Trump throws a dead, smelly cat on the negotiating table. It’s his opening bid. Billions of dollars of tariffs on everyone. “Everyone” predictably complains and he backtracks. Even Australia got exempted on the aluminum and steel tariffs. The idea of the dead cat is to freak everyone out into giving you oodles.
The real culprit is China. It threatened retaliation against American exports.
Finally calmer heads prevailed and the Wall Street Journal over the weekend runs a story:
You can read the full story here.
Today, stockmarkets are up strongly — proving, once again, that panicking doesn’t pay.
Facebook — now a cockroach stock?
George, a reader, asks:
Is the Facebook business model valid any longer now that privacy concerns seem to have traction?
I know two things: Continuing bad press is causing Facebook’s stock to fall. This is FB in the last month:
Second, Facebook is an incredibly powerful advertising platform. Everyone who uses it loves it. It’s very cost effective. Google is to sell product. Facebook is great for brand influencing and for demographic targeting — as Trump’s people found out.
How Facebook plays out long-term is anyone’s guess. I sold my Facebook last week, figuring that this wasn’t a ride I wanted to be on — for now. Too many cockroach events I can’t identify — especially those coming from Washington and Europe. Too many people deserting the platform.
For now I prefer Amazon:
Amazon delivers every day to us. So much easier than — God forbid — driving to the shops, which typically don’t have what we want or charge much, much more.
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
Long title: An Act To provide revenue, to regulate commerce with foreign countries, to encourage the industries of the United States, to protect American labor, and for other purposes.
Enacted by the 71st United States Congress
Passed the House on May 28, 1929 (264-147)
Passed the Senate on March 24, 1930 (53-31)
Signed into law by President Herbert Hoover on June 17, 1930
The Tariff Act of 1930 commonly known as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff or Hawley-Smoot Tariff, was an act implementing protectionist trade policies sponsored by Senator Reed Smoot and Representative Willis C. Hawley and was signed into law on June 17, 1930. The act raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods.
The tariffs under the act were the second-highest in the U.S. in 100 years, exceeded by a small margin by the Tariff of 1828. The Act and following retaliatory tariffs by America’s trading partners were major factors of the reduction of American exports and imports by more than half during the Depression. Although economists disagree by how much, the consensus view among economists and economic historians is that “The passage of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff exacerbated the Great Depression.”
You can read Wikipedia‘s full entry here.
Why you should never, ever invest in “developing” countries.
A few years ago the hottest investment idea was BRIC — Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Well, you won’t believe what happened to Brazil. It’s really depressing. Corruption spelled with an extra-large capital C. Read this.
Taking aerial photos
Larry was a photographer for the N.Y. Times, and was scheduled to meet a plane on the runway to take him on a job. “Hit it,” said Larry climbing into the first plane he saw on the runway.
The pilot took off, and was soon in the air.
“OK,” said Larry, “fly low over the trees over there, I want to take a few pictures.”
“What do you mean?” asked the pilot
Larry looked at the pilot and answered annoyed, “I need to take some pictures for the N.Y. Times, so please…”
There was a long pause, before the pilot asked in a shaky voice, “you mean you’re not my pilot instructor?”
Harry Newton who has all his grandchildren with him in California. Here’s the oldest, Eleanor, 4, practicing her flying skills:
Impressive?
Harry, the Chicoms blinked. Thank you Pres.Trump.