Trump tariffs are happening, and Minnesota farmers will be hurt
Apparently the first Trump tariffs are happening, starting tomorrow. 25% on Canada and Mexico, 10% on China.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office as he was signing executive orders, Trump said he understood the duties could result in higher costs being passed on to consumers and acknowledged his actions may cause disruptions in the short term. Most economists estimate such sweeping import taxes, and the likely retaliation, would disrupt economic activity around the globe.
(Reuters)
It’s a safe bet that a solid majority of Minnesota farmers, and people in farm towns, voted for that pitiful, deranged imbecile. But I’m not doing schadenfreude. This is bad.
For corn and soybean farmers, talk of tariffs is a sour dose of déjà vu. Midway through his first term, Trump imposed tariffs on a raft of goods from China, Canada, Mexico and other nations. The retaliation — particularly from China, which imposed its own 25 per cent tariff on American soybeans — cost farmers billions.
“Our soybeans went from about $10 a bushel to about $7 a bushel — and that does not work in this economy,” Wilts says. “That will put a lot of farmers out of business within a year or two.”
(The Narwhal)
Will there be bailouts, if this lasts for long? I’m not going to speculate. Certainly with ineffective back-benchers like Reps. Brad Finstad and Michelle Fischbach representing Minnesota’s biggest farm districts, there’ll be no help there.
When it comes to tariffs Trump can’t help himself. It’s something he can do without Congress, and with access to that power, like the particularly “difficult” two-year-old that in many respects he is and always has been intellectually and psychologically, of course he’s going to use it. And of course corporate media isn’t about to tell it like it is on that.
Update: As of about noon on Monday it looks like Trump is backing down. (Though our pitiful, groveling corporate media will probably spin it as a “Trump win.”) We’ll see.
Comment from Joe Musich: Thank goodness only 10% on China. The triple T’s Target,Tesla and tRump guitars will be saved. Smirk. However I am afraid most do not remember tariff terror due to the tariffs coming pretty much when the pandemic arrived. It is more than interesting to me that since he has taken over opps command stories are circulating about the lab origins of Covid. Welcome to our collective Orwellian nightmare short lived as it will be as push back begins. I see more reference to Oligarchs in print. The nature of Kleptocracy is becoming more understood by more people. I can feel it in my bones.
Comment from Joe Musich: The spin at the moment seems to be that the two nations have agreed to upgrade security which seems to be more lardollini bullshit. The same agreements made with ”sleepy Joe” have not changed. However I am concerned.about lardollini’s ire being directed at South Africa.
Thanks for your feedback. If we like what you have to say, it may appear in a future post of reader reactions.