Tariffs will either work to restore balance or push us to have to figure it out. We've done it before a couple times.
Yep. But in that best case scenario, we regress to a 1950's economy as the rest of the world (India, China, Russia mainly) starts outcompeting us, outleading us and running the world.
It will be interesting to see if Musk, who is reliant on such imports, breaks with Trump over this.China ratchets up trade war by halting rare earth exports
These metals are sometimes turned into powerful magnets that are crucial to heavy industry, like EV production.www.morningbrew.com
And it begins.
I'm not so sure. It has been reported Musk hates these tariffs, but due to their impact on his own interests. While he heads DOGE for now based on national interests, so we assume he's performing for the higher moral goal and he indicates this is the case. Also, Musk identifies more clearly with rational hard power, which tariffs are an exercise of hard power, with the more esoteric soft power Trump also has to navigate, which is mostly foreign to Musk. I think they understand one another, and there would have to be an obnoxious falling out to result in a bus throwing incident. That doesn't seem rational, productive or likely. Doesn't mean they won't publicly disagree.
I knew about the rare earth issue at least ten years ago and realized then that the only reason china was doing it was to put themselves in a position to leverage the world, just like they did with Japan some years back. They used many methods to become the monopoly of metal like when they realize that a new start up venture was about to produce, they would artificially flood the market below cost, supporting their suppliers with subsidies until they choke the competition then swoop in and buy it or not. They use our own environmental laws and activists to stop every venture. It’s so cheap to fund environmental groups through shell corporations and tell them go sick’em. So cheap to fund lobbying groups for the right politicians who pressure agencies to act against targeted businesses. Maybe, just maybe we’ll have eyes watching for any future shenanigans. This country can do anything, but we have to understand that we have been under attack for many years from the inside, everything from the economy to morally. Identify the unwitting puppets of the CCP and that’s a big start.
This was guaranteed to happen if we did anything to really piss off China. They did it before with Japan.
Perhaps some large, national entity could step in and help with funding for new factories, refineries, and mining... like some sort of corporate welfare?
We are a country of people addicted to consumption for pleasure.
You do what Trump has been hinting at doing which is create a scenario in which countries need to negotiate with you because their economy is reliant on you. As part of the deal, you go after mineral rights in their country. You also open some of our mineral rights up in our own country. However, history has shown that superpowers take minerals from other countries instead of depleting their own stock. The issue is we don't have many mining companies left.
Did I miss something in this nonsensical post?
Trump's remaining term is shorter than the time it will take to make major changes to national supply chains.
