Hyundai – which also owns Kia and Genesis, the Korean automaker’s luxury-line – just announced the other day that it will be investing $20 billion in manufacturing operations in the United States, including a new steel plant in Louisiana that will reportedly employ 1,500 Americans.
This is huge – even if President Trump didn’t use one of his favorite words to say so.
But is it on account of his tariffs?
Naturally, the president is saying yes.
“This investment is a clear demonstration that tariffs very strongly work,” Trump said. “And I hope other things also, but the tariffs are bringing them in at levels that have not been witnessed.”
But that’s dubious given Hyundai had probably been planning its investment for some time before the president announced his plan to tax – whoops, tariff – things such as cars manufactured outside America to the tune of 25 percent.
Which was after all only announced just a few weeks ago.
Decisions involving billions tend to be made carefully and with the long-range scheme of things in mind. More than likely, Hyundai – which is a major presence in America already – decided it made more sense for them to have some of their operations closer to hand rather than farther away.
The underlying issue – the reason why so many manufacturing operations have left America – has not been addressed. Do you remember that “giant sucking sound” Ross Perot talked about in the Before Time – back in the mid-1990s – when both wings of the Uniparty were pushing what they (with audacious effrontery) styled “free trade” agreements with countries such as China? As if there were anything like free exchange that was occurring – or could occur – between a country run by a regulatory apparat that made it very expensive to manufacture anything in that country (that being this country) and a country run by Communists who had embraced a form of fascism – that is, state-directed “capitalism” – that promoted manufacturing as a form of economic warfare against this country?
Naturally – and per Lenin’s observation – American capitalists were only too happy to come on down (as they used to say on the Price is Right) to China, if it meant more profits for them. In about 30 years’ time, Americans financed – via Wal Mart – their own manufacturing dispossession. China went from being at best a second-world failed state to a first world state while America made the transition to failing state.
And – suddenly – here we are.
Trump’s attempt to undo the damage – by taxing Americans who want to buy things not manufactured in this country – will only make Americans even poorer than most of them (save the vulture capitalist class that has fed to gorging on “free trade” with China, et al) already are. Because manufacturing and compliance costs aren’t going to decrease and those two things are the underlying reasons why it has become so expensive to manufacture (and sell) anything in this country.
It has been noticed that it is less costly to manufacture things in China because the Chinese government does not cripple its manufacturing capacity with regulatory costs, especially those pertaining to the preposterous idea that the “climate” must be prevented from “changing” on account of carbon dioxide “emissions.” Only a late-terminal-stage country addled by decades of presumptively permanent affluence and plenty could entertain such an idiocy seriously. But this is what happens when you have a country populated by a sufficiency of useful idiots – again, per Lenin – led by a cadre of people more than willing to exploit the idiots for their own gain.
Still, the idiots begin to notice something’s amiss as they pay $100 for two plastic bags of groceries and wonder whether they’ll be able to afford the electric bill this month and never mind a new car. But most of them still do not understand why things they used to be able to easily afford – such as a car – have become unaffordable. But some of them think that adding a 25 percent tax the cost of things like cars is going to make such things more affordable.
Is it any wonder that almost all of them walked around for the better part of two years with maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasks over their faces?
Does Trump understand?
Does he believe that Americans will be more able to afford things if they are manufactured here rather than somewhere else where it costs less to manufacture them – because the cost of regulatory compliance in those somewhere-else-places is less – by dint of using taxes to pressure those manufacturers to manufacture here instead? That, of course, is the idea behind tariffs. And it may work – to lower the cost of what Americans pay – when it doesn’t cost more to manufacture things here.
But there’s the rub. Because it does.
The way things stand – and will stay, unless the regulatory cost issue is addressed – will be that, yes, more things are likely to be manufactured here. But they will still cost more because the regulatory compliance cost issue remains.
Buy American – assuming you can afford to.
Trump could do something meaningful to address the regulatory cost problem by siccing DOGE on that – and it would arguably do a great more to to make America great again than sussing out tax dollars spent on Drag Queen Story Time in Moldava (or wherever).
Another thing Trump could do that would likely trigger a manufacturing boom as far as vehicle manufacturing is concerned would be to end federal compliance costs associated with “fuel efficiency” and “safety,” neither of which are things the federal government has any legitimate (constitutional) or moral business being involved in.
What good is a 50 MPG “economy” car that costs more than most people can afford to buy? Why is it anyone else’s business whether your car has airbags or back-up cameras? Imagine if it were legal to manufacturer a $10,000 car that got 50 MPG – because it didn’t have to lug around six air bags and all the associated structure that must be built into the car. There are probably a dozen could-be latter-day Henry Fords that would-be if it were legally possible to manufacture simple, affordable cars.
Tens of thousands of Americans might be employed making them and all of them could afford to buy and drive them. And because they could, they’d be able to afford other things, like a family and a house to raise their kids in. And that would pretty great.
It happened once and it could again. If Trump gets serious – and right – about it.
Imposing new taxes – whoops, again – isn’t going to do anything but make America more expensive, again.
. . .
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In a post at Lew Rockwell’s site, David Stockman completely demolishes Trump’s tariff arguments. He shows that the average tariff rate of countries that run big trade surpluses with the US — Canada, Mexico, the EU, Japan, Korea, Taiwan — is in the same 2 to 3 percent range as US tariffs.
Stockman offers an informative discussion on motorcycles:
‘India’s ballyhooed 50% tariff on motorcycles doesn’t make any difference to the overall two-way trade.
‘Motorcycle markets are vastly different between the two countries. The US just doesn’t make rides suited to the large India market. That is to say, a high 50% tariff on products that US factories do not make is not a cause of the 2:1 import/export imbalance in the US trade account with India.
‘India’s motorcycle market is the world’s largest by volume, with around 17-20 million units sold annually. It’s dominated by small-displacement bikes (100cc to 250cc). These are commuter-focused bikes priced in the $1,000-$2,000 USD range and mass-produced locally in India.
‘By contrast, the U.S. market is much smaller (547,000 units sold in 2023) and skewed toward larger, premium bikes. These rides come with 600cc-1800cc engines (e.g. Harley-Davidson Street Glide, Indian Chief). The typical US bike weighs 3-4X more than India’s bikes, sports 70-120 horsepower and is built for highways.
‘These American bikes get far lower mileage; cost 10-15X more at $10,000-$30,000 USD; and target leisure riders, not mass commuters. The principal US manufacturers — Harley-Davidson, Indian Motorcycle, Polaris, and smaller players like Zero — simply have no products suitable for India, high tariff or not.’
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/03/david-stockman/fallacy-of-reciprocal-tariffs/
Nice try, David. But mere facts have never troubled the mottled mind of the Orange Oracle of Obduracy.
Hi Jim,
Stockman’s article is excellent. There’s another facet, too. The Royal Enfield is made in India – and sells here for much less than most Japanese (and far less than Harley/Indian) motorcycles. https://www.royalenfield.com/us/en/motorcycles/bear-650/
I WANT IT.
Can you beg, borrow or steal one to review?
Hola Eric!
Isn’t it interesting that what started out as a car website discussing the pros and cons of cars and car “culture” has developed into a forum discussing the levels and variations of stench coming off the sewage treatment plant? And with no name calling.
On tariffs: actually, at one time, they DID finance our original government. This, of course, was before the parasites (bankers, and their ilk) started making inroads on congress: no income taxes, NO property taxes, mostly free enterprise as opposed to the frauds called “free market” and kapitalizm. Whether OrangeManBad can pull this off or not, I don’t know, but it won’t happen as long as there is a Income Tax, property tax , and, fake money via the Fed.
As for “re-investing” in America? Until the EPA (perfect example of good intentions being turned into yet another parasite controlled monstrosity) is reigned in, gutted of eekko-wakkos and other useful “climate change” idiots, the Corps of Engineers has a mass execution of traitors, and, “urban growth” bs regulations are excised and the parasites implementing these regulations are sent to Antarctica naked, there isn’t going to be ANY improvement, regardless of what Hyundai does or doesn’t do. Besides, with the current collection of hate-America regulators infesting our Country, it will take Hyundai 20 years to jump through all the hoops and over all the environmental hurdles the parasites throw in front of them… just sayin’.
Morning, Nike!
I agree with your synopsis. I think what’s going on right now is mostly a show and at best a temporary respite. Not a fundamental change in direction. Not yet, at least. The fact that Trump is now a big fan of EVs and that “great American car company,” Tesla, says a lot about his understanding of the political-regulatory situation. As far as cars: It’s becoming a real struggle to maintain enthusiasm for the new stuff – and I suspect this is intentional. The war on cars – which is a war on what was once called the American way of life – has been in progress for 50-plus years now and we are arrived at where they intended, almost. Cars are now too expensive for most working and middle class people, who cannot afford them and almost completely beyond the reach of teenagers and young adults, who for this reason have stopped caring about them an turned to smartphones and apps instead.
PS: I got the dash pic. Man, I miss the days when cars were cool…
G’morning Eric,
Thank you for the reply. Just remember, Trump is a New Yorker, and one of the privileged elites; hence I do not expect the war on cars to stop. Then again, even IF he is on the level, he is up against 150+ years of corruption (starting with the war with Spain, yet another banker’s war) in the district of criminals.
Here’s some background for you:
https://www.ammoland.com/2024/04/new-yorkcesspool-of-loyalists-to-the-crown-seeded-the-anti-2nd-amendment-zealots-of-today/
And, that’s just the introduction….
Basically it all boils down to the war between the urbos and the rest of the Country. It’s easy to control people when they are in a cage and the controllers have paid thugs for crowd control. Kinda hard to pull that crap out where real people are armed and have backhoes and excavators and pigs….. oh, yeah, forgot chickens; they can do a decent job too….
Glad you liked the pic. I too sure miss a simple car… sigh… even if it was an Austin-Healy 3000 Mk III…..with prince of darkness electrics…
Thanks for the website!
‘The American Public Will Have To Step In To Eliminate The Parasitic Bureaucracy’ – March 28, 2025
“… I believe the situation may end up calling for public intervention by conservative citizens. Leftist activists are being organized by NGOs to thwart DOGE, but where are the conservative activists to help DOGE? Maybe unnecessary agencies need to be shut down by public mandate regardless of what woke Obama appointed judges say?
A mass of conservatives surrounding an agency building would shut operations down by default and send a message, wouldn’t it? Leftists had no problem picketing outside the houses of Supreme Court Judges when they overturned Roe V Wade; conservatives could do the same thing with leftist judges blocking deportations of illegal migrants. If leftists want to use political intimidation by setting fire to Tesla dealerships, conservatives could organize groups to watch over these businesses.
This is not necessarily an effort to protect some electric cars from being vandalized. The point is to send a message that conservatives are not going to sit at home doing nothing while leftists run rampant doing whatever they please.” …
https://alt-market.us/the-american-public-will-have-to-step-in-to-eliminate-the-parasitic-bureaucracy/
That’s the last option & the only option? Can’t even imagine it.
“a dried up husk”
Hi Helot,
True, but, you forgot one fact: conservatives “don’t sit at home”, they are the wage slaves, so they are at work being raped of their hard earned wages and will get fired if they “take a mental health day” to go and protest in front of a temple to satan. Please take a note of when our masters hold their “public forums”. Please note that these events ALWAYS take place in the middle of the day when conservatives are wage slaving. Also note that the places our masters hold their bs forums ALWAYS have “limited seating so arrive early”, and guess what type always manages to “arrive early”? Yup, go to the head of the class IF you said leftists. Additionally, when “conservatives” finally DO manage to get time to protest, guess what happens? Yup, the crowd control (paid for thugs) show up to beat up old guys and young mothers with kids. And, the so-called “cops” defend the thugs and arrest conservatives if they, oh, horror of horrors, defend themselves. These dumbass cops don’t seem to realize that conservatives are very close to joining the defund the KGB, oops, cops crowd.
LOTS of those “funds” that just got cut off from USAID, SS, Treasury, and several others were not only slush funds to keep electing democrats, they were also rent-a-mob funding sources.
Just sayin’, of course.
Eric, as you talk about the taxe…uh, I mean TARIFFS, in my mind’s eye I see a DC Darth Vadar from that famous non-woke Star Wars scene as he does a remote-control “choke out” of the guy across the room: “I find your lack of faith disturrrrrrrbing”. Thank you for being factual and accurate on such matters.
Love it, Bill!
Also the Darth Tangelo moniker one of the regulars here invented!
Tariffs will fund more war!
hooray!
Trump is a slave.
To Whom?? /sarc
I wouldn’t want to be in Trump’s shoes, for sure.
We’re going to tell you what to do and you are going to do it!
Trump slavishly agrees. Pressured by fear.
To whom?
The bell doth toll for everybody on this god-forsaken earth.
Not soon enough for Bibi.
Everything is propaganda and I believe it all.
Kill them all!
A furtive cryptogram.
Hi Drump,
I think he’s more like a shill. He does what he’s paid to do…
According to Trump, he’s going to get permits approved v quickly as he did w/two L&G plants that had been waiting 12 and 14 years–got them approved in one day (@2:10 or so)
@3:15 he says many factories are under-utilized so will be able to expand/hire quickly. His factotum states that these tariffs will earn fed gov’t $100 billion as he presents it for Trump to sign. Trump says will earn $600 – $1 trillion w/in two years (that’s what WE will pay (?); debt rises $1 trillion every 100 days).
@11:00 has asked M Johnson to make car loan interest deductible if you buy U.S. made car (even though “people in that part of the world” [his maga dupe voters] don’t understand (don’t have income to use itemized) deductions)
@13:45 will stop cars being sent from country to country during manufacturing process
@15:22 Aluminum tariff is 45% (China)
@22:15 Any car manufacturer w/car companies in US is happy – GM is happy because their US plants are operating at 60% [musk will be happy since he has plants in CA and elsewhere]
@23 If he hadn’t imposed tariffs on steel in his 1st term all US steel plants would be bankrupt and closed
@23:44 He’ll reduce Chinese tariffs to buy Tic Tac
@26:40 – Each state will have it’s own department of education (like sending gay marriage (and now abortion for a few years) to the states to decide). California may have FIVE departments of education.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlS_AP0hPzw
Hi TicTac,
We’ll see… and I hope so. Kind of like seeing the Epstein list.
I’m still waiting for who did Nordstream, files on MLK, RFK etc etc.
Itz like they are treating us like Mushrooms; keeping us in the dark and feeding us shit.
“Imagine if it were legal to manufacturer a $10,000 car that got 50 MPG – because it didn’t have to lug around six air bags and all the associated structure that must be built into the car.” -EP
When will someone enlighten His Orangeness to this simple solution? Why is there not even any talk, outside of this site, of this sort of thing? The regulatory apparatus and its assertions as law is arguably within the power of Darth Tangelo to change. Some of these odious requirements are the creations of Congress and will have to be erased by such.
But the mid-terms are a-comin’. If we’re still mired in high taxes and $100 grocery bags, the Orange Trifecta will be lost, and that will be that. The motion towards less government and less regulation will be blamed, even though we haven’t really seem much of those. Perhaps that was the plan all along.
Darth Tangelo…
Sir I stand humbled.
I’m stealing that.
Of course, Ernie! Be my guest.
You know, as hard as I try, I just can’t seem to find the language in Article II of the US Const. that gives the executive any power to unilaterally impose a tax/tariff. To the contrary, Art. I is exceptionally clear on this issue:
Art. I, Sec. 1 states that all legislative power granted shall be vested in the Congress.
Art. I, Sec. 7 states that all bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House.
Art. I, Sec. 8 states that Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes and duties, imposts and excises, and to regulate commerce with foreign nations.
So why is Trump not called out on this? Why are these Trump tariff’s not immediately challenged? Good grief!
Congress hasn’t done its job for well over 50 years…they certainly aren’t going to do their job now.
I believe congress passed a law giving such authority under certain circumstances. Whether that passes constitutional muster is an open question.
Hate to cite a tainted source like Lawfare. But their basic facts are correct:
‘President Trump justified the imposition of tariffs on Canada. China, and Mexico under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) based on an “extraordinary threat” from illegal immigration and drug trafficking. However, IEEPA does not explicitly grant tariff authority at all—indeed, the words “duty” or “tariff” appear nowhere in the statute.
‘To the extent that it grants power to restrict imports, it requires that there be a direct connection between the action taken (here, broad-based tariffs) and a properly declared national emergency (here, migrants and fentanyl crossing the southern border). But there is no direct connection between tariffs on imports of all goods—no matter how innocent or far removed from fentanyl—and the declared national emergency.’
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/trump-s-use-of-emergency-powers-to-impose-tariffs-is-an-abuse-of-power
If this analysis is correct, auto makers could file for injunctive relief in federal court, and probably block the new tariffs before they take effect. But will they?
Congress has delegated war making authority
Congress has delegated tariff’s to Orange man.
Congress no longer exercises oversight over either the Judiciary or Executive branches of government.
Congress has delegated monetary policy to the Fed
Remind me again why we need Congress when we have the Orange Fail?
Since Congress does not do its job, I think every last member of Congress should be fired, and everything taken from them. Throw their butts out on the streets, seize all their secret bank accounts they think we do not know about, and include those senators who have long-since retired. I would throw in the 9, gods-in-robes, as well, seeing is how they love to take our rights away rather than affirming them. For I agree, in that Congress has long-since outlived its usefulness to Joe and Jane American.
Long have I advocated placing Clowngress into receivership as a failed institution.
The Capitol building could be repurposed into a Museum of Democracy, celebrating a bygone era. Wax statues of risible RINO clowns like Kevin McCarthy and John Boehner would provide moments of mirth for visitors.
But the highest and best use for this marble mausoleum would be to fill its corridors three feet deep with black dirt and manure and troughs brimming with corn cobs, and then TURN THE HOGS LOOSE. Snarf, snarf!
In their sties with all their backing
They don’t care what goes on around
In their eyes there’s something lacking
What they need’s a damn good whacking
Everywhere there’s lots of piggies
Living piggy lives
You can see them out for dinner
With their piggy wives
Clutching forks and knives to eat their bacon
— The Beatles, Piggies
>TURN THE HOGS LOOSE. Snarf, snarf!
These?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arAXdUsChIM
The stock market is kind of red today, the Republicans are hard at work, makes a mess if you ask me.
Trump is a disaster. Trump’s dazzling brilliance is baffling everybody with bullshit.
“When a Clown and his entourage of psychopathic war-mongering lunatic jesters, move into a Palace, he doesn’t become a King. The Palace instead becomes a Circus.” – A Turkish proverb
One helluva engine, my friend Joe the mechanic gave a seal of approval for engines manufactured by Hyundai.
Reply
Is there anything remotely good that Trump won’t take credit for?
While he openly finances a genocide in Gaza? All his ideas are “beautiful”. If you don’t agree, you are a security threat.
I’m sick and tired of Trump throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks, and then ignoring the results.
He’s proven to be a standard politician. A pathological liar and a psychopath. Marginally better than Harris.
Straight, unpolish comment. But not off the mark.
Note that Hyundai is not putting the steel plant in Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland, or even Birmingham, but in Louisiana.
The folks working there will likely not be earning six figures for doing little or no work, in fact, there will be a lot fewer folks working there than who worked at the Homestead Works, but will make lots more steel.
Louisiana is a state with lower taxes, less burdensome regulations, right to work, a less aggressive plaintiff’s bar, and smaller government.
That much is true.
Yeah, apparently Louisiana’s a great place to lock up those exercising their right to free speech also.
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/27/rumeysa_ozturk_tufts_ice_abduction
Khalil, 30, was not brought to the hearing from an immigration detention center in Louisiana, https://apnews.com/article/columbia-university-protests-mahmoud-khalil-ice-arrests-751fa0b4637f5600a8af061ba4ddf97b
The First Amendment right to organize a mass protest was essentially eliminated (for now) in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi on Monday after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to overturn a lower court decision. The move means that the organizer of a protest can be held responsible for any illegal actions by attendees. The case, Mckesson v. Doe, stems from a Black Lives Matter protest in Baton Rouge in response to the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling by city police in 2016. Vox’s Ian Millhiser explains the absurdity of holding an organizer responsible for the actions of all people in a protest:
https://investlouisiana.org/abolishing-the-right-to-protest/
but trumpie and vance were supposed to do something about ohio, michigan and pennsylvania. and they are–boy are they ever (but they’ll all get richer): “Trump on if he’s expecting recession this year: ‘I hate to predict things like that’”
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5184691-trump-recession-tariffs-canada-mexico-china/
In an unhappy forecast, Jonathan Smoke, chief economist at Cox Automotive, a market research firm, said that as a result of Trump’s auto tariffs, US plants would churn out 20,000 fewer cars per week, about a 30% drop compared with before Trump imposed the tariffs. “By mid-April we expect disruption to virtually all North American vehicle production,” Smoke said in a Wednesday conference call with clients and journalists. “Bottom line: lower production, tighter supply and higher prices are around the corner.” …The Canadian Chamber of Commerce warned that Trump’s auto tariffs could backfire badly. In a statement, the chamber said: “Throwing away tens of thousands of jobs on both sides of the border will mean giving up North America’s auto leadership role, instead encouraging companies to build and hire anywhere else but here. This tax hike puts plants and workers at risk for generations, if not forever.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/27/trump-auto-tariffs-backfire
Trump’s new tariffs on imported cars could have a clear winner: Tesla
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/27/nx-s1-5342456/tariffs-tesla-imports-musk-trump
But isn’t that the point – to take away our cars?
“His Border czar, Tom Homan, said in Albany during a news conference on sanctuary policies that the administration considers Khalil “a national security threat.”
“Can you stand in a movie theater and yell fire? Can you slander somebody verbally? [Can you criticize a Jew? Can you criticize the Jewish State of Israel? No, of course not.] Free speech has limitations,” [Criticize a Jew, go to prison. Criticize the Jewish State of Israel, go to prison. Indefinitely, and without charge. Welcome to the American Gulag.]
“Come along, not going very far. To the East, to meet the Czar..”
— J.D. Morrison
“country run by Communists who had embraced a form of fascism – that is, state-directed “capitalism” – that promoted manufacturing as a form of economic warfare against this country?”
Economics is a form of warfare. Competition for resources. Competition will always be there even in a socialist/Communist system. That is natures way. Maybe in heaven there will be no competition. Although I posit that there will be competition even in heaven (if ones believe in that type of stuff). People in heaven will want to be closer to God and will compete with each other for that position. In grammar school our third grade Nun/Sister/teacher told us that heaven is a hierarchical system thereby God sits on the top tier while priests and nuns sit on the second tier while the rest of us are at the bottom tier.
Supposedly there was no competition in the “Garden of Eden” until man became human with reasoning powers. The Bible has some interesting tales about human nature.
The Communists here in America want to create a heaven of earth where people will no longer have to compete for food, clothing, shelter. They are getting close because these days children in some school districts get fed breakfast, lunch and even dinner. I have actual proof.
All we can hope for is to live in a civilized society but there are among us predators with Sociopathic tendencies who care not a wit about the pain and suffering that they can cause to others in their quest for their “resources”. That’s why these days we more than ever, especially if we live in or near the “Jungle” we need follow the Biblical maxim “God created man, Sam Colt made them equal”.
Ross Perot gave us Bill Clinton. Just as Teddy Rosevelt gave us Woodrow Wilson. One could argue Clinton was not all that bad in that he modified his positions based on the wind direction which he caused to blow conservative after the tyrant Hillary tried to take over 1/6th of the economy via Hillarycare. We just had to wait another 10 years for the Marxist tyrant Obama to solve that one.
In fairness what gave us Clinton was Bush senior. Perot was a response to the poor choice between the mobbed up Bush and the mobbed up Clinton, even in 92 anybody politically informed knew they were both company men. Same in 96 when it was Clinton vs the awful Dole.
The beauty of the welfare state is you can issue plantation scrip to the niggers and they will think they’re free when they pay for their own upkeep.
It’s almost like a worldwide empire is too important an enterprise to leave to the vagaries of a democratic plebiscite, and there has to be a pre-chosen winner and loser.
From what I have read (which may or may not be accurate), the reason Perot ran for president in 1992 was spite. In the late 1970s, he was a champion of the idea that American POWs were still being held in Vietnam. Perot was a donor to Reagan’s 1980 campaign, and at the inauguration pressed Reagan on this issue. Reagan delegated the matter to VP George H.W. Bush. Bush did an investigation (how thoroughly, who knows?), and reported back that there were no POWs being held in Vietnam. Perot was furious. He got his revenge by running in 1992, denying Bush a second term.
Perot’s hatred of the Bush family was so strong that in the 1994 Texas governor’s race, he endorsed Democrat Ann Richards instead of George W. Bush.
Perot may have been right about “the giant sucking sound,” but his 1992 run for president was not done for the benefit of America.
American POWs WERE being held in Vietnam. Only HALF of our POWs were released, with the remainder to be released when “reparations” were paid–a human bargaining chip. When reparations were not forthcoming, the POWs remaining in captivity were consigned to their fate. As late as the early 2000s, evidence of Americans being held was still observed utilizing satellite data and by “boots on the ground”. John McCain thwarted any efforts to investigate these claims, even insulting veterans’ groups which advocated investigation into this sorry part of USA history.
M.A.E.A.~ Another person posted this bit awhile back:
“On the facts, it’s untrue that Trump’s tariffs are a reaction to the U.S. being “deindustrialized by a flood of low-priced, state subsidized Chinese imports.” Not only is this claim belied by Trump’s imposition of tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico, and Europe, there is no deindustrialization to begin with. U.S. industrial capacity is today at an all-time high and 12% larger than it was in December 2001, when China joined the WTO.”…
https://cafehayek.com/2025/03/why-michael-linds-argument-is-bad.html
Interesting, that FRED graph.
“ U.S. industrial capacity is today at an all-time high”
BS
Look into how the index is established and what the base year index is based off of and you will understand how you’re being deceived.
The job of FRED is to produce data that backs up its endless counterfeiting scam.
I don’t know if I buy that. I briefly perused that article and the FRED graph, and it flies in the face of what I’m seeing. It appears to be an academic exercise, and while they say they’re comparing indexes it looks like they all are ignoring inflation. My personal experience is that we automate furiously while grinding slowly down to a bottom bound and it’s been that way during my experience, since at least the late 80s.
Industry may be growing (at least in dollar terms, but taxes and regs take more and more out, so the profitability goes down constantly, and the people working in manufacturing are losing out to almost everything else, especially services and government.
But I will freely admit that my view is heavily influenced by what I see and isnt universal truth.
‘Interesting, that FRED graph.’ — helot
Here’s another graph — gold futures hit a record high of $3,065/oz this morning, as Trumpstein demolished the global trading system.
https://tinyurl.com/2zth48bm
Gold is the anti-Trump.
And Trump is powerless to suppress its message, unless he wants to go all Frank Roosevelt on us. Which would not be a surprise, frankly: despots think alike.
Tellingly, copper — a more industrial metal than gold — is getting crushed today, as Trumpstein’s tariffs destroy global demand. Chart:
https://tinyurl.com/3a5jmd88
Yesterday might have marked the exact top tick for the red metal.
A sinking copper-to-gold ratio goes hand-in-hand with recession.
A 95 percent copper penny weighs 3.11 grams.
150 copper pennies make one pound of copper. A dollar fifty.
Three times 150 is 450 pennies, not even five dollars. Three pounds of copper.
One pound of copper metal as a commercially traded commodity is worth more than 450 pennies at five dollars per pound.
My 8000 copper pennies are worth 250 dollars, not 80 dollars.
I have a full roll of 1969 P pennies worth four dollars each. 200 dollars for 50 pennies 1969 no mint mark.
A 1973 penny is worth 25 cents.
A penny save is a penny earned said Ben Franklin.
It does pay to save.
Correction: A penny saved is a penny earned.
“A penny save is a penny earned said Ben Franklin.”
And it’s corollary:
A Penney found is worth two penny’s saved; cause there are no taxes paid on a penny found
Even the copper washed zinc penny is worth more than face value. I’ve been hoarding them for decades, lined up in plastic peanut butter jars they make a cool decoration. Better than NO savings plan…
Just checked. A current copper washed zinc penny is worth 0.79 cents, still better than paper currency.
I keep all 1983 to 2025 mint state pennies in clear plastic sleeves.
A 2017 no mint mark penny will be valuable.
14 rolls of pennies yielded 150 all copper pennies. One pound of copper. 600 left to go back to the bank and buy 12 more rolls for $3.00.
Pays to look for pennies worth something.
Oops, 700 pennies, not 750.
550 pennies to another bank for 11 more rolls of pennies.
I can’t add.
>A 95 percent copper penny weighs 3.11 grams.
Current pennies are 2.5% Cu, 97.5% Zn
https://www.usmint.gov/learn/coins-and-medals/circulating-coins/penny
Just remember . . . Most of ya all “voted” for this . . . Enjoy it good and hard.
Voting to get shot with the gun that one wants to take from me (Democrats) verses getting stabbed to death by the Republicans. Some choice. And yet Americans think that if they vote, anything-something-will change.
I found an interesting book written in 1931 called Fighting The Red Trade Menace by HR Knickerbocker. It explains how the Soviet Union was dumping goods in Europe during the depression. If interested Project Gutenberg or archive.org probably has it.
New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1931. — 295 p.
A Pulitzer-winning examination of the Soviet Union foreign trade monopoly in Europe’s chief industrial cities and of the effects, chiefly, on America’s export trade. Hubert Renfro Knickerbocker, born in Texas and the son of a pastor, was noted for reporting on inter-war German politics, as well as the Soviet Union and the Spanish Civil War.
https://archive.org/details/KnickerbockerHubertRenfroFightingTheRedTradeMenace
Factory workers aren’t productive enough to compete with the rest of the US workforce.
https://x.com/jmhorp/status/1901700770224820371
American workers are expensive, but we are extremely productive. We generate more revenue per worker than any other country on Earth. Automobile production lines are expensive, but with ever increasing automation will get cheaper. Engineers are expensive, but forcing all manufacturers to adopt the same design through regulation reduces that cost. Everything else is marketing’s problem. And America is great at marketing!
In the auto industry, employee payroll costs account for approximately 10% of expenses borne by the auto companies.
That first picture made me hungry so I’m off to McDowell’s for a Big Mick.
Cleveland Cliffs is at 9.09 USD this morning. They were at an 18 dollar stock price.
The Dearborn plant was closed, due to the reduced demand for steel in the car industry is the reason. Layoffs are here now.
I guess buying US Steel was a pipe dream.
Hyundai wants to make its own steel.
Stay away from the Mississippi River.
Ross Perot. Go research what Perot was up to in his home state with the Trans Texas Corridor and who his customer base was for the services of Perot Systems, founded after his 1992 Presidential run.
Ya foller me?
BTW, wanna make your Apple fanbois cry? Hit your favorite search engine for “Ross Perot and Steve Jobs” images. Perot had serious money in NeXT and cashed out in a big way when Apple bought out NeXT, adopted the OS as the basis for all of their tech, and sent the production to China.
The giant sucking sound.
This “Chyna” thing really pisses me off. It’s almost IMPOSSIBLE to find any common household good that isn’t made in China or some Third World shithole country. Just the other day I was buying pencils and naturally, the cheapest ones were made in China. I considered buying the more expensive Ticonderoga pencils, but they were made in Mexico. You know they closed the goddamn pencil factory there and people lost jobs to the cheap foreign labor. The store didn’t have ANY American pencils at any price.
Sure enough:
“In 2002, the company closed down its Sandusky, Ohio factory, shifting the manufacturing operations to Mexico. In 2005, the company was acquired by F.I.L.A., a manufacturer of school and art supplies based in Milan, Italy, and announced the closure of its main US factory in Versailles, Missouri.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixon_Ticonderoga
I was also looking for staples for an ancient Swingline tacker. it’s very robust and durable, built like a tank. I bought it at a garage sale a few years back. I looked at it and wow — it was made in the U.S.!!! Long Island City, NY.
I thought to myself “I’ll bet these damned things are made in China right now” and I looked it up and sure enough, Swingline closed the plant in 1999 and moved to Mexico. That wasn’t cheap enough so then they moved to “Chyna.” They were also part of a buyout by Arrow/Bostitch so the names mean nothing, they’re just for marketing shoddy foreign products.
This has been repeated tens of thousands of times over the past forty years. Capitalist pigs have made enormous profits off cheap foreign labor, the stock market has gone to stratospheric levels (Dow Jones went from 2,000 in 1987 to 45,000 this year) and the DEBT has from from $5 trillion in 2000 to $36 trillion today. Where has that money gone? In large part to pay for people without jobs.
I’m not a Marxist but I am certainly willing to admit that Karl was right about some things — like when he said “The capitalist will sell you the rope to hang him with.”
The capitalist will also sell his — and your — COUNTRY down the river, too. If you were to hang a capitalist today the rope would be made in “Chyna,” LOL.
It’s fucking obscene what they have done to this country.
Hi X. Yep my vintage Swing-A-Way can opener has been opening cans for decades and still works great, made in U.S.A. of course. The jobs got exported, the quality disappeared,then they go bankrupt and come back as a Chinese owned brand with even lower quality.
Wasn’t it Shakespeare who said to kill all the lawyers? If he was around today he might include the MBA’s.
It explains why my very old appliances are still running well. Meanwhile, my friend just replaced her barely used refrigerator (Samsung), warning me never to buy a Samsung appliance, as she has had nothing but problems with them. LOL, those yellow refrigerators were ugly as hell, but they outlast anything made today. Same with the washer I have, 30 years old now, and pray that it lasts another 20 to 30.
I have narrow long feet, and an aversion to lumpy sock seams.
Made in USA Gold Toe socks for decades were made in N. Carolina. Not cheap $$. All kinds of blends and styles two of those cotton blends fit me comfortably. All of a sudden, styles changed and in small print the label ”Made in China”. Great. Finally found an equivalent style that again fit comfortably, of course the prices went up not down for the ChiCom versions.
I had a co worker with an economics degree & he shook his head. “Gold Toe must be getting those for next to nothing. Move to China – now pay a customs broker, freight, handling fees and the cost to uproot from here to there.”
Now the production has moved to Turkey, quality is suffering, prices no going down.
Hi Sparkey.
I used to buy American made Hanes socks, they fit my big feet well and were reasonably priced. The last package I bought said made in El Salvador and even though they were the same size didn’t fit, as Charles Hugh Smith would say it’s the crapification of America.
Buy Darn Tough socks, guaranteed for life. You receive a free pair if they wear out.
All wool, Smartwool socks are good too.
Kind of expensive, but worth the cost.
So much of industry has moved to China. Bell and Gossett pumps is one example. You probably had one if your house had a radiator hot water heating system. Bell and Gossett manufacturing was moved to China. All the equipment all gone. A lot of good paying jobs gone. Maybe they can learn to code.
American labor costs cannot compete with Chinese labor and itz 1.5 billion people. There’s still India with 1.5 billion people and don’t forget Sub-Saharan Africa with itz 1.5 billion and growing. Itz amazing that the population of Sub-Sahran Africa is still growing despite AIDS, starvation etc, etc. Itz estimated that their population will soon top 2 billion. In the year 1900 it was only about 100 million. Thanks Doo-Gooders! Manufacturing will eventually move to Africa but I guarantee you quality will suffer.
Itz time to build that wall. Whatever you do don’t vote for the Internationalists/Communists/Socialists. They will flood the USA and we will drown.
Know-nothing real estate developer swings a meat ax at the auto industry, chops off a few limbs — pre-market trading:
GM … 47.68 (-6.42%)
Ford … 10.22 (-0.68%)
STLA … 11.75 (-1.76%)
Toyota … 185.99 (-1.74%)
Volkswagen …. 98.66 (-2.12%)
Remember that hoary old myth that the R-party is ‘good for bidness’?
HA HA HA HAHHHHHH …
Welcome to the McKinley administration! Got food stamps?
Not to worry Jim, you’ll be eligible for the Food App on your phone when your social credit score hits 47.
‘Imposing new taxes – whoops, again – isn’t going to do anything but make America more expensive, again.’ — eric
APe News bolsters Eric’s point, in an article published yesterday:
‘Copper prices have hit record highs as an ongoing trade war between the U.S. and its key trading partners threatens to squeeze supplies of the vital metal.
‘Buyers in the U.S. have been stocking up on copper ahead of potential tariffs. Future prices for the base metal’s most traded contract rose to $5.24 per pound on Wednesday. Prices are up about 30% so far this year.
‘President Trump has threatened to impose a tariff of up to 25% on copper imports and has called for increasing U.S. production. China, the world’s largest importer of copper, is embarking on a stimulus program that could further increase demand for the base metal.’
Check out the long-term cooper chart:
https://www.mrci.com/pdf/hg.pdf
Five-dollah copper is a shiv to the stomach for cars, houses, electrical machinery, data centers, transmission lines, you name it. Like $140/bbl crude oil in July 2008 — during the midst of financial crisis and recession — five-dollar copper signifies the end of this business cycle.
When copper plunges back to two dollahs a pound, the Tariff King will be politically radioactive, as waiting-in-the-wings communists pick his bones clean.
Eleven cent cotton and a forty cent meat
How in the world can a poor man eat
Mules up high, cotton down low
How in the world in the world can they raise the dough
— Porter Wagoner, Eleven Cent Cotton
‘the president announced his plan to tax – whoops, tariff – things such as cars manufactured outside America to the tune of 25 percent.’ — eric
With his 25 percent tariffs on imported cars, Boobus trumpicana has epically shit the bed.
Article 1, Section 8 of the constitution is perfectly clear: ‘The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.’
It’s decision time for auto makers. They can challenge Trump’s bogus invocation of a statutory emergency clause – when there’s manifestly no emergency – or they can curl up and die like dogs.
US trading partners, seething with rage at Trump’s unprovoked attack, are retaliating against Harley Davidsons and Kentucky bourbon and California wine, among many other American products. But having run the world’s largest trade deficit for decades, America feels no pain thanks to its exorbitant privilege of exchanging worthless green paper for tangible imported goods and services.
The ermine-caped Tariff King, in his resplendent Burger King crown, has but one Achilles heel: his hundreds of ‘Bellum Americanum’ military bases overseas.
Is Japan upset about $10,000 of tariffs on a made-in-Japan vehicle imported into the US? Expel the 54,000 yankee occupiers on Japanese soil.
Is Korea similarly annoyed? Expel the 28,500 yankee occupiers on Korean soil.
How about Germany, who thought ‘we’ were their ‘friends’ [sarc, LOL]? Expel the 35,000 strutting yankee occupiers from Ramstein air base and its appendages.
As a raging narcissist, Orange War Daddy gets off on bombing Untermenschen at his whim, as he’s now doing this very moment in Yemen. Forcibly shutting down America’s overseas military empire is the ticket to symbolically castrate him and squelch his infernal yapping.
“ It’s decision time for auto makers. They can challenge Trump’s bogus invocation of a statutory emergency clause – when there’s manifestly no emergency – or they can curl up and die like dogs.”- Jim H.
Absolutely Jim, it’s beyond time to call bullsh*t on all these bogus “emergencies” that are used to do an end run around the Constitution. Clowngress has given Trumpenstein their balls and spines, what else do they have left. Hopefully one of the corporations getting clobbered by the tariffs will take him to court and at least attempt to get the “emergency” overturned.
Spot on, Eric. The regs that overlay every aspect of life in this country must go. However, it’s being driven, as you say, by the Eco-Commies who say they are “saving the planet”. That cadre has so brainwashed generations of kids to believe that humanity is a plague on the planet via the Department of Education and the Education Industrial Complex as to make any logical repeal nearly impossible. These idiots now think things just magically appear in stores and food comes from the grocery store.
I imagine Hyundai is going to Louisiana because of access to natural gas to heat the furnaces. Coal is a better fuel but, its been branded as Satan Rock by the high church of the watermelon enviros.
Good luck Hyundai, you’ll need it.
No kidding. Business school case studies are replete with examples of corporations which branched out beyond their core competency and sought to vertically integrate up the supply chain.
With its chaebol [conglomerate] origins, Hyundai thinks it’s got this. I beg to differ.
Spending $5 billion on a steel plant to eke out a small advantage in material costs is futile. It’s a vanity project; a white marble pyramid in the swamp.
He’s got fishing lines strung across the Louisiana rivers
Gotta catch a big fish for us to eat
He’s setting traps in the swamp catching anything he can
He’s gotta make a living, he’s a Louisiana man
— Doug Kershaw, Louisiana Man
WOW! Somebody remembers the Ragin’ Cajun!