"If you look at page 1 of the tariff handbook, it says: Don't tariff inputs. It's the simplest way to make it harder—more expensive—for Americans to do business. Any factory around the world can get the steel, copper, and aluminum it needs without paying a 50% upcharge, except an American factory."

https://bsky.app/profile/justinwolfers.bsky.social/post/3lud...

As such, the way in which they're used can easily be disguished between "hidden tax" and "design to affect production location".

These tariffs are, as a whole, about adding a hidden tax.

Tariffs need to be applied surgically and... they are not

At the end of the day the prices still rise just not as much as with the tariffs but higher than foreign made without tariffs.

If you mean that we exploit Chinese people by not giving them the proper salary, living standard and retirement fund, yeah true

But parallel to that, automatization has reached a level we never had before.

I don't think tarifs would lead to more capital in USA in the right/expected pockets.

Because the sellers can sell to another country without the tariff. American buyers have no alternative.

Here's a thing with a punitive tariff on it. People won't buy it because the price went up too much. It is because prices went up that nobody buys it. (And we all become poorer because we can afford less, whether or not the price increase shows up in the inflation statistics.)

Tariffs have their own Laffer Curve just like income taxes do. Sure, you can set them so that the government gets zero (or close) revenue. But you don't have to. You can set them so that the government gets quite a bit of money. (Note well: I am not claiming that Trump is setting them there.)

If the Trump admin was serious about rebuilding the industrial base, they'd be providing subsidies and federal grants, not tariffs. They'd also be sucking money out of the economy by increasing the number and top marginal rates on the income tax and patching loopholes in the corporate tax code. At the same time, they'd be cutting taxes for the bottom 80% of America and providing healthcare and childcare subsidies.

  Grover Norquist is smiling from the grave right now, watching this bipartisan anti-tax push.

The OP article is short on data and only has a few anecdotes. Like GM, who makes 50% of their US-sold cars outside of the US. And no mention of GM passing any price increases onto consumers.

Let's look at Japanese automakers. Japanese auto exports to the US declined 25% by value in May, but only 4% by volume. But only in the US - the price of autos exported to non-US destinations was flat. Toyota et al. are eating the cost of the tariffs, not passing them on.[1] Chart[2]

Bloomberg itself looked at PPI data recently and observed, "core goods were the main source of price pressures in May, suggesting that companies may be eating some of the added costs from tariffs." Core goods continue to be a source of disinflation in consumer prices but a source of persistent inflation in producer prices hints at pressure on corporate margins.

Core CPI continues to print lower than street expectations, for five consecutive months now. Far lower than what the Fed is concerned about, and certainly leagues lower than what the consumer expects (according to UMich study).

Contrary to popular wisdom, US inflation isn't soaring for the simple reason that costs are not being borne by domestic consumers.

[1]https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Automobiles/Japan-auto-expo... [2]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuFMrZRW0AA7Rc0?format=png&name=...

In the same way that laws against pumping your own gas help other Americans find work. It makes everyone else poorer instead of naturally created jobs which provide goods and services people want.

> increasing the likelihood that foreign goods will be purchased from allied nations and not totalitarian dictatorships

Citation needed, this round of tariffs have also fallen on our allies

Maybe those folks can be competitive within the US given the absurd tariffs. But will they be competitive on any global scale, with those additional headwinds? And if TACO or years pass and tariffs get rescinded, having that massive extra overhead on CapEx is not a good position to be in.

So no, you don't get re-industrialization, you get stagflation. It's idiocracy.

But don't worry, the falling dollar will compensate.

If you want to incentive domestic reindustrialization, you do it with things like the Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS act or the "Green New Deal" where congress lays out clear sets of rules in law with a mixture of tax incentives, loan programs and spending to give investors and corporations confidence to make decade-long commitments of capital to major projects.

You might argue that the retail channel can eat the difference, but it doesn't make sense to make the same absolute margin on goods that are subject to volatile tariff policies. It makes it hard to predict how many units will sell, how much stock to maintain, and creates a big risk that any units on shelves will suddenly be devalued when these tariffs are rescinded.

The price of food is based on the price of domestic produce and the price of imports. If taxes are levied on food imports it will raise the mean price of food. As yoga instructors need food to do their job (in fact, they need it to live), they would have to raise their prices.

It’s a pernicious problem exacerbated by conservative media that’s 24 hour xenophobia and jingoism. It’s not just the US look to your countrymen dear reader!