Will tariffs make America great?

EHocking said:
Just like Iraq and Iran, those snap-frozen yanks claim to never having a nuclear weapons program.
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And have you ever even seen the ayatollah and Carney in the same room, and are there any pictures of them together? No? Well then, you can draw your own conclusions... I never really believed that Canada existed anyway.
 
Carney chickened out.

Not going to make much of a difference anyway because millions and millions of Canadians made big social media announcements about dropping big American tech like Netflix. Some subreddits even banned linking to Twitter. Throw in Canadian refusal to buy American products and travel to the country except in dire emergencies, any day now David shalt smite Goliath.
 
Does 150 years of history offer any lessons to guide the 21st century economies?
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popu...troi_at_Issoire:_A_City_Made_Rich_by_Taxation
Yes !
[excerpt]
...And the great charm of this tax is, that the people will not feel it at all, for it will all be paid by outsiders, by these merchants from Clermont and Lyons who send their goods to our town. They own the goods, they bring them here, they pay the octroi, for we need not buy of them until the goods are safe inside the city gates. By a single stroke in financial policy, we shall keep our factories running, our workingmen contented, and make the merchants in our rival cities pay all our expenses. ...
 
Fonebone said:
Does 150 years of history offer any lessons to guide the 21st century economies?
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popu...troi_at_Issoire:_A_City_Made_Rich_by_Taxation
Yes !
[excerpt]
...And the great charm of this tax is, that the people will not feel it at all, for it will all be paid by outsiders, by these merchants from Clermont and Lyons who send their goods to our town. They own the goods, they bring them here, they pay the octroi, for we need not buy of them until the goods are safe inside the city gates. By a single stroke in financial policy, we shall keep our factories running, our workingmen contented, and make the merchants in our rival cities pay all our expenses. ...
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A fairy-tale from some populist rag from 1888, about two French villages. Cross your heart and hope to die, it's all perfectly true! :D Making it all perfectly relevant to national economics in the 21st century.

Bless your cotton socks! ;)
 
Wondering whether there will be a deal with Japan or not.

Trump warns ‘spoiled’ Japan may not get a US trade deal (CNN)
On Monday, Trump first accused Japan of not buying rice from the US in a post on social media. That claim, however, is not true.
Last year, Japan bought $298 million worth of rice from the US, according to the US Census Bureau. Between January and April of this year, Japan bought $114 million worth of rice.
But Trump repeated the claim on Tuesday.
“They need rice so badly, but they won’t take rice,” he said. He added that the Japanese also don’t buy US cars, claiming: “We didn’t give them one car in 10 years.”
Last year, Japan imported 16,707 units of American automobiles, according to the Japan Automobile Importers Association.
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Well, technically 16,707 cars in one year isn't "one car in 10 years." WTF?
Also I just bought 5 kilos of US rice at the grocery store this week.

As a US expat, I sort of understand why Japan is sensitive on rice. They want to protect Japanese rice farmers. The US, by the way, has long practiced its own version of protectionism for certain farm products. This is one example:

U.S. Sugar Program - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Rice has long been a politically sacrosanct industry in Japan. If it comes down to choosing between Japanese automakers and Japanese rice farmers, the government is likely to side with the rice farmers. There's more of them and they have more political clout.

I also have to mention that most US-made cars are designed for the US market, not the Japanese market. The Japanese drive on the left, unlike the US, so the steering wheel should be on the other side.

You can buy a Jeep in Japan with a steering wheel on the right side apparently:

American cars still a tough sell in Japan
9,000 of those US vehicles sold last year in Japan were Jeeps in fact. It's a niche market, but that's apparently more than any other US automaker.

Anyway, I just wanted to set the record straight. When Trump claims that Japan doesn't buy "any" US rice or cars, that's simply not true. And tariffs don't apply either. Rather there is a "mismatch with Japanese market needs."
 
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Puppycow said:
I also have to mention that most US-made cars are designed for the US market, not the Japanese market. The Japanese drive on the left, unlike the US, so the steering wheel should be on the other side.
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Isn’t it also the case that cars in Japan have to conform to a standard size which is smaller than American sizes? When I was in Japan I was told that you were not allowed to have a car in Tokyo without proving that you had somewhere to park it, and the parking spaces are somewhat smaller than what I know from Europe. Even the minivans were shrunk in size to fit the parking spaces.
 
steenkh said:
Isn’t it also the case that cars in Japan have to conform to a standard size which is smaller than American sizes? When I was in Japan I was told that you were not allowed to have a car in Tokyo without proving that you had somewhere to park it, and the parking spaces are somewhat smaller than what I know from Europe. Even the minivans were shrunk in size to fit the parking spaces.
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Well those are actually two different questions. Tokyo laws are not for all of Japan. But having a place to park it is something that anyone should have obviously. That’s just common sense
 
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