I’ve been trying to de-billionaire my life lately. The strategy at the moment for spending money is:
Buy nothing, if possible.
Then buy used, if I have to spend money.
If I can’t buy used, then buy local.
If I can’t buy local, then buy Canadian or Mexican.
What exactly is the point of this? By buying foreign products, you pay the US government in whatever import tariff as part of the cost. I'd rather support domestic American businesses over the US government.
I hope the various provinces continue to not shelve US alcohol. Trump said he was pausing the tariffs. When he says he's canceling them, then ease off.
I managed to do a pretty good grocery shop today and I managed to only buy 1 American onion. There was a local option but I couldn't justify buying (or carrying) 25lbs without a plan. It's a local grocery store though, and I'm confident they're working on making buying Canadian/boycotting American products much easier very soon.
The thing is, it's almost certain that the orange idiot will do this again next month, next quarter, next year, ad infinitum. He's also shown that it's mostly bluster, Canada called his bluff and he blinked. So now it's noise, risk, and unnecessary cost.
There's also no confidence that this nonsense will stop in four years, no confidence that another Trump won't be elected next time.
America's burned the last shred of respect it had left, and it's gone, for decades if not forever.
Every other country is going to do its best to divest itself of every dependency on the USA it can; find other buyers and find other sellers.
Canada should keep imposing the Tariffs until March.
Trump didn't expect Canada to hit back, so he is unprepared for the fallout. If Canada also pauses until March, Trump will use the time to prepare and he'll reimpose the Tariffs in march
This is the part the media and the economists get wrong. This was never about trade or the economy. Trump understands neither. What he does understand is power. Control. It is how he has always "negotiated". Find some pressure points you control, press on it (even if it makes no sense or, worse, actually causes suffering) and then wait for someone to offer something and declare victory.
No grand plan, no scheme, no 3d chess, no deep thought. Just flex and collect.
This move was simple intelligence gathering. Now he knows how the world will respond to this threat. He's far more prepared to do it for real the next time.
Canada should hold their ground and call his bluff. Make him suffer for just the idea of threatening us.
Sort of, I’d say he winced. He still got a stronger boarder which was something he was wanting (cause Canada is the problem /s) but obviously the trade deficit didn’t change.
We’ll truly know if he is blinking if he follows through on the tariffs in a month. I just hope Canada (and others) wake up and realise they can’t depend on the US anymore. They should diversify themselves as much as possible as quickly as possible
The increase in border security spending was announced back in December. The only real change announced today is that Canada will now stick the bogus title of Fentanyl Czar on someone. Oh, and the fact that Canadians now will actively avoid any American products. Great job mango Mussolini.
He... Never had any credibility? Everybody knows Trump doesn't understand anything, and all his decisions are fed to him by handlers/oligarchs/lobbyists.
Trump only really manages good things by accident, but in my view, it's objectively a good thing seeing Non-US countries committing more to their own security. Also, at least here in the US, tens of millions can't afford an unexpected $400 expense without going further into debt, so finding $100-$200 in their budget to deal with tariffs is also going to be unmanageable, and I'm glad that's been avoided. (for now)
Entertainment for his cultists. They like seeing troops on the border. More importantly, they're tearing down the global economy on purpose so they can remake it as they please. If Trump gets his demands met, he knows he can go farther next time. If not, things collapse and his accelerationist billionaire buddies are happy.
It shows them that he's a strong leader who can get other world leaders to do what he wants. He made a threat, and Canada reacted by doing something he demanded. It's incredibly stupid, and will be completely ineffective, but the show of strength is the important part.
I browse /r/conservative occasionally to get a laugh. The entire subreddit is full of "winning posts".
Canada called his bluff, said they'd tariff the US as well...
He gets on a call... Canada says they're going to do something they were already going to do, and all he gets is someone getting the title: "Fentanyl Czar", apparently... and classifying cartels as terrorists.
So much "winning" lmfao. These people are delusional.
Kid A: You need to help me out.
Kid B: I'll help you out, np.
Kid A: If you don't help me out, I'm not letting you play with my toys!
Kid B: Okay, then you can't play with mine
Kid A: You're being so mean, I just need you to help me out!
Kid B: Yeah, like i said I'll help you out, and we can both play with each others toys.
After the announcement of tariffs, world markets saw Canada and China’s markets drop a couple points and the US’s surged a couple of points.
If you knew that market shift was coming and had a few billion in international markets and sold while the US surged, you made a shitload of money (at least, “shitload of money” from my perspective, because I’m a poorsie).
I get it now, 10000 Mexican troops on the US border with Mexico, 1000 times more fentanyl seized along the Southern border, so that means ten Canadians deployed along the Northern border. Easy!
He pissed off the two biggest trade partners, already fucked over farmers with China with the last round of tariffs that never recovered, and most of the EU. Him and his idiot brain trust isn't exactly swimming in markets.
Also he doesn't want to source anything from anywhere, he's stuck in some dementia addled past that never existed where America produced everything and thinks he can do this overnight.