Trump's tariffs 'like a first shot in a war': Nobel-winning economist Robert Shiller

[Julian Englis]

Source: CNBC

Trump's proposal was widely condemned across the globe. Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, said any U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports would be "absolutely unacceptable" and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said it "can only aggravate matters."

Critics have also warned that tariffs will result in higher prices for consumers. On Thursday, Toyota said they would "substantially raise costs and therefore prices of cars and trucks sold in America."

However, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC on Friday that price increases from President Donald Trump's tariffs are "no big deal." He said they will have a "broad" but "trivial" impact.

Shiller, an economics professor at Yale University, said that tariffs have been trending down for decades thanks to the general growth and prosperity around the globe.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/02/trumps-tariffs-lik

[ananda]

1. Only rich people live in Wilbur Ross's world.

nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Wilbur Ross deceitfully deceptive defending Trump Tariff.

CommSec Ross said there are 2/10 cent steel in a soup can and 3/10 cent aluminum in a coke can.

“All this hysteria is a lot to do about nothing,” he said. The cost of items such as Campbell’s Soup cans and Coke cans will increase by less than a cent, he added.

The cost of the can won't change much, but the PRICE on the shelf will go up noticeably.

The machinery that makes the cans and fills them will cost more. The machinery that prints the labels will cost more.

The farm machinery that plants and harvests the food materials will cost more.

The trucks that move the cans will cost more because of steel costs.

The tools that fix all that machinery will cost more.

The steel shelves will cost more.

The steel in the construction of the packing houses, the food factories, the distribution warehouses, and the supermarkets will cost more.

By time you dial in all the costs going into the products and getting them through the manufacturing and supply chains, the PRICE will add up because it is multiplicative, not merely additive. When the food is more expensive to produce, the food cost goes up which raises the cost from the food factory to the distributor by a percentage because it costs and prices and profits are calculated on dollar volumes, not unit counts. The cost to the retailer goes up when the distributor raises prices.

Until proven otherwise, we have to take the position that Ross knows this and was deceiving the public and using the taxpayers' dimes to do so while being paid salary.

[old guy]

3. He is not going to go through with it.

i don't think he ever intended to do anything but create a distraction from the investigations.

[They_Live]

4. and to cause market fluxuations

and corrections to specific items. cha-ching!

[old guy]

5. Yeah, and that's his bonus!