Tariffs, Protectionism, Trade Deficits, and Trade War

[Hanarchy Montanarchy]

Don't be coy, Fife.

You know that I know that you know what praxeology is.

[Fife]

Oh, no, there is an IRL difference. I actually care about KY's ideas.

[Ex-California]

Its all about trade-offs, with what a nation-state is willing to affect the free market in order protect its industry and workers.

I doubt most of the people crying about these tariffs also are willing to eliminate minimum wage, environmental regulations, corporate taxes, etc...

[Hanarchy Montanarchy]

Oh, no, there is an IRL difference. I actually care about KY's ideas.

If I weren't so certain this witty banter were based in deep, mutual respect, I might be liable to get my feelings hurt.

[Fife]

Its all about trade-offs, with what a nation-state is willing to affect the free market in order protect its industry and workers.

I doubt most of the people crying about these tariffs also are willing to eliminate minimum wage, environmental regulations, corporate taxes, etc...

Just keep expanding on your &c., and I'll tell you to stop when I've had enough elimination of federal law.

:goteam: :drunk:

[SuburbanFarmer]

Its all about trade-offs, with what a nation-state is willing to affect the free market in order protect its industry and workers.

I doubt most of the people crying about these tariffs also are willing to eliminate minimum wage, environmental regulations, corporate taxes, etc...

There's no actual 'protection' granted by tariffs, other than a few extra manufacturing jobs. Meanwhile, the domestic industries raise their prices nearly to match, and the consumers pay more.

Not a winning strategy, but it should get lots of PR and votes, until a new truck mysteriously costs $60,000. At which point, we'll all just shrug and say "da conomy ah guess".

[kybkh]

What do you mean by "theoretical economics?" I don't understand that term of art.

What I mean is there is such corruption, mismanagement and false reporting (financial reports not MSM fake) at all levels of nearly every institution, public and private, in every nation, that using basic economic models like "supply and demand" or "price and demand" as an argument to base ones decisions is simply silly.

Just consider this before getting in a in-depth discussion about economics...

Any decision you make about investing based on "metrics" can be undone by a single sentence uttered by the Federal Reserve or some other too-big-to-fail institution.

[Fife]

What do you mean by "theoretical economics?" I don't understand that term of art.

What I mean is there is such corruption, mismanagement and false reporting (financial reports not MSM fake) at all levels of nearly every institution, public and private, in every nation, that using basic economic models like "supply and demand" or "price and demand" as an argument to base ones decisions is simply silly.

Just consider this before getting in a in-depth discussion about economics...

Any decision you make about investing based on "metrics" can be undone by a sentence uttered by the Federal Reserve or some other too-big-to-fail institution.

I see what you mean. Yes, "fake news" abounds.

The best I can do is rely on thinking I trust; and the Austrians seem most honest to me. YMMV. BTW, are you a Schiff guy? Did you listen to the podcast episode in the OP for this thread?

[kybkh]

When it comes to domestic or foreign policy problems, Rodrigo Duterte's Philippines usually has efficient, if often brutal, solutions. The same appears to apply to the economy as well, because just when the country's latest CPI print showed that the economy was overheating - which would force the central bank to hike rates, something it has long resisted - the country had a radical solution: change how CPI is calculated.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03- ... ng-economy

[nmoore63]

Tariffs are stupid the vast majority of the time.

That being said many of these foreign fuckers don't reciprocate.

We should offer 0% tariffs to anyone that is willing to reciprocate 0% tariffs.

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Even though lower tariffs are better, a war will eventually come.

It is stupid to assume otherwise.

As a national security strategy, we should not let other powers extract our manufacturing capacity in exchange for consumables.