I wonder how much money trump has over seas.
Iâd say Robert Mueller has a pretty good idea by now. If his final report is made public, it might be a very interesting read.
Please notify the administration that their claims the tax cuts are working is an absurd statement.
Thank you.
Iâm speaking of all investmentâŚwhether cash, a facility or anything else of value.
many
âŚ
Oh. OK. But the thread is about repatriating cash. Which isnât effected by tariffs at all.
So⌠companies have been seeing Democrat candidates who are socialists. No wonder they are afraid.
The tax reduction is a positive motivation to bring all investments back into the US orâŚthatâs how I understand it. The tariffs are a negative motivation to accomplish the same thing.
The tariffs also push investment to foreign soil. If you say, make motorcycles, and you sell them in Europe. You can avoid the retaliatory European tariffs by creating a european subsidiary and locating a plant in say Germany. Problem solved.
âŚorâŚyou can tariff the â â â â out of German imports to the US and stop all the bs.
Right, but the plant in germany selling motor cycles in europe isnât importing them to the US. They maintain a seperate company with a separate plant for that.
BTW, this is not a made up example. Itâs what Harley Davidson is doing to avoid tariffs on their bikes.
What about Audi, Mercedes Benz, VW, BMWâŚ? Itâs a target rich environment if Germany or anybody else wants to play? The imbalance of trade is negative. They have more to lose.
I donât think you are understanding my point.
Iâm not arguing for or against any tariffs. Iâm merely giving a real like example of how they can also result in moving production facilities oversees, which is the opposite of their stated goal.
Also, itâs moronic to look at trade imbalances as a always a bad thing.
for example - BMW makes their cars oversees and maybe we import more cars from germany that we export. There is a trade imbalance. But, since their cars are desirable in teh US, we have hundreds of dealerships selling a popular product employing thousands of US workers in positions that canât be shipped over sees.
There are also thousands of american workers involved in teh export trade, moving these products around the globe. Those are real jobs safe from off shoring.
My prior point stands, weâve already been over this. itâs a nonsense point so try something else.
Additionally, there are more consumers available in the US. Germany has a population of around 82 million, as opposed to the US which has a population easily triple that. With more consumers available to purchase goods in the US, it makes sense that there would be an imbalance in goods sold.
2 Likes
It has more to do with relative wealth. We are a very wealthy country. Germany produces a lot of luxury goods. It makes sense a wealthy county buys a lot of luxury goods. If we are smart, we would try to gain more of an edge in the luxury market instead of manufacturing commodity goods.
Itâs way easier to make a profit (and pay your employees well) when theyâre making luxury automobiles than toothbrushes.
My guess is Smyrna has sold a ton of imported products that have added to his income and allowed him to pay his mortgage and support his family (as he complains about imports).
I donât look at it as âalwaysâ a bad thing. I also appreciate BMW building all of their small SUVs in Spartanburg, SC for the entire world. What I want though is for the US to not be taken advantage of and under previous administrations, it was.
1 Like
Germany produces good products that we want.
Thatâs not Germany taking advantage of us, thatâs Germany working hard and benefiting from it.
