Trumpenomics
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wrote 30 days ago last edited by
Marc Caputo’s comment:
“Fewer dolls in every pot”.
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@Horace said in Trumpenomics:
@Mik said in Trumpenomics:
@Horace said in Trumpenomics:
@Axtremus said in Trumpenomics:
#3 can happen after the Democrats win big in the mid-term.
Two years of this madness will be enough time for the Dems to gain credit for saving the economy, if they end the tariffs. If they do it now, with some GOP help, Trump takes only a small hit, and he'll be able to retail the idea that the tariffs would have worked if they'd been given a chance.
As Matt Yglesias opens today's email with:
Well, “Liberation Day” has arrived and it sucks, but Trump’s taste for terrible trade policy may be American democracy’s best hope, so I have mixed feelings about the whole thing.
I assume these sorts of mixed feelings are shared by lots of Democrats, and so I'm a little surprised they would try to end the tariffs right now. But once the legislation is on the floor, which I hope happens as soon as possible, I guess they'll have to vote to end them, or take responsibility for them.
And nowhere does Mr. Yglesias state what he would suggest doing about the problems Trump is trying, however well or badly, to address. he just snipes from the gallery. Pundits gotta pundit.
It's not hard to meaningfully criticize, when doing nothing would have been much better than doing something. Your premise that Trump is addressing a problem, is flawed. Trade imbalances are not a problem. People in poorer countries doing America's dirty work making cheap products and selling them to us, is not a problem.
That's not the problem he's trying to fix. It's manufacturing capability as national security. All this rise of the middle class and good jobs is smoke. We need more steel and aluminum made here, alongside chips, etc.
I'm not crazy about his methods, but then we had a pretty good idea it would be crudely done. Finesse is not his middle name. He may end up being viewed as a very good or very bad president, but no one will be neutral.
wrote 30 days ago last edited by@Mik said in Trumpenomics:
We need more steel and aluminum made here, alongside chips, etc.https://fortune.com/article/tariffs-high-prices-aluminum-economy/
Aluminum is not a luxury good. It’s a foundational metal—indispensable to energy transmission, cars, construction, packaging, and even military products. And yet, despite rising demand, U.S. production capacity has all but collapsed.
At the turn of the millennium, the United States was the global leader in aluminum production. Twenty-three smelters operated nationwide. Today, only four remain active—and they are not running at full capacity. The closure of key plants in recent years has hollowed out a once-robust industry.
I work at an organization that researches American industry, and when we examined aluminum supply chains, we found something sobering. A new report from Industrious Labs forecasts that domestic demand for primary aluminum could surge as much as 40% by 2035. That’s a staggering increase for a material so deeply embedded in nearly every aspect of modern life—and we are alarmingly unprepared to meet it.
Currently, 82% of the primary aluminum Americans now consume is imported, making the U.S. the world’s largest net importer of aluminum. Over half comes from Canada, a friendly and reliable partner—for now. But with global markets tightening, anti-American sentiment in Canada rising, and European trade regulations poised to reroute Canadian supply to Europe, the U.S. may soon find itself at the back of the line.
In other words, we are on the cusp of an aluminum crunch.
According to the Industrious Labs report, the U.S. could need up to 6.4 million metric tons of primary aluminum per year by 2035. That’s far beyond what we can produce domestically today. If the U.S. can’t get the aluminum it needs, then the consequences will be stark: Prices for cars, power lines, packaging, and even clean energy infrastructure could rise sharply as manufacturers scramble for limited supply.
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@Mik said in Trumpenomics:
We need more steel and aluminum made here, alongside chips, etc.https://fortune.com/article/tariffs-high-prices-aluminum-economy/
Aluminum is not a luxury good. It’s a foundational metal—indispensable to energy transmission, cars, construction, packaging, and even military products. And yet, despite rising demand, U.S. production capacity has all but collapsed.
At the turn of the millennium, the United States was the global leader in aluminum production. Twenty-three smelters operated nationwide. Today, only four remain active—and they are not running at full capacity. The closure of key plants in recent years has hollowed out a once-robust industry.
I work at an organization that researches American industry, and when we examined aluminum supply chains, we found something sobering. A new report from Industrious Labs forecasts that domestic demand for primary aluminum could surge as much as 40% by 2035. That’s a staggering increase for a material so deeply embedded in nearly every aspect of modern life—and we are alarmingly unprepared to meet it.
Currently, 82% of the primary aluminum Americans now consume is imported, making the U.S. the world’s largest net importer of aluminum. Over half comes from Canada, a friendly and reliable partner—for now. But with global markets tightening, anti-American sentiment in Canada rising, and European trade regulations poised to reroute Canadian supply to Europe, the U.S. may soon find itself at the back of the line.
In other words, we are on the cusp of an aluminum crunch.
According to the Industrious Labs report, the U.S. could need up to 6.4 million metric tons of primary aluminum per year by 2035. That’s far beyond what we can produce domestically today. If the U.S. can’t get the aluminum it needs, then the consequences will be stark: Prices for cars, power lines, packaging, and even clean energy infrastructure could rise sharply as manufacturers scramble for limited supply.
wrote 30 days ago last edited byFrom article:
Over half comes from Canada, a friendly and reliable partner—for now. But with global markets tightening, anti-American sentiment in Canada rising, and European trade regulations poised to reroute Canadian supply to Europe, the U.S. may soon find itself at the back of the line.
I wonder how that came to be?
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wrote 30 days ago last edited by
@jon-nyc said in Trumpenomics:
“Your family will have less, but it’ll be more expensive”.
Two thoughts:
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Why does he care that China is making money selling us stuff "we don't need"? Talk about big government, @LuFins-Dad !
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Honestly, I would LOVE IT if our kids had 2 toys instead of 30, especially if the 2 toys were better quality. Maybe I agree with Trump!
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wrote 29 days ago last edited by
Community Notes remains undefeated
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wrote 29 days ago last edited byThis post is deleted!
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wrote 27 days ago last edited by
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wrote 27 days ago last edited by
I cannot say I am very surprised.
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wrote 27 days ago last edited by
@jon-nyc said in Trumpenomics:
There were actually some intelligent and reasonable rebuttals in there as well.
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wrote 26 days ago last edited by jon-nyc 5 Apr 2025, 18:27
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wrote 26 days ago last edited by Doctor Phibes 5 Apr 2025, 19:17
@jon-nyc said in Trumpenomics:
I’m old enough to remember when degrowth was a fringe movement on the left. But at least we’re at three or four dolls, up from 2.
This is a bit much coming from a guy who's lived his entire life as avariciously as he has.
How many gold fucking toilets does one man need?
None, of course.
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wrote 26 days ago last edited by
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wrote 26 days ago last edited by
I honestly don't understand how so many people seem to get taken in by his unbelievable bullshit.
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wrote 26 days ago last edited by jon-nyc 5 Apr 2025, 19:32
In fairness I agree 250 pencils is excessive. The silver lining of his tariff policies is that we should be able to put the scourge of little girls hoarding pencils behind us once and for all.
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wrote 26 days ago last edited by
I was walking my dog yesterday through the park and I saw a young girl with an armload of pencils, frolicking and whatnot. I was disgusted. I walked up to the mother and gave her a very stern talking to about the manner in which she is raising her daughter.
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wrote 26 days ago last edited by
You’re doing the lord’s work, Horace.
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In fairness I agree 250 pencils is excessive. The silver lining of his tariff policies is that we should be able to put the scourge of little girls hoarding pencils behind us once and for all.
wrote 26 days ago last edited by@jon-nyc said in Trumpenomics:
In fairness I agree 250 pencils is excessive. The silver lining of his tariff policies is that we should be able to put the scourge of little girls hoarding pencils behind us once and for all.
I foresee a huge black market opening up in middle schools across the land, and unwitting mules crossing the Mexican border unexpectedly dying of lead poisoning when their internalized pencil cases spring a leak.
This. THIS is Donald Trump's America.
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I was walking my dog yesterday through the park and I saw a young girl with an armload of pencils, frolicking and whatnot. I was disgusted. I walked up to the mother and gave her a very stern talking to about the manner in which she is raising her daughter.
wrote 26 days ago last edited by@Horace said in Trumpenomics:
I was walking my dog yesterday through the park and I saw a young girl with an armload of pencils, frolicking and whatnot. I was disgusted. I walked up to the mother and gave her a very stern talking to about the manner in which she is raising her daughter.
The world needs more consumption activists like you. Austerity now, austerity forever!
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wrote 26 days ago last edited by
Tariffs on foreign made movies?
He’s completely off his cracker. More crackers than Berlioz!
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wrote 26 days ago last edited by jon-nyc 26 days ago
I haven’t seen that. Foreign made movies usually end up in art house theaters where hundreds of people see them. Man we’ll be raking in the bucks.