We can now see clearly to the outcome of Trump's Tariffs.

Consumer prices will go up immediately if the tariffs stick. Certain sectors of the US economy are already being restrained by new tariffs; US home builders need Canadian lumber but it's artificially expensive now. Trump has no idea what he is doing. Everyone else is scrambling trying to contain the damage.

From a Canadian perspective, we run a small trade deficit with the US where you make a ton of money on services and we have a surplus on raw materials. It's a great relationship for the US. If Trump wants to end that great relationship, so be it. We can slap tariffs on services that will have a meaningful impact on your economy, we can stop exporting cheap hydro to the US, we can stop selling Oil at below market prices. Might hurt some Canadians short term but probably more of a net negative for Americans. Again, like many recent US initiatives, it's mostly unnecessary pain implemented by design by American politicians with the expressed approval of the majority of Americans. So good luck with your medical insurance premiums, trade protectionism, gun violence. You made these choices.

This is exactly correct in that consumer prices will go up but I agree with Trump on this one. It’s time to eat our peas and rebuild our manufacturing that was decimated by NAFTA. And don’t get offended, but we have been getting railroaded in NAFTA and your country is richer just for having free trade with the US, and it is not reciprocal.

Tariffs in this circumstance are not meant to be punitive but leveling. A lot of the raw material for the steel that comes in from Canada isn’t Canadian, it’s Chinese and that should be a violation of NAFTA. NAFTA was never meant to be a sneak through way for Asian countries to import cheap goods into America. You guys are basically wholesalers for Asian suppliers.
 
I feel like 99 percent of the people commenting on TV or in the press are a bunch of economic morons not qualified to speak on this subject because they don't understand open markets and floating currencies. (its important that currencies float and are not pegged)

For the purpose of our analysis...
Lets look a a dynamic model with floating rates.
Lets also state the Federal Reserve is not printing dollars and thereby diluting its strength.

Do you all realize that by making things here that those around the world desire... would increase demand for the dollar. Thereby making foreign goods cheaper for Americans and American industry. So its possible we could keep jobs and get cheaper foreign goods?

You all might not be old enough. But European and Asian goods once seemed super cheap to americans. Instead of raw materials going to China and then sent around the world.... They were sent here and we sold them around the world. Japan competed on price and their things were once considered poorly made. Made in Japan was an insult. We had a very strong dollar and things were cheap for us.

For instance...

In 1984 or 1985 I went to England on Laker airways. I crossed the channel by a fast boat. I skied in Chaminoix for 5 or 6 days. I went to paris, ate well and I purchased the finest leather jacket I had ever owned for 740 dollars in 1985. That is 740 dollars for the everything the whole trip... plane, hotels food, lift tickets etc.

That was in part because the dollar was really strong and our economy was booming. I had also been invited to Vail by a roommate. The airfare would have been 400 dollars and lift tickets would have been much more expensive than the 11 dollars a day they were in Chaminoix. I calculated the trip to Vail would have been twice as much even though I had a place to stay whereas 5 of us stayed in Chamoix in a suite for 35 dollars a night.
 
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Trump Reportedly Broke Another Promise, This Time To Australia
The agreement reportedly occurred during the G20 meeting in Germany last July


Australian media is accusing President Donald Trump of “reneging” on a promise he reportedly made to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last year.

Trump “emphatically” promised Turnbull that Australian steel and aluminum would be exempt from any steel and aluminum tariffs imposed by the U.S., the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported. The agreement, which was reportedly witnessed by several U.S. and Australian officials, occurred during the G20 meeting in Germany last July.

View attachment 183441
Turnbull’s government reacted with shock last week when Trump announced that the U.S. would be imposing stiff tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum. In the immediate aftermath, Australian Trade Minister Steve Ciobo told local media that he was “seeking urgent clarification” from U.S. officials to see if Australia would be exempt.

“I’m not going to provide a commentary on the Trump administration’s trustworthiness,” Ciobo said on Saturday when it became clear that Australia would likely not be spared.

Any exemptions would ultimately be a decision for Trump, Ciobo said. However, White House officials have made clear that country-specific exemptions were unlikely.
Ha ha ha. "country-specific exemptions were unlikely." There is nothing absolutely nothing that Trump says that can be trusted.
 
Well that is all true. US car makers fail to supply right-hand-drive cars and that is a problem. But in Japan there are other restrictions making it nearly impossible to even establish a car dealership there. There is layer upon layer of obstacles to selling a foreign car in Japan.

I visited Tokyo on business and noticed all the gaijins driving Aston Martins (with right hand drive). Quite a few of them work at Bloomberg there.
Well apparently it is not an impossibility for an Aston Martin Dealership to be established there. And in the past, neither was it impossible for GM to try and sell cars there. There were Buicks in Tokyo. Just very few buyers. I am talking about many years ago now, when GM was trying to get Tariffs on Japanese cars imported into the U.S. because they claimed the market was "unfare". For a number of years the GM management insisted "Americans want big cars," and every year WV sales increased. When corporations fail, there is a reason. And it is seldom because the market is "unfair."
 
Michael Moore of all people explains Trump and the reason for his tariffs. Could be a Trump campaign video.


Yup. That was a powerful moment when the fact that Michael Moore grew up in Michigan caused him to break out of the trance state and see what was coming. If he had grown up in California he never would have seen it. As he lefty as he is, he didn't like them being labeled as "deplorables." There was no 20/20 hindsight there either. He flat out called it before the election but his comrades would not hear it.
 
And don’t get offended, but we have been getting railroaded in NAFTA and your country is richer just for having free trade with the US, and it is not reciprocal.

You are wrong, we run a trade deficit with the US and without NAFTA on the Canadian part your economy wouldn't be as strong. The more you talk about getting railroaded or taken advantage of by Canada ( a ridiculous claim ), the more you encourage Canada to just decide you guys are nuts let's find other partners. Trade deals exist because BOTH parties benefit from them. This fundamental aspect seems to be lost on many Americans. So we get a clown like Trump supporting a monopoly like Boeing with 300% tariffs on a company like Bombardier that is barely solvent in a market they don't even make planes for. That's not the market driven economy that helped build both our economies.

Many of your business and regional political leaders know this already. They know losing a strong trading relationship is bad for their state, city, or company. It doesn't impact me personally at all, but the lack of common sense and awareness on the topic bothers me.
 
You are wrong, we run a trade deficit with the US and without NAFTA on the Canadian part your economy wouldn't be as strong. The more you talk about getting railroaded or taken advantage of by Canada ( a ridiculous claim ), the more you encourage Canada to just decide you guys are nuts let's find other partners. Trade deals exist because BOTH parties benefit from them. This fundamental aspect seems to be lost on many Americans. So we get a clown like Trump supporting a monopoly like Boeing with 300% tariffs on a company like Bombardier that is barely solvent in a market they don't even make planes for. That's not the market driven economy that helped build both our economies.

Many of your business and regional political leaders know this already. They know losing a strong trading relationship is bad for their state, city, or company. It doesn't impact me personally at all, but the lack of common sense and awareness on the topic bothers me.

Earlier you mentioned that Canada would ship the oil elsewhere -- this is not so.

Until Canada builds either an eastern pipeline or western pipeline to ship the oil to one coast or the other (plus add shipping facilities for oil) then your only large scale customer for oil is the U.S. -- especially in view that all the refining capacity for Canadian oil is down in the gulf states.

So either Canada builds the pipelines (after paying all the taxes that Provinces and First Nation tribes are demanding for each barrel of oil crossing their land it would be over $100 per barrel currently) -- or Canada keeps shipping to the U.S.

BTW - ask the people of Lac-Mégantic how shipping oil by rail worked out for them.
 
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