Sorry, but I can’t ignore the disintegration of the global economy. I really find myself wondering, what Americans are thinking, as their president announces what amounts to the biggest tax hike in decades for them, perhaps in history. The custom tariff rates include:
European Union: 20%
China: 54% (which includes earlier tariffs)
Vietnam: 46%
Thailand: 36%
Japan: 24%
Cambodia: 49%
South Africa: 30%
Taiwan: 32%
You’re really just going to tax everything from China at 54%? You realize this applies to everything right? If you have some small machine you purchase in the United States it will have parts that were made in China, now subject to a tariff, making the machine itself more expensive too, even if it’s put together in the United States.
If the machine is then used to manufacture products in the US (like a printer making receipts at a store for example), those products will be more expensive too. That’s why generally speaking, in the modern world you don’t put tariffs on everything. You generally put tariffs on a handful of finished luxury goods with high margins, to protect your own local industry. As an example, a country like Norway has a tariff on imported cheese. You generally don’t put tariffs on stuff at the start of your supply chain, like machine parts, as this reverberates through the supply chain in ways that can be difficult to anticipate.
I mean, I will admit, it’s a pretty ballsy move, to declare a trade war against every country on the planet simultaneously. This is like Hitler just deciding to annex Austria, invade Czechoslovakia, declare war on Poland and the Soviet Union and send his troops into the low countries, all at the same time, in early 1933.
They’re all coordinating their response, China, Japan and South Korea, three countries that famously get along well and have no historical grievances whatsoever, have a coordinated response to the tariffs. The EU is planning to respond with import bans, that is, certain goods just won’t be allowed into Europe from the US anymore at all.
In contrast to Trump’s YOLO strategy, the other countries are going to respond in calculated ways, to maximize economic hurt to the US, presumably mostly to those states and billionaires who are loyal to Trump. This is like firing your nuclear stockpile, in that yes, you’re also hurting yourself when you nuke other countries, but you can also expect a response.
I’m sure all the moronic alt-reich influencers love this stuff, I’m betting Joe Rogan will announce the carnivore diet now becomes even more affordable and Alex Jones will say this is like being liberated from the aliens in Independence Day. These people just say what the algorithm will reward. But my mind is blown.
The main reason we’ve had economic growth at all in the past twenty years, is because China joined the World Trade Organization. This led to economic integration between different parts of the world. That means every part of the world can focus on a handful of things they’re good at. China had low salaries and cheap energy, so they could offer cheap products to other countries. This meant that America didn’t have to manufacture everything themselves anymore, Americans could focus on what they are good at (innovation, marketing, entertainment, etc).
I don’t know if people realize this, but manufacturing jobs were generally poorly paid and unfulfilling labor. Do you really want to stand at an assembly line all day long? Do Americans look at the Foxxcon plant with its suicide nets and think to themselves: “I wish that was Joe Sixpack from the rust belt working there.”
Of course these tariffs won’t really bring the manufacturing back anyway, for a number of reasons. To start with, this president should be gone within four years, after which the tariffs will be gone too. Second, manufacturing costs are still just higher in the US than they used to be. Third, the supply of labor simply isn’t there.
Global economic integration is like making a soup. You can’t just say to yourself after five minutes of the soup boiling: “Wait, I wanted that cabbage for some other dish.” No, that’s now part of the soup. You can’t just reverse globalization. Things became more efficient and we responded with new technologies piled on top of the old technologies. The sort of people who would have been building cars in the United States forty years ago now build websites.
I’m also just kind of amazed, by the fact that Americans apparently feel oppressed by the fact that they consume goods that were made in other countries. The whole world produces stuff for you, you get to play in Hollywood movies, record music, do Onlyfans or livestream video games for a living, but it’s not good enough. Europe needs to be punished for producing your wine, China for producing your machine parts.
Totalitarian systems all have in common that they tend to glorify boring soul-crushing labor. The Soviet symbols were the hammer and the sickle. Hitler ran the national socialist German laborer’s party. Even the sign on the concentration camps said “work makes free”. Americans have this strange schizophrenic mentality, of insisting they love jobs and voting as if they love to work, while simultaneously showing no signs of it.
If your country is a net importer of all sorts of stuff, you know what that means? It doesn’t mean the rest of the world is screwing you over, it means your country is rich. But don’t worry, that will soon be over.
The current people living in America are basically unfit to maintain a functioning democratic state, or any kind of modern advanced economy whatsoever. It may appear as though America is still in these categories for a time but it’s purely due to momentum, in America basically the baby boomers and everyone after them are complete subhumans (so, everyone alive in the country right now with a tiny margin of error). Fortunately for the rest of the world, Americans appear at the moment to be heavily invested in the project of destroying themselves as quickly as possible, which means they will be less capable of causing harm to the rest of the planet later on.
On a semi-related note, have this article: https://archive.is/qWCpO
>The current people living in America are basically unfit to maintain a functioning democratic state, or any kind of modern advanced economy whatsoever. It may appear as though America is still in these categories for a time but it’s purely due to momentum
Yep. The Republican party seems to have no people left capable of maintaining a functional state. They have served the very rich for a long time, but by now they have no competent people left to do so.
And yet that’s still what half the country votes for.
>On a semi-related note, have this article: https://archive.is/qWCpO
Yeah Americans kind of deserve hell on Earth.
Trump strikes me as the greatest environmentalist of all time. This move will crash industrial systems all over the world. This is the stuff I have been dreaming of since the 1990s.
He is undoing 40 years of globalization overnight. People of my generation were protesting against globalization in Seattle and Hamburg and Genoa at the end of the 1990s. Now our dreams come true, but we have all switched sides and are all for globalization now. Go figure.
I am still looking for a decent analysis of what he is exactly doing (are there loopholes? Caveats? Will he cave under pressure and undo most tariffs? Is the shooter going to miss this time around?).
But if the tariffs stay until the end of Trump’s turn and the effects are as catastrophic as I expect them to be, this is history textbook material.
>Trump strikes me as the greatest environmentalist of all time. This move will crash industrial systems all over the world. This is the stuff I have been dreaming of since the 1990s.
True. It’s a strangely green move: Just make everything imported unaffordable to Americans and have them eat food that is locally produced.
This is more environmentalist than anything Al Gore would ever dare to do. Low IQ low status white males should be furious, but instead, they’re celebrating.
I am really glad that you see the benefits of local-ism.
Yes, that is why I am very surprised by your take on this. The global economy is horrible for the planet; why are you saying it is so great to manufacture tons of unwanted and unneeded crap for cheap and to ship it all over the world? It seems like you just hate this because Trump is doing it. The Europe you idealize is one in which countries made most of their own stuff. The New England I idealize did most of its own production; it was much better for the planet, especially since that meant there was less production. It is GOOD for manufactured crap to be rare and expensive, and for the people who consume it to put up with the pollution that the production of it requires.
You think digging for copper where there’s very little and low grades of ore is beneficial for the environment? That’s just one example. We just need to use and improve techonolgy to ensure transport of goods don´t pollute. We’re almost there btw. But Trump’s move is just to stop this big leap forward.
To be realistic, what it is mainly about is preparation for war. And that requires local industry; if we went to war with China tomorrow we would be toast since we wouldn’t be able to build any weapons now that we have so little manufacturing remaining. It is by no means just an economic thing.
As to the consumer economy, even if we got magical transport that didn’t pollute, that does nothing to end the gigantic river of plastic crap that gets sent around the world, and there is no sign that anyone is trying to slow or reduce that in any other way. Even clothing is made of plastic now; there are mountains of discarded synthetic clothing all over Africa. Cheap transport would make that problem worse.
Really your reaction makes no sense at all. You’re pro-consumerism all of a sudden? What the fuck. You really think it is bad that I won’t be able to go into Walgreens here in CA and buy cheap canned ham (“DAK”) from Denmark?? Or if I can buy it, that it will cost five times as much? I think that is great. Multiply that by every rotten thing that the U.S. imports, which is almost everything that people buy. I remember when produce didn’t come wrapped in plastic; when there were no “Lunchables”; that could happen again, but the terrible system you are defending makes it possible to swathe everything and send it three thousand miles shelf stable. Back in the 1970s people started growing food in their back yards since it made economic sense; would that be bad?????
He is a European. Europe is fooked now because capitalist imperialism, with the USA as the Military muscle for it, is decadent and doomed and coming to an end. The USA, seeing the writing on the wall, is sensibly going to look after number 1. There will be sour grapes from Europeans – they have been doing quite well out of the arrangements up until now, but now, they are fooked. They bet the farm on buying some time with their war efforts against Russia – if it was destroyed and dismantled it could have been plundered by them, but they’ve lost that war. And what does Europe actually export again to the rest of the world? It’s not as if they will all die or anything from this, but they’re not going to be big dick players anymore. A cuntry like the UK might even have to do something productive rather than live as a pile of loan sharks and rent seekers with a US enforcer to beat on their victims.
Yes indeed, capitalism is in crisis. Do not be surprised if an even bigger war happens soon. A war gives them a chance to steal stuff as collateral for their debts for a bit longer, and to profit from weapons and reconstruction. Sure, it would mean the destruction of many humans and much of humanity’s shared collective wealth – houses, hospitals, roads, factories, etc. – but just think of the chance for profit! And that’s the problem right there when you put ‘capital’ at the heart of your operating system. So maybe, if capitalism gets it big war, the Europeans will all die after all? But if they win, the capitalism will get to kick the can down the road for maybe another decade or two in a blasted and ruined world – hooray! What a terrific outcome for everyone that would be.
Or maybe the USA sees that the jig is up, withdraws from its role as imperial enforcer, and we end up with a new and more balanced world with a handful of large players.
Of course, we all still end up cactus in the end owing to resource depletion, overpopulation, climate change etc, so maybe it’s better to go out with a big bang after all?
Humans are so destructive that animals might even have a better chance of surviving a nuclear war rather than the continued operation of capitalism and modernity.
We might, therefore, be better off in the long run by being blasted back to the stone age right now.
Something to ponder.
Perhaps Rintrah is playing 4d chess 🙂
Trump must get it right and talk it right, before anything he does can be right.
He spouted that Vietnam had 90% TARIFF against the US. It’s totally BS, how can you guys defend his BS?
Hiep Tran – the crisis was here before Trump – Trump is a necessary and welcome symptom of the crisis, which is raging all around us, and will hopefully provide the necessary conditions for something better to emerge. And if it doesn’t, well, I guess we are left hoping for some other event to take the system down before it destroys everything.
What I’m not sure about is the extent to which it is a necessary function of internal contradictions and so forth, such as occur in a capitalist overproduction (as foretold by Marx), or external factors, such as reductions in the availability of affordable energy and other resources.
Por que no los dos! And more besides?
Whatever the case, Trump rode to power on a wave of discontent sown by capitalism – it is the capitalists who pursued profits over all else, and screwed their own people, who are pissed and voted for Trump and Brexit and all the popular right-wing parties in Europe etc.
All the capitalists can blame themselves for this.
I welcome the arrival of the harbinger of capitalism’s doom.
Is that defending Trump?
I don’t think so.
@Baron: let’s stop talking about something too big and too vague, at least for a moment.
Trump said that Vietnam charged the US by 90%, that’ BS. The whole tariff table of him is BS. Then he tries to charge the whole world, based on his totally BS idea. That’s it.
And a large majority of what Trump said was also BS.
How can you trust the BS guy to do the right thing? That’s totally counter-intuitive.
> He is a European
Europeans come in all stripes and flavors.
Which flavor do you impute to our host and why?
(Reaction time is a factor in this, so please pay attention. Now answer as quickly as you can.)
https://youtu.be/Umc9ezAyJv0?si=TKTxur8G_3Ih7Sa0
P.S. you portray yourself as an anarchist/communist. How do your stated beliefs apply to Israel?
Ha, ha – Hiep Tran, this is not about me trusting anyone!
That said, I do ‘trust’ psychopaths and malignant narcissists to think and behave like evil Machiavellian psychopaths!
Buty whatever, feel free to get yourself all worked up over Trump not telling you the ‘truth’, as if he wasn’t a malignant narcissist and the whole of capitalism wasn’t in crisis – ha, ha!
Mehen – I love it, so now I’m a replicant. Ha, ha!
What sort of flavour of European is Rintrah? He’s basically the kind that likes the status quo. My read is that he has supported the legacy of European colonialism, which has been rebranded these days as globalism etc. Which fits with his racial supremacist tendencies.
I also seem to recall he also said he was neoconservative didn’t he?
So, it’s hard not to conclude that he’s some kind of supporter of the evil empire, with a particular emphasis on the European part, that has benefitted from the status quo through finance capital and VIOLENCE! Lots and lots of VIOLENCE against the whole damn world.
I’ve suggested things like doing away with interest, and I don’t recall him being a fan of that, so he’s probably not an anti-capitalist. Which is odd, because I don’t see how you can limit the damage of the system to the environment while it has an economic system that requires endless destructive growth to pay back all those debts, plus INTEREST, at an ever increasing rate.
What do I think of Israel? As I’ve said before here, I think it is basically a colony of Europeans in the middle east that’s there to control trade routes and access to oil, which is the master resource for modernity.
It’s part of the empire. Supporting it in its genocidal war against the Palestinians is supporting the ambitions of empire.
Now, is it a ‘good’ thing to support that empire?
Do you want that empire to keep going?
Well, it must do ‘good’ things or nobody could be brought to fall into line with it, but it does a lot of bad things too.
The consequences are mounting. . .
We’re basically fooked now – a Russian doll of garbage cans – always needing a bigger can to stuff all the disgusting trash into.
As for me, I think I am, by natural inclination, some kind of Christian/anarchist/communist. It’s more of a disposition than anything else – I don’t have a lot of company where I live in 99% plus vaxland and am not a member of any church or party – I have no official orthodoxy. I read the gospels, and I think to myself, “Man, this Jesus dude was some kind of anarchist!” But, I take inspiration from other figures as well. Maybe I shouldn’t.
@Baron:
“as if he wasn’t a malignant narcissist”
Well, I do agree he’s a malignant narcissist.
“get yourself all worked up over Trump”
well, he spoke BS and do BS, and I said so, it’s that simple. Nothing’s worked up here.
And his BS will cause destruction to the US, and the whole world, that’s it.
Hiep Tran “And his BS will cause destruction to the US, and the whole world, that’s it.”
You give Trump too much credit. Capitalism sowed the seeds of its own destruction. It’s bigger than Trump.
The Democrats, who Rintrah supports fervently, are just as guilty as anyone else for spurting those seeds all over, and now they’re sprouting.
You want to blame someone? Then blame ALL the capitalists for the crisis that they have brought upon themselves.
Mwah ha ha!
Everything under heaven is in utter chaos, the Orange Chaos Monkey is wreaking havoc!
Fear not my LSWM comrades, the situation is excellent!
@Baron:
I admit I’m illiterate on economy, banking, finance…
I’m only sure that Trump is a big liar and is bringing destruction, as you said “the Orange Chaos Monkey is wreaking havoc”.
Well, and I think he’s the Beast of revelation (with Elon is the second one). He has a big role to bring down Babylon the US.
We’re witnessing Revelation now.
Hiep Tran – I’ve spent a lot of time trying to convince people of this or that, to no effect, so I’m happy to let it go.
Believe whatever it is that you are fated to believe.
On that score, you seem interested in the Bible – commendable.
Hiep Tran – I’m not even really trying to convince you of anything, so much as get through to you, and I don’t think I’m managing to be understood.
Here’s hoping you’re right though and this is the Biblical end of days and not just some far more mundane capitalist crisis/poly crisis with shifting power constellations etc. that brings with it opportunities for revolution against our capitalist overlords and their planet eating machine, or whatever.
@Baron. Oh, it’s transparently clear to me.
– The White horse was Pandemic, with a crown (corona) and a bow (toxon ~ toxic ~ the jab)
– The Red horse was War (either Russian or Israeli one, or both)
– The Black horseman, holding a pair of scales, symbolizing trading. Trading will collapse (due to Trump), and we’ll have “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius”.
– Last pale horse of death will follow soon, in 1-2 years.
Trump and Elon are the two Beast, read it again and you’ll see.
– The number 666 is all over Trump, easy to search.
– Trump will have 42 months, so he won’t die very soon.
– We’ll have the collapse of Babylon the great (US) before that.
– Babylon the US produced the porn industry and even gender change industry, which degrade all nations, as it was written.
So, we’re witnessing history now, really.
oh, one more thing:
– “Sorcery” was pharmakeia in Greek, it implies the use of potions, poisons, and drugs. So that’s Pharmacy, which Babylon deceived all nations.
– Well, if a medieval man see a modern pharmacist making drugs (potions) from crude oil, he’ll call it “sorcery” for sure.
Moo moo European
Pharma products are neither heavy nor bulky but cost now 20 to 30% more in the US. No planet was harmed producing them. (Maybe the patient, but that is another subject.)
> And what does Europe actually export again to the rest of the world?
To start with, the best planes. Great cars. Your ugly cyberdick has belgian steenless steel. The best chocolate. It’s a long list.
Swisslestick, broadly speaking, Europe is headed downwards.
The material world is trouncing the fantasy. But look, we shall see what happens won’t we?
Historical forces far larger than individuals like Trump are at play and new power constellations are emerging.
Among the changes, China and Russia have risen to new prominence in the heavens, the USA is still up there too, but dimmer; however, Europe appears to be sinking towards the horizon where it will eventually join the assembly of lesser powers.
That’s how it seems to me.
I suspect a lot of what is still holding Europe up are just financial abstractions, but if they go ‘away’ (and it seems like the power of their magic is fading, given the sanctions failed to destroy Russia), then what?
But, no matter, despite its chocolate etc. it seems like Europe is sinking while others rise.
It seems like the USA can see the writing on the wall and, in much the same way as the Soviet Union voluntarily dismantled itself, is in the process of dismantling the arrangements that it has with its allies to better place itself in the new world to follow.
How bad will it get for Europe?
At a minimum it looks like it’s in for a significant loss of wealth and prestige and power.
it doesn’t have to be the death of Europe (unless someone freaks out and causes WWIII – there’s maybe a 75% chance of that happening as the big powers rub up against each other as we transition to a new order), but it doesn’t look good either.
That’s my honest opinion – take it or leave it, I don’t care.
As an aside, I’m an Australian, so I can safely say that we don’t make steel dicks down here, because we don’t make much of anything after decades of neoliberalism.
It will be interesting to see what happens between China and the USA, which is likely to be the next big war to come I guess now that the western empire has failed to destroy Russia. Europe might end up getting itself destroyed in that too, if the war gets big enough.
Whatever the case, Europe’s days of being colonial masters of the world and enjoying all the spoils that brings are basically over. The other players are big enough, and technologically advanced enough, to now be able to meet force with equal or greater force, so the jig is up.
And don’t forget the resource depletion. . .
Or the capitalist crisis. . .
Or the rest of the ‘polycrisis’.
Crisis, crisis, crisis. . .
Who knows, maybe these crises will bring with them opportunities for radical transformation into a better world? There you go, I finally managed to squeeze a bit of optimism for you.
If not, well, who cares? It’s not like it was heading anywhere good anyhow.
Seems like a common enough theme – we are beset by demons to get to a better place, to become better versions of ourselves.
So, we’re lucky really, because judging by the amount of suffering going on and the suffering that’s still to come, it looks like we all stand a pretty good chance of becoming damn excellent.
A bit trite, but there you go, a bit more optimism for you.
> Really your reaction makes no sense at all. You’re pro-consumerism all of a sudden? What the fuck.
Lol
Sorry to break the news to ya…
Well, more accurately, he seems to support the ‘status quo ante’ for Europeans as the ‘rightful lords and masters’ of the universe, minus meat.
He also has luddite tendencies, which are admirable. Uncle Ted would approve. And concern for the environment – also admirable.
The trouble, really, is that what we have here is beyond something that can be saved by diddling about with any variant of capitalism – “My capitalist is nicer than your capitalist” etc.
I don’t really have the words here, but I’m thinking of a criticism of Dickens I once heard. It basically went that some people tend to think of Dickens as some kind of anti-capitalist because he wrote about the horrors of poverty and so forth, but he wasn’t really. Instead, the argument went that Dickens basically thought that the system was cool and normal, but that if only the rich would be a bit nicer to the poor then everything would be just fine. . .
As if every trash picker in the third world can hope for a noble and wealthy capitalist benefactor to swoop into rescue them from the horrific conditions that the very same class of ‘benefactors’ imposes on them to generate their obscene wealth.
Well, I’m afraid that’s just not good enough. We’ve been there, done that, got the T-shirt and we’re still screwed and the trash pickers are still picking trash.
The whole stinking system has to go. Failing that, at least put an end to capitalism.
When I was a kid if you wanted to grow sprouts to eat you would find a glass pickle jar or a glass jar that tomato sauce had come in (although it was usually in can in those days) and you would take a piece of cheesecloth and use a rubber band to hold the square of cheesecloth in place. Now you go on Amazon and buy a plastic jar specially designed to grow sprouts in which is not any better for that purpose and it is made in China and shipped across the ocean. This is WORSE.
>It’s a strangely green move: Just make everything imported unaffordable to Americans and have them eat food that is locally produced.
I worked for 10 years in oil companies. Their nemesis has always been low oil prices; issues such as political pressures and permitting difficulties have always been secondary compared to the enormous losses induced by low oil prices on multi-decade development projects with fixed costs of billions of dollars.
Who else can benefit from high oil prices? Environmentalists. If gas is $30/gallon, everyone would be tripping over themselves to save $$ by buying local and living in walkable communities.
Do we see any alliance between oil companies and environmentalists forming, to pressure OPEC+ to cut production to keep prices high? Nopety nope. People think rigidly. That alone shows we are not ready for the Star Trek era.
You should have Trusted the Plan. Trump is going to make all your Environmentalist dreams come True.
Low IQ White men are your friends lol.
I expect there will be short term pain while companies, markets and countries adjust. Some companies will not survive, especially the ones owned by private equity that have been leveraged to the hilt. Not a great time to own corporate junk bonds. Tough medicine, but over the long term, The United States and Americans (on average) will be better off. Gone will be the days of excessive consumption of inexpensive and cheaply made goods. Gone will be the supply chain disruptions from global events, and gone will be the need to control world events.
I am oversimplifying for the sake of brevity and unintended consequences will need to be worked through. Not everything can be sourced and made in the U.S. The question is whether people will have the patience to give it time to work.
Clown World getting more retarded again. All the insane DMT stuff is less absurd than what Trump is doing.
given that the EU taxes anything coming from the US at higher rates than this, i dont see the problem. I had to ask relatives living in the US years ago to stop sending me even something as simple as a box of homemade cookies for christmas – somehow that gets hit with 23 (then, now it’s 24)% VAT plus 25% import duty (which are also levied on the postage costs!) and even at a moderate valuation they became the most expensive cookies on the continent.. i recall on visits to the US seeing local products of ours (cheese and yogurt for example) on the store shelf cheaper than they are here in the local supermarket where theyre domestic products!! it only sounds like fair play to me!
Correct. Having lived in both the USA and Greece, I realized how much the EU taxes American products and it’s a lot. The EU bellyaching is retarded.
This group does not want to understand that. This is the same reaction to the US withdrawing from the Ukraine conflict – the US has been subsidizing militaries and economies all over the world for 50+ years, and in doing so, has allowed itself to degrade, deindustrialize, and take on several lifetimes of debt.
Will it work? I don’t know. Does it have to be done? Yes, before reality does it for us.
One irony – Trump’s moves are a check on rampant consumerism, which I would think the patrons here would appreciate. It also incentivizes local consumption and will deincentivize long-transport global supply chains, which I would also think would appeal here.
I read he slapped 10 percent on Jan Mayen. Suck it, uninhabited rock in the Arctic Ocean; your days of ripping off America are over!
Yeah there are special tariff rates on uninhabited islands. The rate seems based on the ratio between import and export of goods and the whole thing seems to be what you get when you ask chatGPT to give you a formula. It’s scary honestly.
I think this is relevant (to see the wider picture):
(by George Sivrides)
“The US has the ability to print as many dollars as they want, but when these are directed abroad (Ukraine, Israel, multinationals) they increase the payment deficit — this was the price of “global parity.” That’s why they’re rapidly retreating and withdrawing from wars because in an impending de-dollarization, they’ll be left with a huge foreign debt to repay. (Let’s remember what John Law wrote back in 1705, that you should indeed print money to boost manufacturing, but the limit he gives is: “Don’t make imports with that money!”). In Europe, on the other hand, the euro is foreign exchange for each country, and every public expenditure is essentially foreign debt from the start. Who wins? The banking system that gradually erodes national economies and ultimately the states that dissolve into a slurry of serfs — the famous individualism of the Liberals. Initially, with the euro, they created growth by indebting everyone, states (which turned internal debts, state and public utility debts, into external ones) and citizens (consumers or investors for the Liberals). When they exhausted the people, they invented “green growth” (in quotation marks not only because it’s a contrived term but also because these are the nonexistent objects of Alexius Meinong), further increasing citizens’ debts. They finished that too, and said what’s left to do — always with the same system, war!
They [Europeans] follow the US in everything, but without having the same system. The US, when they make weapons, simply print dollars (the entire war industry is subsidized). The French, when they made Mirage jets, also printed francs. But now they’re borrowing in foreign exchange. Let’s imagine the US borrowing from a Chinese bank in yuan to make weapons. And the same goes for the British: the Bank of England is as if it were Chinese, and the pound as if it weren’t English currency. When the French made Mirage jets with francs, they sold them abroad and received foreign exchange. The currency’s parity depended on exports. If they didn’t sell as much as they hoped, at most they’d undervalue the currency. Which means they could use them themselves without burdening anyone with taxes; on the contrary, they created jobs. Now, to make airplanes, they borrow in foreign exchange like the neighborhood grocer who hopes things go well to repay his bank debt. In the first system (the national economy, the “Keynesian” one), the citizen isn’t indebted, which is why European countries had a pre-euro war industry without worrying if a war broke out. In the second system (the neoliberal one), if they don’t sell them, the taxpayer will pay for them. If they do sell them, the taxpayer of the other country will pay for them (whereas before, the other country could simply give some of its own product or the foreign exchange from its export in return).
So, Europe’s neoliberal economic system is not conducive to maintaining a war industry (it’s no coincidence that France, which maintains one, is an “outdated socialist economy”). Of course, the Liberals want to provoke World War III not to revitalize the French war industry, but the financial system. As for ideology, it increases as society becomes more money-oriented. The more money becomes the measure of all things, the more reality is removed, and the more man, losing contact with it, becomes psychological without a real measure.”
Trump lies too much, too blatantly. Making some numbers, and called that “unfair tariffs against the US”, who can believe that?
Donald the Beast is raging war, just as it was Revealed, and the world is in awe.
Babylon-the-Great, the US, will fall, for sure.
Meanwhile the US dollar and oil are getting cheaper. The US needs to export more, import less. But can they keep interest rates in check? Short term yes, but I wouldn’t be suprised to see the US10Y at 7% in a few years.
Imo the only chance for Europe is to open up to the vast eurasian continent. From Lissabon to Wladivostok, Peking and New Delhi. Infrastructure projects for decades to come. Did you know that the german Kaiser tried that before WW 1 (that was one reason for the first world war). He built the Bagdad Railway, connecting Germany through the Ottoman Empire to Basra securing the first oil fields for Germany, planning further to reach India. The english (and americans) were not pleased. Today the english and americans are not pleased. So they tried to put another iron curtain between Western Europe and Russia, China, Iran etc.
Whatever happens, we are not in Kansas anymore.
Yeah: Alex Jones is now a fanboy of Trump and Musk.
> If your country is a net importer of all sorts of stuff, you know what that means? It doesn’t mean the rest of the world is screwing you over, it means your country is rich. But don’t worry, that will soon be over.
I have been watching this for a while now.
Just pondering the fact that they have the ability to create more of the world reserve currency. Though that will eventually change and I’m interested in how this plays out.
At a “meta” level:
Gods use humans for their purposes, even when the humans are unaware of that.
Actions such as mass firings, mass tariffs… Sweeping, merciless change… These are the signature of Saturn. He can enact such changes even though the people used as intermediaries (i.e. Cheeto) can be quite non-Saturnic.
In any case — massive, sweeping changes are on the menu nnow. The Big Boss (Saturn) is acting directly upon the world for the first time in decades. When he does that, the world ends up completely changed. Usually by yhe end of the show, the arrogant have been punished. What we are seeing now is just the beginning. Strap on seatbelts, and fill your hearts with fear and love of the Allfather.
Fuck you Euro retards are a bunch of complete fucking moronic retards.
What is the fucking difference between a 20% import VAT and a 20% import tariff?
Trump just calls it a tariff, because that is his legislated power.
Eurotards call it a VAT.
FYI to all retards:
Trump is doing what he is doing because he WANTS the expected reaction.
He WANTS to isolate the US.
This is his endgame strategy. Soon there will be billions of starving Africans flooding into Europe and from the South into the US.
When will the Eurotards realize that Russia and the US have been working together from the outset (from 2008).
I love you all.
I wish we could hang out in a 70s style sunken living room
And bicker amongst ourselves
With an orange shag carpet and wood paneling surrounding us.
Anonymity is useful to an extent. But it also divides
(I realize Fucko and Retard feel differently)
We are all unfortunately “faces in disguise”
These fears come rushing in when I enter here
Another layer on my back
A blazing fire where our glances meet
The largest feeling towering over me
Faces in disguise
Not a trace of desire
I long to take you a secret place
Where we could lay aside our past
We’d throw the world away with all its pain
To shine like stars through storm and clouds and rain
Rain
Faces in disguise
Not a trace of desire
(Cold faces in disguise)
(Not a trace of desire)
Go face the day
Go and see new things
Go face the day
But you’ll remember me
I see a tear inside when you’re turned away
Another wound that I’d take back
If I could feel your heart just once and then
I’d take you now where we could live again
Faces in disguise
Not a trace of desire
(Cold faces in disguise)
(Not a trace of desire)
Go face the day
Go and see new things
Go face the day
But you’ll remember me
Faces in disguise
Not a trace of desire
(Cold faces in disguise)
(Not a trace of desire)
https://youtu.be/IC0GrHer1W0?si=fezzVHFrj2CBBJ-0
(Paramour did a good cover of this)
You can all see I’m not old and out of touch, right?
I’m still hip and cool, right?
https://youtu.be/vSP4pcIRVnU?si=3yFvzKlJkalivKnk
> I wish we could hang out…
That would be really cool. I miss those times…
As to what kind of European Rintrah is: I think he’s a combination of you and Wombat, but born 20 years later, and in one of the countries where radical individualism was first born.. (with scarce sunshine on top).
A sign of a brilliant mind is holding two opposing views at the same time, according to Scott Fitzgerald (and Craig Ferguson where I first heard it lol).
THat’s Rintrah. He holds opposing views (maybe sometimes leading to cognitive dissonance? i dunno) because he has a brilliant mind.
He’s also sensitive but he doesn’t have a tradition (being Dutch) to support him.
In a different state of things, he would hang out with you two a lot.
It’s not bc of a generation gap (it happens with other 30ers here, and us 40-50ers), it’s bc of how crappy the situation has turned out.
> That would be really cool. I miss those times…
Anything is possible. Where there’s a Will, there’s a way.
> As to what kind of European Rintrah is: I think he’s a combination of you and Wombat, but born 20 years later, and in one of the countries where radical individualism was first born.. (with scarce sunshine on top).
Yes, I’m familiar with the theory regarding the evolution of Northern Europeans. They seem to feel at home with cold grey skies. If you ask me, they would do well to experience more equatorial latitudes. Just saying.
> He’s also sensitive but he doesn’t have a tradition (being Dutch) to support him.
I am but an ignorant LSWM. Are you saying the Dutch have no traditions, no history, no culture they can stand upon? That’s news to me!
> It’s not bc of a generation gap (it happens with other 30ers here, and us 40-50ers), it’s bc of how crappy the situation has turned out.
Hmmm
Apollo meant that Rintrah is sensitive but the Dutch are not sensitive so Rintrah does not have a tradition of Dutch sensitivity to support him in being sensitive.
>Apollo meant that Rintrah is sensitive but the Dutch are not sensitive so Rintrah does not have a tradition of Dutch sensitivity to support him in being sensitive.
My heart is breaking right now when I conclude offspring were and never will be a feature of my life.
“Here’s some kids. You wanna hear some kids? Listen.”
https://youtu.be/GSRtJ0GyQAk?si=MthWwEHU2-oK3T08
Tearing in my heart when the world falls apart
And it’s almost too hard
Tearing in your mind, how the pain makes you blind
When it’s all said and done, ah ah ah
Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, forevermore
Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, forever
Tearing in my heart, a mistake from the start
And it’s almost too hard
Tarry in my mind, I’ll repay you another time
When it’s all said and done, ah-ah-ah-ah
Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, forevermore
Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, forever
Tearing in your bones when the road left you alone
And it’s almost too hard
Tarry in my soul and you help make me whole
When it’s all said and done, ah-ah-ah-ah
Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, forevermore
Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, forever
Tearing in my heart when the world falls apart
And it’s almost too hard
Tarry in my soul and you help make me whole
When it’s all said and done, ah-ah-ah-ah
Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, forevermore
Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, forever
I would probably have liked hanging out too.
No sunken orange lounges around here though, although that sounds pretty damn good.
Mostly, back when I had ‘friends’ (did I ever have any real friends? I’m not so sure anymore.) we would hang out in sheds, or an outdoors setting of some kind.
Chat, drink, smoke cigarettes and weed, take the odd other substance.
But, those days are gone now. Covid seemed to kill off whatever relationships I had left outside of my immediate nuclear family.
On some health metrics, it’s probably for the best, but it was nice to let go from time to time.
This predates my own youth, and is more rustic, but it’s still fairly representative of the sensitive culture I grew up in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_6HqRkdU98
“China, Japan and South Korea, three countries that famously get along well and have no historical grievances whatsoever”
You can’t possibly be serious, dear boy, especially about that ‘no historical grievances’ thing. China, for example, celebrates ‘hate the Japanese day’ annually (September 18). The three countries are at peace currently, but in fact that’s a historical anomaly.
You can look it up.
I am pretty sure Radagast was being sarcastic. Try to re-read his sentence a few times.
I think he was being sarcastic. He does that a lot. It’s his writing style.
ordo ab chao my friends.
all according to plan.
Off topic, and in other news, it looks like there’s more evidence that THE THING inside the “”vaccinees”” involves prion disease: https://fasteddynz.substack.com/p/horrifying-breakthrough-in-the-white
Terrific.
This is my doomsday biological incident right here – infectious proteins.
Damn prions are indestructible. You basically have to burn them. Even the carcasses of the “vaccinated” should be condemned for burning if they’re infected with prions.
Prions man. . .
Always fatal to the infected, unless they die of something else first.
Can get into the environment, be taken up by other plants and animals, then consumed and infect people.
This is one of the reasons I refused the “vax”
“You mean they want to hack my cells to get them to make proteins that they don’t make normally? Hmmm, what about prions?”
And before you know it, we have ‘THE THING IN THE BLOOD’. Like some B grade horror. Misfolding proteins, infecting other proteins and making them misfold in turn. . .
Terrific.
Just terrific.
Mood music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AOiEwYTOQc
The table Trump showed even included figures that were twice the tariff rates, so I think there’s a strong possibility that the current tariffs will suddenly become nearly doubled again.
If they can’t actively trade with the US, they have too many US dollars on hand. They’ll likely end up using their US dollars to buy assets that can be bought with US dollars. As US dollars from all over the world return to the US and start shopping, we may see an unprecedented economic boom. There’s also a possibility of hyperinflation, though.
I think this probably indicates that the US will step down from its position as the key currency nation.
>US dollars from all over the world return to the US and start shopping
More like “everyone tries selling USD, bond yields rise in response, stagflation ensues” (i.e. like in the 1970s)
You guys need to read about the Eurodollar system.
anything that exists within the global in-dust-real (come to dust) cyst-em is a tomb-er upon the Earth (Earth is a scrambled anagram for “heart”, which is one way to read god’s opinion of humanity).
Trump and Lutnick want the response. They desperately need the counter tariffs.
Trump needs: 1) A 20% drop in stocks; 2) A surge into US treasuries – thus enabling rate cuts; 3) The counter tariffs, so as to encourage dumping of exports into the US market, thus dropping prices and cost of living (US mainly exports food).
All of this to create a deflationary recession, cutting asset prices including housing and also cutting energy prices.
Trump is taking from the rich to give to the poor and squeezing the vassals.
Watch what happens.
The upside, bonds, fixed interest and cash.
Remember when Warren went to cash last year. Buffet baby knows.
Yes, how Republicans do in the midterms depends on house and food and gas prices and jobs; that is what these tariffs are ultimately about. Thanks for describing how this might work. The swing voters I know personally don’t have any money in the stock market; what matters to them are food and gas prices and the availability of jobs, and what matters to their kids are those things plus house prices, which should be coming down soon due to the immigration policy shift and excessive deaths of elderly and late middle aged people due to covid.
The people I know in real life who own stocks can easily ride this out; it is just a buying opportunity.
You can see how China is assisting. The counter tariff is designed to make US exports (mainly food) more expensive in China, so that food will be redirected domestically, thus lowering prices. Chinese do not want US imports so they are happy to assist.
Money always chases yield – hence the need to correct the share market and send excess liquidity into the debt markets. I have been half in cash and half in fixed interest for nearly two years now, waiting for this correction.
I am waiting in anticipation as to what Trump/Lutnick will do to lower home prices and rent.
>The table Trump showed even included figures that were twice the tariff rates
Those were not tariff rates. Cheeto was outright lying
Following Cheeto’s tariff computation methodology:
I have a 100% trade balance deficit with McDonald’s, because I give them dollars for burgers and I don’t export any goods to them.
That’s OK with me, because I’d rather have a burger than 5 bucks
However, according to Cheeto’s algorithm, this means that McDonald’s has a tariff of 100% towards me, so I tariff burger imports from McDonald’s at 50%!
Oh, and countries with which the US has a net positive trade balance get a 10% tariff just because.
We live in idiocracy
Exactly. The US is the world’s largest *consumer* economy. Trump is also lying about the tariffs that other countries charge; the numbers he presents are false.
“I’m also just kind of amazed, by the fact that Americans apparently feel oppressed by the fact that they consume goods that were made in other countries. The whole world produces stuff for you, you get to play in Hollywood movies, record music, do Onlyfans or livestream video games for a living, but it’s not good enough. Europe needs to be punished for producing your wine, China for producing your machine parts.”
That makes sense, I never thought of that before. If your job at a factory closes down, you can always just become a Hollywood celebrity! If only someone had given this advice to workers in the Rust Belt, I bet they wouldn’t have voted for Trump!
Manufacturing paid much more than agriculture or service work and always has. All the other type of sectors either hire too few workers (like Hollywood), or they simply don’t pay enough. That’s why the working class in the decades before disasters like NAFTA could afford a house, a car, and a family on one income, a feat that even middle-class people today couldn’t manage.
However, the Reagan-era Republicans wanted to make even greater amounts of money (the upper managers, stockholders, owners, and so on) so they shut down the factories and moved them to cheap labor colonies in Asia, Latin America, and wherever else had a bunch of poor people they could exploit. That’s why nothing is made in America (or in Europe) anymore.
It’s also a YUGE cope to say that “we” have had economic growth. What economic growth? Look up the stats on income inequality. It has all gone to the upper-class job thieves and parasites above. Or look up how many people have part-time jobs, live paycheck to paycheck, depend on welfare. Wow, nothing more liberating of individual potential and creativity– than living on the bare minimum, one disaster away from losing everything. Livin’ the American dream.
Boomer-tier delusions about the state of the economy, cringe in 2006 and embarrassing now.
“I’m also just kind of amazed, by the fact that Americans apparently feel oppressed by the fact that they consume goods that were made in other countries. The whole world produces stuff for you, you get to play in Hollywood movies, record music, do Onlyfans or livestream video games for a living, but it’s not good enough. Europe needs to be punished for producing your wine, China for producing your machine parts.”
That makes sense, I never thought of that before. If your job at a factory closes down, you can always just become a Hollywood celebrity! If only someone had given this advice to workers in the Rust Belt, I bet they wouldn’t have voted for Trump!
Manufacturing paid much more than agriculture or service work and always has. All the other type of sectors either hire too few workers (like Hollywood), or they simply don’t pay enough. That’s why the working class in the decades before disasters like NAFTA could afford a house, a car, and a family on one income, a feat that middle-class people couldn’t manage today.
The Reagan-era GOP dismantled that arrangement because it wanted to make even greater amounts of money (for the upper managers, stockholders, owners, and so on) so they shut down the factories and moved them to cheap labor colonies in Asia, Latin America, and wherever else had a bunch of poor people they could exploit. That’s why nothing is made in America (or in Europe) anymore.
It’s also a YUGE cope to say that “we” have had economic growth. What economic growth? Look up the stats on income inequality. It has all gone to the types above. Or look up how many people have part-time jobs, live paycheck to paycheck, depend on welfare. Wow, nothing more liberating of individual potential and creativity– than living on the bare minimum, one disaster away from losing everything. Livin’ the American dream.
Boomer-tier delusions about the state of the economy, cringe in 2006 and embarrassing now.
IDK whether the Trump tariffs will bring jobs back to America (frankly, I doubt it) as one way or the other the Republicans will find some way to sabotage his policies. Like the ceasefire in Ukraine, which went from ending the war to imposing terms on the Russians to now continuing the war. They will never give up on militarism, just as they will never give up on globalization.
However, the fact that you sincerely posted this shows how little Dems understand the working class, what their grievances are, and what they want. Leftists are just as out-of-touch as neocons.
Also many people like manufacturing jobs. I have a relative in Oklahoma who works in a factory and she owns three horses and has great health insurance and can afford to travel and was able to refuse the covid shot without losing her job. The son of a coreligionist of mine recently started working in a rocket factory straight out of high school and is making very good wages doing quality inspections; he will be able to buy a house since house prices are low in his area. It can be very gratifying to make something useful that people need. Rintrah writes about how horrible and soul destroying office work is and he is right, but he doesn’t understand that factory work can often be better.
Yes. Really, at least for me (and I imagine most people), any job can be fulfilling as long as it’s productive / useful to someone and pays decent– physical or intellectual.
He also fools himself in thinking that the alternative to manufacturing, for most Americans, is Hollywood, or creative work, or OnlyFans or what have you. It’s really Walmart / low-paying service sector jobs, most of which aren’t even full-time anyways!
Not to mention the mental effect that feeling unproductive and not making money has on men. On women too, but for whatever reason it affects the men a lot more– they destroy themselves with drugs, alcohol, and all kinds of vices.
*Reply to kareninca*
Put it in the wrong spot. Maybe it’s the COVID re-infections?
The problem with factory jobs can be exposure to chemicals and other hazards. Back in the 1980s, my best friend from high school went to work in an American flag factory and there were open vats of chemicals everywhere and she was constantly getting respiratory infections. Then she went to work in an odometer factory and was constantly getting finger cuts due to the need to grab a piece of metal off of a cutting device. That is why those jobs have a bad name. But my OK relative and the kid in MI working in the rocket factory are not dealing with anything like that. And yes, their other options are to work in Walmart or to be a cashier in a gas station; this is a million times better.
IDK what it would take for the Dems to get their heads out of their asses on this issue and concede on it already.
I think it’s just damn stubborn pride. They were fine with cheap lip service on the campaign trail, where they could pretend they were still the pro-populist / pro-worker party. Then the American working class betrayed them for the Great Orange Man, who embodied every quality that liberals were afraid of. Worse than that, they ruined their plan to get a WOMAN elected. Even worse than that– they did it TWICE!
In response they’ve decided to lash out with bitter revenge fantasies, accusing their opponents of all kinds of sins (racist, sexist, meat-eater, low-status, white, etc etc etc) for not wanting their economic prospects to tank even further. Then they plug their ears about the state of the economy. It’s the worst political message, which is why it goes nowhere with the voters.
However, sooner rather than later in this decade they will have to face the fact that the only thing holding the economy up is debt, which will only become harder and harder to pay off (or print). America will become a lot poorer, through soaring debt and inflation, and Americans will only get angrier in response. So political issues like manufacturing, or the lack of good jobs in America, are not going to fade away– they will become way more important for winning the presidency, as opposed to abortion or being a good white male ally or whatever. If the Dems want to win with the voters, that’s what they need to focus on.
And they would be in a way better position to implement pro-worker reforms than Republicans. They have a track record which, at least in the past, included labor unions and supporting the working class. They have candidates like Bernie. Trump’s interesting and anti-establishment nominations (RFK, Tulsi) were originally Democrats, who only defected because of the noxious state of the party. If they could get rid of their elitism and worship of wealth inequality, it would be possible.
And as a plus, no more echo-chamber BS about how bad the American people are!
It’s not pride, it is snobbery. It appears to be addictive.
>It’s not pride, it is snobbery. It appears to be addictive.
Heh heh heh heh
???? ????????????
Sorry, my emojis came out as question marks.
Those question marks were meant to display devils.
Devil faces.
With Devil fingers.
>Third, the supply of labor simply isn’t there.
Neither anywhere else. What’s your point?
Consider this:
https://x.com/tanvi_ratna/status/1907880105369845865?s=46
Another one that is relevant (and shows why it’s not wise to be ahistoric):
(by George Sivrides)
“There is a story about the pencil that Milton Friedman used to tell, about how various materials from different countries participate in its manufacture, and therefore the open market between countries offers it to us. The serious epistemological problem of the Liberals is that they construct a logical model and then construct a story that supports it, except that the story is fictional. That is why they do not know History and they fabricate it. The story of the pencil is the complete opposite of what Friedman presents. That is, the pencil emerged in revolutionary France due to British sanctions.
Firstly, pencils were not used in drawing. The painters of the 1500s used tips made of silver, copper, or lead. When the English discovered a deposit of pure graphite, they cut square-section rods and wrapped them in sheepskin. It usually left England illegally because the mines belonged to the crown, as graphite (which they then thought was a type of lead) was used to make molds for cannonballs. With the British blockade of revolutionary France, the French could no longer import the pure graphite rods, and Nicholas-Jacques Conté was asked to find a way to produce pencils that would not depend on imports. So he thought of mixing lower quality graphite powder with clay and baking them, producing round-section rods that he placed inside wood (an Italian technique). Depending on the ratio of graphite and clay, different hardnesses were produced, and that is why we have from 6H (very hard) to 6B (very soft). He patented it in 1795 and founded the Societé Conté that we know today. At the same time, Joseph Hardtmuth in Vienna had discovered the idea of mixing graphite and clay. Thus, it became possible to produce cheap pencils for a wider public without importing pure graphite from England.”
> The main reason we’ve had economic growth at all in the past twenty years, is because China joined the World Trade Organization. This led to economic integration between different parts of the world. That means every part of the world can focus on a handful of things they’re good at. China had low salaries and cheap energy, so they could offer cheap products to other countries. This meant that America didn’t have to manufacture everything themselves anymore, Americans could focus on what they are good at (innovation, marketing, entertainment, etc).
This is the neoliberal narrative that was made up to justify deindustrialization and lowering wages. Do you really think every country just has a bunch of stuff they’re “inherently good at”? It’s impossible for Americans to make cars, or for the Chinese to make Marvel movies?
Here’s the best explanation for the tarrif plan that I’ve seen. It takes into account the Reserve Currency factor as well as the historic trade system that lead to this moment.
https://youtu.be/1ts5wJ6OfzA
So there is a plan. The question is whether it works or not
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-7DmZO4mY4
The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate on Donald Trump’s close relationship with the cult-like, settler-tied Chabad Lubavitch sect, as one of its key operatives is elevated to an administration post.