Business, Economics, and Taxes: Eat Cereal for Dinner

[Kepler]

A Møøse once bit my sister...

---

Costume Designer
HAZEL PETHIG





No realli! She was Karving her initials øn the møøse with the sharpened end
of an interspace tøøthbrush given her by Svenge - her brother-in-law -an Oslo
dentist and star of many Norwegian møvies: "The Høt Hands of an Oslo
Dentist", "Fillings of Passion", "The Huge Mølars of Horst Nordfink"...

---

We apologise for the fault in the
subtitles. Those responsible have been
sacked.








Mynd you, møøse bites Kan be pretty nasti...

---

We apologise again for the fault in the
subtitles. Those responsible for sacking
the people who have just been sacked,
have been sacked.

 

[mookie1995]

Wall Street is living in a desperate fantasy land where they use any hint from the Dump administration to suddenly go “buy buy buy!”

The reality of the economy is not reflected in the stock market, and likely never will as long as Dump is President.

Stock & bond markets are the original legal casinos, period.

 

[Spartanforlife4]

So Tesla vastly underperforms but it goes up because Elon coincidentally takes time to say he’s wrapping up his Doge work (when he was apparently only allowed another 30 days anyway by the EO?). Yeah that all seems fine and level.

 

[Handyman]

Someone was propping it up in after market sales...no way anyone looks at the year to year and the first quarter catastrophe and thinks this is a sound investment. No one seems to know who though.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

It's not. Capitalism is already unfair, and the government is supposed to be the check on it. Now there's no check, we're just pure capitalism run amok. I just hope I survive it.

 

[Jimjamesak]

It's not. Capitalism is already unfair, and the government is supposed to be the check on it. Now there's no check, we're just pure capitalism run amok. I just hope I survive it.

Just wait until the Supreme Court lets Dump fire Powell as Fed Chairman and Dump appoints some Project 2025 Yarvinite who wants to put us back on the gold standard or worse, dissolve the Fed.

 

[ticapnews]

So Tesla vastly underperforms but it goes up because Elon coincidentally takes time to say he’s wrapping up his Doge work (when he was apparently only allowed another 30 days anyway by the EO?). Yeah that all seems fine and level.

Expecting the market to act rationally is a fool's game. I bought options on a pharmaceutical ahead of the investor call because sales had been through the roof. The call went great - sales were up, revenue doubled and guidance was for more growth. In response, the stock price cratered 20% in after-hours trading and my options expired worthless.

The apes on wallstreetbets are correct. The market is a giant casino. Buying stock is no different than betting on a random number in roulette. At least at the casino you can get free drinks...

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Someone was propping it up in after market sales...no way anyone looks at the year to year and the first quarter catastrophe and thinks this is a sound investment. No one seems to know who though.

I'd be willing to bet that someone is likely a group of individuals with varying combos of "Al-", "ibu", "bin" and "abu" in their names.

 

[Handyman]

I'd be willing to bet that someone is likely a group of individuals with varying combos of "Al-", "ibu", "bin" and "abu" in their names.

I thought that too...but Saudi is already taking a bath on their X investment I can't see them propping up a failing electric car company for many reasons.

My guess is the Tech Bros are bailing out Elon to stave off the AI implosion.

 

[Handyman]

Catherine Rampell (@crampell.bsky.social)

Do traders have Stockholm Syndrome? Rally today appears based on WSJ report that we might have "only" 50-65% tariff on Chinese goods. That's still a huge effing tariff - roughly triple the average effective tariff rate on China last year. US companies still don't have margins to absorb this

bsky.app

 

[walrus]

Catherine Rampell (@crampell.bsky.social)

Do traders have Stockholm Syndrome? Rally today appears based on WSJ report that we might have "only" 50-65% tariff on Chinese goods. That's still a huge effing tariff - roughly triple the average effective tariff rate on China last year. US companies still don't have margins to absorb this

bsky.app

Someone expects companies to absorb any loss? That would be a first

 

[ScoobyDoo]

They never do. That'll never happen.

 

[walrus]

They never do. That'll never happen.

you won't stay in business very long if you do.

 

[Kepler]

you won't stay in business very long if you do.

On the contrary, Hopium is how you go out of business.

You have to be realistic. Unless of course you have rigged the game in which case infinite optimism is realistic.

 

[ticapnews]

you won't stay in business very long if you do.

you won't stay in business very long if you do.

I have friends who ran small side hustles selling stuff and they've given up because
1) they did the math and they won't be able to pay the customs fee on the next order
2) they know their customers won't be able to pay the prices they'd need to charge just to maintain their tiny profit margins.

Maybe some of the larger companies will briefly absorb some of the tariff fees because their people know they'll drive competitors out of business and then be able to charge whatever they want.

But eventually the working poor run out of money, even for the necessities, and the economy collapses.

 

[St. Clown]

I have friends who ran small side hustles selling stuff and they've given up because
1) they did the math and they won't be able to pay the customs fee on the next order
2) they know their customers won't be able to pay the prices they'd need to charge just to maintain their tiny profit margins.

Maybe some of the larger companies will briefly absorb some of the tariff fees because their people know they'll drive competitors out of business and then be able to charge whatever they want.

But eventually the working poor run out of money, even for the necessities, and the economy collapses.

Sales taxes are one of the few taxes, and the one that’s best known examples, of a tax that is at least partially backwards shifted. The public has an idea as to how much they’re able/willing to pay for something. So if something sells for $100, but the government adds a new 10% sales tax, the public might only be willing to spend, aunt the very most, $107. The vendors then have to eat that $3 difference in the near term by cutting their pre-tax price, or just stop selling that product. Over time, the idea of paying more than that $107 feels like the new norm, and they’ll eventually accept spending the $110, so the sticker price returns to its prior price.

These MAGAt tariffs are at a whole new scale, so it’s hard to know exactly how this will play out compared to “normal” sales taxes, but it’s not going to be anywhere near the norms from the example above here. They’re just too large for the retailers to eat more than the tiniest fraction of the MAGAts’ Dear Leader’s fantasies.

 

[aparch]

CNBC had a good interview yesterday with a child toy maker who explained that he has tried for years to on-shore production but he needs only short bursts of production for the various items they sell. US manufacturers would require months of production runs for something he only needs a few days or weeks at most of production. And then the hand labor to assemble, polish, and complete the products in the US is way more expensive than the current foreign produced items.

So when the tariffs were floated, he said that he most likely could minimize retail price increases at first, and eventually could absorb a little bit with minimal price increases.

Then he got hit with the 145% tariffs and said there's no way he can afford to import products while paying one-and-a-half times the product cost on "a tax" for the product.

And then he went on about how he doesn't have the ability to call up Trump and beg for an exemption, like the big companies are doing. What makes an iPhone more important than his product?

Its the same thing we've been reading and hearing for weeks now.


*edit* Forgot to add that he said he went back and looked and for 2024 he paid 2 Million in tariffs to import his products for the whole year. If the tariffs rate hold as is, he would be on the hook for 100 Million. He immediately stopped importing product and is currently going through warehoused stock.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Wait until the parts to keep existing trucks on the roads are in very short supply

Viva la revolucion

 

[Handyman]

CNBC had a good interview yesterday with a child toy maker who explained that he has tried for years to on-shore production but he needs only short bursts of production for the various items they sell. US manufacturers would require months of production runs for something he only needs a few days or weeks at most of production. And then the hand labor to assemble, polish, and complete the products in the US is way more expensive than the current foreign produced items.

So when the tariffs were floated, he said that he most likely could minimize retail price increases at first, and eventually could absorb a little bit with minimal price increases.

Then he got hit with the 145% tariffs and said there's no way he can afford to import products while paying one-and-a-half times the product cost on "a tax" for the product.

And then he went on about how he doesn't have the ability to call up Trump and beg for an exemption, like the big companies are doing. What makes an iPhone more important than his product?

Its the same thing we've been reading and hearing for weeks now.


*edit* Forgot to add that he said he went back and looked and for 2024 he paid 2 Million in tariffs to import his products for the whole year. If the tariffs rate hold as is, he would be on the hook for 100 Million. He immediately stopped importing product and is currently going through warehoused stock.

Yeah but Trump is a hero now because he is lowering the tariffs to like 60%...which is still beyond stupid!

 

[ticapnews]

Yeah but Trump is a hero now because he is lowering the tariffs to like 60%...which is still beyond stupid!

Just wait a bit. The number changes whenever the mood strikes him. It's like he's in front of a giant bingo board and whatever number comes up that's how much the China tariffs are that week. Or that morning. Or that hour.

And the stock market just keeps on chugging. S&P 500 up another 1.3% so far today