I am one of those 'Murricans who has an appreciation for Canada and its people. While it's been a long time since I have visited our neighbor to the north, I do maintain a blogroll which conforms to Canadian content regulations. I acknowledge that Canadians are our best friends, our most steadfast trade partners, our Clamato-swilling Continental siblings... and now our moron president is starting a trade war with them, as well as our Mexican and European Union allies. With the imposition of tariffs, the Canadians are responding in kind. What kind of idiot blows it with Canada? As if that weren't bad enough, the Dow took a pretty big hit because of this idiocy. I don't even want to contemplate my 401k these days.
As if things weren't insane enough, there's a report claiming that Trump wants to ban all imports of German luxury cars. I can't imagine that such a policy would go over well with the GOP plutocrat donor base- what good is making multiple millions of dollars if you can't ride around in a Maybach?
I swear, if you gave Lumpy a gun he'd shoot himself in his bone-spurred foot w/in five mins.
ReplyDeleteTariffs on intermediate goods are certainly stupid, but the actual impact on GDP, Balance of Payments or even cost of consumer goods is minimal. Mostly this will have secondary effects - along with the simultaneous unnecessary fights with the EU and China - when the real crisis of the Trump presidency actually occurs.
ReplyDeleteAnd you have to always separate what Trump DOES with what he SAYS. The tariffs are enacted - but there is NO functional mechanism where a President can 'ban' vehicles or other products from a given manufacturer. Seems like there would have to be a finding similar to the ZTE case against Daimler for anything like that to happen...
I think the plan is, yes, he'll raise tariffs on BMWs and Mercedes. But then he'll lower the tax rate on the rich to help them pay for it anyway. Then, to make up the deficit caused by the tax cut, he'll cut Medicare and Social Security. A few people may starve to death, or die for lack of medical care, but so what? They're losers anyway.
ReplyDeleteSee? Under Trump, it all works out for the best.
Yours crankily,
The New York Crannk
I admire your incisive-cynic approach here, Mr. Crank - but if there is such a plan, please do not lay it at the door of our poor, beleaguered, unfairly-castigated President. He's never come up with a comprehensive plan in his life.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on Canada, 4B (is that right - or is it B4?). Back during the Bush era, tje then-Canadian govt did something humane that was opposite to some awful thing the Bushies were doing -- wish I remembered the details - and Jon Stewart described it briefly in his opening monologue, then addressing the camera, cried with expslosive sincerity: "Canada! You're adorable!!"
(Also, hooray for the Provincial Park system.)