Litt om bilmarked og bilproduksjon i USA (og en del andre ting). Litt å bli klokere av, for de som ønsker det (og nei, klikken rundt Trump er uinteresserte i det):
The rationalizing I’ve heard is really stupendous. It’s necessary to level set. It’s going to change international trade for the better on a go forward basis. It’s going to hurt for a little but, but build baby build, the US will be a leader in industrial manufacturing! Those comments are wild to me, as we’re pounding countries on things from diamonds to cheap consumer goods the United States can’t reasonably manufacture.
Globalization is real. Peter Zeihan’s book The End of the World is Just the Beginning is a really fun read on who produces what and how international trade works. Including why nations import more than they export, and why trade relationships are so important for a stable global economy. Lutnick is not an idiot, though I think Trump is a dunce with a poor handle on most major economic concepts. I cannot imagine Lutnick is very happy, aside from sitting on tremendous gains from the shorts he’s undoubtedly placed.
It’s comments like Steven Miller’s that blow my mind. First, I think Steven Miller is a bad guy. I think he’s a talking head who really doesn’t understand fundamental concepts of government, like the interplay between judicial and executive branches, and how a judicial decision on constitutionality works, but I digress. When you get bullied for being a douchebag at a diverse high school in the mean as fuck streets of Santa Monica and are such a snowflake you have to turn inward to racist white dudes on ultra con talk shows because you have no friends and need an echo chamber for self satisfaction then hey, I guess you should be taken very seriously on foreign economics and international trade issues.
Anyway, Miller was essentially crying about a lack of Ford F-150s, Chevy Impalas, and Cadillac Escalades in Europe and Asia compared to all the Hondas, Toyotas, Hyundai, and Benzes on the road in the United States. That, to Miller, was clear evidence of unfair international trade policies detrimental to the United States. And so Trump levers up tariffs on both completed vehicles (lots from Europe) and car parts (lots from Asia).
Key here, according to the administration, is to develop American manufacturing. Jobs for Americans. Capture US economic output in America First.
Where are Toyotas manufactured? How about Hyundai and Kia? Anyone check to see where your Honda Accord is made? How about your Mercedes Benz SUV or fancy Maybach? How about a bunch of BMWs, including most of their SUVs? What kind of fuel does your care take? How about your European buddy’s car?
Forget all that. We need to see more goddam white Ford F-150s with Blue Line USA flag stickers and Punisher logo trailer hitches cruising in Tokyo OR OUR ECONOMY IS BROKEN THANKS TO BIDEN CRIME FAMILY. (Aside, yes, I did drive a Ford F-250 for a while during my heavy duck hunting years).
If you’re stumping for Trump, you’re not obligated to think. Miller obviously never considered that our tariff regime is so successful, Honda, Toyota, Mercedes, BMW, Hyundai, Kia, and others dramatically reduced the number of cars imported into the United States, and instead built a series of gargantuan plants that employ tens of thousands of people.
In 2017, Toyota employed more than 64,000 in the United States, and have since expanded plants and US HQ. BMW employs 11,000 people at it’s Spartanburg plant alone, which is 8 million square feet of industrial space. Mercedes Benz opened its first plan outside of Germany in Tuscaloosa Alabama, where it employs more than 6,000 people and is one of the United States’ largest automotive exporters (oh the irony, Miller you twat). Honda employs more than 30,000 at its many US manufacturing plants, and another 150,000 at dealerships across the United States. Hyundai also has a plant in Alabama, and moved its R&D and testing to California. It has 835 dealerships across the United States, which employ hundreds of thousands of Americans.
I don’t have more time to spend on this, but even a cursory analysis of these issues does not suggest some gargantuan failure of tariffs that have deprived the United States of good paying manufacturing jobs. To the contrary, these massive foreign automobile companies are greatly helping the United States by moving plants TO the United States and by employing, across all foreign car brands, in plants, dealerships, and specialty services (like OEM suppliers), literally millions of Americans with many hundreds of billions of dollars of economic impact
But because those evil foreigners aren’t driving as many of our vehicles, we should ruin the entire relationship. Never mind there aren’t any Skodas cruising around in Miller’s neighborhood. Nevermind the US is def not importing any Mahindra or Tata Motors from India. Nevermind US consumers buy and US auto producers make SUVs and trucks at a rate disproportionate to Euro and Asai counterparts. Nevermind that most US vehicles use gasoline instead of diesel because of an abundance of light, sweet crude, whereas the EU prefers diesel due to their abundance of heavy.
Just so much thoughtless drivel from people in power and their cronies. I’m honestly surprised more Republicans aren’t taking a harder stance on this bullshit.
en.wikipedia.org
Jeg brukte Motorola, Ericsson, Sony mobiler tidligere.... Nokia holdt på drive mmeg til vanvidd...
borsen.dagbladet.no
www.vg.no
bsky.app
www.thelondoneconomic.com
