-26 upvotes, 13 direct replies (showing 13)
Just like it’s our right in individual economic transactions to leverage better positions for ourselves, it’s the US’s right to better leverage positions for ourselves.
I know it’s easy to relegate our position on the international stage to being a doormat and a piggy bank, since we can just keep printing money, but now we have someone that is looking out for American interests.
Comment by veerKg_CSS_Geologist at 01/12/2024 at 08:03 UTC
27 upvotes, 2 direct replies
The current free trade system is a result of America getting its way lol. You’re undermining yourself and your own policies.
Comment by Parrotparser7 at 01/12/2024 at 08:01 UTC
16 upvotes, 2 direct replies
it’s the US’s right to better leverage positions for ourselves.
Seriously, go find out how trade wars work.
Comment by joyfulgrass at 01/12/2024 at 10:06 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
How did Harley Davidson do with their protectionism?
Comment by Thesmuz at 01/12/2024 at 15:36 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Comment by Angry_Villagers at 01/12/2024 at 07:05 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Comment by Hot-Leg9636 at 01/12/2024 at 11:53 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Who the fuck is that?
Comment by Lumpy_Secretary_6128 at 01/12/2024 at 14:35 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Maybe try economic reasoning on policies that actually have strong economic reasoning to support them. The effects of tarrifs are covered in remedial economics courses. Take one.
Comment by albionstrike at 01/12/2024 at 14:54 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
We can try to leverage sure, but trumps drastic plans will just ruin any favorabiility we have
Comment by ncist at 02/12/2024 at 14:10 UTC*
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I thought most people knew this, but I guess it is now lost knowledge to the generation that can read books. So people don't hold USD because they like looking at George Washington's face. They hold it because they need to conduct transactions that are denominated in USD.
One of the major reasons you end up holding lots of USD turns out to be maintaining your trade surplus into America. Countries often try to make their currency *weaker* relative to USD in order to make their exports more attractive to American consumers. This results in them getting dollars and finding ways not to send them back to us. This makes the dollar stronger, not weaker. Strong currency = more imports, weak currency = more exports. I know that you guys just go off vibes, so "dollar stronk" means "trade surplus big burly man job stronk" in your imagination. But that's now how it works.
The reason this policy is so stupid is because de-dollarizing if it ever happens will have to go hand in hand with a *weaker* USD, and therefore hand in hand with US trade *surpluses.* It's showing that Trump has no grasp of economics. His opening "leverage" is a threat directed against himself. He is threatening to do the thing that they are asking for.
Comment by ohnoitsme657 at 02/12/2024 at 14:12 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
How does 100% tariffs help the US leverage a better position for ourselves? Step by step, please.
Comment by Piplup_parade at 02/12/2024 at 16:41 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
How would this course of action put the U.S. in a better position?
Comment by GateTraditional805 at 02/12/2024 at 17:55 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
*Fiduciary duties* in a financial sense exist to ensure that those who manage other people’s money act in their beneficiaries’ interests, rather than serving their own interests.
In the short term, everyone is going to have to eat these tariffs because of what we are in the global market and the trade advantages we have secured. Over the long term, everyone is going to start building bridges with countries that don’t have a history of puffing their chests through over leveraged tariffs.
What he’s doing is decentralizing a global market that used to hold us at the center of it. Anyone who can’t see that leveraging 100% tariffs on everybody is insane fails to realize two major outcomes of this (assuming it goes on unchecked):
1: We are irreversibly eroding trust with our trade partners. Political stability is a major consideration for executive decision makers when deciding to expand upon, venture into, or maintain international markets. I have no idea what the full extent of that will be, but you bet your ass there are C suits in every multinational company worth its salt talking about this right now and planning accordingly. That includes companies headquartered in the US, for now at least.
2. This will devastate our ability to project soft power internationally. The skeleton and muscle of our soft power is our strength as a trade partner. Any time we have a problem with a tinpot dictatorship, the most common lever we pull first is we sanction them. What good are sanctions on a country that isn’t trading with you anymore because you pulled the rug out from under them and it’s now more advantageous to get those same goods elsewhere?
Sure we have the largest military force in the world, but how far does that go when your major partners also have enough nukes to blow the world to hell and back? Nobody is particularly antsy to see those missiles fired. Who wants to live on a glow in the dark tennis ball?
You want to know what hits major powers where it hurts without instigating nuclear war? Trade. And up until now we have had the upper hand. These tariffs are honestly the only feasible way I could imagine any single political figure fucking that up. It’s like he’s trying to destroy us.
Comment by electrorazor at 04/12/2024 at 17:22 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Bruh this entire thing was our idea in the first place. It's how we became the most powerful nation on Earth. Now we just throwing it all away?