Tariffs - the most beautiful word in the dictionary

Sarkus said:
It quickly went from $2tn to $1tn, and then recently to $150bn, of which only $60bn or so has receipts, and which is itself still full of mistakes, and counting of things actually done by Biden.

Market manipulation, plain and simple. He has a private meeting with major market investors, behind closed doors, no public presence, no media, after which the market rallies significantly. Those who weren't the insiders wondered what was going on, and then Trump announces, later in the day, that he thinks the tariffs on China (that he implemented) are too high and will end up lower etc.
So anyone not part of his group of insiders had to wait for the official announcement, by which time the insiders had already benefitted.
Market manipulation. Trump rocking the market up and down for his already-rich chums to benefit.

As said previously, he's dug a huge hole for himself. The only question is whether any Republicans will assist the Dems in burying him in it.
By reducing tariffs he is scuppering his own budget, and risking the ballooning of the anticipated increase in national debt of c.$4-5tn by that shortfall in tariff receipts. Not to mention the lack of cuts in spending thus far, although I note that while the House bill mentioned $1.5tn in cuts to spending, the budget passed by the Senate only stipulated $4bn as a minimum. The "reconciliation" that Trump eventually signs will, I'm sure, need to be closer to the $1.5tn... which so far DOGE have laughingly been inept at finding, despite all their bluster at the start.
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On your budget point, he has ensured there will now be a persistent “moron premium” on US Treasury bonds, which will increase the cost of servicing the debt, thereby cratering the budget even more. A lot of market commentators have said the economic competence of this bunch is in considerable doubt. That doubt won’t go away even if they wind in the whole tariff strategy. A straight replay of the Trussterfuck.
 
Sarkus said:
It quickly went from $2tn to $1tn, and then recently to $150bn, of which only $60bn or so has receipts, and which is itself still full of mistakes, and counting of things actually done by Biden.
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It's far worse than that.

A New York Times reporter went through DOGE's "wall of receipts" to try to verify the amounts. The wall of recepits didn't have much info; just the name of the agency and the amount of the "savings." But they looked at the raw HTML of the web page and found some more data, specifically the grant number, which allows you to check to see what the original amounts were. Then they called the people who actually got the money.

The biggest one on the list was $1.75 billion. But when they called the agency that received that grant, they said that they had already received and spent the money. So actual savings of zero, even if DOGE claimed they "cancelled" the grant.

They looked at several others in the top 20. And every time they could track down the amount saved it was wrong. One grant listed a "ceiling" of $83 million. But that's not what the grant was for; that was the highest amount the grant could possibly be. The actual amount authorized by the grant was $1.5 million and they had already received $800K. So the actual savings was $700K even if the grant was really cancelled.

From the list of grants they could track down, the real savings averaged 2.6% of the claimed savings. So the claimed savings of $155 billion is likely closer to $4 billion - a savings of $25 per taxpayer.

When the NYT reporter asked DOGE about this their response was swift - they removed all the HTML data from the site so nothing could be checked.

Now any savings is good, right? So even if they saved a tiny fraction of what they claimed, it is overall a good thing. Right?

The IRS estimates that the cuts DOGE made will reduce tax income by $500 billion, due primarily to cuts to tax cheat enforcement. There are a great many crooked CPA's that know exactly how to cheat in ways that are hard to detect, and that cheating is now risk-free since there is no review and/or enforcement of such scams. Internet discussions have indicated that there will be a lot of that this year, since the IRS now has barely enough staff to even process returns; there are no extra to actually check anything.

So overall we will be losing hundreds of billions.

But is even the $4 billion savings supported by actual spending numbers? Compared to this month last year, we are spending $120 billion more per month.

Remarkable level of dishonesty here.

https://www.gelliottmorris.com/p/doge-is-not-cutting-spending


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I hope the cuts to not extend to this https://phys.org/news/2025-04-webb-telescope-incredible-discoveries-dark.html

".. like so much of the country's ongoing scientific research, Webb is at risk of being defunded.

President Donald Trump's administration has removed NASA's top scientist and proposed a nearly 50% budget cut to the agency's Science Mission Directorate, which oversees planetary science, astrophysics research and more.

The White House reportedly is pushing to scrap the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a wide-view instrument undergoing final testing and assembly that is scheduled for launch within two years. Next-generation satellites meant to improve human understanding of the planet are on the chopping block as well."
 
We also have outstanding scientists fleeing specific states, like Florida, due to their work being defunded if its findings aren't acceptable to Far Right ideology.

(scroll down to the last profile, the marine biologist and climatologist)

www.theguardian.com

Meet the new American refugees fleeing across state lines for safety

Americans have often moved between states for opportunities. Now they’re being forced to uproot themselves to escape hostile forces under Trump
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

Dark ages, my friends.
 
trump doesn't care about small business . A few days ago a reporter asked him about small business . In his white house scrum . With reporters . He didn't care .
That is a problem .
small business is the fundamental driver of employment . Not big corporations .
 
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Breaking News: US negative growth for 1Q25 has NOTHING to do with tariffs, or with anything Trump has done.
So sayeth Donald Trump, the most stable genius ever.

We have been told.
It must be true.
No disagreements will be tolerated.

:rolleyes:
 
river said:
trump doesn't care about small business . A few days ago a reporter asked him about small business . In his white house scrum . With reporters . He didn't care .
That is a problem .
small business is the fundamental driver of employment . Not big corporations .
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Why are so not stupid about this?
 
Grocery prices locally are coming down. Gas prices locally are coming down. Restaurant menu prices, locally, are staying stable. Employment and wages are finally increasing, locally. I am seeing more smiles and hearing more laughter from more people than I've seen and heard in a long time. Odd that it isn't reflected in most polls, like ABC's, NBC's, CBS's, CNN's, NYT's, WP's, contracted polling, wherever. Though, I must say, CNN's man for nationally rating popularity is finding that far more people are sticking with President Trump and the Republicans in general, and are happier with him and Republicans where he is and they are, than with the Democrats who are continuing in cratering big time in popularity.

Money is nothing more than a token of energy (resource and human), as history proves. The economy is turning around slowly but surely. Boys and men are being evicted from girls' and women's bathrooms and sports and other activities. The U.S. borders are no longer wide open to barbarian invasions, gangs of criminal drug and human trafficking cartels. Spain and Portugal's recent green energy debacle is no longer coming to America . . . on and on. Natural laws (as America's Founders called them), the physics of forgotten lessons of history, physics, and civics and civilization, are showing their good side once more.
 
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Atlan0001 said:
Grocery prices locally are coming down. Gas prices locally are coming down. Restaurant menu prices, locally, are staying stable. Employment and wages are finally increasing, locally. I am seeing more smiles and hearing more laughter from more people than I've seen and heard in a long time. Odd that it isn't reflected in most polls, like ABC's, NBC's, CBS's, CNN's, NYT's, WP's, contracted polling, wherever. Though, I must say, CNN's man for nationally rating popularity is finding that far more people are sticking with President Trump and the Republicans in general, and are happier with him and Republicans where he is and they are, than with the Democrats who are continuing in cratering big time in popularity.
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Hahaha.

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:biggrin:


More seriously, a lot of the grief at present is being experienced by businesses, notably those that rely on ordering imports in advance and consequently have to plan ahead, e.g. Walmart, auto sales, tourism etc. It will start to hit the private consumer over the next 2-3 months as the hiatus in supplies and/or price hikes feeds through to the stores on the high street.
 
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Atlan0001 said:
Grocery prices locally are coming down. Gas prices locally are coming down. Restaurant menu prices, locally, are staying stable. Employment and wages are finally increasing, locally. I am seeing more smiles and hearing more laughter from more people than I've seen and heard in a long time. Odd that it isn't reflected in most polls, like ABC's, NBC's, CBS's, CNN's, NYT's, WP's, contracted polling, wherever. Though, I must say, CNN's man for nationally rating popularity is finding that far more people are sticking with President Trump and the Republicans in general, and are happier with him and Republicans where he is and they are, than with the Democrats who are continuing in cratering big time in popularity.

Money is nothing more than a token of energy (resource and human), as history proves. The economy is turning around slowly but surely. Boys and men are being evicted from girls' and women's bathrooms and sports and other activities. The U.S. borders are no longer wide open to barbarian invasions, gangs of criminal drug and human trafficking cartels. Spain and Portugal's recent green energy debacle is no longer coming to America . . . on and on. Natural laws (as America's Founders called them), the physics of forgotten lessons of history, physics, and civics and civilization, are showing their good side once more.
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Not really. Shall we take this one little bit at a time of his first 100 triumphant days?
 
Atlan0001 said:
Grocery prices locally are coming down.
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Food prices up .4% since Feb, driven mainly by much higher prices in eggs, meat and poultry. (Source - US Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Gas prices locally are coming down.
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Gas prices are slowly rising. On Jan. 20, the national average price of a gallon of gas was $3.10. As of the week ending on April 28, the average price was $3.13. (Source - EIA)

Don't tell me you believed Trump's lies! Shame on you.

Employment and wages are finally increasing, locally.
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Unemployment in Jan - 4.0%. Unemployment in April - 4.2%. (Source - BLS.) Again, shame on you for believing Trump's lies.

I am seeing more smiles and hearing more laughter from more people than I've seen and heard in a long time.
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100% agreed there. Comedians are having a field day with Trump's laughable incompetence. Did you hear that he didn't even know what the Declaration of Independence meant? Comedy Central and SNL had a field day over that one. A LOT of laughs.
Odd that it isn't reflected in most polls, like ABC's, NBC's, CBS's, CNN's, NYT's, WP's, contracted polling, wherever.
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I haven't seen any polls on "smiles and laughs" recently. Could you post it?

One thing that polls do agree on (INCLUDING FOX News polls) is that Trump's popularity is dropping as fast as the stock market. The most recent FOX News poll has his approval rating at 44% and his disapproval rating at 55%. And that is steadily dropping.

CNN's man for nationally rating popularity is finding that far more people are sticking with President Trump and the Republicans in general, and are happier with him and Republicans where he is and they are, than with the Democrats who are continuing in cratering big time in popularity.
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CNN poll: Trump approval rating 41% approve, 59% disapprove

Money is nothing more than a token of energy (resource and human), as history proves.
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I can see why you are trying to trivialize money. You will soon have a lot less of it. In Trump's own words, you might have to buy 2 presents for the kids this year instead of 30.

Spain and Portugal's recent green energy debacle is no longer coming to America . . . on and on.
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Oh you're REALLY not going to like this, then. The US is on track to install at least 37GW of solar this year; that's as much power as 30 nuclear reactors, and as much energy as 7 nuclear reactors. These are projects that already have approval and funding. Also 16 gigawatts of wind, and 9 gigawatts of battery storage. (Source - WRI)
Natural laws (as America's Founders called them), the physics of forgotten lessons of history, physics, and civics and civilization, are showing their good side once more.
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Given that you guys are currently trying to deny much of science (i.e. vaccines don't work, the climate isn't warming, magnets don't work underwater, you can inject disinfectant to cure COVID, all women are XX etc) and are trying to cancel history courses (i.e. CRT) I'm glad you are abandoning such a stupid position.
 
Atlan0001 said:
Natural laws (as America's Founders called them), the physics of forgotten lessons of history, physics, and civics and civilization, are showing their good side once more.
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What's the bad side of these things? And what are "the physics of forgotten lessons of history"? It just sounds like you're trying to be poetic or something here, but you're simply spouting idiotic nonsense.
 
Seattle said:
How much is it in California?
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Вы лучше спросите: сколько это стоит в России? Почему нормальный бензин у нас стоит почти в 2 раза дороже, чем у вас? В России? Которая снабжает нефтью пол мира?
 
billvon said:
Ridiculously high; around $4.50 a gallon around here. Glad I don't have to buy gas any more.
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Приезжайте к нам в Россию, и ваши цены вам покажутся сказкой. В России, которая снабжает весь мир своими ресурсами, которая является нефте и газодобывающей страной, цены на бензин почти в два раза выше, чем у вас.
 
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