Interesting consideration I had not realized before reading the WSJ this AM.

Apr 3, 2025, 8:07 AM

The article assumes Trump's approach on trade will remain in place long term, we will see. Assuming it does.....an interesting idea......what happens to competition?

One of the advantages of globalism and "free" trade, is the fact that competition keeps all countries involved in trade motivated to innovate, improve quality, and invent new products. When you close off international competition, and only American companies supply Americans, then the pressure that foreign competition would place on those American companies, is nowhere to be found. What happens, over time, is other countries freely trading innovate, improve quality, while America is stuck behind the times, behind in quality, etc.

For example, just think back to the 1980's. American cars sucked, because they could suck. Enter Japan, and the Japanese cars were of far higher quality. This forced US car companies to improve their game.

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-liberation-day-tariffs-protectionism-82d0aa3a
"Over time this will mean the gradual erosion of U.S. competitiveness. Tariffs that blunt competition invite monopoly profits while reducing the need to innovate. This is the story of the American steel and car industries in the 1950s and 1960s before global competition exposed their deficiencies."

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That’s just the thing. The second the house turns on Trump or flips, or there’s another D in the white house, these tariffs are gone.

If you own a business that builds widgets, and your factory is in Mexico, are you going to spend $50 million and build a new factory in Oklahoma, with associated increased labor costs, and have to price your product so high that you make yourself noncompetitive, why would you do that over just waiting 3 years?

These tariffs aren’t going to spur some wave of investment in the US, all they’re going to do is reduce corporate capital expenditure, increase prices for buyers, slow the economy to a halt while everyone hunkers down. If it spikes inflation back up and we can’t get rate cuts the bottom will drop out. On top of that, the rest of the world is going to realign trading partnerships with one another, setting us back even further. This view of trade and trade deficits as a zero-sum game is an middle school level understanding of economics. Give us free trade. Give us market capitalism. Give us economic liberty to choose. This protectionist, isolationist, ham fisted big government BS is a colossal mistake.

Interesting consideration I had not realized before reading the WSJ this AM.

It's so stupid it almost seems intentional. Which it is.***

Its time for some conservative congressmen to peel off

Four Pubs basically did, one of them Rand Paul

Hopefully some House members do the same soon

Your fear of the Dims taking back control are noted***

Re: Interesting consideration I had not realized before reading the WSJ this AM.

Re: Interesting consideration I had not realized before reading the WSJ this AM.

Ummmmm.

Words are cheap and pledges are free***

Apple, and its international supply chain, employs 1.5 MILLION PEOPLE

There will be a lot more workers when the welfare cuts come.***

That is a very good point. When the economy tanks, and we're in a depression,

Re: That is a very good point. When the economy tanks, and we're in a depression,

Re: That is a very good point. When the economy tanks, and we're in a depression,

"We are more than capable of standing on our own two feet, sure. You may not

Hope 450,000 come off welfare to make Nike shoes.

Can't wait until this guy does his first day on a shoe factory floor.

Re: Hope 450,000 come off welfare to make Nike shoes.

Just wondering out loud - will this cause some folks to switch from NIKE shoes

Re: Ummmmm.

yes - quality will take a hit. Starting a tariff war with EVERYONE at the same

Sounds like something I heard in 1988

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