The world reacts to Trump's sweeping tariffs: 'No basis in logic'

[Guest]

Art of the deal, folks

[bassman1805@lemmy.world]

They're mostly [Trade deficit]/[Exports to US]

Which is a fucking stupid basis for tariffs.

[treczoks@lemmy.world]

Of that I am not convinced. This will work with a lot of smaller countries that don't have much of a copyright portfolio, but not with Europe.

[gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works]

no, “Sean” is not a country in ASEAN. That is incorrect.

[leninonaprayer@lemm.ee]

17% and they're already crying about it.

Ironically it's the closest the US has gotten to a BDS policy in its history with Israel.

[frezik@midwest.social]

The depth of stupidity of this Administration will be studied by mathematicians for centuries as a new form of fractal.

[barneypiccolo@lemm.ee]

Have we forgotten that he has done this each month since he was Inaugurated?

Today the stock market will crash on this news. The wealthy will buy on this massive dip, and in a few days, HitlerPig will announce that the countries on his list have responded to his tariff threats, so he is postponing them for a month or so.

The stock market will recover a bit, and the wealthy will make a fortune. In a month, he'll do it all over again.

It's deliberate market manipulation.

[breadstickninja@lemmy.world]

It's possibly the most stupid basis for tariffs. The penalty is directly proportional to U.S. reliance on a country's imports. The countries that are the most important suppliers to the U.S. are penalized the most. It's a policy designed to cause maximum reshuffling of production, which maximizes the start-up costs of developing new factories and so on. And those factories are not going to be in the U.S. Import substitution industrialization is a failed policy and it won't work for reindustrialization either.

[barneypiccolo@lemm.ee]

Those slovenly penguins dont wear suits, either.

[barneypiccolo@lemm.ee]

I've heard that if you type in the right prompt into ChatGPT, this list is the result. They couldn't even be bothered to have an expert figure this out, or even souble check it before releasing it. So they end up putting tariffs on penguins.

[Guest]

The price of speculative speculation dropped

[Guest]

Maybe this is some 5D chess move against the rise of penguins

[bitjunkie@lemmy.world]

No basis in logic if he were actually trying to do what he says he is. He's not. They make perfect sense if the goal is to destabilize the country. We elected a fucking Manchurian candidate twice, and the in-between term was spent on a bunch of business as usual and not setting up protections in case it happened again. This country is fucking done.

[gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works]

From the article you’re probably referring to:

DCInvestor’s observation came in response to crypto trader Jordan Fish, also known as Cobie, who also asked ChatGPT using the prompt: “What would be an easy way to calculate the tariffs that should be imposed on other countries so that the US is on even playing fields when it comes to trade deficit. Set a minimum of 10%.”

A straightforward (if naïve) method is to set the tariff rate for each trading partner equal to the percentage share of the trade deficit relative to that country's total imports-always no less than 10%.

In formula form:

Tariff Rate (%) = max(10, (Trade Deficit ÷ Total Imports) x 100)

For example, if the US runs a $20 billion deficit on $100 billion worth of imports from a country, the calculated rate is (20/100)×100 = 20%. If the deficit were only 5%, you'd still
impose a 10% floor. This method ignores the intricate dynamics of international trade-such as elasticities, retaliatory measures, and supply chain nuances-but it provides a blunt, proportional rule to "level the playing field." One might implement it in Python like so:

def calculate_tariff(trade_deficit, total_imports):
  # Calculate the deficit ratio as a percentage
  ratio =(trade_deficit / total_imports) * 100
  # Enforce a minimum tariff of 10%
  return max(10, ratio)

# Example usage:
tariff = calculate_tariff(20e9, 100e9)
# $20B deficit on $100B imports yields a 20% tariff
print(f"The tariff rate should be {tariff}%")

We are defining trade policy with predictive text. What a time to be alive. Jesus tapdancing christ.

[werefreeatlast@lemmy.world]

Give him some credit (not a lot). What if China were to give these penguins cars to resale? Middle men penguins is what they are. They should call the island Midway island, a term invented by his assholness.

[Guest]

I mean, it's pretty logical.

He wants to enrich his American buddies, and this is how we do it.

Instead of competing fairly with foreign businesses, Americans artificially increase the prices of the competition so customers don't have a cheaper option to choose.

I want to say this country sucks, I really do. But in all honesty, this generation sucks. The greed and consumerism on both sides is what led us to this.

It's a two-pronged approach where we have the 'lesser-evil' morons working in tandem with the 'greater-evil' scumbags to ensure good never prevails.

Fuck everyone who voted for hillary clinton and joe biden in their primaries. I put the blame squarely on them for why we have 2 trump presidencies.

Big reason why I didn't vote this election. Tired of supporting the "lesser-evil" crowd that never supports me for some reason. Loyalty is a one-way street with them.

[Guest]

This is unironically a great deal for him and his cronies and an awful deal for the working class.

I swear, it's just distraction after distraction, obstacle after obstacle that keeps us from toppling the ruling class. Anytime we get anywhere close to doing something significant, it's like the useful idiots come out in droves to make sure "NOPE NOPE NOPE, gotta keep history repeating itself!"

I wish I took my teachers and intelligent peers more seriously as a kid. I didn't realize how lucky I was to be surrounded by such great, smart people. I took them for granted, and now that I'm out in the real world I see exactly how stupid the average idiot is.

It's scary. Terrifying, even. There's so many of them and they all use that as justification for why they're right.

[Guest]

This is not the end goal.

Anyone who believes this without critique is incapable of autonomous thought.

[Guest]

Advertising should just be illegal.

It gives an unfair advantage to those who already have an unfair advantage.

I recommend installing an addon called AdNauseam to block ads in addition to sending data that you've clicked them.

Please everyone. Try to understand that being a useful idiot is the norm these days. It's what's cool.

[Guest]

You had me right up to "I didn't vote".