Reply With Quote
Because otherwise some may lose the business altogether. Accepting lower profit margins is the best of two bad choices for some suppliers.
Because that's the middle of the road both sides guy response
Because otherwise some may lose the business altogether. Accepting lower profit margins is the best of two bad choices for some suppliers.
This is capitalism?
Pretty much. Walmart is a business notorious for playing hardball with suppliers when they can.
Doesn't sound like capitalism at all tbh.
China tariffs are at what, 50%? No business is eating that margin. If you have that much margin, you don't have serious compe ion to worry about anyway.
I like how America needs Walmart now to muscle China companies.
Now do a report on how small businesses are doing here
https://www.kpbs.org/news/economy/20...how-to-competeWith steel tariffs doubling today, a North Carolina manufacturer wonders how to compete
...
The higher tariffs likely will provide a boost for domestic companies that produce steel and aluminum. But for every steelworker in America, there are about 80 people working for companies that use steel. And their costs are about to go up.
"How is it that you're supposed to buy the most expensive steel in world in the United States, and compete with global compe ors who have access to world market pricing," asked H.O. Woltz, who runs a company in Mount Airy, N.C. that twists steel wire into cables used to reinforce concrete.
During the first Trump administration, Woltz's company was doubly squeezed — paying more for raw steel while competing with finished products from other countries that didn't face a tariff.
This time around, the Trump administration is taxing some of those finished products as well. Still, Woltz worries the higher cost of building materials might put some construction projects on hold.
...
Today's tariffs, which are higher and more far-reaching, could also show up in higher prices at the supermarket, for everything from canned soup to a six-pack of soda pop.
"We know that we as can-makers pass these increases on to our customers—the food producers and soft-drink makers and the beer brewers—and they'll pass that on to the consumer as well," says Robert Budway, president of the Can Manufacturers Ins ute. "It's a lose-lose for American consumers."
In raising the steel and aluminum tariffs, Trump did not rely on the 1977 emergency statute he's used for many other tariffs, which are the subject of an ongoing court battle. Instead, he cited the authority of a different statue — Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 — which is designed to protect national security.
oh yeah, def gonna hurt
"that's how you know it's working!"
Trumplandia redacts and withholds farm data
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/0...ecast-00382549
dp
Last edited by Winehole23; 06-05-2025 at 08:25 AM.
fire, aim, ready
it's like nobody thought this through
China has the extreme edge on rare earth magnets
https://www.mediaite.com/politics/tr...china-per-wsj/Four major automakers are racing to find workarounds to China’s stranglehold on rare-earth magnets, which they fear could force them to shut down some car production within weeks.
Several traditional and electric-vehicle makers—and their suppliers—are considering shifting some auto-parts manufacturing to China to avoid looming factory shutdowns, people familiar with the situation said.
Ideas under review include producing electric motors in Chinese factories or shipping made-in-America motors to China to have magnets installed. Moving production to China as a way to get around the export controls on rare-earth magnets could work because the restrictions only cover magnets, not finished parts, the people said.
If automakers end up shifting some production to China, it would amount to a remarkable outcome from a trade war initiated by President Trump with the intention of bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.
This looks like a job for TACO
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/05/trum...edia-says.htmlTrump speaks with Xi, will resume talks between U.S. and China over tariffs
...
Beijing’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and China’s embassy in the U.S. said earlier Thursday that Trump had requested the call with Xi.
Trump has reportedly been eager to speak with Xi, as already-strained trade relations between the two countries frayed further in the past week.
After Thursday’s call, Trump wrote, “There should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products.” He did not explain what that meant.
China has expressed deep frustration with a recent decision to impose new restrictions on Chinese student visas. It has also accused the Trump administration of undermining recent trade progress by issuing an industry warning against using Chinese semiconductors.
...
Your children will put tiny screws into American bananas.
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1930669431165763641
https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/06/05...-senate-china/America’s Electric Vehicle Surrender
If Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” passes, the entire supply chain could be ceded to China.
The year is 2030 and about half of all cars sold in the world are electric. Thanks to new battery and charging technologies, electric vehicles (EVs) are cheaper than anticipated and the fear of range-anxiety is immaterial. Barring a few compe ors in South Korea and Europe, this market belongs entirely to China. Such a scenario is increasingly a base case. Already in 2025, the majority of Chinese EVs are cheaper than their fossil equivalents and are flooding the world with low-cost exports, including in emerging markets from Ethiopia to Brazil. Alongside producing over 60 percent of the world’s EVs and 80 percent of its batteries, Chinese companies have unveiled new breakthroughs that will solidify their dominance in automobile markets: EVs that charge in five minutes, batteries that don’t require any costly critical minerals, and a luxury EV that can drive for 14 hours on a single charge. These are tectonic shifts in one of the most politically and economically vital manufacturing sectors across developed nations.
...
https://www.bullionbite.com/p/disguise-of-stabilityDisguise of Stability
...
Healthcare added 62,000. Hospitality chipped in 48,000. Social assistance threw in another 16,000. That’s more than 90 percent of the gain. Three sectors holding up the entire report.
The rest of the economy? Either flat or worse.
Manufacturing shrank. Construction barely moved. Temp work fell again. That part matters. Temporary staffing is where employers flinch first. It’s the easiest labor to cut. It fades quietly, but it always fades before the rest.
Then there’s the federal government. Down 22,000 jobs in May. Fourth straight month in the red. Budget cuts, buyouts, early retirements, and whatever Elon Musk is doing with his bizarrely named “Department of Government Efficiency.” DOGE. It was funny at first. Now it’s just cleaning out departments and canceling contracts.
Take those cuts out and the private sector added about 161,000 jobs. Not bad on paper. Not enough to ignore everything else.
Let’s talk about that other number. The household survey.
It showed a loss of 696,000 workers. That’s not a rounding error. That’s not noise. Full-time employment collapsed by over 600,000. At the same time, part-time roles ticked up.
Labor force participation dropped to 62.4 percent. Lowest since early 2020. That’s half a million people stepping out of the workforce in a single month. Gone.
...
don't worry, cuts to BLS have already degraded its capacity to measure the damage of Trump's cruel and moronic import taxes
https://www.wsj.com/economy/trump-ta...6476?st=4VdcqWThe U.S. Economy Is Headed Toward an Uncomfortable Summer
The U.S. economy, which weathered false recession alarms in 2023 and 2024, is entering another uncomfortable summer.
Job growth held steady in May, with the economy adding 139,000 jobs. The unemployment rate has stayed in a tight range, between 4% and 4.2%, over the past year.
But there are cracks beneath the surface. Businesses are warning that constantly shifting trade policies are interfering with their ability to plan for the future, leading to hiring and investment freezes.
Policy uncertainty has unfolded against the backdrop of an economy with slower job growth and a cooling housing market. Compared with last year, the Federal Reserve is more reluctant to cut interest rates because officials are worried about new inflation risks.
John Starr, the owner of UltraSource, an importer and manufacturer of meat-processing technology in Kansas City, Mo., said he is hunkering down—no hiring, no more capital spending—until he has clarity on tariffs.
...
Steel and aluminum tariffs, which Trump this past week raised to 50% from 25%, could boost domestic metal producers while squeezing profits for carmakers, can manufacturers, and companies such as an Steel. Hutton, the steel company’s president, said customers have been understanding about accepting some price increases because his compe ors have also had to raise prices.
“It feels like we’re muddling through,” he said. “Nobody—neither us, nor our customers, nor our overseas supplier—is in any position to do any long-term thinking.”
The Fed aggressively raised rates in 2022 and 2023 to combat inflation. But the U.S. economy was insulated because many households and businesses had already refinanced at ultralow rates during the pandemic. Later, the economy benefited from an unexpected boom in capital spending on artificial intelligence.
...
He expects businesses eventually will have to pass along some cost increases, however, because they will have depleted inventories acquired at pretariff rates.
One tailwind—recent declines in energy prices—could help offset some of the inflationary impulses from tariffs.
While the president often gets undue credit for what goes right or wrong in the economy, this time could be an exception.
“The economy has a lot of momentum, and so if Trump truly backs off on tariffs and just calms down, you could see this expansion going another two, three years, honestly,” said Thornberg of Beacon Economics. “Then again, if he keeps rocking the boat, you can blow it up by the beginning of next year.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-tr...063026737.htmlThe US Is on Track to Lose $12 Billion in Travel Revenue in 2025
According to new data from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), shared exclusively with Bloomberg, the country is set to lose $12.5 billion in travel revenue in 2025, with visitor spending estimated to fall under $169 billion by year’s end. The numbers represent a decline of around 7% in visitor spending year-over-year, and a decline of 22% since tourism reached its peak in the US in 2019.
This puts the US in a league of its own. Out of 184 global economies analyzed by WTTC in conjunction with Oxford Economics, it’s the only one projected to lose tourism dollars this year. “Other countries are really rolling out the welcome mat, and it feels like the US is putting up a ‘we are closed’ sign at their doorway,” says WTTC President and Chief Executive Officer Julia Simpson.
The consequences, Simpson says, could be devastating. “The US travel and tourism sector is the biggest sector globally compared to any other country, worth almost $2.6 trillion,” she says, citing WTTC and Oxford Economics data. According to Simpson’s data, direct and indirect tourism represents 9% of the American economy. (Visitor spending is one of the “direct” parts of the travel economy, while “indirect” contributions include the knock-on effects of increased spending by hospitality professionals.) The sector employs 20 million people and creates $585 billion in US tax dollars each year—7% of all tax revenue the US government receives. It’s a “major mainstay of the US economy,” she says.
...
It’s a cost for which the US can’t easily compensate. Already, 90% of the US tourism economy is made up of domestic travel—Americans vacationing within the 50 states—making it a hard sector to grow. Meanwhile, Simpson adds, every other country is making it easier for people to come visit with new perks like digitized visas. “India is gaining, the Middle East is gaining, China is gaining, Europe is doing quite well,” Simpson says. “It’s only Americans that are being left behind and losing out.”
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
