Trump Dumps on American Manufacturing...

Last week, Team Trump announced new import tariffs to "protect" the remnant US steel&iron sector and the aluminium producers from cheap(er) imports,  principally aimed at China's dumping of lower grade steels onto international markets over recent years...

Unfortunately, while dumbfuck Donnie's main impetus for his latest idiotic brainsnap comes from fullfilling last years campaign promise to "protect" American steelmaking jobs, the actual fallout will be worse than the currently economically--illiterate White House illuminati crew seem to realise..
To wit :

*  Like most developed countries, America's steel industry is now a leaner and meaner, more specialised and increasingly automated producer, only employing about a tenth of the workforce it had back in the 1970s --  The Trump tariffs will only save around 3,000 existing jobs, nett;

*  The main importers of bulk steel products into the USA are manufacturing industries --  principally those involved in cars and trucks, agricultural equipment, tool making, sheet steel products (roofing, sheds, whitegoods..);

*  Increasing input costs into these factories have already been estimated to lead to early jobs losses of at least 16 -- 17,000 factory jobs  !!!    
(And, that's before factoring in a 2  --  3 times "multiplier effect" along the supply chain, leading to even further 'downline' job losses of at least another 24,000 additional jobs --  that's an extra 40,000 jobs dissappearing from US factories this year, compared with if Donnie has left things alone..).

*  That's a nett gain for the Don's economic brilliance  of minus 14,000 jobs.

Any wonder that Donald's a triple bankrupt, having lost over two- thirds the family fortune over the last decade ?

*  Next up, will we see a new international trade war looming, as other steel producers (Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Britain, Australia..) and Aluminium producers (Canada, Australia, Russia, France, India..) look to other markets for theor products --  while preparing to fight off cheaper product being dumped onto their own home markets ?

*  And will the resultant stock market price slides, once analysts realise the real costs involved, more than wipe out last months gains following Trump's promised corporate tax cuts  ???

Further reading, and bakground info' :

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/2/17070816/trump-steel-aluminum-tariffs-businesses

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43267520

http://www.afr.com/news/donald-trumps-steel-tariffs-trigger-trade-war-recession-fears-20180302-h0wwc6

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/three-ways-trump-s-tariffs-could-backfire-20180302-p4z2hu.html

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-05/trump-steel-aluminium-tariffs-australia-fears-trade-implications/9510014

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/03/01/trump-steel-aluminum-tariffs-unintended-consequences.html

It's almost like Bernie won.

They were heavily into this on Morning Joe, this AM. According to Joe Scarborough, a Republican ex-congressman from Florida, there will be two consequences. First, it will result in the inevitable retaliation, and consequential trade war. Second, it will become a tax on the middle and lower class, that will wipe out any tax advantages of the recent tax act.

As to retaliatory measures, Trump (ever the combatant) says he will retaliate back. In other words, the answer is a trade war, which he calculates the US will win. (The UK might be regretting their withdrawal from the EU about now.)

As to the added tax, Trump doesn't seem to figure out that a 25% tariff on steel, and a 10% tariff on aluminum will improve the incomes of some 140,000 steel and aluminum workers, but put out of work completely those millions of jobs in post-smelter manufacture...in such fields as automobiles, canning, building, infrastructure, aircraft, rail, heavy machinery, electronics, and so on down the line. The massive unemployment that it will cause will completely wipe out any benefit, and off-set the taxes thought by Republicans to result from their tax act.

In this latter argument one can see the elitist Republican attitude of fook the unwashed peons, we want to be the biggest guys no matter the cost.

Original Quill wrote:They were heavily into this on Morning Joe, this AM.  According to Joe Scarborough, a Republican ex-congressman from Florida, there will be two consequences.  First, it will result in the inevitable retaliation, and consequential trade war.  Second, it will become a tax on the middle and lower class, that will wipe out any tax advantages of the recent tax act.

As to retaliatory measures, Trump (ever the combatant) says he will retaliate back.  In other words, the answer is a trade war, which he calculates the US will win.  (The UK might be regretting their withdrawal from the EU about now.)

As to the added tax, Trump doesn't seem to figure out that a 25% tariff on steel, and a 10% tariff on aluminum will improve the incomes of some 140,000 steel and aluminum workers, but put out of work completely those millions of jobs in post-smelter manufacture...in such fields as automobiles, canning, building, infrastructure, aircraft, rail, heavy machinery, electronics, and so on down the line.  The massive unemployment that it will cause will completely wipe out any benefit, and off-set the taxes thought by Republicans to result from their tax act.

In this latter argument one can see the elitist Republican attitude of fook the unwashed peons, we want to be the biggest guys no matter the cost.

Tariffs are not a part of the Republican party platform.

Think unions.

Maddog wrote:

Original Quill wrote:They were heavily into this on Morning Joe, this AM.  According to Joe Scarborough, a Republican ex-congressman from Florida, there will be two consequences.  First, it will result in the inevitable retaliation, and consequential trade war.  Second, it will become a tax on the middle and lower class, that will wipe out any tax advantages of the recent tax act.

As to retaliatory measures, Trump (ever the combatant) says he will retaliate back.  In other words, the answer is a trade war, which he calculates the US will win.  (The UK might be regretting their withdrawal from the EU about now.)

As to the added tax, Trump doesn't seem to figure out that a 25% tariff on steel, and a 10% tariff on aluminum will improve the incomes of some 140,000 steel and aluminum workers, but put out of work completely those millions of jobs in post-smelter manufacture...in such fields as automobiles, canning, building, infrastructure, aircraft, rail, heavy machinery, electronics, and so on down the line.  The massive unemployment that it will cause will completely wipe out any benefit, and off-set the taxes thought by Republicans to result from their tax act.

In this latter argument one can see the elitist Republican attitude of fook the unwashed peons, we want to be the biggest guys no matter the cost.

Tariffs are not a part of the Republican party platform.  

Think unions.  

I know that.  But tariffs have long been a part of Trump's program.

Tariffs are an antiquated form of protectionism, and were discarded a century ago.  That's why I say that Trump is so antediluvian in his thinking, that he's taking us back to a nineteenth century era in which no one cared about the little guy.  It's deja vu all over again.

Original Quill wrote:

Maddog wrote:

Tariffs are not a part of the Republican party platform.  

Think unions.  

I know that.  But tariffs have long been a part of Trump's program.

Tariffs are an antiquated form of protectionism, and were discarded a century ago.  That's why I say that Trump is so antediluvian in his thinking, that he's taking us back to a nineteenth century era in which no one cared about the little guy.  It's deja vu all over again.

Then your last paragraph about republicans would be wrong.

Maddog wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

I know that.  But tariffs have long been a part of Trump's program.

Tariffs are an antiquated form of protectionism, and were discarded a century ago.  That's why I say that Trump is so antediluvian in his thinking, that he's taking us back to a nineteenth century era in which no one cared about the little guy.  It's deja vu all over again.

Then your last paragraph about republicans would be wrong.  

Except that Trump is now the Republican Party, and traditional Republicanism is now turned on it's head.  So much for letting the Russo-Republicans take over.

President Obama slapped a stiff 35% tariff on Chinese tires in 2009 after American companies complained about unfair competition. They said China was flooding America with tires at low prices making it tough for U.S. companies to compete. The tire tariff gradually waned, and finally ended in 2012.

The tariff saved 1,200 U.S. tire jobs, which had been in sharp decline. And U.S. tire production rose after a major decline.

"Over a thousand Americans are working today because we stopped a surge in Chinese tires," Obama said in his 2012 State of the Union address.

Related: Trump and trade: What you need to know

But a study from the Peterson Institute of International Economics found that the tariffs cost Americans in many other ways.

Americans paid more for tires. Some Chinese-made tires cost as much as 26% more -- rising on average to $39 per tire, from about $31. And U.S. tire makers, facing less competition from China, also raised prices on American-made tires 3.2%.

According to Peterson's model, higher prices from the tire tariff cost Americans an extra $1.1 billion, which translated to an estimated 3,731 retail jobs lost.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/03/news/economy/obama-china-tire-tariff/index.html


Politicians never learn.