semi_guy
About
- Username
- semi_guy
- Joined
- Visits
- 25
- Last Active
- Roles
- member
- Points
- 97
- Badges
- 0
- Posts
- 69
Reactions
-
A call from Tim Cook helped convince Trump to introduce tariff exemptions
i heard that same NPR interview yesterday with Munchkin CEO. His points are comments were identical as those expressed with other small and medium size businesses. They have spent significant capital setting molds and equipment in China. That equipment, tools, and molds cannot be exported, and the current administration is not even addressing the simple problem of visa/license/export issues. In addition to those simple issues, there greater problem is that there are no equivalent factories, trained workforce, or supply chain. Those take years to create, debug, and train. In the meantime, those businesses stopped ordering and there will be a shortage of items in 60 days. The lead time once orders start is 45 days, with the waffling of red light/green light on tariff, no company is going to start orders. The lack of material will even drive prices much higher than the tariff, and worse than in COVID. Those companies without revenue will laid off people, close, or go bankrupt.So you might be able to order and get an iPhone, but not find a case, adapter, mount, or cable, even if you wanted to pay extra. Can't imagine the cost of auto parts and the increase on our auto insurance since parts will be more expensive, if they are available.
-
China escalates US tariff war by halting rare earth mineral exports
Rare earth mining is not that minerals are rare, they are abundant on earth's crust. It is very difficult to separate them and requires an open pit mining. Open pit mining is a large scale destruction of the environment and pollution of land, water, and air. Finding an isolated place with the minerals to mine that you do not mind polluting is very difficult. Rare earth metals has been a priority in Biden's administration, as well. In fact, Mountain Pass in the US was sending its mining to China to be separated. Mountain Pass acquired the bankrupt mine in 2017. The original mine was on operation in 2010-2015.
-
Trump's tariffs could drive up iPhone prices by about 10%
Last month, egg prices had the greatest increase ever. Yet, no clear directive on how to address HPAI. Inflation continues to increase. but current administration wastes time on renaming the gulf, pardoning criminals that beat up police, alienating our closest allies with stupid trade wars (to get what previous administration got by nicely asking), and firing thousands of workers. Just like everyone expected! Hope you like continued inflation because nothing is being done to address it and it is going to get worse with these policies.dominikhoffmann said:Tariffs are only one factor in the multi-variate input to producer pricing. Importers may adjust prices and their suppliers, too. Disbursements of ERS income to citizens via tax cuts will allow consumers to more easily absorb higher pricing. In other words a x% import tariff may not necessarily lead to a consumer price multiplier of (1 + x / 100). We will just have to wait and see how it plays out.
At this point the priority is strengthening the domestic manufacturing base. This is important to the U.S. workforce, as well as strategically. In the case of a conflict with China, what use will cheap aspirin be, if it has led to there not being any functional chemical plants in the U.S., anymore, that make other important medications?
Let’s not bitch about a 10% tariff, when the last four years brought us > 25% inflation on groceries, which make for a much larger proportion of a family’s budget than an iPhone or two a year. For the one there are very well-reasoned economic policy drivers, for the other there were several very boneheaded and potentially intentionally destructive ones.
-
Tim Cook may have met with Trump during WWDC to discuss second term priorities
I was part of a big semiconductor company. For the past decade, we told upper management they needed to increase semiconductor factories since semiconductor content was increasing at exponential rates. They denied saying it was risky, even though data showed semiconductor content was not decreasing even in a recession. Then big tax breaks, we repeated the need that semiconductors are increasing and we were at capacity. Upper management invested the tax saving in buying back stock to prop up stock prices. Not in increasing salaries, nor expanding factories. Many of those VPs retired recently with large stock sells. Then COVID hit when semiconductor plants were at capacity. Upper management saw a great opportunity to increase prices since all companies were desperate to acquire devices. In fact, we were told that the most profitable devices would be allocated production, so it became a race to increase prices to maintain customers and product lines. Researching other semiconductor competitors, we found the whole industry was doing the same.hexclock said:foregoneconclusion said:The 2017 tax cuts that CEOs used for stock buybacks are due to expire. These are the same tax cuts that the Fed predicted would increase inflation. Go figure…Reducing the corporate tax rate to compete with other countries allowed US companies to repatriate billions of dollars back to the United States.According to the CBO those tax cuts increased federal tax revenue because the economy grew. Inflation came from all the crazy spending congress has done over the last few years, starting during the pandemic.Then all these semiconductor companies asked government to fund them more factories and they got the chip act.In short, greed caused inflation. Crazy spending in excessive tax breaks, low interest, and government handouts to industry added a second wave to the inflation. Pandemic spending prevented many companies and individuals from going bankrupt and that spending ended 3 years ago. However, companies realized they could raise prices and still maintain their customers. Hence, many companies have reported record profits in the past couple of years: greed...
-
Apple's new iPhone MagSafe wallet adds Find My support
Just logs the location when it was detached, but does not act as an active AirTag. It also seems to be a new feature of iOS15 and supported on iPhone 12:"It now supports Find My, so you can be notified of your wallet’s last known location if it gets separated from your phone****Requires iPhone Leather Wallet with MagSafe and iPhone 12 or later with Find My enabled in iOS 15. Not supported on Clear Case with MagSafe."
