Some Hacker News types like to bury their head in the sand when inconvenient political news occurs but to say this happened without warning simply flags you as part of this group.
> on some of the weakest nations you trade with (e.g. Laos, Vietnam).
There is room for these countries to buy more American goods. These two countries also rebadge and ship out a lot of Chinese goods to evade tariffs.
> changing trade policy radically every few days and announcing it on social media?
So, do you want warnings, or not?
> Not crashing the stock market, announcing a reverse on your social media platform, then boasting about how much money your billionaire friends made?
If you didn't make any trades during this period how was your portfolio actually impacted? I would assume this is the majority of non billionaire investors. So the only ones who lost in the crash were the same billionaires.
> calling one of your largest trading partners peasants and the then very clever, alternating between insults and praise like a two-bit mobster?
Does that trading partner also act like a two bit mobster? If so, wouldn't this just be turnabout, or why is deference to hostile economic partners justified?
> has made America a laughing stock
That's an absurdly biased point of view.
> I don’t think many Americans realise just how much trust has been burned with allies since ‘liberation day’.
Not much. They didn't actually "trust" us before. I'm not sure how you'd measure that anyways. From my reading of foreign news they're mostly taking it in stride, having seen this coming since last year, and not being particularly surprised by it. This zeitgeist only exists in half of America right now.
>They didn't actually "trust" us before. I'm not sure how you'd measure that anyways. From my reading of foreign news they're mostly taking it in stride, having seen this coming since last year, and not being particularly surprised by it. This zeitgeist only exists in half of America right now.
It's hard for me to overstate how wrong this is. In my country Denmark, everyone, everywhere is talking about this and people are generally worried. I hear it in the supermarkets.
We absolutely did trust the US until now. For instance, the entire Danish public sector runs on Microsoft. Nobody ever considered that to be an issue. Now there is political talk about how that can be undone. Several of my peers who read HN and considered US-based, YC-backed to be the ultimate way to launch a startup are talking about the liability involved. Mind you, this is not the typical "I hate America!" rhetoric that has always existed to some degree everywhere, this is risk management: "Can I trust that the US is stable enough for me to bet on?"
You may not think it matters because the US is as strong as it is, or maybe you don't care. But the trust and thereby soft power that has been destroyed in these few months is generational.
> It's a simple formula based on balance of trade.
It certainly is simple.
> Does that trading partner also act like a two bit mobster?
The US is comparable to the dictatorship of Xi now? I suppose the new leadership style is similar.
> From my reading of foreign news…
The very high level of these tariffs and their global scope and speed of imposition was a huge surprise to (former) US allies, and even to many in the US.
> It's a simple formula based on balance of trade.
"Simple" is why it put 10% on an island with no humans and no manmade structures separately to the country which owns that island, and also tariffed another island that's technically British but which the British leased to the US military.
"Simple" isn't what you want to decide a complex trade policy for a complex economy.
> That's an absurdly biased point of view.
Hello, I'm in one of those foreign allies. We are, in fact, laughing at USA for shooting itself in the foot like this. On the other hand, the bit where Trump is also refusing to rule out military force to annex some of us? We take that seriously.
> Not much. They didn't actually "trust" us before. I'm not sure how you'd measure that anyways.
We used to hold the US in high regard. "Leaders of the free world" etc.
But also, relatively stable economic position, stable currency, reliable government that repaid debts, etc.
Even though Trump 1 happened, we knew it would come to an end, and we thought you would finally be over it — especially given how it ended.
Now, we don't. And many of us will be looking to China as a more reliable (for us) trading partner.
It's a simple formula based on balance of trade.
> tariffs with no warning
Some Hacker News types like to bury their head in the sand when inconvenient political news occurs but to say this happened without warning simply flags you as part of this group.
> on some of the weakest nations you trade with (e.g. Laos, Vietnam).
There is room for these countries to buy more American goods. These two countries also rebadge and ship out a lot of Chinese goods to evade tariffs.
> changing trade policy radically every few days and announcing it on social media?
So, do you want warnings, or not?
> Not crashing the stock market, announcing a reverse on your social media platform, then boasting about how much money your billionaire friends made?
If you didn't make any trades during this period how was your portfolio actually impacted? I would assume this is the majority of non billionaire investors. So the only ones who lost in the crash were the same billionaires.
> calling one of your largest trading partners peasants and the then very clever, alternating between insults and praise like a two-bit mobster?
Does that trading partner also act like a two bit mobster? If so, wouldn't this just be turnabout, or why is deference to hostile economic partners justified?
> has made America a laughing stock
That's an absurdly biased point of view.
> I don’t think many Americans realise just how much trust has been burned with allies since ‘liberation day’.
Not much. They didn't actually "trust" us before. I'm not sure how you'd measure that anyways. From my reading of foreign news they're mostly taking it in stride, having seen this coming since last year, and not being particularly surprised by it. This zeitgeist only exists in half of America right now.