Harley-Davidson plans to open a plant in Europe because Trump’s tariffs will raise the price of a Harley by more that $2,000 for EU consumers.
Other industries will be hard hit and are planning to lay off workers.
The lobster industry, farmers, the nation’s largest nail company.
Think before you act.
Dealmaker-in-Chief Cuts Deal to Annihilate American Business – Vanity Fair
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/06/dealmaker-in-chief-cuts-deal-to-annihilate-american-business
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Wisconsin; could not be better. As long as I don’t hear Smoot Hawley caused the great depression. Trade is as simple as picking winners and losers. What is good for the farmer may not be good for the factory floor worker. What is good for the consumer
may be bad for workers
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The late Nobel-prize winning economist Milton Friedman, advocated eliminating all tariffs on trade. Tariffs cause job losses, and cost consumers billions.
Harley-Davidson, is responsible to provide a dividend to their stockholders. If relocating jobs to foreign locations, is good for their business, then fine.
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So you disagree with Milton Friedman?
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I agree with Milton Friedman on many topics, including free trade. When there is a “trade war”, and nations erect tariffs, it leads to job losses. We are seeing his predictions come to fruition, right before our eyes.
By enacting a tariff, Harley-Davidson has decided to reduce their US operation. Workers will be laid off, their jobs transferred to foreign locations. The Chinese have decided to restrict their purchases of US soybeans. The price of soybeans has dropped 15%, giving a kick right in gut to US farmers.
A trade war benefits no one. Free trade benefits everyone.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/19/soybean-prices-drop-to-two-year-low-on-us-china-trade-war-fears.html
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All the things we know until till we find out that we don’t know what we think we know. One would think that the debate over Education would be enough for those on this page to question dominant dogma. Thanks to Donald J Trump a healthy skepticism about the News reporting now has to be rejected in defense of press freedom.
There is no one on this blog who has more animosity toward DJT than me. If Mueller indicted, tried him and hung him from the pole on the White House lawn. I would be a happy camper.
Now that that is out of the way. A trade war may not be a positive for anybody. It may hurt some manufacturing workers while helping others. It will hurt some consumers and farmers. I say some consumers because other consumers will benefit. Consumers of goods manufactured overseas will become more expensive. While an abundance of farm products will lower the price of foods that were formally exported. Our trade policy was designed to protect some and benefit others. There are no free markets. Decisions are made that pick winners and losers every day. Why are intellectual property rights high on the list of priorities of the free trade free market crowd. So Government enforced monopolies are “liberal” as in neo policy.
You might want to ask Larry Summers about who that decision is made for.
But as wrong as Trump’s response is; the endless noise and hysteria about trade are just as troubling.
How many times have you heard that Smoot Hawley caused the Great
Depression. You might want to check with Krugman or Stieglitz or Ben Stein on that. Then, of course, there are those 6 million open jobs that if Americans only had the skills to fill would replace those lost manufacturing jobs. Don’t take my word they are published monthly by the Bureau Labor Statistics. Job Openings and Labor Turnover. Yes, kiddies go get those skills for waitresses and retail clerks. Like in education data does not always reflect what it portends to show.
So while I pray for the meteor strike to hit DC or for his tariffs to sink the economy and rescue the Nation. I am not ready to forget our trade policy was opposed by almost every progressive organization from Environmental to Consumer to Labor and a smattering of Tea party types.
Two good articles
http://prospect.org/article/rethinking-free-trade
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Note those are seperate links
Here is the second
http://prospect.org/article/rethinking-free-trade
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Separate
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This is off topic but relates to the crazy things that are happening in this country. Jordan has a camp for Muslim refugees that is aided by the UN. My last bit of information put that number of refugees at 86,000. They have been there for years wanting to return but unable. We can’t help people who are suffering because they are all criminals and rapists…even children.
Looks like King Abdullah of Jordan has learned to flatter when necessary. “…his [Trump’s] humility and grace..”??? Aren’t we all happy that Kushner is bringing peace to the Middle East? BS
The road ahead in the Middle East…from the WH
His Majesty King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein of Jordan visited the White House yesterday, meeting with President Trump and thanking him for America’s support in the Middle East. “If the rest of the world just took a little bit of your humility and your grace to help us, we’d be in a lot better position,” King Abdullah II said.
“You have done an incredible job on the refugees and the camps and taking care of people,” President Trump told the King. “The job you do on a humanitarian basis is fantastic.”
The Middle East has seen great progress since the United States withdrew from the flawed Iran nuclear deal, President Trump said. Yesterday’s meeting came about a week after Senior Advisor Jared Kushner and Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt met with King Abdullah II in Jordan, part of a series of meetings the U.S. officials held across the Middle East last week. Their conversations focused largely on facilitating peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.
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Schadenfreude in its purest state.
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This was sent out in an email from my Senator Todd Young [R-IN]. Statistically this ‘wonderful Christmas present for the middle class’ isn’t helping anyone except the wealthy. I’d say that Todd Young has a problem. Being narrow minded is helping him keep his job.
…….
Action in Washington Helps Hoosiers
Six months after the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Hoosiers are enjoying the benefits. On Friday, I visited TMF Center I visited on Friday in Williamsport. This manufacturer gave 15 percent raises to their hourly workers as a result of tax reform. They’ve also been able to begin an expansion of their building.
One of the provisions in the new tax law is also allowing them to buy new machinery, where they previously would have purchased used equipment. The newer machinery is safer and allows their workers to be more productive.
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This was sent out from the WH. I often wonder who writes this stuff. Whomever it is can’t be paid enough to write such slop.
…….
“It is time to call this economy and the attendant optimism what it is: the Trump boom,” FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon writes in The Hill. “America is open for business. Most significantly, America is open for small business. Trump is the most supportive small business leader the nation has seen in recent memory.”
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Trump brands himself as a “dealmaker” but his history brands him as a liar, bully, troll, fraud, cheat, corporate welfare recipient (about $1 billion in government handouts and tax breaks that kept his businesses afloat until some of them failed anyway), and bankruptcy expert who costs banks billions while he walked away earning millions as the CEO of these failed ventures that never earned enough to cover operating expenses but always managed to pay the CEO on time in full.
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