SiTime

How can factory owners decide to buy new equipment with all these constant changes to policy? How can small business owners decide to hire additional workers with all of these constant changes to policy? How can workers decide to change jobs with all of these constant changes to policy? How can parents of children approaching college-age make decisions about their 529 college savings plans with all of these constant changes to policy? How can people approaching retirement age make decisions about whether to move from the equities market to the fixed-income market with all of these constant changes to policy? How can anybody do anything with all of this insanity?!?

dominikhoffmann said:

What are the downsides of digital IDs, from a civil libery point of view?

I suppose basically the same downsides as having a physical ID. Whether your ID is physical or digital, it’s still the exact same information in the exact same databases from the exact same government. The information already exists digitally (regardless if the ID itself is physical or digital).

In Japan we have a similar-ish system happening and… it’s a bit annoying how it hasn’t been fully-implemented yet. I’m still carrying around four different IDs in my wallet (drivers license, residence card, health insurance card and “MyNumber” card). All of that could (and one day hopefully will) be a single physical ID (with a single digital ID as well). That’ single ID being the “MyNumber” card.

Right now I should be able to (in theory) get rid of my health insurance card, as that information is now attached to my MyNumber card (I can log in to my MyNumber account to confirm that). But in practice I still need to carry around my health insurance card — my dentist still needed my actual health insurance card during last week’s cleaning. So I still have four ID cards in my wallet.

Note: I am a non-permanent legal resident, so I have to carry around my residence card (as my residence card is also my visa). Technically that’s the only card that I absolutely need (because of my status as a legal immigrant resident). Japanese citizens have no legal requirement to carry any IDs (except for a drivers license if they are driving a car, of course).

ManuFR said:

(Sorry for my English BTW)

Your English was fine. I understood everything you were saying. It seems the French system is progressing much faster than the Japanese system is currently.

robin huber said:

To those who criticized Tim’s “sucking up to Trump,” you can thank him now for the exemption he got. 

Partial-exemption. There is still a 20% tariff on all Chinese imports into America… unless that gets changed as well on Sunday (or Monday during market-trading hours). The tariff rate changes basically every day, so Lord only knows what the tariff news will be tomorrow. Well… I suppose the people in Trump’s orbit trading on insider information might know what the next tariff news will be. 

DAalseth said:

The US needs stuff from China more than China needs ANYTHING from the US.
I expect there may be exemptions for Amazon, Apple and Walmart. But the hundreds of thousands of small stores, local stores, regional stores, that are the heart of the economy will be massacred. 

As someone pointed out yesterday, this whole scrap is above all making China look like the reliable, stable, rational, trustworthy partner. That is going to be the most harmful thing coming out of this for the US.

The things China imports from the United States are food, oil and gas, and medications (top three, in that order). These are, of course, very important things.

spunkmeyer said:

The tariffs, threatened or implemented, have managed to destroy a lot of goodwill around the world for the United States for decades. This will directly affect people's decision to purchase products for US companies. It's already happened in Canada and has been well-covered by the media.

Manufacturing origin is one issue; the other is the conscious boycott of Apple products in other countries as a statement of dissatisfaction.

I understand your in-the-moment visceral reaction to all of this, but… America doing ‘unpopular’ things is nothing new. This is just new for certain countries that aren’t usually directly on the receiving end of America’s unpopular decisions. America has done unpopular things for decades and people have continued to buy American products during those decades.