Trump’s tariffs have achieved their desired effect on almost every nation they’ve been applied to, and agreeable trade deals have been worked out with them to keep the shipping of products moving smoothly internationally.
Except for China. China insists on having the upper hand in any agreement. The US insists that things be balanced. So when China does something to create an imbalance, the US responds with one or more tariffs and restrictions to force China back into line.
This hasn’t really worked out too well because China won’t relent and accept a status quo. I suspect that Trump isn’t great at doing this, either, as he loves being the winner and he recently dropped a bunch of tariffs, restrictions and fees on China, freight vessels and etc. This was in response to China buying Iran’s cheap oil when Trump wants to crimp Iran’s economy. China’s responded with a massive set of restrictions on the export of anything with even a trace of rare earths in it, to anyone anywhere. Since China controls 70% of the rare earth production and 90% of the processing, they have close to a monopoly on rare earths and just about everything electronic uses rare earths now.
Trump’s responded to this with, wait for it, yes, more tariffs on China, a 100% tariff on ALL Chinese goods. This is going to stifle our economy as well as theirs, which actually means that this is going to crunch the global economy.
China used to buy the majority of their soy beans from the US, and the Chinese eat a lot of soybeans. They’ve cut off all US soybean imports now and I’m wondering if this ties in with the report of a Chinese population decline of 400,000 people. Maybe they grow enough for themselves now? Don’t need to import? Because if there’s one thing that the Chinese have consistently been really aggressive about, it’s making sure they have enough food for all those people, and they’re very competitive in that market.
This is happening now, at the same time that our government is shut down over a refusal by the Right to agree to a $1.5 Trillion or more spending bill that the Left wants, to pay for free healthcare for illegal aliens. So almost all Federal employees are laid off and no one is getting paid, and the Left says they won’t agree to fund the government again “unless aircraft start falling from the sky”.
So… as things look right now, many goods are going to become scarce, unemployment will increase, and inflation will probably take off again, all at the same time, and when people become poor and desperate, the crime rate skyrockets. Good time to get those electronic items that use rare earths and maybe a few firearms and some ammo.