Whatever happened to tariffs?

Netanyahu and his genocidal warmongering got in the way.

That's BS, R1. What got in the way was T's crumbling approval rates among his followers.

Dump has asked China to intervene to make sure the Strait of Hormuz stays open. What do you think China will want in return? Hint: it will be a whole lot more than tariff relief.

A 10% tariff on all US imports was levied in April. It's going to cost you money.

What's happening:

R3 China's oil comes through the Straits of Hormuz.

Do you really think they want it shut down?

You can already see the impact of tariffs if you know where to look. Hardware, electronics, tourism and the freight sector took early hits. The ripple effect from freight layoffs, coupled with likely increases in gas prices as tensions escalate in the Middle East, will inflict more pain in the months (probably years) to come.

a friend who imports artisanal goods from italy says that his prices are going up mainly because the dollar is in the toilet

R5, China has been stockpiling oil. They were very prepared for this scenario, they have over one billion barrels of oil in their reserves.

r8 They are also converting to electric vehicles very quickly. Three of the world's largest manufacturers of electric vehicles are in China - but we can't buy those vehicles here in the US. Although there are serious problems with planned centralized economies, they can do much more rapid changeovers to new technologies, by forcing their citizenry to buy them. They can also upgrade infrastructure very quickly - because they can just acquire right of ways by eminent domain and ignore any possible damage to the environment or to historical relics. Sometimes all of that backfires spectacularly, such as the dozen or so ghost cities in China, filled with empty streets and unused skyscrapers. But their rail system is a marvel.

I just saw a video on Youtube claiming that Dollar Tree will raise it's prices from $1.25 to $1.75 in a few days. They should just rebrand to $2 Dollar Tree

TACO happened

Dollar Tree has tons of stuff over 2.00 now.

Groceries are shooting up as we speak.

Not a peep from the press though, given their absolute inability to multitask.

The tariffs expire on July 9th.

Shithead has said he's not extending them.

Tick-tock, motherfuckers.

Tariffs against Mexico start July 14

The current inflation rate is 2.4%

In January 2025, at the end of Biden's term, it was 3%.

Sorry. The extension blocking the tariffs expires on July 9th.

From today's NYT:

[quote]Inflation accelerated in June as President Trump’s tariffs started to leave a bigger imprint on the economy, keeping the Federal Reserve on track to hold interest rates steady when policymakers next meet this month.

[quote]The Consumer Price Index rose 2.7 percent from a year ago, the swiftest pace since February, data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed on Tuesday. That is slightly higher than expected and is up from an annual pace of 2.4 percent in May.

The article also notes that "The June data still reflects only the initial impact of Mr. Trump’s global trade war."

[quote]Economists expect price pressures to intensify over the coming months, especially if new tariffs the president has threatened against the European Union and a host of other countries in recent days are imposed on Aug. 1 as planned.

Someone call Jake Tapper? We have inflation, we have a President in OBVIOUS cognitive decline and we have masked men rounding up people in our cities. Kind of like the SS in Nazi Germany rounded up Jews and Gays and Gypsies, or anyone who looked like they fit in some category. They're disappearing people, locking them in cages, and "detaining " them for no reason, Jake. There's no rationality to the tariffs. He uses them as a shake down weapon, and to manipulate the stock market.

Why hasn't some investigative reporter done a real job on Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh? When the corporate decision makers put together their agenda the Press has shown that they can bully and hype and attack relentlessly, daily hourly.

President TACO Tits.

[quote]Whatever happened to tariffs?

It's "what ever" when used in a question like that, OP.

MAGA fraus who import scrapbooking materials from wherever (like China) will soon be going bankrupt, and we'll be reading sympathetic stories about them in the mainstream press: "Tariffs Hit Her Small Business Hard, But She Blames Biden's Policies for Her Reversal of Fortune."

[quote]Whatever happened to tariffs?

They're going to be 100% on Russia in 50 days if Putin doesn't negotiate about Ukraine. So said Trump with Rutte yesterday.

You may as well have asked a Magic 8-Ball, R23.

Whatever happened to FUN???

Most manufacturers and retailers have not raised prices yet because they're working through inventory that was imported before Mango Mussolini started his economy-wrecking tariffs, but in segments like grocery and perishables, you are seeing inflation. For example, Walmart has sold their imported (Chinese) garlic for $0.50 a head for years, but just raised the price to $0.72. That's nearly 50% inflation, even when you even it out over a period of time (although the price increase happened overnight).

And, of course. the reported numbers come from the administration and this one is not known for honesty. I suspect that the reason unemployment numbers continue to hold up despite the evidence of joblessness being obvious to even the Helen Kellers among us is that the various departments are cooking the books to keep the boss happy.

The real inflation rate is running about about 15% and about to go much higher as the tariffs trickle down (a look, we finally found a case where something really does trickle down! Who knew?) and will hit a fever pitch in September - October just in time for the peak holiday season. Not to worry; just as inflation smacks consumers upside the head, unemployment will come home to roost as joblessness will begin to soar in earnest by the end of the year. And just you watch, Trump will get put on the spot in front of the media (be it ever so lame) and after cursing at the reporter who asked the tough question, he'll blurt out that he got rid of all the Mexicans, why aren't people applying for the crop-picking/construction/gardener jobs that have opened up.

Biden built a solid economy and it's taken Trump a lot longer to wreck it than he thought.

Stay away from Chinese garlic, R26, it's grown with toxic pesticides.

[quote] They're going to be 100% on Russia in 50 days if Putin doesn't negotiate about Ukraine. So said Trump with Rutte yesterday.

I believe in that as much as I believe in his concept of a health care plan. He will just keep kicking the can down the road. He will NEVER go against Putin.

Our cost of living is going up. inflation rose by 3% already in the first 6 months. It's gonna get worse. Healthcare, medicine, food, rent, etc.

Some auto makers have temporarily stopped exporting certain cars from the US to Canada. This is apparently while the tariffs get sorted. I imagine those plants will inevitably idle putting people out of work, even if for the short term.

Tariffs against Russia are sort of meaningless given that very few, if any, things are imported from Russia. That's why he can huff and puff.

[quote]I thought everything was gonna get expensive.

It will, OP, don't worry your pretty little head about it.

[quote]Our cost of living is going up. inflation rose by 3% already in the first 6 months.

No it has not.

The current inflation rate is at 2.67%,

Last year at this time it was 2.97%

And when Trump took office : "The January 2025 inflation rate, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), was 3.0%"

OP has an interesting posting history.

[quote]No it has not.

First, you trust the Trump administration to report honestly, the real, verifiable data?

Second, do you have eyes? Have you been to a grocery store in the past three months? And you do know that the tariffs that are going to hit the average consumer hardest have not yet trickled down thanks to TACO changing his mind every 15 minutes based on who's been nice and who's been nasty to him? But they're locked in now, and inventory stockpiles are shrinking. Higher priced merchandise is on the way.

One of the key components of the CPI is the price of gasoline. Notice that tourism is in a death spiral? Americans aren't vacationing this Summer like they have in years past. We know this because the price of gas that usually spikes in June actually decreased slightly (due to the near-closure of the ports lacking shipments from China, thus no trucks using gas). Foreign tourists are not coming to the US, and our closest, friendliest Canadian tourists aren't coming at all.

We are coasting on Biden's fumes.

I'm sticking with my assessment that the real inflation rate is currently at about 15%, but by the end of Summer we'll be hitting over 20% and by Black Friday even worse.

When Trump announced the tariffs, the good already in ships were not among the tariffed. It’s taken this long for new goods to come over and clear customs.

NOW, the tariffs should become a big issue—but TACO

Close but not quite, R36. The boat had to have sailed out of the Chinese port prior to the first tariff announcement to avoid them; any cargo that set sail after that announcement was subject to the daily-changing rate which ultimately settled at ~35% for Chinese imports. My company paid this tariff on goods that landed in early June. We have only in the past week begun to raise consumer prices as we've sold out the low-tariff (the reasonable 4.5% that held steady under Biden for 4 years) goods and are only now placing the high-tariffed goods in the channel. What we don't know is what TACO will do next; doubtful that he'll rescind the tariffs already charged (and refund any paid back to importers? Ha!), and we're hoping that he doesn't raise them by another 30% which is the current rumor. The good news is that China has said they're done playing footsie with Trump and aren't responding to his threats as he's so desperate for them to; without manufactured outrage, he doesn't know what to do.

Everything has been politicized. Diseases, weather and climate data, the economy, labor statistics, etc. No reality.

[quote]First, you trust the Trump administration to report honestly, the real, verifiable data?

The data is backed up by the financial data firm FactSet. Look them up to see who they are.

Things are predicted to get worse. I won't be surprised if they do, but we've been hearing that for 6 months now. So far, it hasn't happened.

And here's CNBC June 16th: