated whether I needed to get more conservative. I ended up staying put with Vanguard LifeStrategy Moderate Growth in my IRAs and similar Vanguard Target Retirement funds in my 401(k). Even though I knew the meteor was coming, I’m not smarter than the market.
However, the self-rebalancing is important for me. It means I don’t have to look at how my retirement accounts are doing — they can take care of themselves.
Gvg
@Ken: No, not if it gets bad enough. We really are already justified in impeaching and removing those 2 for accepting bribes. They may claim that’s not what it is, but they are lying. And Congress can remove them if they have the will and the votes. Now getting to those votes will require things get really bad here and I don’t want to experience that. So far a lot of the advice has had the caveat “if you aren’t close to retirement “. Well I am. This is really bad timing for me.
30 years is too long even if it doesn’t get bad. Things are always changing, things keep happening. But I would prefer better odds.
Jay
@Martin:
On the other hand, most of California’s oil imports, over 60%, come from Guyana, Iraq, Sawdi Arabia, Brazil and Ecuador.
60.7% of California’s oil is foreign imports.
So far, so good, until DJTdiot gets a bug up his ass.
But as oil is fungible, it will be interesting to see what impact the US applied Canadian and Mexican tariffs have on the market’s other suppliers.
Trivia Man
Head fake
The Smart Money will buy the flip with prefect timing (with coordination)
Cancel tge tariffs, market goes back up
again and again
Bill Arnold
The US Chamber of Commerce does not like Trump Tariffs.
‘I’m afraid’: Small Businesses Speak Out on Tariffs – Tariffs on Canada and Mexico will have a real, devastating impact on thousands of small businesses across the nation — and on all Americans in the form of higher prices. (March 03, 2025, US Chamber of Commerce)
Jay
@Bill Arnold:
They sure loved them some DJTdiot during the election
Leopards much?
Baud
@Bill Arnold:
They should change their names to the US Chamber of Faces Leopards Like to Eat.
ETA: Should have scrolled down.
Baud
Via Reddit, this is how you headline.
White & Gold Purgatorian
@Baud: Stay the course!
Melancholy Jaques
@laura:
I prefer a Democratic candidate to at a minimum acknowledge that California remains a beautiful, vibrant and productive state, and that it’s problems are solvable without a sharp, sudden turn to unaccountable power. In conclusion, fuck this guy.
Me too, but I haven’t heard anything from or about Kamala Harris. Did I miss something?
TBone
@Trivia Man: that’s what my financial advisor is counting on. He’s had a lot of the portion of my portfolio he has control over in liquid accounts waiting to buy the dips. He got me to change from 40/60 to 60/40 in December.
The rest of my nest egg is on auto-pilot in index funds.
Melancholy Jaques
@trollhattan:
I do wonder whether she does or not. Do you think she still wants to be president?
YY_Sima Qian
@Baud: While one can never know w/ the Trump gang, I tend to agree. The stock market is down again, the Trump gang makes a killing shorting the market. Come Tue. Trump delays the Canada/Mexico tariff another month, the market recovers, & the Trump gang makes a killing buying low. Bessent made his name trading for Soros, & has the reputation of being an ”evil genius” in this respect.
I expect the only tariff that actually gets raised on Tue. is the extra 10% on the PRC. I suspect the Trump gang is prioritizing diversifying & re-shoring from the PRC, & plans to impose the 60% increased promised during the campaign to coerce the PRC into a lopsided “grand bargain”, but wants to do so in steps to prevent a negative shock to the stock market.
However, the Trump plan will play out in months, but diversifying manufacturing from the PRC will take years & decades, re-shoring to the U.S. even longer, if ever. PRC exports will simply reroute even more through 3rd parties by transshipment, relabeling & final assembly, just like in the Trump-Biden trade war to date. If the Trump tried to impose tariffs on the 3rd parties, the U.S. is isolated.
The Trump gang is rearing up to significantly escalate the Grimp-Biden tech. war against the PRC, & the PRC will retaliate by leveraging the numerous industries where it is the dominant producers.
American economic mainstream (not just MAGA) have convinced themselves that consumers hold the power in a trading relationship. IMO that is a categorical error. Producers hold the upper hand, because at the end of the day production generates economic value. A true break (not the “Phony War” we’ve had so far) is damaging to both parties, but the producer (especially a huge diversified economy dominated by internal demand, such as the PRC) can stimulate its way out of the turmoil. All a stimulus for the consumer will do, is blow up inflation & cause stagflation. Building up of alternative producers simply will happen in the kind of timeline that MAGA, & even many mainstream U.S. macroeconomists, think it will.
Of course, the constant “will he? won’t he” on tariffs for the ROW is creating all kinds of uncertainty, & there is nothing business, consumers & the stock market participants (other than speculators w/ insider info.) hate more than uncertainty.
Whatever the case, it will be a wild ride.
TBone
@Baud: heh reply!
– Some farmer
TBone
Speaking of strapping in, more Starlink versus Verizon bullshit.
https://bsky.app/profile/leecarpenter.bsky.social/post/3ljive63aok2y
Elno says “extremely dire.” His pants should be extremely on fire.
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: I am pretty sure that the PRC is by far the largest producer of Aluminum & zinc, accounting for ~ half of global production. That is also the reason why the PRC dominates the processing of gallium & germanium, which is are byproduct slip of the refining of aluminum/zinc. That is why the PRC felt it had the leverage to impose export restrictions on refined gallium & germanium last year, in response to further escalation of the tech war by the Biden Administration.
Alcan may be the dominant supplier of certain categories of specialty aluminum, however.
WV Blondie
@The Pale Scot: I know. Don’t have that much (at least not yet).
VFX Lurker
Although Kamala Harris doesn’t owe anyone a darned thing after November 6th, she has made at least three statements recently:
— Her inspiring acceptance speech receiving the NAACP Chairman’s Award (4.5 minutes)
— Her ActBlue email statement to those still directly donating to her campaign. She notified me that she would refuse additional donations, and asked me to redirect my donations to the DNC. I did as she asked.
— A one-minute video that I saw recently on BlueSky, which reiterates the key points of her NAACP acceptance speech.
She also received a standing ovation when attending a “Gypsy” Broadway performance on February 16, 2025. In addition, she has signed with CAA.
I wish her joy and success in all her pursuits.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@WV Blondie: we sold our house in December and put the money in the bank because I did not trust Trump not to crash the economy and the stock market. Will probably put some in CDs. I don’t know what we will decide about our IRAs. We just retired in August. Don’t know if our SS will go away and don’t know if our Navy pension checks will stop either. Thought retirement was going to be a little fun and pretty well funded. Guess I was stupid.
YY_Sima Qian
Glenn Luk has been writing about how the US economic mainstream misconceive the structure & trajectory of the PRC economy, & the nature of the Sino-US trade relationship, for a few years now. I think he is more perspicacious than most of the American commenters on the PRC economy. Here is his latest X thread on the escalating trade war (“dgaf” is probably hyperbole):
The thread contains links to many of his prior X threads laying his analyses in greater detail. The very 1st post links to a Bloomberg interview w/ David Daokui Li, who presents the quasi-official PRC narrative that “tariffs are no longer a big issue for China”. It should be noted that David Daokui Li has long had a reputation in the PRC of being among the most liberal (on economics) of Chinese economists, & long criticized by Chinese nationalists & Leftists as purveyor of Western economic orthodoxy.
YY_Sima Qian
Countries in the world are already girding themselves for the new normal of ethno-nationalist multipolarity, & will have adjusted long before the US has come to terms with/ that reality itself. Read the whole thread:
Socolofi
Tariffs and halting aid to Ukraine… just in time for his big speech tomorrow.
Trump 2.0 is really about a grievance administration… but I think people didn’t understand fully what that meant.
On the world stage, most of our allies showed Trump no respect (for all the usual reasons posted on this blog, won’t go into them). And he knew it. I’m sure he got the “you can get through to Trump through flattery” and all that. But I think he clearly saw there were some leaders who got respect, and then he saw how people viewed him – and, as leader of the USA, has taken it personally. I’m sure during the Biden years he also saw how those leaders treated Biden – Biden got their respect.
The pissing match with Canada – the Governor Trudeau thing, the 51st state, tariffs – there’s no real demand here. It’s not about the border or fentanyl or anything. He just wants to embarass Trudeau. Ironically, he’s ensured that the Convervatives in Canada lose the next election, but again, I don’t think he cares as he isn’t looking for an ally, he’s looking for humiliation.
The same thing is true with Zelenskyy. The guy’s a former comedian, and the free world loves him. Zelenskyy doesn’t capitulate to anyone, so after the ambush the other day failed to make him grovel, yup, Trump’s going to humiliate him too.
I’d like to hope there are some Find Out things that will push back, but TBH I’m not super positive. If his buds are buying low and waiting for him to reverse course on tariffs, great… but I think this go-round it’s not clear to me Trump blinks before folks like Trudeau and Zelenskyy prostrate themselves before him.
David Collier-Brown
The reason given for the tariffs was always false: the US exports more Fentanyl to Canada than it imports. And Canada is being asked to prove a negative, which by definition is impossible.
Mr Trump is wants to impose tariffs… which is not the smartest thing he’s ever done (:-))
Melancholy Jaques
@VFX Lurker:
I didn’t say or even suggest that Kamala Harris owes anybody anything. I just want to know if she is going to run for governor in my state
I wondered if she still wants to be president because, if so, then I think running for governor of California is a bad idea. It is much easier to run for president when you don’t have any other job.
Steve in the ATL
@Socolofi:
Much the brief and forgettable reign of George Herbert Walker Bush
VFX Lurker
@Melancholy Jaques: Ah, understood.
I live in California, too. She would be a great Governor, if she wants the job.
I don’t know her plans, but whatever she chooses to do, she has my support.
Ronno2018
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): very true! Great advice!
Barry
@justsomeguy05: “In general, I agree with you.
However, just because during our lifetimes the stock market has always bounced back, and the US currency has never collapsed, doesn’t mean those are universal laws.”
The question is: how many years?