Automakers, motorcycle manufacturers, the stock market, and even the White House's own analyses are telling Trump to change course.
It's been an enlightening economic experiment, but the Trump administration's plan to use tariffs to reshape global trade is now unraveling before our eyes.
Each day seems to bring fresh evidence of exactly how wrong the president was to declare trade wars "good and easy to win." Unfortunately, each day also brings evidence that the White House is determined to stay the course, consequences be damned.
The big news Friday was that several major automobile manufacturers told the administration that planned tariffs on imported cars and car parts would wreck their operations in the United States. That follows a week's worth of news that a wide range of industries—from motorcycles to steel railings, from tires to nails—were shifting jobs overseas or postponing expansions because of the tariffs. The stock market continues to reflect the uncertainty imposed by Trump's trade policy, and even the White House's own assessment shows that economic growth will slow as the tariffs hit.
Over the weekend, in defiance of the mounting evidence, Trump insisted that "it's going to all work out." On Monday, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the administration will not stop the trade wars, even if the stock market tanks. "There's no bright line level of the stock market that's going to change policy," he told CNBC.
The big question is how much more damage will be done—to the American economy and to the mechanisms of global trade—before the president retreats from these misguided policies.
The automotive tariffs might be the turning point. Trump has instructed the Commerce Department to conduct a formal investigation into whether tariffs could be applied to imported cars on the grounds that they are national security threat. (No, it doesn't make any sense.)
"The domestic manufacture of automobiles has no apparent correlation with U.S. national security," BMW writes in its comments to the Commerce Department. In other comments submitted to the department, automakers say tariffs will increase the price of their cars, potentially by thousands of dollars, and will force industry-wide supply chain adjustments that could see American automaking jobs cut or moved overseas.
Trump announced those proposed auto tariffs last month in response to European tariffs targeting such American goods as motorcycles, whiskey, and blue jeans. Those tariffs, in turn, were the European Union's response to Trump's 25 percent import duties on steel and 10 percent tariffs on aluminum.
That tit-for-tat escalation of the conflict between America and Europe has already claimed some victims. Harley-Davidson, the Wisconsin-based motorcycle brand that also builds bikes in Missouri and Pennsylvania, announced last week that it would shift some manufacturing to Europe to avoid the E.U. tariffs. Building motorcycles in the U.S. and shipping them to Europe would leave consumers paying $2,200 more per bike, the company said in a statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and would cost the company about $100 million annually.
Polaris, a Minnesota-based company, could soon follow Harley-Davidson's lead. A spokeswoman told the Associated Press on Friday that Polaris is considering shifting production of its Indian Motorcycle brand from Iowa to Poland.
Harley-Davidson and Polaris could not be more explicit about the reasons for shifting jobs overseas. Neither could any of the car companies that submitted comments last week to the Department of Commerce.
As with the tariffs on steel and aluminum (and another set of tariffs targeting $50 billion in Chinese imports), Trump's proposed tariffs on cars would needlessly harm American workers while aiming to punish close allies and key trading partners.
Whether Trump is aware of that remains unclear.
Last week, while giving a speech in South Carolina, Trump said he wanted to erect trade barriers so carmakers like BMW would have to "build them here" instead of shipping cars from Germany. But BMW does indeed build them here—the company's largest manufacturing facility in the world is in Spartanburg, South Carolina, less than 100 miles from where Trump was speaking at the time. The plant employs more than 9,000 people and produces more than 40,000 vehicles every year.
But ignorance can only account for so much of the White House's bullheaded approach. The consequences of tariffs are well-known.
Trump's tariffs could grow the steel, iron, and aluminum industries by about 33,400 jobs, according to an analysis by the Trade Partnership, a pro-trade think tank. But the tariffs are projected to wipe out more than 179,000 other jobs. That's a net job loss of about 146,000—five jobs gone for every job gained.
A separate study released in March by the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a protectionist think tank that favors tariffs, also found that Trump's steel and aluminum levies would cost American jobs. The U.S. manufacturing sector is projected to lose 10,000 jobs and the construction industry is projected to lose 7,500 jobs, according to the group's analysis. The White House's own report on the tariffs, released in early June, also showed—surprise, surprise!—that they would raise prices and slow economic growth.
All of which should be cause for some second thoughts. But for someone who promised to "drain the swamp" and do things differently, President Trump's response to the slow-motion failure of his trade agenda is a classic move straight out of the Washington playbook: If a government policy isn't working, you declare that just means it hasn't been tried hard enough.
Ross today downplayed tariffs' potential to cost thousands of American jobs and tank the stock market. Those consequences are nothing more than "hiccups," he said.
"There obviously is going to be some pulling and tugging as we try to deal with very serious problems," he told CNBC. "So there will be some hiccups along the way."
In other circumstances, there might be something admirable about Trump's determination to continue full speed ahead even as the warning lights are flashing. But the thing about a "damn the torpedoes" approach is that sometimes the torpedoes actually hit you.
#1: Jameson To: Deckard (#0)
http://www.businessinsider.com/leaked-doc-shows-china-game-plan-for-dividing- trump-base-using-tariffs-2018-7?r=UK&IR=T
Jameson posted on 2018-07-03 07:37:08 Reply Private Reply
#2: Vicomte13 To: Deckard (#0)
Make the parts in America and you won’t have a problem with your supply chain.
Vicomte13 posted on 2018-07-03 07:46:06 Reply Private Reply
#3: A K A Stone To: Jameson (#1)
Ttrump will be reelected and he will replace Ginsburg and Brennen or whatever the faggot lovers name is.
You just like Democrats because they made you feel welcome as a faggot.
A K A Stone posted on 2018-07-03 08:13:23 Reply Private Reply
#4: Deckard To: A K A Stone (#3)
Does God love faggots?
Deckard posted on 2018-07-03 08:29:42 Reply Private Reply
#5: misterwhite To: Deckard (#0)
They do? Well then, why are they shipping them in from Europe? Ah. Maybe the author means that BMW builds a few of them here.
Here's an idea! How about if Europe removes their tariff on imported American cars and then we will remove ours, resulting in a level playing field and free and fair trade?
misterwhite posted on 2018-07-03 08:48:38 Reply Private Reply
#6: Gatlin To: Deckard, A K A Stone (#4)
What does scripture say?
The Bible makes it abundantly clear that God’s word reveals his thought and plan for humanity and his intentions for marriage and sexuality. While a study of scripture will teach you that homosexual acts are sinful, the Bible verses aren’t about condemning faggots.
You should learn to answer your own question by reading God’s loving warning and offer of grace for the faggots who have strayed from His will for sex.
For your morning spiritual edification:
1 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. 3 Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. 4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
John 8:7-11
7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Romans 1:26-28
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.
Galatians 5:14
14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jude 1:5-8
5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. 8 In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings.
1 Timothy 1:8-11
8 We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. 9 We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10 for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 11 that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.
Mark 10:6-9
6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8 and the two will become one flesh.’So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
1 Corinthians 7:2
2 But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband.
Romans 13:8-10
8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Leviticus 18:22
22 “ ‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.
1 Corinthians 6:17-20 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
Leviticus 20:13 13 “ ‘If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
Gatlin posted on 2018-07-03 08:51:04 Reply Private Reply
#7: Deckard To: Gatlin (#6)
"Love the sinner, hate the sin," while a common saying among Christians, is not a phrase found in the Bible. However, the concept is biblical. Jude 1:22–23 says, "And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh." These verses tell us to extend mercy and compassion for people, and hate for the sin.
Deckard posted on 2018-07-03 08:59:15 Reply Private Reply
#8: misterwhite To: Deckard (#4)
He loves faggots, not their behavior. As proof, he created AIDS -- a fatal disease which can be avoided by choosing not to have faggoty unprotected anal sex with a different stranger every week.
misterwhite posted on 2018-07-03 08:59:48 Reply Private Reply
#9: Justified To: Deckard (#0)
So,
We need fair trade not free trade. We have had free trade till it broke this country and Trump is trying to give us fair trade. Yes it can be painful until we get global corporations to stop raping America and become American companies.
America first everyone else second!!!!
Justified posted on 2018-07-03 09:01:38 Reply Private Reply
#10: Deckard To: misterwhite (#8)
We agree there.
As proof, he created AIDS -- a fatal disease which can be avoided by choosing not to have faggoty unprotected anal sex with a different stranger every week.
Yeah - tell that to the thousands of innocent people who have died from AIDS after receiving tainted blood.
Deckard posted on 2018-07-03 09:08:52 Reply Private Reply
#11: Deckard To: Justified (#9)
Apparently, it's not working out so well.
Deckard posted on 2018-07-03 09:09:37 Reply Private Reply
#12: Gatlin To: Deckard, A K A Stone (#7)
Therefore your post means absolutely nothing unless YOU can SHOW where homosexuality is a SIN.
Can you?
No, you can’t. You bear "false witness".
Gotcha ...
Gatlin posted on 2018-07-03 09:10:00 Reply Private Reply
#13: misterwhite To: Deckard (#10)
... from a degenerate faggot.
misterwhite posted on 2018-07-03 09:12:11 Reply Private Reply
#14: Deckard To: Gatlin (#12)
It applies to ALL sin.
Are you trying to say that some sins are more heinous than others and are not forgivable?
Therefore your post means absolutely nothing unless YOU can SHOW where homosexuality is a SIN.
Acting upon a homosexual urge IS a sin - do you not understand the difference?
You bear "false witness".
I quoted the relevant scripture - we're done here slanderer.
Deckard posted on 2018-07-03 09:16:30 Reply Private Reply
#15: Deckard To: misterwhite (#13)
Of course - but what did these thousands of innocent people do to deserve "God's punishment"?
Deckard posted on 2018-07-03 09:17:45 Reply Private Reply
#16: Gatlin To: Deckard (#14)
Homosexuality is not a SIN in the Bible.
Ergo, the scripture you QUOTED does NOT apply here.
You still bear “false witness.”
No, you did not....and we are done here because you canot prove your post.You LOST.
Gatlin posted on 2018-07-03 09:22:26 Reply Private Reply
#17: Gatlin To: Deckard (#15)
What in the Hell are you talking about?
Show scripture where AIDS is “God’s punishment.”
Gatlin posted on 2018-07-03 09:27:31 Reply Private Reply
#18: Gatlin To: Deckard (#14)
Show scripture !!!
Gatlin posted on 2018-07-03 09:32:55 Reply Private Reply
#19: paraclete To: Gatlin (#18)
paraclete posted on 2018-07-03 09:43:56 Reply Private Reply
#20: Deckard To: Gatlin (#16)
From your post:
Leviticus 20:13 13 “ ‘If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
Deckard posted on 2018-07-03 09:50:07 Reply Private Reply
#21: Justified To: Deckard (#11)
Says who? One world screw America first group?
American globalist corporations are going to have to retool their business to be America first, AGAIN.
Justified posted on 2018-07-03 09:50:21 Reply Private Reply
#22: Deckard To: Justified (#21)
Oh...maybe these guys:
...several major automobile manufacturers told the administration that planned tariffs on imported cars and car parts would wreck their operations in the United States. That follows a week's worth of news that a wide range of industries—from motorcycles to steel railings, from tires to nails—were shifting jobs overseas or postponing expansions because of the tariffs. The stock market continues to reflect the uncertainty imposed by Trump's trade policy, and even the White House's own assessment shows that economic growth will slow as the tariffs hit.
Deckard posted on 2018-07-03 09:51:38 Reply Private Reply
#23: Justified To: Deckard (#22)
Marxist/Fascist/Communist/Socialist world may make you tingle it freaks me out.
Pure libertarian views will get you enslaved by those that don't and band together to protect their world. Notice how there are exactly zero libertarian countries?
Justified posted on 2018-07-03 09:59:22 Reply Private Reply
#24: Deckard To: Justified (#23)
Now you're just being foolish.
Going by what is reported here - ...even the White House's own assessment shows that economic growth will slow as the tariffs hit.
That can't be good. If Trump really wants to Make America Great Again, he sure seems to be going about it the wrong way.
Deckard posted on 2018-07-03 10:15:44 Reply Private Reply
#25: Justified To: Deckard (#24)
So we will grow at a rate greater than Obama's best years?
So far the never/anti Trumper's have been wrong about everything.
Trump said you will get tired of him winning and he is right. People are tired of him winning!
Look in a perfect world tariffs are bad. We do not live in a perfect world. Adjust or be run over.
Justified posted on 2018-07-03 10:33:57 Reply Private Reply
#26: misterwhite To: Deckard (#15)
Deserves got nuthin' to do with it.
misterwhite posted on 2018-07-03 16:26:16 Reply Private Reply
#27: Liberator To: Gatlin (#6)
You don't believe in Scripture. Stop the fake lecturing from the fake pulpit.
I can only PRESUME that after you've been hitting Grampa's cough syrup, aka "Holy" fire water (yes, again), you get the urge to rifle through your closet for flamboyant costumes until you find ones with the collar or Pope Hat.
Liberator posted on 2018-07-05 12:45:17 Reply Private Reply
#28: Liberator To: Deckard (#24)
ANYBODY -- Please help me understand why and how ANYONE can honestly assess Trump's tariff reciprocal plan (which exposed the fundamental abuse & unfairness of the EU, China and Canada)...AND predict that it's a "disaster" WITHIN MINUTES OR DAYS??
I'll trust Trump waaaay before I panic over the predictions of a bunch of feckless neophyte observers, Never-Trumper bomb-throwers, and ignorant naysayers.
Liberator posted on 2018-07-05 12:51:50 Reply Private Reply
#29: Gatlin To: Liberator (#27)
Gatlin posted on 2018-07-05 14:38:30 Reply Private Reply
#30: Gatlin To: Liberator (#28)
Gatlin posted on 2018-07-05 14:41:05 Reply Private Reply