Howard Lutnick is a bit like Bronny James. He is essentially a right winged DEI hire placed there due to favor. Trump decided to let Lutnick run a play, believing he can't **** it up that bad. The question is whether Trump will put Bronny on the bench, or will he just kick bronny off the team, which is what a professional like Trump would do.
Isn't he just a regular old white dude? What part of that is DEI? I'm not in huge favor of DEI, and I could be wrong, but this dude doesn't appear to be it.
Fellow BBSers love to use the Baghdad Bob joke around here, but no one’s earned it quite like Lutnick.
The pandemic showed what would happen if trade slowed down between China and the US. China locked millions of people in their homes without batting an eye. The US went crazy over a shortage of toilet paper and playstations and had the highest inflation since the 70's. People who think China needs us more than we need them can't even remember over 2 years ago. Trump is going to have 3 daddies after this is done and Americans are going to be collateral damage.
That doesn't really seem conflicting, it would have been a better meme with something like *Trump withdrawals tariffs*: Dems still mad LOL. instead. This adds too much nuance. The repetitive instillation and withdrawal on tariffs has to seem fishy to everyone right? Whether you support them or don't. The meme goes both ways because Repubs have been fiercely defending them and when they are canceled one day later the same Repubs don't blink an eye.
Someone has posted a report saying that importers and exporters can find ways to circumvent tariffs on manufactured goods, e.g. via rerouting to a third country. If the US poses permanent tariffs on all potential middleman countries, that would lead to huge inflation. If not, then businesses can continue doing such intermediary trade, which only benefits the third country while both the US and China are hurt.
Just saw a video on YouTube on how China’s manufacturing base(clothing, at least) is shut down as no new orders are coming in. Machines sit idle in empty factories. They were taking about how they already operate on thin margins and the tariffs will end their business to bankruptcy. There is nowhere to make up the difference in the loss of orders. Their home market sucks and the EU can’t absorb all the product. Also, that Sen. Elizabeth Warren is a smart Pocahontas. Just watched her tariff speech for today. She didn’t hold back.
That is why Vietnam, Thailand etc had such high rates, we will see where this is all leading to in a few months. Most likely China is selling US treasuries now. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/...is-about-to-blow-up-in-markets-180240729.html
Dude wanted treasury sec but is more like the Jan Brady of the Billionaire Bunch. It's always Bassent...Bassent...Bassent. Running Cantor Fitzgerald, who is a market maker for bonds, would normally be a big enough role for the spot, but he's too much of a greasy toad for people to take seriously with a big gamble like this. Man should divest himself of tether if he knows what's good for him in the China trade war. It's like the guy who ran Blackrock was jockeying to be Hillary's treasury sec choice, only to flip parties when Trump pulled off the upset. Apolitical opportunists.
That's politician talk for anyone not paying attention in the last 15 years to give them a pass. Mario Draghi released a report last year detailing what went wrong with Europe and what they need to do. If you don't know who he is, he's like a European Bernanke who was so respected that his country forced him to become prime minister. https://commission.europa.eu/topics/eu-competitiveness/draghi-report_en He recommends at least 800B Euros a year in spending to catch up. Several different schemes that mimic the new US/China post-Covid reality. I will spoon feed some quotes, but I doubt people are caring about poor old Europe while everyone's 401k is melting. “For Europe to remain free, we must be more independent. We must have more secure supply chains for critical raw materials and technologies. We must increase production capacity at home in strategic sectors.” “The EU must establish a true ‘foreign economic policy’ that aligns preferential trade agreements and direct investments with resource-abundant countries, builds stockpiles in critical areas, and fosters industrial partnerships to secure the supply chains of vital technologies." “It is crucial for the EU to prevent increased dependencies and seek to ‘leverage domestic resources through mining, recycling, and advancements in alternative materials.’” "[securing critical raw materials] will mean diversifying away from countries that were the cheapest suppliers in the world of yesterday.” The report explains that these materials are currently “subject to a global race to secure supply chains, and Europe is currently falling behind”. If you admire and respect Europe enough to read the report, you would also feel angry at European leaders for their neglect and mismanagement. They place and keep terrible bets in losers like costly hydrogen fuel. So much bureaucracy that no one is actively responsible or held accountable for prolonged failure. European productivity is in the dumps. Pathetic investment of R&D for hi tech. No MAG7 giant despite its marketsize and userbase.
Even if there was collusion, I don't know if there will be anything done about it. Maybe a newspaper will do a deep dive, and maybe even come up with damning information. But even then, I doubt that anyone in the DOJ will take it up. Especially since Trump's been firing all the government officials who investigated his crew before, as well as threatened the law firms with reprisals. Which I guess was the point.
You are wrong with China's position. China's foreign policy has always been built on mutual benefits and staying out of other countries' internal affairs. They talk and work with countries which are willing to cooperate with them on equal terms. Since China sticks to the principles of independence and non-alliance, it will not be tangled up in the EU-Russia dynamics. Instead, they do business with the EU and Russia separately. Both the EU and Russia need China as a trade partner, so none of them would mix trade talks with other political proposals that involve a third party.
