Oh, F*CK ME with this announcement! Trump promised me a great manufacturing job screwing in tiny screws on the iPhone and now he just pulls the rug out from under that dream?! Promises made and broken! Who the hell is gonna pay me back now for the expensive set of precision screwdrivers I bought?!
Don’t worry about it, there are plenty more screws in our future.
As I’ve been saying since before this whole thing happened.
No, you said that the world has been ripping the US off and that Apple needs to bring manufacturing back to the US. Trump giving in yet again with this exemption doesn't hurt China and doesn't bring "jobs" back to the US. But nice try.
Wrong. I said all of the above - including that Apple would sail through due to exemptions. Mike W. even commented directly telling me "it's not going to go the way I think it will go" in response to one of my posts on the matter. I also added late that The USA has indeed been getting ripped in world trade forever now and that it's about time someone stands up to global bullies. Manufacturing does belong back in the USA - but also elsewhere. America doesn't need to abdicate all manufacturing. Much healthier to be both a product AND services economy. The fact is Trump is very easy to read and to predict when you realize that he has America's best interests at heart ad takes action accordingly. It is no surprise that he initiated reciprocal tariffs or that he paused them when the word wanted to make a deal. It's also not shocking at all that he kept up the tariffs on China, but did so in a way that doesn't hurt American companies (though it also weakens the tariff impact on China) - who he is doing this on behalf of. It's the art of the deal in action - set an extreme goal, get them scrambling, then when the entrenched positions are broken, maneuver the chess pieces, keep them guessing, and settle on the realistic area you wanted all along.I know it's popular on this site to hate on the man, but it doesn't make much sense.
As I have been saying all along, Apple is going to be OK. They have someone standing up for them on the global stage. I have a sneaking suspicion that more is to come with the EU as well.
Talk about the real TDS.
Trump has no one’s interests at heart but his own. This was not some masterful “art of the deal.” This was and still is an economic clusterf*ck foisted on the world by an egomaniacal narcissist, surrounded by a bunch of servile sycophants who won’t tell him no, even if it means destroying the entire world economy.
These are not even remotely “reciprocal tariffs.” They are simplistic ChatGPT math, based on individual trade deficits, not other countries’ tariffs imposed on US imports into their countries, all dumped on a chart like a list minute homework project where the assignment was “give me a chart of big tariffs on every country in the world, except Russia.” You can paint bullseyes around every one of Trump’s randomly thrown darts, but you’re not convincing anyone that any of it has been a carefully planned strategy.
Trump has no one’s interests at heart but his own. This was not some masterful “art of the deal.” This was and still is an economic clusterf*ck foisted on the world by an egomaniacal narcissist, surrounded by a bunch of servile sycophants who won’t tell him no, even if it means destroying the entire world economy.
100%. How do people not yet see this when he has lived his entire life devoted only to himself? Everything is a self-serving scam. Even his eponymous charity foundation, for chrissakes, had to be shut down permanently by the courts because this self-professed multi-billionaire was spending the charity donations on himself. In just 3 short months, Trump has destroyed America's 80 year leadership of the free world and has done very serious and likely irreparable damage to our reputation as the world's safest and most reliable haven for investment because Trump is a malignant narcissist who governs by id and whim. And as he has proven to Mexico and Canada, his signature on an agreement is worthless, even when he, himself, has negotiated the deal. There is literally nothing he will honor if he decides it's better for him not to honor it.
Big congrats to Tim Cook for his quiet and thorough diplomacy. All the Cook naysayers should hang their heads in shame.
Apple is a big company. Big companies can afford their bribes to get special treatment. It is all the small companies that will be screwed.
More likely someone in the administration finally managed to point out that all the exemptions weren’t going to pay much anyway as most of the value is untaxed IP.
so best to remove them so the income doesn’t look piss weak
Those in need of AirPods, AppleTV, docks, or battery replacements for their devices should act now. These get the full tariff but resellers probably haven't even added the base 20%.
As I’ve been saying since before this whole thing happened.
So pray tell why he didn’t just exempt smartphones, computers, etc., in the first place? I can only think of two reasons, myself. Impulsive stupidity, and/or stock manipulation for the purpose of insider trading. Have you got a better explanation?
As a Brit, this all reminds me of Brexit. The people in favour of tariffs are the ones who least understand their impact. The exemptions are being announced now because Trump didn't believe that the tariffs would noticeably drive up the price of iPhones.
As I’ve been saying since before this whole thing happened.
Predicting Trump would waffle and walk away from the tariffs wasn’t hard. Most of guessed it would happen. Creating chaos and then looking for the next off ramp is Trump’s pattern and why his first administration was an abject failure.
9secondkox2 said: I also added late that The USA has indeed been getting ripped in world trade forever now and that it's about time someone stands up to global bullies.
The fact is Trump is very easy to read and to predict when you realize that he has America's best interests at heart ad takes action accordingly.
Trump's first administration abandoned the TPP agreement and renegotiated trade rules with China. You're claiming he was doing that in America's best interest, right? So your only choices per Trump and China are (A) his renegotiated deal with China ripped off the United States OR (B) he's lying about it being a rip-off in 2025.
9secondkox2 said: I also added late that The USA has indeed been getting ripped in world trade forever now and that it's about time someone stands up to global bullies.
The fact is Trump is very easy to read and to predict when you realize that he has America's best interests at heart ad takes action accordingly.
Trump's first administration abandoned the TPP agreement and renegotiated trade rules with China. You're claiming he was doing that in America's best interest, right? So your only choices per Trump and China are (A) his renegotiated deal with China ripped off the United States OR (B) he's lying about it being a rip-off in 2025.
I think I have an answer for you - the Chinese obviously cheated on the first deal whilst his back turned when he was wrongly kicked out of office.
As I’ve been saying since before this whole thing happened.
No, you said that the world has been ripping the US off and that Apple needs to bring manufacturing back to the US. Trump giving in yet again with this exemption doesn't hurt China and doesn't bring "jobs" back to the US. But nice try.
Wrong. I said all of the above - including that Apple would sail through due to exemptions. Mike W. even commented directly telling me "it's not going to go the way I think it will go" in response to one of my posts on the matter. I also added late that The USA has indeed been getting ripped in world trade forever now and that it's about time someone stands up to global bullies. Manufacturing does belong back in the USA - but also elsewhere. America doesn't need to abdicate all manufacturing. Much healthier to be both a product AND services economy. The fact is Trump is very easy to read and to predict when you realize that he has America's best interests at heart ad takes action accordingly. It is no surprise that he initiated reciprocal tariffs or that he paused them when the word wanted to make a deal. It's also not shocking at all that he kept up the tariffs on China, but did so in a way that doesn't hurt American companies (though it also weakens the tariff impact on China) - who he is doing this on behalf of. It's the art of the deal in action - set an extreme goal, get them scrambling, then when the entrenched positions are broken, maneuver the chess pieces, keep them guessing, and settle on the realistic area you wanted all along.I know it's popular on this site to hate on the man, but it doesn't make much sense.
As I have been saying all along, Apple is going to be OK. They have someone standing up for them on the global stage. I have a sneaking suspicion that more is to come with the EU as well.
As I’ve been saying since before this whole thing happened.
No, you said that the world has been ripping the US off and that Apple needs to bring manufacturing back to the US. Trump giving in yet again with this exemption doesn't hurt China and doesn't bring "jobs" back to the US. But nice try.
Wrong. I said all of the above - including that Apple would sail through due to exemptions. Mike W. even commented directly telling me "it's not going to go the way I think it will go" in response to one of my posts on the matter. I also added late that The USA has indeed been getting ripped in world trade forever now and that it's about time someone stands up to global bullies. Manufacturing does belong back in the USA - but also elsewhere. America doesn't need to abdicate all manufacturing. Much healthier to be both a product AND services economy. The fact is Trump is very easy to read and to predict when you realize that he has America's best interests at heart ad takes action accordingly. It is no surprise that he initiated reciprocal tariffs or that he paused them when the word wanted to make a deal. It's also not shocking at all that he kept up the tariffs on China, but did so in a way that doesn't hurt American companies (though it also weakens the tariff impact on China) - who he is doing this on behalf of. It's the art of the deal in action - set an extreme goal, get them scrambling, then when the entrenched positions are broken, maneuver the chess pieces, keep them guessing, and settle on the realistic area you wanted all along.I know it's popular on this site to hate on the man, but it doesn't make much sense.
As I have been saying all along, Apple is going to be OK. They have someone standing up for them on the global stage. I have a sneaking suspicion that more is to come with the EU as well.
Talk about the real TDS.
Trump has no one’s interests at heart but his own. This was not some masterful “art of the deal.” This was and still is an economic clusterf*ck foisted on the world by an egomaniacal narcissist, surrounded by a bunch of servile sycophants who won’t tell him no, even if it means destroying the entire world economy.
These are not even remotely “reciprocal tariffs.” They are simplistic ChatGPT math, based on individual trade deficits, not other countries’ tariffs imposed on US imports into their countries, all dumped on a chart like a list minute homework project where the assignment was “give me a chart of big tariffs on every country in the world, except Russia.” You can paint bullseyes around every one of Trump’s randomly thrown darts, but you’re not convincing anyone that any of it has been a carefully planned strategy.
No matter what the guy does, you’ll find a reason to hate on the man. That’s “The real TDS.” Any time he does something that not even haters can hold against him, you’ll accuse him of painting a bullseye there.
When I was a kid, there was this old lady who lived nearby. When she decided to not like someone, there was no getting in her hood side. If it was quiet in the neighborhood, she’d accuse our parents of being restrictive. If we were playing and making noise, our parents were suddenly too carefree. If we mowed the lawn, we were making a racket. If we didn’t, we were disorderly, etc. we learned that hee and others like hee are just going to be that way. Nothing you can do. So we always treated her with kindness but expected nothing in return. And sure enough, we got nothing but derogatory treatment. But that wouldn’t stop us from living out who we were at heart. We just did our best to be good neighbors and let her be who she was. Turns out she was a bitter person who couldn’t be at peace unless she had something to complain about. It was sad really. It was a great neighborhood for blocks around. But the only friends she had were a couple other older ladies who lived to find fault just like here.
A better way would be to give someone the benefit of the doubt. You can question a certain move. But you can’t really proclaim it as a failure until it actually is one. And when a good move is made, it should be acknowledged as such. Not mental gymnastics about “oh someone must have moved the dartboard at light speed.” That just erases all credibility and ends up just constant, rambling complaining.
I’ve been on this forum long enough to see that you’re a smart guy and post sensible things when certsin sensitive subjects are not in play. Don’t fall into that. You don’t have to like anyone. But fairness and objectivity are virtues to live by.
If we look at Apple themselves, cook initiated reaching out to the president prior to him being president. I don’t remember that happening before (and gave more to trump than to bidens inaguration) - not even in the midst of a time where Apple was getting eviscerated by foreign powers. I personally don’t think he had the confidence the previous folks would do anything about it. But he could have confidence that Donald Trump would. So perhaps he cozied up a bit. Cook may not even like trump. I don’t know. But if he could trust that the president would do the right thing, then that’s a plus, no matter how you try to spin it. Lobajd behild, the world gets put in notice, the eu isn’t so sure of itself and China grts tariffed with apple avoiding the pain thus far. That’s quite a detailed roadmap. Sometimes you just have to give credit where it’s due and leave the preconceived judgements at the doir.
To some folks these "concessions" from the "stable genius" may sound like a reprieve.
It's not that simple.
Many of Apple's products fall into that category of discretionary spending. While it is reasonable at this point in time to put smartphones in the category of a "near essential" tools for navigating day to day life for many Americans, a lot of people simply cannot afford an iPhone. Apple's iPhones, iPads, Macs, AirPods, HomePods, and need I even mention, Vision Pro, are expensive items for many Americans to purchase outright. Carrier subsidies that are essentially little more than the old "give away the razor and charge for razor blades" based financing schemes help put iPhones into the hands of people who cannot afford to buy these devices outright but who can afford to add debt to their monthly budget.
When you start to talk about monthly budgets you have to look across a wider range of products, especially consumables, and realize that many of them are going to still feel the effects of tariffs that are outside of the temporary reprieve that's been granted to a lot of Apple's products. People looking to acquire a products that are temporarily exempt from the worst of tariffs are now coming in with less discretionary money to spend or with a narrower slice of their monthly budget to allocate to a new Apple device. This may be a don't-care issue for a certain segment of buyers, especially AppleInsider readers and AAPL investors, but for many others it is a really big deal.
If you trivialize the impact that even a modest reduction in discretionary spending or a slimmer monthly budget allocation for Apple products is going to have on American consumers you have completely forgotten what happened this past November. Sure, there were and always will be a segment of voters who cast their ballot based on flawed, illogical, nonsensical, and highly charged cultural and social biases, but this time around there was the added boost provided by those who were fed up or thought they were being economically damaged by the status quo. Things like uncontrolled rent prices, higher mortgage rates, prescription prices, price of eggs, price of cars, price of gasoline, and a thousand other little wounds from constantly increasing prices and shrinkflation on everyday items, i.e., all of those line items on the monthly budget. In some ways, the price of eggs helped unleash the economy destroying Kraken from its lair, i.e., Mar-a-Lago, where it had been brooding and stewing and feeding on hate and revenge over the past four years.
It wasn't the price of iPhones that unleashed the Kraken. It was people whose lives are determined by how their monthly budget ties out. If that result frequently induced fear then all bets were off. Things like logic, reason, compassion, social concerns, empathy, and doing the right thing were no longer in play. The gates to the Kraken's lair were pried open and .... here we are now.
Rolling back tariffs on discretionary items, whether temporarily or permanently, is not going to restore the loss of integrity, trustworthiness, credibility, stability, or view of America as a reliable, stable, and steady source of economic grounding that a large part of the worldwide economy has come to depend on. America is no longer the rock, we're morphing into a massive incarnation of the Poop Emoji that only the foolish will be willing to rely upon for much longer. At some point the world will have moved on from America now that America's feckless leader has provided sufficient warning to spur their transition. They have to find reliable and trustworthy partners to trade with, one's that hold true to their commitments, not a mob boss who is trying to make them an offer that they cannot refuse.
But do not fret, America will still have its freshly rebranded Gulf to soothe their self-inflicted wounds.
, the world gets put in notice, the eu isn’t so sure of itself and China grts tariffed with apple avoiding the pain thus far. That’s quite a detailed roadmap. Sometimes you just have to give credit where it’s due and leave the preconceived judgements at the doir.
As I’ve been saying since before this whole thing happened.
No, you said that the world has been ripping the US off and that Apple needs to bring manufacturing back to the US. Trump giving in yet again with this exemption doesn't hurt China and doesn't bring "jobs" back to the US. But nice try.
Wrong. I said all of the above - including that Apple would sail through due to exemptions. Mike W. even commented directly telling me "it's not going to go the way I think it will go" in response to one of my posts on the matter. I also added late that The USA has indeed been getting ripped in world trade forever now and that it's about time someone stands up to global bullies. Manufacturing does belong back in the USA - but also elsewhere. America doesn't need to abdicate all manufacturing. Much healthier to be both a product AND services economy. The fact is Trump is very easy to read and to predict when you realize that he has America's best interests at heart ad takes action accordingly. It is no surprise that he initiated reciprocal tariffs or that he paused them when the word wanted to make a deal. It's also not shocking at all that he kept up the tariffs on China, but did so in a way that doesn't hurt American companies (though it also weakens the tariff impact on China) - who he is doing this on behalf of. It's the art of the deal in action - set an extreme goal, get them scrambling, then when the entrenched positions are broken, maneuver the chess pieces, keep them guessing, and settle on the realistic area you wanted all along.I know it's popular on this site to hate on the man, but it doesn't make much sense.
As I have been saying all along, Apple is going to be OK. They have someone standing up for them on the global stage. I have a sneaking suspicion that more is to come with the EU as well.
Talk about the real TDS.
Trump has no one’s interests at heart but his own. This was not some masterful “art of the deal.” This was and still is an economic clusterf*ck foisted on the world by an egomaniacal narcissist, surrounded by a bunch of servile sycophants who won’t tell him no, even if it means destroying the entire world economy.
These are not even remotely “reciprocal tariffs.” They are simplistic ChatGPT math, based on individual trade deficits, not other countries’ tariffs imposed on US imports into their countries, all dumped on a chart like a list minute homework project where the assignment was “give me a chart of big tariffs on every country in the world, except Russia.” You can paint bullseyes around every one of Trump’s randomly thrown darts, but you’re not convincing anyone that any of it has been a carefully planned strategy.
No matter what the guy does, you’ll find a reason to hate on the man. That’s “The real TDS.” Any time he does something that not even haters can hold against him, you’ll accuse him of painting a bullseye there.
If he did something that was both lawful, decent, and good it would noted as such. Starting a trade war with lies like, "tariffs are paid by the company importing the goods" is a ridiculous comment and the fact that you still don't understand that is very troubling.
If Trump actually got rid of the penny or daylight saving time (like he's proposed) I'd be on board with that. I've wanted these to happen for decades. On the flip side, making English the "official" language so you can better support hate crimes against anyone not speaking English or speaking it in an acceptable accent, or changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico I don't support for reasons that should be obvious to a reasonable person. If Biden did the former things I'd have been onboard with it and if Biden had done the latter things I wouldn't. You are the only one that makes blanket comments that are always in favor of Dear Leader no matter what stupid thing he does no matter how many times he flips back and forth on an issue.
Serious question: Do you think that weekend Fox & Friends host is qualified to be Secretary of Defense? How about the beef jerky that wished to be a real boy that is Secretary of Health and Human Services?
Now Howard Lutnick is saying the exemption is for the reciprocal tariffs only, and in a month or two they will be back (in some other form supposedly) as part of a specific semiconductor tariff package. TBA.
As I’ve been saying since before this whole thing happened.
No, you said that the world has been ripping the US off and that Apple needs to bring manufacturing back to the US. Trump giving in yet again with this exemption doesn't hurt China and doesn't bring "jobs" back to the US. But nice try.
Wrong. I said all of the above - including that Apple would sail through due to exemptions. Mike W. even commented directly telling me "it's not going to go the way I think it will go" in response to one of my posts on the matter. I also added late that The USA has indeed been getting ripped in world trade forever now and that it's about time someone stands up to global bullies. Manufacturing does belong back in the USA - but also elsewhere. America doesn't need to abdicate all manufacturing. Much healthier to be both a product AND services economy. The fact is Trump is very easy to read and to predict when you realize that he has America's best interests at heart ad takes action accordingly. It is no surprise that he initiated reciprocal tariffs or that he paused them when the word wanted to make a deal. It's also not shocking at all that he kept up the tariffs on China, but did so in a way that doesn't hurt American companies (though it also weakens the tariff impact on China) - who he is doing this on behalf of. It's the art of the deal in action - set an extreme goal, get them scrambling, then when the entrenched positions are broken, maneuver the chess pieces, keep them guessing, and settle on the realistic area you wanted all along.I know it's popular on this site to hate on the man, but it doesn't make much sense.
As I have been saying all along, Apple is going to be OK. They have someone standing up for them on the global stage. I have a sneaking suspicion that more is to come with the EU as well.
Talk about the real TDS.
Trump has no one’s interests at heart but his own. This was not some masterful “art of the deal.” This was and still is an economic clusterf*ck foisted on the world by an egomaniacal narcissist, surrounded by a bunch of servile sycophants who won’t tell him no, even if it means destroying the entire world economy.
These are not even remotely “reciprocal tariffs.” They are simplistic ChatGPT math, based on individual trade deficits, not other countries’ tariffs imposed on US imports into their countries, all dumped on a chart like a list minute homework project where the assignment was “give me a chart of big tariffs on every country in the world, except Russia.” You can paint bullseyes around every one of Trump’s randomly thrown darts, but you’re not convincing anyone that any of it has been a carefully planned strategy.
No matter what the guy does, you’ll find a reason to hate on the man. That’s “The real TDS.” Any time he does something that not even haters can hold against him, you’ll accuse him of painting a bullseye there.
If he did something that was both lawful, decent, and good it would noted as such. Starting a trade war with lies like, "tariffs are paid by the company importing the goods" is a ridiculous comment and the fact that you still don't understand that is very troubling.
If Trump actually got rid of the penny or daylight saving time (like he's proposed) I'd be on board with that. I've wanted these to happen for decades. On the flip side, making English the "official" language so you can better support hate crimes against anyone not speaking English or speaking it in an acceptable accent, or changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico I don't support for reasons that should be obvious to a reasonable person. If Biden did the former things I'd have been onboard with it and if Biden had done the latter things I wouldn't. You are the only one that makes blanket comments that are always in favor of Dear Leader no matter what stupid thing he does no matter how many times he flips back and forth on an issue.
Serious question: Do you think that weekend Fox & Friends host is qualified to be Secretary of Defense? How about the beef jerky that wished to be a real boy that is Secretary of Health and Human Services?
Or the secretary of education who doesn’t know the acronym AI from A-1. To add to your excellent comment.
As I’ve been saying since before this whole thing happened.
No, you said that the world has been ripping the US off and that Apple needs to bring manufacturing back to the US. Trump giving in yet again with this exemption doesn't hurt China and doesn't bring "jobs" back to the US. But nice try.
Wrong. I said all of the above - including that Apple would sail through due to exemptions. Mike W. even commented directly telling me "it's not going to go the way I think it will go" in response to one of my posts on the matter. I also added late that The USA has indeed been getting ripped in world trade forever now and that it's about time someone stands up to global bullies. Manufacturing does belong back in the USA - but also elsewhere. America doesn't need to abdicate all manufacturing. Much healthier to be both a product AND services economy. The fact is Trump is very easy to read and to predict when you realize that he has America's best interests at heart ad takes action accordingly. It is no surprise that he initiated reciprocal tariffs or that he paused them when the word wanted to make a deal. It's also not shocking at all that he kept up the tariffs on China, but did so in a way that doesn't hurt American companies (though it also weakens the tariff impact on China) - who he is doing this on behalf of. It's the art of the deal in action - set an extreme goal, get them scrambling, then when the entrenched positions are broken, maneuver the chess pieces, keep them guessing, and settle on the realistic area you wanted all along.I know it's popular on this site to hate on the man, but it doesn't make much sense.
As I have been saying all along, Apple is going to be OK. They have someone standing up for them on the global stage. I have a sneaking suspicion that more is to come with the EU as well.
Talk about the real TDS.
Trump has no one’s interests at heart but his own. This was not some masterful “art of the deal.” This was and still is an economic clusterf*ck foisted on the world by an egomaniacal narcissist, surrounded by a bunch of servile sycophants who won’t tell him no, even if it means destroying the entire world economy.
These are not even remotely “reciprocal tariffs.” They are simplistic ChatGPT math, based on individual trade deficits, not other countries’ tariffs imposed on US imports into their countries, all dumped on a chart like a list minute homework project where the assignment was “give me a chart of big tariffs on every country in the world, except Russia.” You can paint bullseyes around every one of Trump’s randomly thrown darts, but you’re not convincing anyone that any of it has been a carefully planned strategy.
No matter what the guy does, you’ll find a reason to hate on the man. That’s “The real TDS.” Any time he does something that not even haters can hold against him, you’ll accuse him of painting a bullseye there.
When I was a kid, there was this old lady who lived nearby. When she decided to not like someone, there was no getting in her hood side. If it was quiet in the neighborhood, she’d accuse our parents of being restrictive. If we were playing and making noise, our parents were suddenly too carefree. If we mowed the lawn, we were making a racket. If we didn’t, we were disorderly, etc. we learned that hee and others like hee are just going to be that way. Nothing you can do. So we always treated her with kindness but expected nothing in return. And sure enough, we got nothing but derogatory treatment. But that wouldn’t stop us from living out who we were at heart. We just did our best to be good neighbors and let her be who she was. Turns out she was a bitter person who couldn’t be at peace unless she had something to complain about. It was sad really. It was a great neighborhood for blocks around. But the only friends she had were a couple other older ladies who lived to find fault just like here.
A better way would be to give someone the benefit of the doubt. You can question a certain move. But you can’t really proclaim it as a failure until it actually is one. And when a good move is made, it should be acknowledged as such. Not mental gymnastics about “oh someone must have moved the dartboard at light speed.” That just erases all credibility and ends up just constant, rambling complaining.
I’ve been on this forum long enough to see that you’re a smart guy and post sensible things when certsin sensitive subjects are not in play. Don’t fall into that. You don’t have to like anyone. But fairness and objectivity are virtues to live by.
If we look at Apple themselves, cook initiated reaching out to the president prior to him being president. I don’t remember that happening before (and gave more to trump than to bidens inaguration) - not even in the midst of a time where Apple was getting eviscerated by foreign powers. I personally don’t think he had the confidence the previous folks would do anything about it. But he could have confidence that Donald Trump would. So perhaps he cozied up a bit. Cook may not even like trump. I don’t know. But if he could trust that the president would do the right thing, then that’s a plus, no matter how you try to spin it. Lobajd behild, the world gets put in notice, the eu isn’t so sure of itself and China grts tariffed with apple avoiding the pain thus far. That’s quite a detailed roadmap. Sometimes you just have to give credit where it’s due and leave the preconceived judgements at the doir.
When a known arsonist is lighting the house on fire, it is unwise to wait until it has burned to the ground before objecting. Donald Trump is not just some "new guy" trying some unorthodox things that we should just wait and see if they work first. He is know a known entity, trying a bigger version of something that already failed once before, only now he has successfully surrounded himself with people who not only won't say "no," to him but who willingly participate in Cabinet meetings that consist of a round robin of gushing obsequious compliments and praise on the president.
Tim Cook reached out to Trump not because he thinks he's great, but because Cook has extensive experience working with autocrats and has a pretty good idea what levers to pull and pockets to line in order to best position his company with said autocrats. Cook couldn't "trust that [Trump] would do the right thing." He knew from past experience that Trump was likely to do the wrong thing again, and so it would be beneficial to have access to appeal for exemptions from the wrong thing. Once again, if Trump had planned this out all along, he would have issued the exemptions with the initial order, and made it clear with his staff what that carve out would be, so that they wouldn't still be out there telling reporters that it isn't what it is, and if it is what it is, then it's only temporary. All the back-and-forth and on-again-off-again pauses and exemptions don't just keep those evil foreign countries guessing, it creates total chaos for American businesses that are trying to figure out what the hell they're going to do.
A ridiculously large part of the American economy is driven by the Christmas shopping season. American retailers should right now be placing orders for all the stuff they want to sell this Christmas. A huge percentage of those orders would normally be manufactured in China, along with a handful of other mostly pacific rim countries. The current tariff chaos makes that process a live-or-die crapshoot for American companies and retailers. There is no way to know what those orders will cost when they enter US ports in October and November. They can set prices with the manufacturer, but that price after tariffs are applied could be anywhere from ten to two hundred percent higher. So do they place the orders and gamble that tariffs will be lower by then, or do they just sit this one out and cut their losses before putting money down? The one certainty is that there are no US manufacturers that could appear and scale up at a moment's notice to fill those orders for Christmas, 2025. It's the same dilemma faced by US farmers who were hammered during the last Trump tariff war, where China cancelled their orders and the Trump administration had to spend all of the tariff tax money they raised on bailing out farmers. Those farmers are now screwed again. It's Spring already. Seed and livestock orders are already in. Huge foreign markets are closing off, as are large orders usually made for USAID. Farmers with fields full of soybean sprouts can't turn on a dime and replant something more palatable to domestic tastes. They're screwed already. This policy is already an economic failure.
I am not just reflexively "hating on Trump." I am looking at the economic chaos he has introduced in just the last two weeks and recognizing the damage that has already been done and that won't just go away even if he wakes up tomorrow and withdraws every new tariff he announced this year. Even doing that would be like putting the car in reverse and backing up over the person he just ran over. The damage is already done. The problem is, he may have to back up the proverbial car to get it off the victim, but you're not going to convince anyone when you inevitably tell us what a hero he is for getting that car off that victim. Also, I'm not just "a hater" when I point out that he just ran over someone.
Comments
so best to remove them so the income doesn’t look piss weak
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1TpgfReFDp/?mibextid=wwXIfr
It's not that simple.
Many of Apple's products fall into that category of discretionary spending. While it is reasonable at this point in time to put smartphones in the category of a "near essential" tools for navigating day to day life for many Americans, a lot of people simply cannot afford an iPhone. Apple's iPhones, iPads, Macs, AirPods, HomePods, and need I even mention, Vision Pro, are expensive items for many Americans to purchase outright. Carrier subsidies that are essentially little more than the old "give away the razor and charge for razor blades" based financing schemes help put iPhones into the hands of people who cannot afford to buy these devices outright but who can afford to add debt to their monthly budget.
When you start to talk about monthly budgets you have to look across a wider range of products, especially consumables, and realize that many of them are going to still feel the effects of tariffs that are outside of the temporary reprieve that's been granted to a lot of Apple's products. People looking to acquire a products that are temporarily exempt from the worst of tariffs are now coming in with less discretionary money to spend or with a narrower slice of their monthly budget to allocate to a new Apple device. This may be a don't-care issue for a certain segment of buyers, especially AppleInsider readers and AAPL investors, but for many others it is a really big deal.
If you trivialize the impact that even a modest reduction in discretionary spending or a slimmer monthly budget allocation for Apple products is going to have on American consumers you have completely forgotten what happened this past November. Sure, there were and always will be a segment of voters who cast their ballot based on flawed, illogical, nonsensical, and highly charged cultural and social biases, but this time around there was the added boost provided by those who were fed up or thought they were being economically damaged by the status quo. Things like uncontrolled rent prices, higher mortgage rates, prescription prices, price of eggs, price of cars, price of gasoline, and a thousand other little wounds from constantly increasing prices and shrinkflation on everyday items, i.e., all of those line items on the monthly budget. In some ways, the price of eggs helped unleash the economy destroying Kraken from its lair, i.e., Mar-a-Lago, where it had been brooding and stewing and feeding on hate and revenge over the past four years.
It wasn't the price of iPhones that unleashed the Kraken. It was people whose lives are determined by how their monthly budget ties out. If that result frequently induced fear then all bets were off. Things like logic, reason, compassion, social concerns, empathy, and doing the right thing were no longer in play. The gates to the Kraken's lair were pried open and .... here we are now.
Rolling back tariffs on discretionary items, whether temporarily or permanently, is not going to restore the loss of integrity, trustworthiness, credibility, stability, or view of America as a reliable, stable, and steady source of economic grounding that a large part of the worldwide economy has come to depend on. America is no longer the rock, we're morphing into a massive incarnation of the Poop Emoji that only the foolish will be willing to rely upon for much longer. At some point the world will have moved on from America now that America's feckless leader has provided sufficient warning to spur their transition. They have to find reliable and trustworthy partners to trade with, one's that hold true to their commitments, not a mob boss who is trying to make them an offer that they cannot refuse.
But do not fret, America will still have its freshly rebranded Gulf to soothe their self-inflicted wounds.
If Trump actually got rid of the penny or daylight saving time (like he's proposed) I'd be on board with that. I've wanted these to happen for decades. On the flip side, making English the "official" language so you can better support hate crimes against anyone not speaking English or speaking it in an acceptable accent, or changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico I don't support for reasons that should be obvious to a reasonable person. If Biden did the former things I'd have been onboard with it and if Biden had done the latter things I wouldn't. You are the only one that makes blanket comments that are always in favor of Dear Leader no matter what stupid thing he does no matter how many times he flips back and forth on an issue.
Serious question: Do you think that weekend Fox & Friends host is qualified to be Secretary of Defense? How about the beef jerky that wished to be a real boy that is Secretary of Health and Human Services?
Tim Cook reached out to Trump not because he thinks he's great, but because Cook has extensive experience working with autocrats and has a pretty good idea what levers to pull and pockets to line in order to best position his company with said autocrats. Cook couldn't "trust that [Trump] would do the right thing." He knew from past experience that Trump was likely to do the wrong thing again, and so it would be beneficial to have access to appeal for exemptions from the wrong thing. Once again, if Trump had planned this out all along, he would have issued the exemptions with the initial order, and made it clear with his staff what that carve out would be, so that they wouldn't still be out there telling reporters that it isn't what it is, and if it is what it is, then it's only temporary. All the back-and-forth and on-again-off-again pauses and exemptions don't just keep those evil foreign countries guessing, it creates total chaos for American businesses that are trying to figure out what the hell they're going to do.
A ridiculously large part of the American economy is driven by the Christmas shopping season. American retailers should right now be placing orders for all the stuff they want to sell this Christmas. A huge percentage of those orders would normally be manufactured in China, along with a handful of other mostly pacific rim countries. The current tariff chaos makes that process a live-or-die crapshoot for American companies and retailers. There is no way to know what those orders will cost when they enter US ports in October and November. They can set prices with the manufacturer, but that price after tariffs are applied could be anywhere from ten to two hundred percent higher. So do they place the orders and gamble that tariffs will be lower by then, or do they just sit this one out and cut their losses before putting money down? The one certainty is that there are no US manufacturers that could appear and scale up at a moment's notice to fill those orders for Christmas, 2025. It's the same dilemma faced by US farmers who were hammered during the last Trump tariff war, where China cancelled their orders and the Trump administration had to spend all of the tariff tax money they raised on bailing out farmers. Those farmers are now screwed again. It's Spring already. Seed and livestock orders are already in. Huge foreign markets are closing off, as are large orders usually made for USAID. Farmers with fields full of soybean sprouts can't turn on a dime and replant something more palatable to domestic tastes. They're screwed already. This policy is already an economic failure.
I am not just reflexively "hating on Trump." I am looking at the economic chaos he has introduced in just the last two weeks and recognizing the damage that has already been done and that won't just go away even if he wakes up tomorrow and withdraws every new tariff he announced this year. Even doing that would be like putting the car in reverse and backing up over the person he just ran over. The damage is already done. The problem is, he may have to back up the proverbial car to get it off the victim, but you're not going to convince anyone when you inevitably tell us what a hero he is for getting that car off that victim. Also, I'm not just "a hater" when I point out that he just ran over someone.