August, you should not believe all what your administration tells you. That the EU would charge 39% is plain wrong.
https://www.chosun.com/english/natio...JPFS5RTMCORHCI

And included also are VATs. European companies have also to pay the same VATs of crs.
Just research by yourself. It is nonsense.

And we had this here dozen times already: the trade deficit does not include digital services like Cloud computing etc. Here the EU has a very big trade deficit with the US.
In the end, all will get poorer, not richer....

You guys are/were in the pole position to leverage most of the AI boom in the next 10 years. Trump does not tell you that in 10-15 years AI will also more and more used to produce goods and the whole job market will change much faster than during the industrial revolution in the 19th century. Tarrifs will not protect that workforce but education and changing the economics of the society.
Now I am pretty sure, when this will not be soon settled, the EU will turn to China. And then I am quite sure the US will loose its leadership concerning AI in the longterm. Trump does not understand geopolitics at all.

Well maybe so, But we have spent the Biden years, being poor so What the Hell, Do we have to lose ? Look i was living poor before Trump and now, ****

Unfortunately yes. Quite a bit.



I'm honestly sorry to hear that, and I'm certain that you didn't do anything to deserve that.




The problem is, that Trump won't make it better for you, on the contrary. He makes policies for the ultra rich, and none of us here belongs to that group.




Quite frankly, that moment will come for you with Trump for sure and much sooner than you'll like. Those who voted for him are already starting their use and are being thrown under the bus. Just ask the Cuban Americans or Venezuelan Americans who voted for him and now find themselves on the deportation flights.

The whole method by which this was done is highly questionable and looks like it's based on a five-minute wikipedia resarch done by some intern.
Even an island only populated by penguins now faces a 10% tarrif. It While it sounds funny or ridiculous at first, it's s clear that this whole thing was done without research and based much more on gut feeling and anger than on any verifiable facts whatsoever. In other words, not really professional.

There are very few products that are entirely (100%) Made in the USA. That's the thing about supply chains which people have been trying to explain to you since Trump first came up with tariffs against Canada and Mexico. Any complex product these days has parts coming from all over the world, and even half of the things in a supermarket are at least partially made with foreign parts/ingredients.

And by the way, "Made in the USA" actually only means that the product has been assembled in the US - it can be made entirely of foreign parts/ingredients.



You cannot evade the tariffs even if you completely restrict yourself to buying "Made in the USA". That might have worked in the late 19th century, but it doesn't work in the globalized economy we have these days.

Nope, outta here!

Who do you think you are telling me what to do!

Biden hiked tariffs. China had 100% on electric vehicles and 50% on solar panels. So what's the issue with Trump's???

Trump added 1 and 1 and got 11 as a result.

Everybody loses. Including American average households. Could even be that these in the end will lose more than those Trump claims he wanted to target. 3 to 3.5 thousand per year, some US media calcualted yesterday.

Okay, so then a needless trade war next. Man gönnt sich ja sonst nix und ein Bisschen Spaß ist immer gut. :roll:

Another one of those things I predicted. I gave them both six months from the start of their administration. Maximum. I said Trump enthusiastically celebrates any new loyal hero of his - and the moment his hero fails a minor, a little bit, he condemns him and sends him into the ninth ring of hell. It's a pattern in his biography. The separation this time now is more silent, but that is owed to Trump's self-interest. Don't ask what Trump now really thinks of Musk. You probably would be scared.
-------------------


[FOCUS] The rift between Elon Musk and Donald Trump was foreseeable. While Trump needs loyalists around him, Musk's erratic actions have lost him the myth of the successful entrepreneur. Two big egos, loyal only to themselves, are now parting ways while saving face - good news for democracy and the economy.

The White House had kind words for the fact that the alliance between Elon Musk and Donald Trump will soon come to an end. Companies use similar phrases when they have to part ways with managers who are no longer tenable. Neither side should lose face.

But the split was foreseeable. Two big egos loyal only to themselves. It was only a matter of time before the split occurred. The only question was whether it would break with a bang or, as in this case, save as much face as possible.

Officially, Elon Musk's position as a "Special Government Employee" is only allowed to last 130 days. So, it would have ended at the end of May anyway. On the other hand, everyone is aware that some way to extend it would surely have been found if those involved had wanted it.

Elon Musk and Donald Trump seemed inseparable in recent months. He was a regular guest in the Oval Office, attended cabinet meetings, Trump had a Tesla parked in front of the White House, attended the SpaceX rocket launch, and Musk visited him at Mar-a-Lago.

But: Musk simply became too uncomfortable for Trump. Trump needs loyalists, and Musk is only loyal to himself. The massive and radical downsizing of federal agencies is not only met with approval in the country, but cabinet members have certainly viewed the approach as intrusive – after all, it limits the power of the ministers.

The cabinet of loyalists, however, must remain stable at all costs. During his first term, he was heavily criticized for the fact that hardly any of his employees stayed in their positions for more than a few months. That should change in this presidency. Not even when attack plans are discussed in a near-public chat group does someone have to leave.

Musk has already lost one quality that was valuable to Trump through his work: the aura of a successful entrepreneur. His occasionally erratic actions and open support for extreme right-wing parties in Europe caused Tesla sales and, consequently, the stock price to collapse.

Tesla shareholders can be pleased that Musk can now devote more attention to electric cars again. The multiple burdens of being a multi-CEO are already too much; each of his companies, from X to Tesla to SpaceX, would require his full attention on its own.

Both sides will now allow Musk's tenure to end and act as if this end had always been planned. This is good news for the economy and democracy.

Do you really not understand that?

Tariffs so far were on very specific products which make up a very small part of the entire imports. It's usually done to protect own industries to remain competitive - like the 25% tariff the US has on European light trucks /pickup trucks. Tariffs always have negative comsequences for the consumer and the industries as well. Implementing tariffs requires careful consideration and must attempt to strike a balance.

Trump's tariffs cover the entire spectrum (and once again: YOU pay the tariffs, the Average American Joe), and they come with no consideration at all. Trump uses tariffs as a blunt hammer where a chirurgical scalpel would be necessary. The tariffs are also put up based on trade deficits. Anything you buy that contains even a minimal part produced in a foreign country will. become more expensive for you. Anything in the US that is produced for export (starting with farm goods) will become less competitive on the international markets due to counter tariffs.

And no, you are not going to get jobs back to the US. The US simply cannot compete with the Chinese in most producing sectors as the Chinese simply **** on workers' rights and pay them wages that make even a waiter with minimum wage rich in comparison.

What the tariffs will do, in short:
- make everything more expensive for the average American, including August's 100%-American products (because they can raise prices, as long as they are cheaper than the imported stuff. And don't tell me "they won't do that" - of course they will, that's capitalism).
- it will strangle American exports as countertariffs will definitely be implemented.

Of course other nations will also be hit, but they can (and will) trade with each other, mostly free of tariffs, so the hits will be less hard than for the Americans. The US are a big market, sure, but not the only one.

No one will win in a tariff war, every nation will struggle because of the tariffs, but the Americans are the ones who will be hardest hit byTrumps tariffs. And of course it won't solve the trade deficit. You have trade deficits because other nations have much lower wages and production has been outsorced there.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/pres.../en/ip_23_6804

[Frankfurter Rundschau] Bernd Lange, Chairman of the EU Trade Committee, also launched an EU instrument in response to Trump's tariffs called the “nuclear bomb in the economy”. He emphasized to Die Zeit that this is a weapon that should not be used, but can be kept ready just in case.
We are talking about the Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI). It has been in force since December 2023 and enables the EU to completely cease trade with a third country that threatens Europe.To do so, certain conditions must be met that affect trade or investment.

---------------

Personally I would suggest to normally tax the American big high tech corporations like Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon and the likes. So far they pay practically nil VAT. This must be changed. Let them pay the same VAT every other European company must.

https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...tax-luxembourg

You see, thing is the EU may not be a military actor, but it is an economic heavy weight, big enough to not only swallow but also to dish out severly. Thats why Trump hates it so much and wants it being destroyed, so that he can deal with weak individual states . Divide et impera. But the reality is that the EU is there. And this time for our - European - better.

Henry Clay


"From the nation's earliest days, Congress has struggled with the fundamental issue of the national government's proper role in fostering economic development. Henry Clay's "American System," devised in the burst of nationalism that followed the War of 1812, remains one of the most historically significant examples of a government-sponsored program to harmonize and balance the nation's agriculture, commerce, and industry. This "System" consisted of three mutually reinforcing parts: a tariff to protect and promote American industry; a national bank to foster commerce; and federal subsidies for roads, canals, and other "internal improvements" to develop profitable markets for agriculture. Funds for these subsidies would be obtained from tariffs and sales of public lands. Clay argued that a vigorously maintained system of sectional economic interdependence would eliminate the chance of renewed subservience to the free-trade, laissez-faire "British System.""

"One biographer concluded that "there was a serious statesman in him along with the gamester-politician; behind his never-ending series of plausible expedients there was a consistency of purpose. Clay has been overrated as a politician and underrated as a statesman."

"Defense of the American System" Henry Clay.

https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory...icanSystem.pdf

No different today than it was in the 1800s.

And now it is being broadened. Do you really not understand that?

Trump wants industry back in America. So do I. The USA makes nothing. It is nothing but a service industry country. There are only some many McDonalds that people can work. Manufacturing jobs to return is a good thing. Is it going to hurt for a while? You bet. But, it will get better.

On the contrary, it's completely different. In the 1800s products were nowhere near as complex, and neither were supply chains. Imports were almost entirely raw materials, and the entire production chain happened in a single country.



That's simply no longer the case in the economy of the 21st century. Maufacturing has been spread out all over the world for a number of reasons, and supply chains are complex, parts come from allover the world. A modern car usually has parts made in dozens of different countries.