I am a minute microcosm of our economy, but I can make (and pretty much have made over the years) everything I buy from china. Its just that I would have to hire pricey american workers, have a larger plant, and other expenses that I dont have with china.

I understand that the trade imbalance is not a good thing. But it was caused by our getting rid of the gold standard.

Chinese goods cost 1/3 of buying in the USA. Anything less than about 200% tariff won’t stop me from buying from them. I would say others won’t stop buying from them. So The balance of trade won’t get better and most likely will get worse as China retaliated with their own tariffs. My point is that what trump is doing isn’t going to do anything to China because the imbalance is so large

Point #2- China isn’t going to let their Juan appreciate because that devalues their holdings of us follars

Point#3- in the end we have to have a massive devaluation of the dollar to fix this

Do you remember Ma Chalmers in Atlas Shrugged?

Tariffs imposed by the American government are taxes on the American people.

I don't think subsidies are right. Neither are tariffs. But as to China, I think dealing financially with a totalitarian state is wrong, period. I don't see how it can be right. Why not embargo totalitarian states, and otherwise do away with tariffs?

I notice the EU is starting to realize the current trade regulations are out of date, and benefit no one. Trump and Juncker just announced there will be significant changes in the status of U.S.-European trade, to the positive for both sides. Market control is always a bad idea that fails in the attempt, and it's a shame the President had to use the economic sledgehammer to get people's attention.

You make an excellent point that we, probably more so than any other people, have the potential to be completely self-sufficient.

Yes to that, but again you are thinking short-term not long-term. China has been taking advantage of our short-term focus as a culture for 30 years. What we must concentrate on is leveling the playing field in the long-term.

One huge step in equalizing our trade imbalance would be to force them to decouple the yuan from the US dollar. With the yuan being recently introduced as a world reserve currency, we should be pushing for it to stand on its own. As soon as that happened, its value would rise significantly and the imbalance between the two currencies would shift dramatically in our favor.

I would also note that China's costs are the result of their protectionist government policies and their aforementioned currency manipulation, so any comparison of the two is error-prone to say the least. And when one ties in their economic system under communism, the contrast can't be more stark.

unless the tariffs are a means to get other nations to the bargaining table? Art of the Deal?

Fed gov shouldn't be subsidizing anyone long term anyway. Loans yes, subsidizing no.

Bad Hair Day never was a conservative's conservative by a long shot. We, well, at least I, knew that when he was a candidate.
But to vote for the forlorn hope of an independent to help out Bolshevik Bernie or The Evil Hag? Nope, not me dino.
Some day I may vote for a Libertarian Party candidate but that candidate will first show me some hope of winning.

Putting tariffs on imports will get our government $$, raise prices of things we make and import here, all the while doing nothing to reduce IMPORTS, but it depresses EXPORTS due to higher material costs and the opposing tariffs put on by the other countries. I suppose there is some logic here, but it totally escapes me. It cant work. China's costs are 1/3 of ours, so a tariff would have to be 300% to equalize costs of making it here or buying it from china.

Thats because they can make more money on manufactured items than they can on lowly soybeans. They are trying to be self sufficient. We feed them, while they make the high tech things that we used to make right in the USA

Now, even though I voted fo him and would do so again against Hildebeast or Sanders, he IS flawed, and its coming out. He gives me a tax break, takes it away with tariffs on what I need for my business, and gives money away to the soybean farmers tht I dont even deal with.

In the end, americans need to buy LESS from China, and if they have high tariffs, sell LESS to them too. China is just another country with cheap labor, at least now. If they want to make everything they need, more power to them. If we got rid of the legislation that raises us wages, and our workers get less entitled and more interested in competing in the world market, we could make what WE need right here too

he is trying to get votes lke the rest of them do. he has drifted closer and closer to the swamp he vowed to drain.

Actually, our government comes out smelling like a rose with tariffs. THEY get the money out of OUR pockets, and then they give it to some farmers without MY consent at all. Plus, this trade war thing is never going to work, so it will continue for a long time. I say the repubs will lose in 2018 over this, and probably in 2020 also

All this would be a moot point if we stayed on the gold standard. Currencies would have assumed their market value, and the chinese yuan would be far more valuable now that we have bought so much more from them than they have bought from us.

So we consumers pay the incoming tariffs on stuff we buy from overseas, and the money our government collects goes to the farmers who arent sending send overseas. That makes a LOT of (non)sense.

Trump is right about fair trade, but this is NEVRE going to achieve it. Governments on both sides profit from the trade war, which is paid for by the citizens.

I find it ironic that she even new that soy beans would be involved! :-)

And that is what gets overlooked. People want to focus on what the US is doing but ignore that China has been artificially propping up their own industries for decades. Japan did it before that with the kairetsus, but their Eastern Socialism collapsed in on itself.

We have two choices: keep allowing China to take advantage of us or do something about it. Trump has decided not to continue to ignore the problem and do something about it, and it's just about the only thing he can do short of going to war or a full trade embargo. No, it's not going to be pretty in the short term, but if the result is true trade equality in the long term, I support the move.

Subsidies to farmers is nothing less than I expected from this president. I can't remember the national newscaster that is getting paid not to produce sheep on his sheep ranch, but I didn't produce any sheep last year and would like to get paid too!

The money is primarily aid to do the marketing to find replacement buyers for American produce. When you have big buyer like China, the numerous smaller buyers don't get much attention, but they are there. When the dust settles, China may have a hard time finding a seller to replace the U.S.

It's easy to paint Trump as stupid, but my bet is on him to know better how to create a truly dynamic market less governed by politics. Anyone who reviews the "great" deals America has with our "friends" should be sensibly horrified with the tariff load that shuts us out of many world markets. The World Trade Organization is a farce, being only slightly less anti-American than other globalist-backed bureaucracies.

Do believe me dino's original description of a Candidate Trump as a flawed well-meaning bull in a china shop is still dead on for a President Trump aka the Tangerine Tornado.
All in a sudden~it's allegory time, y'all~me dino recalls the opening scene in the movie Troy. Brad Pitt's character, Achilles, slays the champion of another king and repeatedly yells at the enemy army, "Is there anyone else?".
And there isn't.

I think Trump gets a bum wrap often times, but sometimes the guy is just plain stupid.

One stupid government control which then needs another stupid government "solution" to put things back in order. Ayn Rand is laughing, I think. or crying.

Soybean exports to china were already down 22% in 2018 before the tariffs.
https://inetsgi.com/images/668/images...
Take note that exports to China still are greater than the next 9 highest countries receiving soybean exports combined.

Does anyone have statistics on what companies actually produce most of the soybeans in the US?
I know Monsanto provides 90% of the seeds to farmers, so they are indirect beneficiaries, and I think they are now foreign owned IIRC.
Who else is getting paid off by this looting? Cui bono?