50% Tarriff now in effect for diamonds from India

[Texas Leaguer]

I agree wholeheartedly. Eventually this will reverse and we can only hope it is written in the text books as one of the most foolish economic blunders of our time.

The ineptitude between this and the slash and burn across many systems of oversight will haunt those that decided hatchets make great tools for surgery.

My own field (services for homeless/ working poor) was disassembled too. I am beyond furious.

You would think they would at least spare the disadvantaged. But that is not at all what they are doing. I would also think many of the hardest hit (in that they can least afford it) would be their own supporters, which is not only difficult to understand from a moral perspective, but also from a practical one.

 

[glitterata]

I agree wholeheartedly. Eventually this will reverse and we can only hope it is written in the text books as one of the most foolish economic blunders of our time.

The ineptitude between this and the slash and burn across many systems of oversight will haunt those that decided hatchets make great tools for surgery.

My own field (services for homeless/ working poor) was disassembled too. I am beyond furious.

The cruelty of taking away help from people who need it the most is incomprehensible to me.

 

[MissGotRocks]

You would think they would at least spare the disadvantaged. But that is not at all what they are doing. I would also think many of the hardest hit (in that they can least afford it) would be their own supporters, which is not only difficult to understand from a moral perspective, but also from a practical one.

Morals, practicality, and people don’t matter. It is all about the money. Convincing people that the US is being cheated out of money makes the tariffs appealing. However, it takes a bit of thought and research to find that it is actually the consumers paying these tariffs. Larger question - where will the money go once it hits the Treasury? It is, after all, the money that we
as citizens have paid. Do we reduce the debt with what is in essence another tax on the people? Doubtful. I am sure there are big plans for it . . .

 

[Texas Leaguer]

Morals, practicality, and people don’t matter. It is all about the money. Convincing people that the US is being cheated out of money makes the tariffs appealing. However, it takes a bit of thought and research to find that it is actually the consumers paying these tariffs. Larger question - where will the money go once it hits the Treasury? It is, after all, the money that we
as citizens have paid. Do we reduce the debt with what is in essence another tax on the people? Doubtful. I am sure there are big plans for it . . .

Justin Wolfers is an economist and professor at University of Michigan. He is a very good explainer of how this all works. He is a teacher and is very skilled at making complex financial and economic concepts understandable to regular folks like me. He is pretty active online so you should be able to find youtubes, podcasts ect.

In addition to his books and scholarly papers of course. (I have not gone there!)

 

[LightBright]

There are diamond cutters in the USA to jump start the industry in the USA and use training and automation to fill it out.

Low-Med volume precision cutting is exactly the kind of thing that could be done in the USA.

Young people aren’t going into trades, they would with any encouragement at all. Apprenticeship programs? We used to have car mechanics, construction, plumbing, cosmetology in high school!

We could actually bring some industry back here, but it would cost more. Each jeweler here has cutters they work with doing niche cutting, most are foreign born and trained and older generation. Not sure why American trainee programs for cutting have been ignored, this is our opportunity.

 

[MMtwo]

Justin Wolfers is an economist and professor at University of Michigan. He is a very good explainer of how this all works. He is a teacher and is very skilled at making complex financial and economic concepts understandable to regular folks like me. He is pretty active online so you should be able to find youtubes, podcasts ect.

In addition to his books and scholarly papers of course. (I have not gone there!)

Thank you, checking him out now.

 

[MissGotRocks]

Justin Wolfers is an economist and professor at University of Michigan. He is a very good explainer of how this all works. He is a teacher and is very skilled at making complex financial and economic concepts understandable to regular folks like me. He is pretty active online so you should be able to find youtubes, podcasts ect.

In addition to his books and scholarly papers of course. (I have not gone there!)

Yes, I have listened to him a few times. He makes perfect sense of a nonsensical thing. I think without the court’s interference, we are in for a rough ride. Covid wreaked havoc with the economy and was really out of our control. This situation is totally manufactured and easy to control. So sad that this is happening - for all of us and for countries around the world as well. We are not an island but it seems that the current thinking is that we are and only need to be concerned for ourselves. So short sighted!

 

[empliau]

I was just watching an episode of The West Wing last night, with the economist President furious about threatened retaliatory tariffs that would lead, he said, like Smoot-Hawley, to another great depression.

I hadn't heard Smoot-Hawley since high school American history - now I'm hearing it regularly. Martin Sheen does give it some charm though!