Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Quatro
Sounds more like you (vienna) were drunk then and sober now, but all I have to go on is your written words  |
Given I have long been on a course of medications which my doctors, and the paperwork accompanying said medications, assure me of severely dire consequences of mixing alcohol with the meds, I, to my dismay, have not been able to partake for some 15 years now, so sobriety or lack thereof is not an issue. As indicated in one of my prior posts, I often try to manage several activities at once and, in the course, some often suffer, as in the case of an unclear posting I was asked to clarify by a member, so I complied. There appeared to be confusion by yet another member over my response being to his posting, so I clarified that issue...
Given you immediately went to an issue of sobriety regarding my post(s), may I venture to guess you are speaking from self-experiential reference?...
Regarding Chine and trade, the whole Trump "policy" has been, like pretty much everything he has done in office, a mish-mash of a mess. In his haste to 'prove' himself to his base, he has taken the most simplistic measures to address a highly complex issue. International trade, with any nation, is not a matter of idiot campaign sloganeering; ramifications and implications of making wrong moves and/or measures can be devastating. Trump, and by extension his advisors, have been royally played by China and the US public has been played by Trump and his minions. Just the oft repeated and very widely debunked assertion China would be paying the tariff(s) is so on its face ridiculous, it ranks along with the assertion Mexico will pay for a border wall...
China has been biding its time, making adjustments in its trade posture to offset Trump's actions; time is on their side. While Trump has been thumping his chest and rattling his sabers, China has rather quietly shifting from US sources to other nations; last week I noticed this news story:
Exclusive: China to inspect Argentine crushers, could unlock No. 1 soymeal market --
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-a...-idUSKCN1UP1WT
When Trump imposed his new tariffs, I wondered if it was in response to the above development; if so, it has seriously backfired: China has halted purchases of US products and has allowed the Yuan to 'float' against the dollar, in effect devaluing China's currency. This serves to make Chinese exports 'cheaper' to US buyers, pretty much offsetting the effects of the tariffs. A further effect will be making US products much more expensive to Chinese buyers; not to mention the effect on Chinese tourism to the US when the tourists realize they're going to get much less 'bang for the Yuan'. Hotels, restaurants, airlines, etc., are going to feel the pinch...
...and what about the farmers who not only are seeing their current markets drying up, they are looking at the continued loss of market relationships with China they have nurtured over decades. The possibility they will ever get back to anywhere near the status they enjoyed before the Idiot-In-Chief made yet another immense blunder are virtually nil. About a month ago, I saw an interview with a small farmer who had lost a Chinese customer due to the tariffs, a customer with whom he had built a six-year relationship and whose custom represented a very large percentage of his revenue; the farmer noted that while the multi-billion dollar bail-outs offered by the Trump administration might help in the short term, he, and other farmers, faced long-term losses they new were not going to be covered by Federal indemnifications; once those customers were gone, they were probably gone forever...
It should be interesting in 2020 to see how Trump fares in those states that are going to be so hard hit by idiot trade machinations. In regards to the farms, at first the announced cost was US 5 Billion dollars; then it was US 12 Billion dollars and, now, it is said to be US 16 Billion dollars; and that is just the given amounts: there is no comprehensive gauge of the financial impact on ancillary and/or related businesses. So far, I haven't heard of China paying a single Yuan of the tariffs...
Farmers vote, as do their families, neighbors, business associates, etc. Trump won in a lot of farm states by a whisper of votes: will that whisper be replaced by howls of disapproval come Election Day, 2020?...
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