This in a nutshell is why oligarchy is a bad idea. Rich people are not smarter than the rest of us. In fact in many ways they are significantly dumber.
Why dear sir, you act like we cannot simply switch from bologna to foie gras or from toilet paper to twenty dollar bills! The market has elasticity you see!
Scarcity is what Poland saw after communist Russians took over Europe after ww2. It's what Americans will see ubder Trump. Supply chain is bypassing the US.
Not a problem for China as they can simply reroute those products to the other 96% of the world's population. As for the 4% of people who do happen to live behind the Tariff Curtain, they will have plenty of cheap pork and soybeans to ease the pain of a rapidly declining standard of living.
last time trump disrupted that USA to CHINA soybean trade Brazil cut down millions of acres of rain forest to grow more of it and they will probably do the same again.
Everyone always pre-orders electronics right before CES because they want to have all the old stuff and they don’t wanna know what’s coming super genius. We have the dumbest fucking electric ever in the human history right now.
I actually bought some of replacement parts because of this. I won’t be upgrading but they will keep us up and running. I’m afraid of not being able to afford parts with these insane tariffs. Someone will use them if we don’t so not worried about that. It’s ridiculous I felt the need to even do it.
Bessent isn’t worried because he is rich, has many, many choices from where to buy from. People like us are simply collateral damage to them. We pain means nothing to them. 😢
Turns out these goods need to come from somewhere and the majority of it comes from China. --Used to come from China. Now the ports are empty. No cargo, no goods. I can't wait to hear the spin when store shelves are fucking bare. Oh wait, I know: "fake news", their staple answer for everything. 🙄
We must remove the president, vice president and the speaker from office now! And, impeach the president pro tempore of the senate and cabinet members! A general strike is our only option now! May Day, May Day, the general strike starts 5/1, ends when they resign!
There are 33 million small businesses in the US. These idiots have no clue that most of those don’t have the cash flow to preorder months ahead of what they normally do. A lot of business closures happening.
They did preorder, but that's expected to run out in the next few weeks. They couldn't order and import enough before the Tarrifs started. Supply chains aren't a short term thing.
So what are these great retailers gonna do after the preorders have sold? Preorder again? Oh, whoopsie. Tariffs. Wait, aren’t those supposed to be paid for by the other countries. Now, I’m just so confused. 🤔
This stupidity of this administration hurts my brain. If retailers admit that they pre-ordered extra goods ahead of the tariffs isn’t insider trading? That opens a whole new can of worms into the stock market manipulation.
Pre-ordering wouldn't help either, since the tariffs are applied when the goods enter the country not when they were initially shipped.
Some have been at sea for months, predating the announcement of the tariffs, but will still be hit by the increased charges when they pass through customs.
What an incredible imbecile. but that is what trump has done (on purpose); surrounded himself with less intelligent people who just do what he wants regardless of legality, ethical standards. They just do his bidding. Smarter people would not.
I'm sure they are. I'll never forget watching an A&E Biography on Scientology. Their top spokesman spoke throughout it, saying the stupidest shit, but very committed. LATER, that guy became the co-host with Leah Remini and her show, & he admitted he knew it was all lies. That's a cult.
Aw man. How sad. Thanks for the info.
After disgusting me when he was their spokesman, he really won me over hearing him on Remini's show, how devastated he was to have lost contact with his 2 older kids, he was hoping his son would come around.
FOX cannot spell "embarrassed". And if they could, it wouldn't matter. There is a cost threshold to it. They apparently have never met that threshold. (I recall a $787M settlement to Dominion that didn't seem to faze them)
What the hell is wrong with this guy? And he is the one the administration is sending out to calm the markets down? He is starting to make WarFighter Pete look good FFS.
Even if he's right, isn't the concept of preordering basically a temporary workaround of a seemingly permanent issue? Ok, preorders got here, but that's the end of the orders. No more orders are coming.
What then? Tariffs will be solved by then? Just pick up the economy where we left it? Not likely
Not at present? Wait until MAGA starts panic buying! Then let’s discuss empty shelves. I’m already seeing it in Scottsdale AZ! If you have the ready cash you can horde all you want!
This elite billionaire goes by assumption that retailers preordered? Where would that advice come from? He’s advising retailers to panic buy. Where, exactly, would that capital come from? Retail traffic is down due to his pals playing stupid with the economy and consumer confidence!
The man sits atop of one of the largest economic databases in existence and his evidence is he "assumes" retailers pre-ordered? Did it occur to them to maybe, I don't know, ask someone?
Every single member of the hand picked Trump administration should have their personal information leaked so we know exactly where to find those responsible for this totally avoidable chaos.
Bessent has enjoyed a successful and respected professional life but is the dullest man ever in a very important job and he may be heading for his first failure.
Depends on how rowdy we get. That's why he doesn't want to get rid of Kegseth, Conald knows he'll give the command. Once things go to shit everyone is gonna be angry.
The problem is Martial Law still will not work to stop it. Martial Law could be given the command for, and it still wouldn't work due to the reality of logistics and how big this country actually is.
Ok Bessent, you’re such a jerk now that you are nearing Lutnick status. Looking forward to the sound of your head hitting the basket too. (Figuratively?).
Ikr!?? “Just in time” inventories ring a bell… big retailers have perfected them… they aren’t storing mass quantities of pre-ordered supplies… you shouldn’t have to. They should have a stable government. They can trust so they can rely on supply chains just like the rest of us…
Although apparently some of the big chains did bump up some orders. Then they cancelled everything that would be tariffed. Whatever, we are looking at 60 days or less of inventory in stock.
If everything were to be hunky dory tomorrow, it would still take 30/45 days to get the product made, then shipment time. Without an end in sight 🤷♀️ who knows when things like toilet bowl brushes will appear again.
With Biden it was COVID supply line issues that continued into corporate greed keeping prices (ergo margins) higher once the normal supply chain was reestablished. This time it is 100% a direct impact of Trump’s policies.
If, by some twist of reality, he had the outcome would be the same. He has zero empathetic abilities. None of them have any humanity. Their coin is flowing and that's the game.
Literally couldn't order anything because within hours he'd shut them off and then back on again. These people are most definitely high and paving a road to blame the retailers.
I can't wait until they start revolting publicly.
SOMEONE, ANYONE... clue this asshole into the JIT practices of modern businesses and the impact the tariffs have changed the ability to do this financially.
This is something people here don’t even consider. Not only can china wait they don’t really answer to their people the way we’re used to here. They can do anything they want and they’re not gonna face the backlash like we see here. They’re bargaining with chips we can’t imagine
But still taking 4.4 billion tons of imported rice (or at least 20% of the market) out of the market is bound to have an effect on supplies and price to some degree, particularly on certain kinds of rice, though the unavailability of complementary goods may be enough to slow demand.
Machines. This is a crop that is easily done with combines in the US. The harvesting problem isn't grains, it's fruits and vegetables. But particularly fruit.
Exactly! Folks don’t understand the link between good economic policy and proper supply chain management because competent leaders made it look easy. COVID gave the consumer a peek, but this face plant was imposed on us by that orange idiot’s malfeasance and rank stupidity.
Even if the executive did a "deal" with every nation tomorrow, would the air pockets in distribution pipelines take days, weeks, or months to dissipate?
You know what happens when you assume something, you make an ass-of-u-and-me. Preordering because of a tariff, holy shitshow, what a great policy. He got his degree on the back of a matchbook cover
Can you imagine one of these fumble fuck morons wandering around the grocery store trying to figure out how to make their $150 grocery budget feed a family of four.
Not sure how preordering even helps, since the tariffs are applied when the goods enter the country even if they were ordered and shipped weeks or months before.
Some of the goods being held up have already been at sea for a couple of months, and were shipped before the tariffs were even announced.
Assumes and I thinks...
really inspires confidence.
He is referring to large retailers who have the cash on hand/credit to preorder. No concern for small businesses who cannot afford to pre-order ahead of the tariffs.
Also, who has that storage space? (assuming these are goods that can be stored for months)
Even in vast Los Angeles stores are crunched for merchandise storage space & have to have inventory coming in as customers buy wk-by-wk. I can only imagine the spatial demands in CITY cities like NYC.
And in little villages like were I live, we're already in trouble. I stopped at a market on the way home today, and the store was two-thirds empty. I asked the owner when she would be restocked. She said she didn't know because her distributor doesn't have any stock to sell her.
(Snort.) Of course HE'S not concerned--he'll be able to get whatever he wants, no matter what it takes. It's what's left of the middle class & the poor who'll go without.
Well I actually have heard that a lot of people did kind of know this was coming and did sort of plan because of how badly COVID was handled that the whole just in time economy was no longer a good idea.
But there's only so far that can go not everything is non-perishable.
Very true, and I don't think anyone thought that maniac would put 145% on anything. Many retailers ordered months ago, and when it finally arrived, they either had to pay the 145% or deny the shipment.
And also they should take the power of tariffs away from the president and make it a permanent thing that no one individual can ever make this sort of a short-sighted ignorant decision again.
I think actually several laws have been passed which progressively gave more and more power to the president to do this and they should simply be retracted. And Congress should learn well and good from this instance to never allow that to happen again.
I think at the very least Congress should refund the tariffs to everyone who paid. If they want our economy to not die over the summer and if they don't want to see millions of people in the streets calling for bloody revolution.
Preordered doesn’t help unless it was also delivered. Overseas orders placed a month ago that arrive after the tariffs were assigned still pay the tariffs
That is exactly the plan. They go belly up, default on their mortgage and corporate real estate buys up distressed properties on the cheap.
It’s a feature, not a bug.
What are the retailers supposed to do when the preordered inventory is sold off? Forget three-dimensional chess, Chutes and Ladders might be too challenging for these rocket scientists...
"We have elasticities". Comodities like wheat are elastic over years, becuase producers can plant more/less wheat next year. Manufactured goods from China are not elastic because all the producers are in the same country. No US factories are going up in the next two weeks. Complete BS.
Heck, I’m starting a new manufacturing business because of the tariffs (and lots of other reasons) down here in demented DeSantisLand.
We need to make a whole bunch of these, so come on over and help tighten the bolts.
And, forced to do without a job servicing loss of demand. Demand may be a 'want' instead of a 'need' for most things imported, but local jobs servicing it are still lost.
Incompetent micro managers. GOP the party of the worlds biggest police state. No wonder the Confederate plantation slave state economies collapsed and never recovered.
Sooooo... trump gave some of them prior notice about his tariffs??? That sounds rather like unfair business practices against small, independent retailers.
Mr Treasury Secretary here is either wholly ignorant of how most modern businesses and their supply chains operate, or he simply doesn't care many of them face being wiped out by these tariff shocks and all the mad chaos around their implementation.
Ty! I was pretty sure of the abbrev. I should have known how business/supply chains operate, tho. Makes sense. I think Mr TS knows this & uses his TV voice to bullshit. Behind the scenes- he's sweating bullets.
If there was an actual plan, perhaps part of such a fictional plan would be to discuss the tariff plans, IN ADVANCE, with retailers et al, so everyone is prepared.
When you only have a concept of a plan, and you change your mind like you presumably change your underwear, we’re all in deep 💩.
Comments
F all these idiots.
Scarcity is what Poland saw after communist Russians took over Europe after ww2. It's what Americans will see ubder Trump. Supply chain is bypassing the US.
last time trump disrupted that USA to CHINA soybean trade Brazil cut down millions of acres of rain forest to grow more of it and they will probably do the same again.
"I ASSUME they pre-ordered" ???
WTF
How did these morons get rich when they seem so either clueless or at the very least totally tone deaf in their communication?
#endthegop
If he's not, why is he such a fucking idiot?
The United States secretary of the treasury is a dilettante. What can go wrong 😑
Give me 2 names to replace dumb and dumber
So this is all academic to him. 'The shelf-fairy will fill the shelves.....'
People who live in a bubble of privilege . . .
---Which, remember, is a crucial requirement for serving in the #TrumpRegime !!!
"When you 'assume':
You make an 'ass'
Out of 'U'
And 'Me'"
https://youtu.be/J1EgoforB7Q?si=WPsCUKA17KKk0mNH
Some have been at sea for months, predating the announcement of the tariffs, but will still be hit by the increased charges when they pass through customs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcR7LgBVTNE&t=103s
He assumed so he’s not concerned.
After disgusting me when he was their spokesman, he really won me over hearing him on Remini's show, how devastated he was to have lost contact with his 2 older kids, he was hoping his son would come around.
Motherfucker at your level of responsibility you never assume!
What then? Tariffs will be solved by then? Just pick up the economy where we left it? Not likely
So why is he lying for the orange colostomy bag and letting the economy implode?
DEI.
And, that other one about assumption being the mother of all fuck ups?
"Assume makes an ass out of u and me".
Said with the breeze certainty of an asshole who won't miss a single meal all through this.
The sheer ignorance of these people is staggering.
What’s next? It’s the retailers’ fault because they didn’t preorder?
Also last I checked, soldiers need to eat.
I'm expecting martial law after upcoming protests. I hope not. But it wouldn't surprise anyone. ☮️
Just in time inventories, "elasticities" and "replacements" depend upon a robust supply chain; which Trump has destroyed with tariffs.
🤣
I can't wait until they start revolting publicly.
Which he's bragged about having done before, and been sued for.
However, the rubes still believe the administration has their best interest in mind.
for future reference.......billionaires don't care
Who is harvesting the rice?
40 hours a week, full benefits, union, and pay me $90,000 a year.
I won't accept a dime more than that. I'm too humble.
He doesn’t shop, except high-end goods sold reverentially and likely by appointment only. *Maybe* for some personal hobby or interest.
It’s someone else’s job to make sure he doesn’t experience any inconvenience that can possibly be avoided.
We're fast running out of inventory and no one has ordered anything to replace it.
Some of the goods being held up have already been at sea for a couple of months, and were shipped before the tariffs were even announced.
I derive endless joy from schadenfreude.
MAGA!
really inspires confidence.
He is referring to large retailers who have the cash on hand/credit to preorder. No concern for small businesses who cannot afford to pre-order ahead of the tariffs.
he did it worldwide. one dumb motherfucker
Even in vast Los Angeles stores are crunched for merchandise storage space & have to have inventory coming in as customers buy wk-by-wk. I can only imagine the spatial demands in CITY cities like NYC.
We're in trouble.
But there's only so far that can go not everything is non-perishable.
Luckily the president doesn't let pesky things like laws or procedures get in the way of making himself and his buddies a quick buck.
wars with
Death to the disposable merch economy...
It’s a feature, not a bug.
We need to make a whole bunch of these, so come on over and help tighten the bolts.
Mr Treasury Secretary here is either wholly ignorant of how most modern businesses and their supply chains operate, or he simply doesn't care many of them face being wiped out by these tariff shocks and all the mad chaos around their implementation.
Or maybe both!
Perfectly on brand. 🙄
When you only have a concept of a plan, and you change your mind like you presumably change your underwear, we’re all in deep 💩.