Just One Thing: Truly could not be a more stupid policy
This will make Americans poorer and kill jobs. Trade has long been Trump's worst domestic policy issue and unfortunately his ignorance is not harmless. Every time some country backs off a little on their own tariffs in response to Trump, his defenders say "see, his winning." But that's only winning if he then removes the tariffs that Americans pay on imported stuff. If not, we're all losing. Congress needs to pass legislation removing the president's authority to apply tariffs other than in clearly defined emergencies. Indeed, these tariffs may well be illegal already. We'll see if anyone sues him or if everyone's too afraid.
Trump set to announce tariffs on auto imports
And he did just that: Trump Announces 25 Percent Tariffs on Auto Imports | National Review
Trump talks as if this will be great for the US. It's simply not possible. If making cars in the US allowed for less expensive cars then it would already be done that way. If the only way to make cars be made fully in America is to make other cars unaffordable then that means this will significantly raise the cost of imported vehicles...which will inevitably reduce competition and cause increases in the prices of American vehicles, beyond just the fact that new manufacturing in America will be more expensive than manufacturing or assembly somewhere else as is currently done is very carefully designed supply chains. Trump says it's silly that parts of a car might move across borders several times before the car is complete, as if somehow it's inherently better if everything's made in one place. But, again, if Trump were right then it would already be being done his way. Instead, what he's doing will make the whole country poorer and decrease demand for new cars while increasing prices for used cars.
By the way, where does Trump think the workers will come from for this? Oh, I know, it'll be all those folks who work in shipping and trucking (from ports) who lose their jobs. Ugh.
Hey, don't take my word for it: After it was announced that Trump would be issuing auto tariffs, General Motors stock dropped about 3%, knocking about $1.5 billion off the company's value. And after the specifics became known in Trump's little signing ceremony on TV, it dropped another 6%, or another $3 billion. So today's announcement knocked over $4.5 billion off of the value of just GM. Ford stock lost about $1.6 billion. Stellantis, the parent company of Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler, and other brands, dropped 8%, or over $2.5 billion. OK, so there's the market reacting to Trump's announcement by wiping $9 billion off of the value of shares owned in the pension funds and retirement accounts of most Americans, and that's just those three companies. Hard to know how much is tariff-related but Tesla lost over $30 billion in valuation after Trump's official announcement.) Toyota, which obviously has a lot of international operations as well as US production, lost a stunning $18 billion in market cap yesterday. Tariffs are economic poison. MAGA is way too willing to drink.
We'll see if anything gets Trump to moderate a little. Remember he still has to pander to the very many economically ignorant people in his base and, to be less negative, I'd note that much of trade economics is counter-intuitive and you really have to think about secondary effects to understand just how bad this all could be.
Trump Considers More Limited Tariff Plans - WSJ
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My thoughts this morning on Signalgate
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Today's Guest
Rachel Gable is Assistant Editor of The Fence Post magazine and weekly ag and rural issues columnist for Colorado Politics and the Denver and Colorado Springs Gazettes. She also raises cattle in northeastern Colorado. We'll discuss why ranchers and rural politicians are opposing efforts to repeal the ballot measure that pushed forced wolf reintroduction in Colorado.
Colorado ranchers and officials oppose wolf ballot measure | News | coloradopolitics.com
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Other Stuff
It's been clear all along that the biggest issue will be the Chinese government. Yesterday while taking questions from reporters after announcing auto tariffs, Trump said that he'd be open to offering China lower tariff rates in return for approving the sale of TikTok. If that happens then the question is how to ensure that China has absolutely no access to TikTok's data going forward.
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I knew 23andME had a big data breach some time back but I didn't realize this: 23andMe user data targeting Ashkenazi Jews leaked online
This means it probably included my data
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Interesting bit of gov't inefficiency: The Case for a Department of Food - The Atlantic (may require subscription)
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This monomania with mass transit is well past getting annoying: Walkable transit for metro Denver would cost $420 million a year
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I understand wanting to private stuff but it's hard to see how privatizing the USPS would maintain services to low-density areas (rural areas) and also unclear that it's constitutional:
Trump, Musk suggested privatizing the USPS. How that could impact your mail | AP News
The Constitution and the Postal System | Constitution Center
Note that what appears like a small profit was really a big loss offset by an accounting entry related to some pension stuff. Bottom line is that USPS's pension obligations must be reformed -- which will be VERY difficult politically unless Congress just assigns those billions of dollars of debt to taxpayers -- or USPS will inevitably fail.
U.S. Postal Service Reports First Quarter Fiscal Year 2025 Results - Newsroom - About.usps.com
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I'm glad to see this, but it doesn't mean that any significant percentage of Palestinians don't still want to kill every Jew. Challenge to Hamas in Gaza Grows as Protests Enter Second Day - WSJ
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Whatever you think of Musk, I don’t think it makes much sense to argue that he’s taking on this high-profile and controversial role in government to help himself. Because it sure doesn’t seem to be helping.
Yahoo News/YouGov 20250324 Tesla | PDF | Elon Musk | Presidency Of The United States
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Danger (for Republicans), Will Robinson! Democrat James Andrew Malone wins upset in Pennsylvania state Senate race | AP News
A Shock to the GOP From MAGA Country - WSJ
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After years of Biden telling people they didn't and/or wouldn't have to pay back their loans, what did you think would happen? Record-breaking share of student loans marked delinquent, report says
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Chris Rufo has a lot of influence with President Trump: Exporting the Columbia Prototype - Christopher F. Rufo
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This is kinda fun: Nintendo was founded before the fall of the Ottoman Empire. - Interesting Facts
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I agree with Polis' assertion that this represents legislators overriding what voters just intended to support by passing the related ballot measure: Colorado bill puts limits on new veterinary associate position - Axios Denver
Veterinary Workforce Requirements | Colorado General Assembly
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A win for free speech, even if a rather silly one. The principle is what matters. The question is whether the Trump administration will try to punish the university if the show does indeed go on.
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Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty get a reprieve: Judge blocks Trump admin, Kari Lake from dismantling US-funded radio network | Fox News
Judge’s Ruling Pauses Defunding of RFE/RL - Radio World
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Today's Video
Dragon meets a moth