could anyone afford $6,600 a month in rent? I don’t pay a third of that for my mortgage! It just boggles the mind. How on earth could it be done? And yet it IS being done. Maybe I’m just naïve…
Categories
Category: Economics
Categories
Yes, things are
looking up. Oil is under $80 a barrel. Just think about what will happen when the conflict with Iran and, or the pipelines circumventing I read become active!
Oil production is not naturally restricted. There is so much of it, it can be cheap. Is only through the artificial manipulation of supply through OPEC that we have higher prices right now.
It’s like diamonds. Diamonds are naturally abundant and not very rare at all. It is only the DeBeers company that got a great share of the world market and restricted it, thus making prices rise.
THAT is exactly what OPEC strives to do.
things that the hard Left just cannot tolerate. They can’t handle the truth!
No wonder their economic policies all suck! They are economic ignoramuses…
Categories
Non-Americans
struggle to grasp the glories of a $5 COSTCO rotisserie chicken. Indeed, it is stunning.
Categories
Just look at
the data. I know that is very hard for many Leftists (their focus is on “the feels” rather than evidence), but there are some important things that this arguably shows, things that are obscured by a rigid adherence to Lefty dogma. Yeah, reality don’t care about your conversion to the Lefty NPC cult!
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes…
how good economics works. Stupid command and control systems only screw things up and make everything more expensive. But free market economics makes things cheaper. DUH! And it is very clear that the more regulation, the more expensive things are. Things with little regulation are much cheaper.
Categories
I think it’s time
to admit: On the tariffs, Trump was right and the “experts” were wrong. I mean, not even in the right zip code wrong. Cataclysmically wrong.
The evidence shows that it’s time for a reckoning. The doomsaying economists who swore tariffs would trigger disaster were wrong: not just on the math but on the realities of power and negotiation. When tariffs can cut other taxes, open markets, and give America leverage, it’s worth reevaluating instead of parroting outdated talking points.
It’s time for the soi-disant “experts” to come clean and admit that they were wrong and Trump was right. And if they are honest, they will do so. Let’s just say that I’m not holding my breath…
And I have to admit that even myself, while not an economist, long bought the orthodox economist line that tariffs were inevitably bad. You know, free trade and all.
But the actual data are absolutely clear. Donald Trump was right. Almost all the economists were wrong. I think that should give us pause when some”expert” tells us something in the future. Maybe we need to be just a little more careful about what and whom we believe.
Ya think maybe?
Maybe the real world is not the antiseptic “petrie dish” environment of university professors. Maybe the world of received academic wisdom is not directly applicable to the real world. Maybe retaliatory tariffs are different than tariffs unilaterally imposed by one side on a level playing field.
In any case, it’s time to come clean.
Categories
I think it’s really
important to understand the tariff issue. It’s pretty clear that Trump has espoused free trade. And I think there’s little question that that is the ideal. So country A has no tariffs on country B, but also country B has no tariffs on country A. THAT is free trade!
And several big countries (including India if I’m not mistaken–I think) have decided that they will no longer charge ANY tariffs at all on American goods. And in response, Trump has said that he will not charge any tariffs on them. Again, THAT is free trade.
You know what is NOT free trade? When country A charges no tariffs at all, while country B charges 80% tariffs on country A’s products. THAT is the issue. I mean, how many Ford dealerships are in China? And why do you think that is?
But it is rather amusing to have Leftists squeal like stuck pigs when Trump applies retaliatory tariffs! It’s not like we start from zero on both sides, and it is clear that if that were the case there would be no tariffs at all. But it is utterly foolish to say that I will charge no tariffs on your products but I will pay 80% tariffs on yours.
That ain’t free trade!
It’s just funny (and rather ironic) to have Democrats, who have never been on the side of free trade, suddenly present themselves as the modern incarnation of Milton Friedman! I don’t believe them. I think it’s merely more googley-eyed Trump hatred. These folks don’t actually know a dang thing about economics.
Categories
Yes, it’s been
a good move. Trump has indisputably made things a lot better, here. Doofy, nattering Lefty idiots notwithstanding.
“They have come to us with very good offers, and what I will tell you is that, in negotiating with some of them, they may not like the tariff wall that President Trump has put up. But they have them, so if tariffs are so bad, why do they like them? And then more insidious, we can see that from a practical matter and from academic research, are the non-tariff barriers,” Bessent said. [emphasis added]
Please understand, Trump’s obvious preference is to have no tariffs on either side–that makes the most economic sense. But these are in response to what other countries place on us–they are reciprocal and retaliatory tariffs! They are not an end to themselves, they are a response to tariffs that other countries place on US.
Well, yes, but really only in the abstract. I agree, in the faculty lounge they are not very defensible. But in real life, they are a wonderful way of using a carrot/stick approach. And we have seen proof of that in many other nations recently coming to us and wanting to form a free trade alliance. Even Britain has very recently negotiated a deal with us. And all that is far from abstract.
I agree that in an ideal world, there would be no tariffs. But we don’t live in an ideal world, so what now? We have a bunch of nations who have charged us exorbitant tariffs for years, and we have charged them very little or nothing. The result has been to destroy manufacturing in the United States. That approach has certainly pleased the economists, but really has not worked out very well for the nation, or for American workers.
OK, so what do we do now? Because other countries are already charging us large tariffs. And that has crippled industry here. So do we now just hold to some esoteric ideal and unreal world scenario and not charge on goods coming into our country while paying big tariffs to others?
So tell me, Democrats. What would you recommend, and why?
But just how is the current arrangement to our benefit? What Trump has proposed are retaliatory tariffs. Not ex nihilo ones. Democrats, you have to look a little beyond your Trump hatred…
The truth is, Democrats rarely know crap about the economy. RINOs are often at least as bad. Both of them are absolutely not a good source of ideas about what to do.