Wasn’t there something about the Epstein files we were all thinking about just before Trump spouted this new distraction?
Trust me, we’re all still thinking about it. This is a failed attempt to deflect
OK, what shares is he and his folks buying… We should do the same. His Black mail worked last time, should work again!
I am amazed thtavit keeps working every time. At some point, the market will stop reacting to the taco blackmails
Hey! That’s in about two weeks!
I’m not great on economics but the concept of a tariff is that the entity importing something has to pay an extra levy in order to place in a market a given product.
This follows that an american importer of any trade goods of european origin will have to pay an extra thirty cents for each dollar such goods cost.
That extra cost will then be passed along the commercial chain, down to the final client.
So, prices go up for general public.
Meanwhile, nothing is stopping the country of origin of such products to divert their business to other countries, thus maintaining their normal activities.
Am I wrong or this whole thing is disastrous for the USA?
You’re right in how it works, except when you say nothing is stopping a country to sell elsewhere, demand/supply/market conditions do. They are probably selling to other countries as much as they can anyway, and still sell to the US as well. So when they can’t sell to the US, it won’t be easy for those companies to find other customers to take this volume. If they existed, they would have been sold to anyway.
Practical example.
I know this winery that usually exports nearly 95% of their production to the US. The owner spent a few decades there and made some contacts.
Last year, they had some problem with the american market and were forced to search for other venues.
They dropped their prices, opted to sell to our national market and did pretty much the same revenue they would have done exporting.
Exporting to the US is often the thirst for easy profit. Products that sell here for cents can be sold at a premium in the US, as it is the de facto luxury hungry market. Doesn’t really matter if it good; if is it expensive, it means it’s good.
Portugal mostly exports food goods to the US. I think cork, some clothing and shoes and some other items make up the basket, but in way lower quantities.
I’ve seen cheese and wine that are considered run of the mill here sold for ten times more in the US market. Which I consider theft.
This entire situation gets uglier the deeper we dig.
But maybe not at a price between 1 and 1.3 dollar.
It is indeed bad for US businesses and consumers, and therefore for US economy in general, but as US market is so big and important, it’s also bad for countries doing business with US, including in Europe, like, for example, German carmakers or French and Italian alcohol exporters.
Though that’s only true for the first few years. Once alternatives are established and trade with America is reduced it will be less and less until America will be not interesting anymore
One can only hope.
Unless Trump starts ww3 we will have a few more painful years of transition and then the new normal will be normal and the better deals will win, which won’t be with America.
We must not forget that it’s not only about trade. There’s also a military dimension, and if all US support to Ukraine ends abruptly and completely, then there’s a very real chance that Putin will win soon. That creates an entirely new security situation, where Russia may well attack EU countries next (like the Baltics, for example).
France and Italy could export to other countries easily or transform their cheap wine into properly aged wines and liqcours, with actual market value and product quality. Downsizing the industry wouldn’t be a bad idea, also.
Germany is already dwindling in their car industry. Could serve as a call to innovation an review of business practices.
But I was told here Ratte debasing himself was a master play to get the orange moron off our backs. What happened??
Calling Ursula her “excellency” sounds so weird to me, but apparently that’s correct for foreign officials?? Would never have expected that.
I would have thought it would be “her stopsignness” or “her smsremoveress”.
What a load of cringe.
And that second to last sentence is just the cherry on top of the pile of shit. Everybody is already severely disappointed.
By the way: Does anyoen know if it’s even appropriate to call Von der Leyen “Her Excellency”? It sounds pretty weird to me.
Take a look at the beginning of the constitution of the EU, that looks wild
Formal addressment.
It is an archaic way to address “officials” in public office, which ends up sounding as a preservation of royal/nobility occupation of positions, regardless living in a democratic regime.
It is argued as being a way to show respect and maintain dignity of institutions.
If want to write a letter to my municipal office, there is a template to be followed which starts with “To his/her Excelency, The President of the Municipality, Mr./Mrs. Dr. XXXXXXX”. This is loosely translated, obvioulsy.
Democracy yet not equality nor accountability.
Jesus fuck thats a poorly written letter. The idea behind it is worse though
You will never be disappointed with The United States of America.
Is the whole thing satire?
He is saying that if the EU wants to do a trade war the USA will deliver.
And who here is innitiating the trade war?
Deliver what, tariffs??
So… “I’m totally not going to chicken out”?
What is even fucking going on? It feels like a child touching random shit on their parents phone, opening apps and accidently calling and buying things. Meanwhile the rest of the world just goes wtf.
Ah yes my favorite Country, the European Union.
Weeeeeelllll it basically is from the outside.
Trump is a eurofederalist icon now I guess 💅
From the economic point of view the EU acts very much like a single country. Even the EEA can be seen as single entity if looking from the perspective of an American trade negotiator.
European confederation vibes 🤩
These Tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your Country.
First, what the fuck is that random capitalization?
Second, so your giving us in writing, that these tariffs
maywill be modified at will if you feel so.Third, which country are you talking about? Europe is a continent. EU is a union of independent countries/nations.
As much as I fucking despise this shitbrick orange hitler, the capitalisation is standard in my limited experience, in legal documents it is common to treat an established concept as a proper noun to make it explicitly clear what you are referring to.
There may be a passage near the start which says something along the lines of “the proposed 30% trading tariff, herein referred to as the Tariff” or “the European Union trading area, herein referred to as the Country”. (In this case those passages don’t exist but I think the capitalisation still makes sense)
Equating the EU with Country is absolutely batshit insane though.
AMERICA NUMBER 1 YOU’LL NEVER BE DISAPPOINTED (if your expectations are already on the floor)
At first I thought it might be a standing point for Orbán to point out that they want this (but the bad EU, yadda yadda), but after actually reading that garbage of a propaganda piece, I can only imagine that part is boiler-plate, and noone along the chain caught it or could be bothered with correcting it.
Trump is serving up the distmantling of most US soft powers. Like how is this not a game of chicken for us to bunch up on Ireland and tell them no more fucking around with appl and alphabet. I’d love nothing more than a third level bureaucrat tucked away in Strassbourg to calculate exactly how much societal and global harm these companies cause. We could shift that into dollars (somehow?), and make sure they pay that tax, or we start filtering their sites. I rarely believe restriction is the way to go, but nothing would really be lost here.
Yeah the whole trade deficit is bullshit, with GAFA it’s the other way around.
But USA, why are we not buying your shitty cars or crappy food? One can wonder…
I just don’t really understand the bigger picture. Like why are Trump’s handlers letting him get away with this? Which group would benefit the most, if the US’s general purchasing power went down? I’m thinking more Waltons than Putins, but it just doesn’t make sense.
While I do see there is a healthy limit to conspiracy theories (looking at the chief of Health), I cannot imagine people wielding actual power wouldn’t stop this lunacy if it weren’t in their interest for some reason.
Trump is a media genious (let’s give to Caesar what’s Caesars) he’s 80IQ in maths, economics and F- in history. Surrounded with yes men, this is what you get.
History is littered with rulers in similar situations, and surprise, it goes exactly the same way. So here the EU will use soft power or whatnot and just blast that Donald out of the waters. Might take a while worst case, but that’s my prediction!
Naw, I’m not giving Trump a cent more than he deserves. He is as good of a troll as anyone before 4chan could get, but he has nothing else going for him.
I am more concerned about the background service. Like who were the ones that composed the newest sandwich bill? I feel if we get caught up in just the emotional part (he is trolling the whole world, after all), we won’t see the actual harm being caused behind the scenes.
It feels that even this proposal is only there to distract from the actual harm being caused.
It’s a bit delusional to say that EU countries are truly independent. Yes, any country can independently decide to leave the union – but as long as you’re part of it, you give up parts of your independence.
The EU is very strange. Yes, there is a global unifying policy but countries still have a wide autonomy.
Portugal has specific trade and travel agreements with individual countries, outside the wide EU policy. Other countries do this.
In this specific situation, we already know it will be the bloc handling as a whole the issue. Spain has already stated that all commercial tariffs must be addressed to Brussels, as it is part of the common external relations policy. But individual countries can add their twist to end.
Parts, sure, but they also still have separate foreign policy apart from trade. As seen in the American War on Afghanistan for example.
Afghanistan was pre-Lisbon Treaty. EU countries would have a hard time nowadays going “I’m joining this war no matter what you guys do”. It could still happen, but there would be a lot more discussion between the institutions.
The news talk about Kallas, not foreign ministers. Things have changed since Afghanistan.
TACO 🌮 IS 🌮 ON 🌮 THE 🌮 MENU
They need to stop pussy-footing around with Trump.
He says 30, they need to reciprocate with 60 percent, and will back down to 20 when he cancels the 30.
Make it permanently harmful to threaten this bullshit.
Suspend American IP in Europe (which is a counter-tariff measure that the EU has already approved regulations for).
Watch the TACO do his thing.
Unfortunately Europe can’t very well afford to play hardball with him - not just because it’s economically harmful to Europe, but also because Europe wants to keep at least some sort of foreign policy and military alliance, and cooperation in the midst of the war in Ukraine.
So EU already scrapped the plans of digital tax, giving Trump a win and gaining exactly nothing from this. There is still hope that Europe will pressure him at least a little bit - but not much hope, I’m afraid.
A stable alliance with the Trump administration isn’t possible, as has been made abundantly clear. There’s no reason to give concessions to preserve one.
It would be more appropriate from Europe to count all the environmental harm corpos like Cocacola get away with and simply start taxing based on the extra strain they cause to society. Give a number and just not budge. It is not hard to deal with this man.
Does he sign in fucking sharpie
In his first presidency, he started contracting pens specifically for this. It’s a big signature that is very visible when he holds up his signed letter to the cameras after signing. It’s a deliberate performance, with an absurd signature for that gesture and good pictures.
Just look at this absurdity
Every. Time.
/edit: New England Firm Makes President Trump’s Pens (YouTube) 1:20, 8 years ago
Naw, that’s a jumbo crayon he borrows from Eric.
What does it even say in the first place. I know it should include either D or Donald and either T or Trump, possibly include J or whatever J stands for. The last teo letter look like ld, but the ones before look like rum, as if he just put something together like DumnldJTummmmld.
honestly, if you handed him a fountain pen, i don’t think he’d figure out how to use it.
Cut to a video of tRump furiously trying to turn the ink of a 0.7mm ballpoint pen to the same thickness of his arrhythmic heartbeat signature like a kid trying to fill in their fake bubble-art graffiti during class. Tongue sticking out and everything!
