@robertajobb I think VW have some sort of strategic alliance with Ford (of Europe) so if you buy a VW Group car, it might well have the blue oval in the supply chain. At least GM Europe is now owned by Peugeot (well, Stellantis).
Should we blame the government?
Or blame society?
Or should we blame the images on TV?No, blame Canada!
Blame Canada!
With all their beady little eyes,
And flapping heads so full of lies!Blame Canada!
Blame Canada!We need to form a full assault!
It's Canada's fault!
Jamze
Full MemberThis is a good example, IMO, of how meaningless these executive orders are. Trump is saying job done. The US military has been to California and ‘turned on the water.’ The local government has no idea what he’s on about.
The whole thing is a doubling down exercise. Trump obviously wants to blame the fires on lefties, so he literally invented "the valve" which he tells people the democrats use to cut off the water coming from Canada to California (I'm not even kidding, I wish I was). He described it as being literally a kitchen tap but 1000 times bigger. Then he sent imaginary soldiers to turn on the imaginary tap. And now he says southern california has all teh water it could ever want, because of this.
(before that he invented a "water restoration declaration" which he claimed Newsom refused to sign, which would have solved all the water issues. Just total fiction)
It goes back further, the traditional right wing nonsense has been about "smelt", a little fish that they try to protect by releasing a trivial amount of water- at its highest, less than 1.2% of the total delta output- and Trump has had his nose in that- it's probably where the entire idea comes from, just pretending that the only reason California is on fire is that water is wasted.
“I said, ‘I see you have a drought.’ They said, ‘No, we don’t have a drought. We have so much water you don’t know what to do.’ But they send it out to the Pacific. We’re not going to let them get away with that any longer,”
Can't bring myself to buy a French car, not because of anything anti-French, but just because we all know the electrics will become a disco show of fault indications in time). It's like buying a JLR - I just couldn't because they are so unreliable.
But I’ve found myself avoiding products manufactured in american, avoiding ‘american’ brands and avoiding TV/films made in america or about american culture.
You'd be surprised at how much of such content is actually made in Canada (who could probably do with some help at the moment).
Note that most of the car manufacturers listed above have US factories, so all have some revenue/profits derived from US (on top of any direct exports to the US of course).
There's not many non-domestic brands with factories in the us that manufacture in the us that export those non domestics from the us.
Apparently the BMw x5 and Mercedes GLE being the exceptions.
There are clear avoidance brands, but also some slightly misleading crossovers e.g. anything under the Stellantis group.. fiat, Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen, Alfa, Lancia, Maserati
Well all the talk of Trump being crypto friendly has wiped billions off the market through liquidations. Drops of 30% or more on some alt-coins.
Although with this sort of administration I reckon chaos is actually part of the plan. Chaos creates volatility and neocons know how to make a lot of money out of this.
High tariffs are mapped out to not work when countries like the USA work on imports. USA has always been anti-competition really.
Keep an eye on USA's growth figures for sure. 2024 Q3 3.1 Q4 2.3
Well all the talk of Trump being crypto friendly has wiped billions off the market through liquidations. Drops of 30% or more on some alt-coins.
Yes, huge drops over night. Isn't this likely due to general market volatility related to the tariff announcements though?
But yes, since he's got in there's been very little excitement, I suspect a lot of trump supporters bought a lot of bitcoin expecting it to fly after the inauguration and that's not happened.
Yes, huge drops over night. Isn’t this likely due to general market volatility related to the tariff announcements though?
Yes.
But also when the Trump coin launched other day that created big instability too, sucking liquidity left right and centre.
Self interest Trumps everything.
I've previously posted the only thing that would stop Trump & his fascist backers would be crashing the economy but I see elsewhere a lot of people speculating crashing the economy is actually part of the plan - that sounds a pretty risky tactic... I also don't really understand the reasoning, OK I get that if you break something you can rebuild it to suit your needs but the 'economy' is pretty complex in that regard. I also don't really buy it's part of creating an oligarchy, sure you can use Russia as an example of that but that was a vastly different situation (businesses went from state owned to privately owned, that doesn't really apply to the US).
Surely imposing tariffs on the EU in the short-term would be a massive tactical mistake though, the combined trade (along with the countries he's already imposed tariffs on) would have a major impact on many of the largest US businesses. It wouldn't surprise me if the part of the EU's retaliation included restricting US social media companies to. That said Germany would be hit hard and have the loudest voice so I'm guessing they'd try to negotiate (which would be in Trump's interest to).
Although with this sort of administration I reckon chaos is actually part of the plan. Chaos creates volatility and neocons know how to make a lot of money out of this.
Crash the economy through tariffs, volatility, massive budget cuts.
Use that to plunder the Treasury (now under the control of EM). Cut taxes on the rich. US credit rating falls.
Use that to cut benefits and welfare even further then blame LGBTQ, Jews, diversity. Create a race war, bring in the military (who will by then have been forced to expel any DEI elements).
While that useful distraction is happening, rewrite the laws to allow President for life.
I reckon that recent Netflix film 'Civil War' was onto something...
He seems to be separating the UK from the EU in his talk of sanctions. I know we are separate, but I think it's more about divide and conquer, we don't want to walk into his trap.
Politicians need to have the courage to do what is "right", not what is politically or even economically expedient. Better to have a few economically hard years now than allow the divisive talk increase friction and have wars in a few years time.
That said Germany would be hit hard and have the loudest voice so I’m guessing they’d try to negotiate (which would be in Trump’s interest to).
Merz the current favourite to be German chancellor is using Trumps playbook, and making the election about immigration while his economic plan would "assist" the rich while punishing the poor. This follows Scholz who like Starmer has taken a left of centre party right of centre and implemented austerity and cuts of service, seen asset (house) prices far outstrip wage growth and has just implemented a raise in the German equivilent of NI..
If there are any politician's of major parties left that aren't already owned by the oligarchs, they need to start fixing the economic problems suffered by the majority of the electorate, they can't just keep being mouthpieces for the oligarchs and spouting "we can't afford that" then using minorities as an excuse for their failure. That is the way to head of this war that is being waged on society by the super wealthy.
There’s a lot of nasty stuff not making the front page of the news:
Talking of which, have we covered DOGE getting it's tentacles into the federal payment system that handles government salaries, social security payments etc..?
Talking of which, have we covered DOGE getting it’s tentacles into the federal payment system that handles government salaries, social security payments etc..?
Is this not being reported in the US? The government you elected has given access to all federal payment records, including personal data, to an unelected non government "department" who specialises in data mining?
Are the gun-toting freedom loving rednecks not aware what's happening?
Stock markets everywhere are falling.
unelected non government “department”
Unelected non-government far-right former illegal immigrant, technically.
^ Indeed, some of the claims of Musk and DOGE over the weekend are pretty frightening. Really getting stuck into the mechanisms of the nation and boasting that no-one works the weekend so it is like a superpower to meddle the weekend away…
The more this goes on, the more it seems to resemble a hostile corporate takeover.
We're f##ked, aren't we?
We’re f##ked, aren’t we?
No, we're not ****ed. We need to take a step away from this Trump led US and let them do whatever they are going to do, and work with the other sensible nations to do whatever is best for the rest of us.
We need to take a step away from this Trump led US and let them do whatever they are going to do, and work with the other sensible nations to do whatever is best for the rest of us.
But you just know instead that we'll go full on "special relationship"...
And even if the UK Government does step back a bit, Farage will still be over there every other week shoving his brown nose around, desperate for a piece of the pie.
Good luck to anyone trying to get away from the USA .
Pension funds
Stock isa
God help anyone retiring in the next 5 years.
In other news the Germans are up and on the feet in the thousands trying to shut down the far right.
The USA needs to wake up and fast unless they are happy with the situation. Sadly I think some of them are.
We’re f##ked, aren’t we?
Sometimes even the biggest toddler needs to find out that there are consequences to stupid actions.
These tariffs could shut down a good chunk of the US car manufacturing industry pretty quickly. The just-in-time cross border transit of parts keeps it running. I suppose with more than a week's notice, there could have been some stockpiling, so I guess we'll see what happens when you bung a stick into the wheels of industry.
We still have a few political toddlers in the UK who don't seem to have learned any lessons from the painfully slow introduction of Brexit trade barriers, perhaps it would have been better if we'd had an overnight transition.
Still, at least we get to see what the 'Move Fast - Break Things' approach from the 'disrupter' tech-bros looks like when applied to the world's biggest economy and government over the period of a few weeks.
How quickly does the reality of all this play out? Truss managed to upset most of the UK within a few weeks, but I am feeling in US that a lot will take longer to work through the federal-state system. As ever, investments are for the rich and are 'monopoly money' until you need to realise them. So how soon before in the US food and energy prices rise, jobs start being lost, payments are missed etc?
I'm taking solace that another country has done something even more stupid than brexit, gotta take the wins were you can.
Wait until the price of the red MAGA hats go up in price.
I suppose with more than a week’s notice, there could have been some stockpiling
Not if it's a just-in-time system. The whole point is that the infrastructure needed to stockpile is expensive so you cut costs by reducing that to the absolute minimum. Either Trump backs down or the U.S. car industry is going to be in turmoil.
Not if it’s a just-in-time system. The whole point is that the infrastructure needed to stockpile is expensive so you cut costs by reducing that to the absolute minimum.
Yeah, the point was that, in the long, painful run up to actual Brexit, some companies here were able to move from JIT to a less efficient system to lessen the impact. Or just left the country altogether because doing that was too expensive.
In US they are introducing major changes with almost immediate effect.
Sauce?
I think it's Maple Syrup usually.
Just check it's not laced with something, attached to a tripwire or otherwise boobytrapped.
Yea, I've heard / been taught / read / generally assumed it was fact that Canadian troops had been the inspiration for a lot of the Geneva Guidelines.
‘disrupter’ tech-bros
I think auto correct has got you there, the collective noun is a "dumpster fire of tech-bro's"
So how soon before in the US food and energy prices rise, jobs start being lost, payments are missed etc?
If there is one thing that the US is good at, it is capitalism, in regard to both passing on price hikes to consumers and getting rid of workers who aren't needed. In many states, I don't think they even have to take you to court to foreclose on your house.
EG
https://bsky.app/profile/crampell.bsky.social/post/3lhagezvuk22y
The markets are down all over the world, it will be interesting to see which way the Dow goes, and if that has an effect on Trump? Or....is this, as mentioned above, part of the plan.
Amazing, a place/contract where "fixed price" can change in an instant.
The USA needs to wake up and fast unless they are happy with the situation. Sadly I think some of them are.
This is what they voted for, why would they 'wake up'?
The neoliberal globalist policy of outsourcing manufacturing to other countries who are free to exploit and underpay their workers is finally being challenged. I'm just amazed it's the US leading it. Of course it will mean higher prices and a resetting of the global economy, probably via a global recession in the process, but if it works it will see manufacturing jobs return to the US (and other countries). The big question is whether US consumers willing and able to soak up the pain or if they lose their nerve. Personally I don't think it'll work, trade wars never do, and they often degenerate into real wars. But the status quo of outsourcing jobs to China and other places was never going to be sustainable.
it will be interesting to see which way the Dow goes, and if that has an effect on Trump?
He always used to take credit for Dow rises, so I imagine that any falls will be nothing to do with him.
Amazing, a place/contract where “fixed price” can change in an instant.
Hey! It took a lot of lax regulation which penalises the consumer to get to the small print in this particular contract.
The neoliberal globalist policy of outsourcing manufacturing to other countries who are free to exploit and underpay their workers is finally being challenged.
In other news, here's a picture of one of those battling the neolibs from his seat at Trump's inauguration.
The crypto markets also finally taking a hit , hopefully that will make some of his backers worry
The sad thing is that Americas economic might is such that the countries will fold to his demands in some way (or at least to an extent that he will crow about his success)
Cant decide whether this will help or hinder the AFD in the upcoming elections as Germany is very vulnerable to tarrifs
In other news, here’s a picture of one of those battling the neolibs from his seat at Trump’s inauguration.
They've got hundreds of billions, they don't care if a trade war increases prices. And besides that's not what I was talking about. Just like with brexit, this is what happens when working class people feel like they've been forgotten and left behind by an economic system that doesn't give a shit about them. We voted for brexit, US voters voted for Trump and his trade war. They're two sides of the same coin.
I'm sure you're right that people voted because they are being ignored/treated like shit, but they are mistaken if they think that Trump has any motivation to make their lives better. He honestly couldn't give a shit. First thing he did in office was to scrap the insulin price cap.
He's not challenging neoliberal globalism, he's trying to fine-tune the way it flows for the benefit of his oligarchs and himself. He may portray this during elections as a wish to revive domestic manufacturing, but no amount of tariffs is going to make it cheaper to employ Americans than Mexicans.
Of course, none of this will stop him going after remaining workers' rights and protections, ostensibly to make the US 'more competitive' in terms of labour, but in truth as a sop to employers and their profits. This will be unfettered capitalism with the federal safety net slashed. Tax cuts for the wealthy, benefit cuts for the weak.
He’s not challenging neoliberal globalism
He's not personally no. But what he has done is a challenge to it, and that's what US voters voted for. I suppose this is the inevitable result of the global consensus on free trade and free global markets, and that consensus looks to be crumbling. The danger is we go down the same road as the last time trade barriers and tariffs were the norm, and that was a global depression and resultant world war.
I also reckon Trump is an old school empire builder. All his rhetoric on Greenland, Canada and the Panama canal suggests he's keen on a North American Empire.
It's like the 1920s replaying itself.
This is what they voted for, why would they ‘wake up’?
Not really - similar to Brexit, they voted for making their lives better, because that's what they were told would happen. They were unable or unwilling to recognise this as a lie, or at least were not fed media that pointed this out.
Good luck to anyone trying to get away from the USA .
Pension funds
Stock isa
God help anyone retiring in the next 5 years
I'm planning to retire in 4 years. This is about the world doing the right thing for its long term future, not protecting my ****ing pension scheme.
