Yes, in the hundreds of years the US and Canada have been neighbors, surely the only trade agreement in place is the one Trump signed 7 years ago. No other trade agreements exist between the two countries that Trump could be referring to.
I loved Jon Stewart 20 years ago, and he still has his moments of being funny, but man, looking back on it now I realize he was always such a dishonest shithead. Which is fine if his entire shtick is just to be funny, then who cares right? But he acts like he's an actual journalist who just explains the news in a humorous way. He's basically Rachel Maddow wearing a clown outfit, which is to say he's exactly like Rachel Maddow.
I love how Democrats want it both ways when it comes to these tariffs.
Trump puts tariffs on Mexico and Canada: OMG! Prices for everything is going to go up for all Americans! Americans are going to lose their jobs! This is only going to hurt the middle and poor classes in the US!
Mexico and Canada put tariffs on US: OMG! OMG! Prices for everything is going to go up for all Americans! Americans are going to lose their jobs! This is only going to hurt the middle and poor classes in the US!
Wait so...which is it? If the US putting tariffs on Canada only hurts Americans, then surely Canada putting tariffs on the US is only going to hurt Canadians.
I asked for neither your Opinion,
your Acceptance
nor your Permission.
"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis." Dante Alighieri 3
"It took 2000 mules to install one Jackass." Diamond and Silk Watch the Movie
According to the below linked episode of The Daily podcast, Trump's threats of tariffs against Mexico are having an impact on fentanyl production in Culiacán, the capital of the State of Sinaloa, Mexico. Sinaloa is apparently a hub for fentanyl manufacturing. The speakers acknowledge that production might be moving to more remote parts of the country, but it looks like Mexico is making a real effort.
The Daily is, in my opinion, generally leftward leaning, but fair. This episode should greatly please Trump supporters.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/p...mp-mexico.html
China just slapped a bunch of tariffs on Canada.
Weird how I don't hear the Democrats or Canadians bitching about this move. I guess Democrats and Canadians just hate America.
What do you think about the logic behind this explanation of why the tariffs are bad for the U.S. auto industry?
Here's the dilemma that automakers face as President Trump's tariffs pile up: They can raise car prices, sacrifice profit margins or redirect R&D spending to expand U.S. manufacturing.
- But somebody, somewhere, has to pay the bill for the higher costs that compounding tariffs bring.
Why it matters: The auto industry can't absorb the costs of tariffs and invest in electrification and autonomy and software-defined vehicles and new factories, all while fighting off rising Chinese competitors.
- The math just doesn't add up.
Between the lines: If car prices go up, Americans will buy fewer of them, meaning less revenue to fund U.S. growth.
- If companies hold steady on pricing, their modest profit margins will vanish, replaced by red ink — another limitation on growth.
- If they build a new factory in the U.S., they'll have less to spend on innovations like electric vehicles and automated driving, slowing their historic transformation and falling behind China.
More...
Trump, or more likely somebody who works for him, got the tariff numbers from a language model..
Shall we play a game?A number of X users have realized that if you ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or Grok for an “easy” way to solve trade deficits and put the US on “an even playing field”, they’ll give you a version of this “deficit divided by exports” formula with remarkable consistency. The Verge tested this with the phrasing used in those posts, as well as a question based more closely on the government’s language, asking chatbots for “an easy way for the US to calculate tariffs that should be imposed on other countries to balance bilateral trade deficits between the US and each of its trading partners, with the goal of driving bilateral trade deficits to zero.” All four platforms gave us the same fundamental suggestion.
There is some variation. Grok and Claude specifically suggested halving the tariff figure to generate what Grok calls a “reasonable” result, much like Trump’s “discount” idea. Ask for a 10 percent baseline tariff and the systems also disagree on whether that should be added to the total tariff rate or not. But answers from across the four chatbots have more similarities than differences.
The bots caution with varying levels of seriousness that there are tradeoffs and complications. Gemini, the most strident of them, will give you a page full of explanations as to why this oversimplified approach could backfire — “while this calculation offers a seemingly straightforward way to target bilateral trade deficits, the real-world economic implications are far more complex and could lead to substantial negative consequences,” it warns, adding that “many economists argue that tariffs are not an effective tool for balancing trade deficits.”
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