Tariff like it's 1897, Trump's Great Economy, Maybe the Best Ever

(yes this is the right thread).

Who knew that a state-run economy could have so many trade-war tools at their disposal? Oh well, I’m sure this is the worst they could do.

No actually not.

How else do you build a house in Seattle then? You can’t even buy a house for a modest price anywhere in the city.

They have a construction loan, I’m sure it will 400-600K when they are done, and they are already running it being over budget some I’m sure the higher lumber costs are going to hurt.

Well the idiot went ahead with his grand scheme. I just started reading Fear yesterday. Last weekend was the 10th anniversary of Lehman Brothers collapse. The next few weeks were one of the scariest periods of my life, because all signs pointed to the utter and complete collapse of the world’s economic system.

Woodward explains the title Fear early in the book it doesn’t have anything to do with Trump making us fearful. But I just read this headline and the same pit in my stomach feeling has come back 10 years later.

…and then the million dollars for the plot they’re building it on?

IDK what they paid but googling I see lots on Bainbridge island for 200-300K, the million dollar ones are multiple acres.

Oh, I thought you meant Seattle proper and not the cities surrounding Seattle.

Also Bainbridge implies a whole lot of ferries and commuting by ferry across lakes, so housing prices aren’t really representative of the city at large.

I just bought a home on Bainbridge Island. If we hadn’t found one we liked, we were looking at building. Lots aren’t crazy here and it’s only a 30 minute ferry ride from downtown. If you are little north or south of here, you can get an acre+ $60-$70k.

30 minutes by ferry is still shorter, by a lot, over my co-workers downtown who drive. You can still find, somewhat, affordable homes across the water.

Are they on bainbridge? Stuff is way cheaper there than being in Seattle proper.

You’re sort of a slave to the ferry schedule, but it’s a beautiful ride.

I like to eat at the Harbour Inn Pub at Eagle Harbor. Board the ferry at Downtown Seattle as a pedestrian. Wonderful way to spend an evening.

Trump is playing poker with someone else’s money, and he doesn’t even understand the rules of the game he is playing. But it’s someone else’s money so fuck it, I raise you 10%!

Yes back to the important subject at hand. Actually, it is a lot more than 10%. We had put 10% tariffs on $50 billion, with today action he has upped the ante to $250 billion with 10% tariff going to 25% in Jan 2019. Trump also said if the Chinese retaliate, which they have said they will, he will put tariffs on the remaining $250-300 billion of Chinese goods.

So this is likely a 10x increase in the amount of goods subject to tariffs and 150% increase on the tariff itself. So it is more like pushed all-in and threw 6 million of our houses into the pot. Or as Kai Rysdall said on NPR Marketplace today, if you wondered if we were in a trade war, today he declared war. I’ll add that that unless something happens we will be on full nuclear war by Jan. At stake is 41 million US jobs that depend on trade, and I imagine a much larger number in China.

Maybe the Chinese will start to counter the Russians since it’s in their interest and they’re fairly good at the cybers.

I was catching up on Marketplace episodes and I got sad when he mentioned late last week how more expensive than it would have been 8 months ago to rebuild houses that Florence destroyed, and that it would have been cheaper 8 months ago.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-17/trump-ratchets-up-tariff-pressure-on-china-with-200-billion-hit

I wonder if people will notice the tariffs? The question asked earlier, “have you noticed them,” is critical.

Certainly, the workers at Mid Continent Nail have noticed, as being laid off is a wake up call one can’t ignore. Other manufacturers and farmers will also see the impact first hand. But what about regular consumers? These are essentially taxes, but they don’t show up in a line item on the receipt.

I wonder if Dems will be able to communicate the pocketbook impact of these tariffs in a way that matters.