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Companies used to encourage long term employees. Now they are considered liabilities.
The last time a president pushed anti trust was Bill Clinton on Microsoft. MSFT crashed and brought the whole dot.com with it. That was 1998. Wife's portfolio went from $397K down to $107k thanks to Paine Webber.
I have a friend who went the government job route, just for this. He quips that it is 70% of work for 70% of the pay and 150% of the bennies, compared to private sector, and it is really hard to get canned after 5 years. At least from what I can tell, leadership can be just as dopey. Then I look at him and notice his mom and dad were public sector, his brother and a couple cousins are, too. Hmmm. Maybe I planned wrong.
The key to monopoly-busting is to not make it political - as all action against Bezos is political. And so many are addicted to his products, it might not matter. I just hope his WaPo can do the same thing it did 45 years ago.
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
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So, the more talk about tariffs, and the possibility of them, the better chance the markets will be lower than otherwise.
Also, even though China has more at stake in a trade war, the amount of disruption that their population will endure is a lot higher than ours, I think. Not necessarily by choice, as they can't vote out the rulers. So, I'll guess that we'll cry uncle first, or suffer the consequences.
Hopefully, none of that happens.
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I wouldn't poke the bear (or the dragon) too much if I were the U.S. Besides, without trade deficits, other countries wouldn't buy our debt anymore. How's that going to play out? Not well.
I don't think our economic policy is guided by people who really grasp the complexity of economics, and Wall St. are all short-timers, seems to me. There's very little longterm thinking that goes on in America.
I meant that the Chinese population can endure a lot more pain than we can. Because, they are used to it, and don’t have a lot of choice. Americans will apply pressure to their elected officials, if this starts affecting their pocketbook. I’m guessing we don’t have the political will to follow through, in any meaningful manner.
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People in Washington shouldn't tinker with things they don't have a firm understanding of. It could be slitting one's own throat.
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
The idea that the USA is a paragon of free trade is just political BS. We have tariffs on foreign vegetables, auto parts, fruits, clothing, canned tuna--even Chinese tires.
There are about 12,000 specific products that fall under U.S. tariffs right now.
The problem is more about Americans living beyond their means and being steeped in debt. We don't save, we have more household debt now than in 2008. Add to that the stagnant wages, and American corporations manufacturing overseas to save $$$, plus robotics and offshore tax dodges, plus jobs without benefits and shorter hours, and no wonder so many Americans are hurting.
We operate in an unsustainable system, and tinkering with NAFTA isn't going to make it better I'm afraid.
The entire idea of a "free market" is an illusion IMO. A more accurate description would be "a rigged free market".
Germans and Japanese have effectively no desire for American-brand or American-market cars, so that answer won't work.
I'm also curious as to the real hard line Trump will play with China when his son-of-a-conman son in law (of a conman) Jared hawks pay for play residency to Chinese kleptocrats.
I don't know/care if I will offend anyone, but I don't believe public sector employees deserve a higher ROI on their pension contributions than the average Joe can get from his 401K contributions.
Also, cheap Chinese goods help mask the declining real incomes experienced over the past 40 years. But maybe things will trickle down, any day now, and everyone will hit it big. Everyone is a temporarily embarrassed millionaire.
Trucks had a 25% tariff, but add rear doors, call them a wagon, and the tariff drops to 2.5%.
True story.
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2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
The pension plan I am in is fully funded and is managed by people who usually do better than the market index each year. However not all are that good. The teachers plan here is funded at only 60%-70% and over the years was subject to chronic under-contributions by teachers, overly generous payouts, and general incompetence. Last I read they are something like a billion dollars in the hole.
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2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
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Deficits with Germany and Japan are a funny thing for two reasons. Germany has a mere quarter of the population of the US, Japan a little more than a third. 65 years ago, their corporate and policy leaders learned the idea of "export or die", and developed a mindset of making products that appeal on the global market. With smaller fiscally conservative domestic markets, and domestic products that appeal to the entire planet, they will always be net exporters. There's no winning a trade deficit battle with those and similar countries. Most of their tariffs on American goods exist only in theory due to agreements with local EU-style agreements, as nobody wants most of the goods anyway.
China, on the other hand, is a subject that I can't blame the powers that be for wanting to fight - but, they probably aren't doing it the right way, especially as they have allowed west coast real estate markets to be negatively impacted by "investors" from that region. And it will also be tough as the flood of cheap Chinese goods has helped to mask the sad real income growth experienced since trickle down.
Either way, in a trade war that brilliant stable geniuses who claim to be businessmen but could never have made it without family largesse claim will cause something to be great, consumers will foot the bill and be even worse off. I don't think anyone with any real credentials in economics is afraid this ideal will "succeed".
I have a stinking suspicion many public sector pensions in the US are in the condition you describe at the end, and it will only get worse as more boomers retire and then live long lives. Who will bail it out? We know the answer.
The fear is the "method". It is chaotic and doesn't fit any pattern for leadership. The decisions are often based on erroneous, or skimpy, or half-baked, or dare we say, deliberately deceptive, information---much like a very naive investor might act when they are a rookie in the stock market.
It reminds me of one of those "rockumentaries" where the camera follows some utterly decadent rock and roll band on a tour---everyone in the entourage looks stoned, freaked out or crazy except....the accountant. This guy is wearing a suit and tie and quietly goes about exercising restraint and offering good advice.
You want a sober person running things. Hysterics are for the stage.
Once again, the old adage: The market doesn't like chaos.
Most of the Japanese cars that I buy here have no tariffs, because they are made in the good old USA.
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However, there are other financial barriers and manipulations that can make American cars expensive to buy.
Generally, the U.S. complaint has been that some countries manipulate their currencies to keep them weak against the U.S. dollar.
We have a trade deficit because our standard of living is so much higher than our trading partners. We need a lot of stuff!!
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Most Americans are actually pretty broke. They have no reserves. Most don't "own" their homes or cars, and with inflation, their wages haven't gone up. On top of that, now they have to borrow to get an education as well.
What the "stock market is doing" bears little relation to most Americans' everyday lives.
The DOW, the GDP--all that is debt-driven. We aren't in an "equity bubble" we are in a "debt bubble" IMO.
Along with relaxing that required partnership to operate in "their" country, we must stop the theft of intellectual property, and that 50/50 business is setup to do exactly that, which means the US part can be frozen out as the intellectual secrets are used by the Chinese portion to produce the same goods.
Instead of a united interest, in the US the interest is in using fixing our unfair treatment as a cause to divide our country rather than unify us.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Also, when a for-entertainment news show can have the "leader of the free world" erupting into a tweet storm via their often errant or bogus coverage, one might want to think who really has a hold over the media.
Those conspiracy theories remind me of the religious ones about who controls newspapers and banks.
With Jared hawking pay for play residency to kleptocrats from our most favored "trading partner", don't hold your breath.
It looks more like we were far ahead of the rest of the World 40 years ago. The global community is seeking parity by offering US what we want. The Chinese are beating US on several levels. Keeping the cost of labor in check to insure production levels to meet demand. Germany and Japan are dealing with the same issues concerning cheap Chinese imports. Why is it OK for the Europeans to raise tariffs on Chinese goods and not the USA?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/08/solar-industry-says-eu-tariffs-chinese-imports-will-raise-panel-prices
Pretty bold statement about a person that has started some of the most successful private schools in Michigan. She has the same views on Charter schools as Obama's Ed secretary Arne Duncan. I think you are watching too much MSM.
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
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If she wasn't a major contributor via being an heiress to a sketchy MLM fortune, she wouldn't have the job at all. She has stumbled and failed in every interview in her history in this job. Have you seen when people ask her anything? She's clueless.
Yeah, those MI charter schools are looking great
Cost of labor in check = glorified slavery, and living conditions that are not acceptable for a truly developed first world nation. Do you want to live in that reality? Unless you have a connection to some kind of official, you aren't going anywhere. Those new residency-purchasers buying so much high end real estate in some west coast areas aren't lucky entrepreneurs.
Solar panels are almost invisible compared to the random all-out war that someone who inherited a fortune from daddy and found success as a showman thinks is a panacea.
If tariffs go up , that will also help American companies, but consumers will pay more for everything, which will make them very unhappy. Also, the Chinese aren't stupid. They will put a tariff on items that hit right in the POTUS's heartland, like say soybeans (which we export in massive amounts to China).
I don't think anybody should start a trade war with China.
This is all a diversion from the real issue anyhow. We are spiraling into debt and losing any means to correct the problem, nor any coherent form of remedial action.