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Chris
"Government ... does not exist of necessity, but rather by virtue of a tragic, almost comical combination of klutzy, opportunistic terrorism against sitting ducks whom it pretends to shelter, plus our childish phobia of responsibility, praying to be exempted from the hard reality of life on life's terms." Wolf DeVoon
"...Make America Great Again. I'm interested in making American FREE again. Then the greatness will come automatically."Ron Paul
US Top Exports based on total dollar value: http://www.worldstopexports.com/unit...op-10-exports/
Our top imports: http://www.worldstopexports.com/unit...op-10-imports/Machinery including computers: US$201.7 billion (13% of total exports)
Electrical machinery, equipment: $174.2 billion (11.3%)
Mineral fuels including oil: $138 billion (8.9%)
Aircraft, spacecraft: $131.2 billion (8.5%)
Vehicles: $130.1 billion (8.4%)
Optical, technical, medical apparatus: $83.6 billion (5.4%)
Plastics, plastic articles: $61.5 billion (4%)
Gems, precious metals: $60.4 billion (3.9%)
Pharmaceuticals: $45.1 billion (2.9%)
Organic chemicals: $36.2 billion (2.3%)
Among the top 10 export categories year over year, mineral fuels including oil was the fastest-growing U.S. shipment via its 47.3% value gain from 2016 to 2017.
In second place for improving export sales were organic chemicals which rose 6.6%.
America’s exported machinery including computers appreciated by 5.8% year over year.
There were two decliners among America’s top 10 export categories in 2017 compared to 2016: aircraft and spacecraft (down -2.7%) and pharmaceuticals (down -4.1%).
Electrical machinery, equipment: US$356.8 billion (14.8% of total imports)
Machinery including computers: $349.1 billion (14.5%)
Vehicles : $294.6 billion (12.2%)
Mineral fuels including oil: $204.2 billion (8.5%)
Pharmaceuticals: $96.4 billion (4%)
Optical, technical, medical apparatus: $86.2 billion (3.6%)
Furniture, bedding, lighting, signs, prefab buildings: $67.2 billion (2.8%)
Gems, precious metals: $60 billion (2.5%)
Plastics, plastic articles: $54.9 billion (2.3%)
Organic chemicals: $46.1 billion (1.9%)
America’s imports of mineral fuels including oil had the fastest-growing increase in value among the top 10 import categories, up 25.2% from 2016 to 2017. This gain was propelled by higher purchases of crude and refined petroleum oils as well as petroleum gas.
In second place for expanding import purchases was machinery including computers via a 10.7% uptick.
American imports of plastics delivered the third-fastest improvement up 9%.
Two import product categories declined year over year, namely gems and precious metals (down -8.2%) led by reduced purchases of gold and diamonds and organic chemicals (down -7.4%).
"And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat
"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire
Trade is two parties freely agreeing that both have something the other wants and they agree on the terms of an exchange.
Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
Robert Heinlein
Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler
Groucho Marx
I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.
Linus, from the Peanuts comic
You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith
Alexis de Torqueville
Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it
A Zero Hedge comment
Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
Robert Heinlein
Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler
Groucho Marx
I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.
Linus, from the Peanuts comic
You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith
Alexis de Torqueville
Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it
A Zero Hedge comment
"And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat
"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire
No, there isn't any guarantee that everybody lives happily ever after and becomes billionaires. The important thing is that they were free to make their own decisions. Things like tariffs says that somebody isn't capable of making their own decisions- or at least not the right ones. They need protecting.
Still with this ridiculously ignorant analogy?! lol. So, I guess your response would be to centrally-plan what people trade for because you know better than each individual what they should value?
The truth is, in your faulty analogy, the person gained their wealth through trade and then squandered it. The trade wasn't the problem - it's what was done afterwards.
"And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat
"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire
I think this is the first time I have agree with u on anything. But there is something like a trade deficit and depending on how it is created, it can be bad. Take the situation we have in this country, we have been buying for years with a credit card that has interest that will bury us. I don't care what Ron Paul said but that cannot be a good thing.
Some people have this mindset that just because a voluntary trade is going on, everybody is winning. Well, it depends because there can definitely be winner and losers in a trade. Lots of moving parts involved and declarative statements like "there is nothing like trade deficits" and "there are no winners or loser in a trade " is not helping.
I bet u that most people disagreeing with u would rather prefer having a trade surplus(regardless if that deficit arose via spending savings or credit card spending) than a deficit if they had a business.
The purposes of government are to administer justice domestically and protect the citizens from outside threats (including trade wars), lassez-faire applies to the domestic economy not to the external jungle.
The founders understood and that is why they gave the government the power to enact tariffs, they forbade export tariffs but the didn't even limit import tariffs.
Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
Robert Heinlein
Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler
Groucho Marx
I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.
Linus, from the Peanuts comic
You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith
Alexis de Torqueville
Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it
A Zero Hedge comment
Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
Robert Heinlein
Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler
Groucho Marx
I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.
Linus, from the Peanuts comic
You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith
Alexis de Torqueville
Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it
A Zero Hedge comment
Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
Robert Heinlein
Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler
Groucho Marx
I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.
Linus, from the Peanuts comic
You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith
Alexis de Torqueville
Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it
A Zero Hedge comment
Hamilton was the one who favored protective tarrifs. The others used neutral low tariffs to raise revenue for a small constitutionally sized government.
https://www.cato.org/publications/co...-trade-history
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,--
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
Robert Heinlein
Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler
Groucho Marx
I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.
Linus, from the Peanuts comic
You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith
Alexis de Torqueville
Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it
A Zero Hedge comment
S.Korea
(URGENT) Moon tells gov't to consider all measures, including WTO process, against US. trade barriers
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/nati...5F.html?sns=tw
btw...
Ivanka!
Last edited by goldenequity; 02-20-2018 at 06:07 AM.
https://seekingalpha.com/pr/17094856...ing-facilities
PITTSBURGH, March 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- United States Steel Corporation (X) announced today it will restart one of two blast furnaces (“B” blast furnace) and the steelmaking facilities at its Granite City Works, an integrated steelmaking plant in Granite City, Ill. The additional capacity will support anticipated increased demand for steel in the United States from the pending action announced by President Donald J. Trump on March 1, 2018, as a result of the U.S. Department of Commerce Section 232 national security investigation on steel imports.
“Our Granite City Works facility and employees, as well as the surrounding community, have suffered too long from the unending waves of unfairly traded steel products that have flooded U.S. markets,” said U. S. Steel President and Chief Executive Officer David B. Burritt. “The Section 232 action announced by President Trump last week recognizes the significant threat steel imports pose to our national and economic security. The President’s strong leadership is needed to begin to level the playing field so companies like ours can compete, win and create jobs that support our employees and the communities in which we operate as well as strengthen our national and economic security. We will continue to support our customers with the high-quality products they have come to expect from U. S. Steel.”
The company anticipates calling back approximately 500 employees beginning this month. The restart process could take up to four months.
“We’ve worked closely and cooperatively with leadership of the United Steelworkers to develop a plan that will help us work through the restart process in the safest, most efficient manner possible while enabling longer-term collaboration designed to improve the plant’s competitiveness,” Burritt said. “We appreciate and thank the USW leadership and membership for their passionate efforts around the Section 232 investigation as well as in support of the restart process at Granite City Works. Together, we are committed to ensuring the steel industry remains a fundamental part of American manufacturing because American manufacturing is stronger with American-made steel.”
The company expects to provide information on the anticipated financial impact of the restart as more details on the President’s executive order become available for analysis in the coming days.
Both Granite City Works blast furnaces and its steelmaking facilities were idled in December 2015 and the plant’s hot strip mill was idled in January 2016 in response to challenging market conditions, including global excess steel capacity and unfairly traded imports. The pickle line, cold mill and finishing lines at Granite City Works continued to operate in line with customer demand. The hot strip mill was restarted in February 2017 as the company adjusted its hot strip mill operating configuration to meet customer needs after deciding to accelerate the pace of its asset revitalization efforts. Granite City's “A” blast furnace remains idled.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/tr...ers-2018-03-02President Donald Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on aluminum and steel imports is a near-term credit positive for steel producers, but it will hurt steel-consuming manufacturers and their workers, who greatly outnumber steelworkers, Moody’s Investors Service said Friday.
There are about 140,000 steelworkers in the U.S., according to the American Iron & Steel Institute, and about 6.5 million workers in steel-consuming manufacturers, Moody’s analysts wrote in reports published Friday.
“Workers in these consuming sectors will likely be hurt by higher steel prices,” they said. “Domestic manufacturers could also eventually switch to importing whole components of finished products that are made from steel to reduce their product costs, which would lead to reduced domestic steel demand in the long term.”
There is no spoon.
T.S. Eliot's The Hollow Men
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." - Plato
We Are Running Out of Time - Mini Me
Originally Posted by Philhelm
Unlimited "free trade" practiced by one nation is like unilateral disarmament.
Unless every nation is willing to drop all its trade restrictions, tariffs, internal subsidies, domestic regulations, environmental fatwas and so on, "free trade" is economic suicide.
T.S. Eliot's The Hollow Men
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." - Plato
We Are Running Out of Time - Mini Me
Originally Posted by Philhelm
And lets not forget that much --perhaps all -- of the free trade problem is caused by the federal reserve and the fact that we have the world reserve currency and unlimited credit card. It has allowed us to get fat and not produce anything except debt. Without that, we would have no choice but to produce goods to sell, less we starve.
If I wanted to destroy the US utterly, it sounds like a great plan... Let them live high on the hog until they no longer have any manufacturing base, then cancel the credit card and let them starve.
Yeah but free markets and free trade is what made America into an economic superpower. The left wants you to think it was slave trade but the truth is a lot of people poured their money into America -they wanted to avoid regulation and taxes in their own country. The idea is money goes where it is welcome- the idea of lowering taxes was to bring money back here, and it worked, Apple brought back 300 Billion. Now you are going to increase taxes which is just going to make money not want to come here.
This will increase prices which increases our taxes we have to pay if we ever get passed stagflation and get to inflation. Then if we are lucky the bad money from all this government spending hasn't driven out of all the good money in our country. My prediction is the government will be too big for us to do anything about it at this pace.
While the tarrifs will help precipitate or worsen the coming economic collapse, the worst part is that they will be scapegoated as the main cause, and the principal culprit the Fed will get off Scott free.
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,--
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
"He's talkin' to his gut like it's a person!!" -me
"dumpster diving isn't professional." - angelatc
"You don't need a medical degree to spot obvious bullshit, that's actually a separate skill." -Scott Adams
"When you are divided, and angry, and controlled, you target those 'different' from you, not those responsible [controllers]" -Q
"Each of us must choose which course of action we should take: education, conventional political action, or even peaceful civil disobedience to bring about necessary changes. But let it not be said that we did nothing." - Ron Paul
"Paul said "the wave of the future" is a coalition of anti-authoritarian progressive Democrats and libertarian Republicans in Congress opposed to domestic surveillance, opposed to starting new wars and in favor of ending the so-called War on Drugs."
Tariffs? Or just the coming revaluation of currencies, making imports more expensive for dollar users (end of global dollar) and imports more affordable for yuan users.
"Let it not be said that we did nothing."-Ron Paul
"We have set them on the hobby-horse of an idea about the absorption of individuality by the symbolic unit of COLLECTIVISM. They have never yet and they never will have the sense to reflect that this hobby-horse is a manifest violation of the most important law of nature, which has established from the very creation of the world one unit unlike another and precisely for the purpose of instituting individuality."- A Quote From Some Old Book
You do realize that Ron Paul advocates for exactly that - dropping ALL of our trade restrictions regardless of what other countries may do. I'm closer to Ron Paul on this (although, I make some allowances to use lowering our current restrictions as leverage where possible). "Free trade" is nothing but good news for the country that would practice it.
They key to remember when trading is that you only do it when you gain more wealth out of it - otherwise, you wouldn't make the trade. You don't need governments to tell you that your trade isn't "fair" enough. That's between the people trading. If they both see the benefit, the trade happens and both parties are more wealthy than previously.
"And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat
"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire
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