Trade Wars

The impact of the tariffs that the dontard is announcing are clearly going to result in retaliations.

What does this mean?

Well it will mean that certain items get more expensive either because of the tariffs themselves are because item get produced domestically at higher cost.

More significantly, it is likely to result in less exports as commodities are targeted by China.

Since a tariff will artificially increase the cost of American commodities it will have no impact on our competitors, so sales will go elsewhere.

Commodities in general are pretty much the same no matter where you get them and are therefore extremely sensitive to market forces.

Manufactured products are a bit different, and while certain production can be ramped up, it not as easy to build factories or find skilled labor as it is to expand or decrease a crop like soybeans.

If you lose a significant market for your commodity you either lower price and absorb the tariff yourself or you reduce production since you can't sell your product.

None of this is good for the economy and certainly not for the reliably red states in the middle of the country.

The overall ripple effect of the trade wars is hard to forecast exactly, some say it is minor, some argue it will be significant, which all depends on reactions and escalations.

WE know our guy is a loose cannon, so I anticipate it getting worse.

He says we will win a trade war, but trade wars have no winners, just losers as everyone gets to pay more.

The real victims will be business owners, whether farmers or small manufacturers who become uncompetitive as prices here increase or overseas markets dry up.

Yes people in other countries will also suffer, not sure that will make our casualties feel better.

We'll see.