Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Jeff Buchanan]

The word's investors in stocks and corporate bonds are certainly getting a haircut this week. This article provides some salve for the worried soles of those watching the value of their investments evaporate. I can attest to the soundness of the advice in the article as I've been through at least three steep declines in market value since the early 2000's. Over time, history demonstrates you'll be made whole again if you don't go crazy and abandon your investment strategy that got you to where you were before yesterday.

https://apnews.com/article/investing-tariffs-retirement-stocks-diversification-portfolio-ee662f0f5a84aa483ca741351e23d876

[froot loops]

Did you think Reagan was short sighted when he said it. Did you think Trump was short sighted that he didn't implement Liberation Day in his first term?

[Jeff Buchanan]

Did you think Reagan was short sighted when he said it. Did you think Trump was short sighted that he didn't implement Liberation Day in his first term?

"The essence of the Reagan Administration's trade policy became clear: Espouse free trade, but find an excuse on every occasion to embrace the opposite. As time passed, we would find occasions aplenty."

I honestly had to do some digging to help me remember Reaganomics and his trade policies and offer a reasonable answer to your questions. The last sentence in the linked article is gold: Trump may actually be engaged in a game-theory exercise to force open liberalized trade after all—in other words, "fair trade" rather than "free trade." As with many aspects of Trump's words and deeds, it is difficult to discern from moment to moment.

https://www.civitasinstitute.org/research/trade-protection-and-tariffs-from-reagan-to-trump

[Dr. Strangelove]

Tariffs cannot both raise enough revenue to balance the budget and force us reshore all our industry. Both things cannot happen at once. They are completely contradictory goals. Reshoring industry means we're buying very few imports. Buying very few imports means they can't generate revenue. Regardless of how I feel about the strategies, you can only pick one.

Why are affordable consumer goods a bad thing all of a sudden? Why is it critically important that Huggies diapers all be made in the United States?

[Dr. Strangelove]

Over 70M Americans are in an active 401k plans. The notion that only the very rich follow or care about the stock market is wrong. And as a host on Fox even pointed out, not everyone can play the long game. There are people that were on the verge of retiring watching their nest egg lose 10% of its value in 48 hours thanks directly to Trump picking an unnecessary fight with every country in the world all at once.

[froot loops]

"The essence of the Reagan Administration's trade policy became clear: Espouse free trade, but find an excuse on every occasion to embrace the opposite. As time passed, we would find occasions aplenty."

I honestly had to do some digging to help me remember Reaganomics and his trade policies and offer a reasonable answer to your questions. The last sentence in the linked article is gold: Trump may actually be engaged in a game-theory exercise to force open liberalized trade after all—in other words, "fair trade" rather than "free trade." As with many aspects of Trump's words and deeds, it is difficult to discern from moment to moment.

https://www.civitasinstitute.org/res...eagan-to-trump

The last sentence isn't gold, it's fucking magical thinking. You keep on falling for this, you and many people are trying to interpret extra meaning from Trump like he is playing multi-dimensional chess. Trump mistakenly thinks the McKinley tariffs were great for the US (they weren't panic of 1893) because McKinley got elected as president six years later. He loves tariffs and misunderstands trade deficits. That's it.

Again what is Trump angling for with a 47 percent tariff on Madagascar?

[Jeff Buchanan]

Tariffs cannot both raise enough revenue to balance the budget and force us reshore all our industry. Both things cannot happen at once. They are completely contradictory goals. Reshoring industry means we're buying very few imports. Buying very few imports means they can't generate revenue. Regardless of how I feel about the strategies, you can only pick one.

Why are affordable consumer goods a bad thing all of a sudden? Why is it critically important that Huggies diapers all be made in the United States?

Don't disagree with your central point. The stuff that you throw in this discussion about Penguins in Antarctica and why huggies should be made at home, IMO, is irrelevant to the hard core issues that are at the basis of Trump's emerging trade and tariff policies.

The link below is to a very good article that deals with Trump's willingness to negotiate or not. You have to read the whole article (it's short) to get the gist of the point the author is trying to make.

Washington, Wall Street and global leaders have spent two days fretting whether President Donald Trump is open to compromise on his new tariffs or whether they are as final as the White House has been making them out to be.

Trump ended some of the mystery on Friday: He’s ready to talk, though maybe not quite ready to cut deals

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/04/deal-trump-tariff-compromise-00272555

[Dr. Strangelove]

Don't disagree with your central point. The stuff that you throw in this discussion about Penguins in Antarctica and why huggies should be made at home, IMO, is irrelevant to the hard core issues that are at the basis of Trump's emerging trade and tariff policies.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/0...omise-00272555

Jeff, credibility matters and the Trump apologists (4-D chess!) keep assuring us that a LOT of very serious, very deep thought went into this. And then they publish the list and it has uninhabited Antarctic islands on it and the Diego Garcia military base. Here's an article discussing the rollout and how it's obvious this was mostly improvised on the fly.

Donald Trump’s Tariffs: No Genius Plan | National Review

[Dr. Strangelove]

When prices start going up the hardcore MAGA types are going to start sounding suspiciously like Elizabeth Warren and attack all sorts of companies and corporations for their "greed".

[Dr. Strangelove]

[Jeff Buchanan]

"Jeff, credibility matters and the Trump apologists (4-D chess!) keep assuring us that a LOT of very serious, very deep thought went into this. And then they publish the list and it has uninhabited Antarctic islands on it and the Diego Garcia military base. Here's an article discussing the rollout and how it's obvious this was mostly improvised on the fly."

Fair article by Geraghty. I still think some of it is nitpicking although the nits are relevant but only in in the current context. The best criticisms of Trump's approach to tariffs articulate why the fundamentals - (1) tariffs as a means to uniformly rectify trade imbalances and force reductions in technical barriers that Trump claims exist are erroneous and (2) tariffs as a means to reshore manufacturing of products essential to national security, can't be achieved. There are reasons why the arguments for the fundamentals are flawed, especially in the short term. There are also reasons they are not - especially in the long term.

[froot loops]

Bad week for these National Review guys.

[Dr. Strangelove]

They even did the math wrong. The tariffs are 4x larger than they should have been.

President Trump’s Tariff Formula Makes No Economic Sense. It’s Also Based on an Error. | American Enterprise Institute - AEI

[lineygoblue]

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[Dr. Strangelove]