10 Comments

You just charge a tax on exporters for what they sell to the U.S.

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Thanks for making this whole issue with tariffs much easier to understand.

Of course, he also says the Canadians can eliminate this problem by agreeing to becoming our 51st state.... I somehow don't see that happening...ever.

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Thank you for this very informative economic article on tariffs. The damage is just starting. I wish we had more of a take on what the hell to do about this unfortunate policy.

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DID NOT AGE WELL.

Tariffs work great as a negotiating strategy.

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They still don't get it. It puts everyone (Europe, NATO) on notice that Trump is not playing around. Canada and Mexico caved in 24 hours.

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I have written an article arguing the opposite results, when tariffs are implemented properly. Thought I'd share.

https://freerandles.substack.com/p/the-logical-case-for-tariffs?r=1rdf2i

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Trump (or Musk or Bezos or Zuckerberg, or......) has no business being anywhere close to the economy of the U.S. He is going to make an absolute mess of it. The tariffs will be bad enough for each American household and our neighbors. (Guess Smoot-Hawley is something he and his Republican buddies don't know about and if they do, don't care about. Which is not surprising because they are busy erasing history at every turn). Like some one said - it is like watching a two year old playing with a loaded revolver - what could possibly go wrong! Add to that the Trump Tax Cuts for the billionaires and next to nothing for everyone else - because of the cutting and gutting of the resources Americans depend upon eliminated to pay for the money, money, money, money, money..... pouring into the pockets of Trump and the billionaires. The Financial Rape of America happening right before our eyes.

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well he just paused tariff for another month. It seems like he is merely raising tariff to leverage his power to strike deals. What are the actual deals they were working on ? who knows....now he get to do the same to the rest of the world.

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An excellent lesson. I followed it all until the end where you discuss retaliation: “If Canada retaliates with tariffs on oil sent to the U.S. (or auto parts, or lumber, or countless other products),…”. My understanding up until that point was that tariffs are collected by the importing nation. How might Canada collect tariffs on things they are exporting to the US?

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A good estimate of Trump tarriffs here: https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/trump-tariffs-trade-war/ (very detailed study).

Based on that, the cost to the US taxpayers during 2016-2024 was

1. $79 billion in tariffs based on trade levels at the time of tariff implementation and excluding behavioral and dynamic effects. Before accounting for behavioral effects, the $79 billion in higher tariffs amounts to an average annual tax increase on US households of $625.

2. The proposed 2025 new tarrifs, if kept, will be amounting to an average tax increase of more than $830 per US household in 2025.

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