It would be appropriate here if you acknowledged the mathematical truth I have just expressed.
No, I think it’s wrong in the extreme.
If the Chinese Emperor (or France if you prefer) increases taxes,
the merchant’s expenses go up. Ergo he has a deduction and pays lower taxes.
The government never says “Oh tax revenues went down we had better shrink the size of government.” instead it raises tax and deficit burden on its own laborers, either directly or later via deficits.
“Sorry Mr Peasant, the merchant’s expenses went up. He got a bigger tax deduction so . . . . I have to raise your taxes.”
No, he hasn’t.
Before the exemptions… how does tariffing an iPhone 100%+ level the playing field?
How was it used as a stick? It wasn’t… because Trump exempted cell phones.
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Because we wanted that industry back in the US.
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maybe he thought better of it since most of the country uses that dang things and Apple said it was going to move some production on shore. Could have also been “well drop tariffs on Y in exchange for Z” but I don’t know the particulars of the meetings or phone calls.
I support tariffs, even non punitive tariffs.
(I believe our tax system gives a free ride to imported goods and tariffs are a simple straight forward way to “make-up” for that without re-writing the tax code.)
But 100% tariffs are launching a trade war.
Launching a trade war is one of several Trump moves I do not endorse.
Because I support tariffs I am rooting for him,
but I am, ummmm . . . less than fully optimistic.
That’s not leveling the playing field. That’s taking it over.
Apple has not said it is moving iPhone production on shore.
You actually don’t believe that, do you?
Supply … and … Demand
are each important.
And while it is not normally a function of government to ensure adequate supply of this thing or that thing (the market does a better job,) certainly the government should be aware if its policies are doing anything to impede supply, or create distortions (favoring one source of supply over another.)
To that end, it would be very very bad policy if the government:
Told one set of suppliers:
“I’m going to tax you, but only on the profits you make AFTER you bring your items to market,”
But told another set of suppliers:"
“For you, I’m going to do that, and I am ALSO going to tax you at each step as you prepare to bring things to market. I’m going to tax you. I’m gong to tax your laborers. I’m going to tax you for hiring them. I’m going to tax the land you use. I am going to tax the buildings you build on them.”
Yet that is exactly what we do.
Have you seen where the California Village Idiot (Gavin) is trying to stop Trump tariffs by suing??? 
Ya know what??
Even today we can find some really interesting stuff on Wikipedia
The absolute slobbering going on is a little much.
Let’s keep this real. Donald Trump has Plan A, one plan, Make America Great Again. There is no other plan and the short-term traders or the pundits on TV that are watching Wall Street, look guys, this is beyond your pay plan. This man is a master in negotiating. This is a negotiations at global levels that we’ve never seen before. He’s transparent, he’s authentic, he know what he’s doing, and he will Make America Great Again.
So, you guys that are at home and you’re worried about your 401(k), your IRA, or you traders out there or bankers that are worried about your commissions, just step aside. This is not the time for Monday quarterbacking. You’re not in the game, President Donald Trump is. You’ve underestimated him over and over and you’re doing the same thing this time.
Grant Cardone
I came across him on X.
He appears to be a Florida real estate developer, and Trump donor, but not a WH spokesperson.
I guess they had him on the air as some random stock analyst.
Except Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Freidman (who opposes all taxes including tariffs equally) thinks that the Fed, not Smoot-Hawley was the cause of the Great Depression.
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EX
Tariffs did not cause the 1929 stock market to become over valued.
They may have popped the bubble, but they certainly did not cause the bubble.
Those two are not mutually exclusive. It can be true that the Fed played a large part in creating the Great Depression and the Legislature also played a part in prolonging and worsening it.
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Assuming a 70-year adult lifespan, a typical US adult consumes roughly 8,190 aspiring tablets in their life.
That would be fatal if taken all at once.
I tend to look at such things in these terms:
The Fed creates a tremendous ginoroumous bubble.
It is going to pop.
It is a fools errand to try to find out what particular thing pops it and prevent all those things from happening.
It is impossible to do that.
That is a meaningless and useless approach
I’m not trying to have a debate about the Depression, which is obviously not the topic here. But I do enjoy the topic so…
I do think there’s value in learning from further mistakes - saying “what made this worse?” (Smoot Hawley, maintaining gold convertibility). “What made this better?” (ending gold convertibility, creating deposit insurance).
Maybe I’m misunderstanding your comment. I don’t think that’s meaningless at all.
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Yes the depression had many fathers.
- The faux gold standard
- The massive Fed-induced credit bubble
- The de facto price fixing scheme between British pounds and US dollars.
