kscarbel2

There is an irony here. The administration is saying, the US is a massive market that every foreign business wants to be in. And if you want to sell here and take our money, then open factories here, hire our people and produce your US market goods here. The funny thing is that's exactly what China has been doing for 25 years and the US criticizes them for it, calling it protectionist. China told Ford and GM, for example, we're thrilled you want to sell cars here and make money, but you need to produce those cars for the China market in China thus creating jobs for our people so we all benefit.

We’re now learning that over the weekend, China’s retaliation against President Trump’s tariffs includes more export controls on rare earth minerals to the US. China will continue supplying rare earths to the rest of the world, but limit US access to the minerals. China mines 60 percent of the world’s rare earth minerals, and provides 90 percent of processing and refining capacity. Why doesn’t the US mine, process and refine at least enough rare earth minerals for its own needs? That is a very good question.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a64407133/2026-ford-ranger-super-duty-revealed/ .

https://www.jpmorganchase.com/ir/annual-report/2024/ar-ceo-letters

60% tariffs are not okay. But I would first target the tariffs that actually and significantly affect the US. I imagine that all Americans support reciprocal tariffs, but he has now without explanation superceded that plan with tariffs in excess of reciprocal. Remember, some small countries use tariffs to protect what little industry that they have. And the US should have practiced such protectionism of our domestic truckmakers, rather than allow the DoJ to approve the sale of every major US truckmaker to foreign aggressors with the exception of Paccar, resulting in over 75% of commercial trucks on US roads being produced by foreign truckmakers which is NOT in the best interest of US national security.

President Trump today threatened China with additional 50% tariffs if they do not withdraw their 34% retaliatory tariffs on the US. He says all negotiations will be terminated and the additional 50% levy will take effect on Wednesday. “If China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50 percent effective April 9th. Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated!” There is a "way" to successfully discuss matters with Peking. This is not that way.

We'll never learn the whole truth. I believe many were shorting. I myself do not short......it's gambling for an individual investor to do so. But for the big Wall Street houses, this is how they profit at a moment when we are losing. I did go 50% to cash 3 months ago, as my gut told me something was coming. I did not though imagine this. I'm skeptical of Lutnick and Navarro, the "way" they're guiding the President. I am thus far impressed with Bessent. It seems the President is trying to force the Fed to cut rates now rather than later......recall the President wanted a rate cut on April 3 but Powell refused.

Ackman is bluntly criticizing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who is investing in long-bonds. Lutnick profits when our economy implodes. It's a bad idea to pick a Secretary of Commerce whose firm is levered long fixed income. It's an irreconcilable conflict of interest. Bill Ackman The President needs to replace Lutnick with the likes of Ackman, someone that understands a balanced approach to achieving reciprocal tariffs.

The country is 100 percent behind the president on fixing a global system of tariffs that has disadvantaged the country. But business is a confidence game and confidence depends on trust. By placing massive and disproportionate tariffs on our friends and our enemies alike and thereby launching a global economic war against the whole world at once, we are in the process of destroying confidence in our country as a trading partner, as a place to do business and as a market to invest capital. President Trump has an opportunity to call a 90-day timeout, negotiate and resolve unfair asymmetric tariff deals and induce trillions of dollars of new investment in our country. If, on the other hand, on April 9th, we launch economic nuclear war on every country in the world, business investment will grind to a halt, consumers will close their wallets and pocket books and we will severely damage our reputation with the rest of the world that will take years and potentially decades to rehabilitate. When markets crash, new investment stops, consumers stop spending money and businesses have no choice but to curtail investment and fire workers. And it's not just the big companies that will suffer. Small and medium-size businesses and entrepreneurs will experience much greater pain. Almost no businesses can pass through an overnight massive increase in cost to their customers. And that's true even if they have no debt and unfortunately, there is a massive amount of leverage in the system. Business is a confidence game, and President Trump is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe. The consequences for our country and the millions of our citizens who have supported the president - in particular low-income consumers who are already under a huge amount of economic stress - are going to be severely negative. This is not what we voted for. The president has an opportunity on Monday to call a timeout and have the time to execute on fixing an unfair tariff system. Alternatively, we are headed for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter and we should start hunkering down. May cooler heads prevail. I have a lot of respect for our president and what he has accomplished so far, but I don't think he is infallible, which is why I am stating loud and clear that I strongly believe launching tariffs on April 9 against the entire world - massively in excess of what we are being charged - is a mistake. The right answer in my view is a 90-day pause to give the president time to carefully and strategically resolve our historically unfair global trading position. Bill Ackman – Billionaire Trump supporter & Pershing Square Capital Management's CEO Ackman is a huge Wall Street name.

Not at all impressed with this gentleman. She's asking good solid questions.......he won't answer them. He just keeps repeating the rhetoric that we all know now by heart. JD Vance and Scott Bessent are rungs above this gentleman. .

. "At the end of the day, I hope it's agreed that both Europe and the United States should move ideally to a zero tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America." Elon Musk

“I struggle for why, for what the president’s game plan is. Because if you wanted to make the market crash, I think you would go with this game plan. I don’t like that game. I do not favor that. That’s a they know nothing game plan. It should not be in our country’s interest to have the market crash.” Jim Cramer .

As a result of the tariff action, major banks have issued the largest margin calls to their clients since COVID (March/April 2020). The scale of the calls suggests the steep sell-off will continue next week. Hedge funds are facing Lehman-style margin calls as a market crash triggered by President Trump's tariffs raises fears of a "Black Monday." The market's sharp downturn has forced hedge funds to sell off assets, with major Wall Street banks demanding collateral after the value of holdings sharply declined. There is fear of a repeat of the devastating 'Black Monday' (October 19, 1987) when the Dow fell 22.6%, the largest one-day percentage drop in history.

There is a plausible theory..................that President Trump is deliberately tanking the stock market with his tariffs so as to force Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to cut interest rates. Continuing to crash the stock market could weaken the dollar, thus making U.S. exports more price competitive. And it could lower mortgage rates stimulating domestic housing construction. Of course, this would be very risky........everything would have to fall into place just right. Failure would be disastrous.

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87 octane averages $2.99 around me. Gasoline can't fall much lower than that. Both Biden and President Trump harped on lowering gasoline pump prices. But it can't get much lower or the oil companies aren't making any money.

The Democrats couldn't possibly believe what they're saying. These are intelligent people. Rather, it's as though they are reading from a script. They are controlled.

The stock market selloff deepened, bonds pared gains and oil hit a four-year low, with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell today reiterating the central bank’s wait-and-see approach. Powell said the economic damage of a trade war will be bigger than anticipated.

In short, he in one sense went too far. In another sense, he has not spoken clearly. The idea is right, but the execution is wrong. Apparently, he's listening to the wrong advisors (Lutnick, Navarro) rather than the right ones (JD Vance, Suzie Wiles and Scott Bessent).

Why don't we ever see the names of great American leaders like John Kennedy on presidential ballots? Apparently, they are not permitted to run.