This is not news to many of the people who read this blog, but I want to demonstrate with one quick and simple economic lesson that Trump and his followers don’t know much about what they preach.

Protective Tariffs

How many of you can define “tariff” without a google search? Of those who can, how many know who pays a tariff? Of that population, who can describe the pros and cons of a tariff on, let’s say, steel? Finally, of that population, how many of them are actually Trump supporters?

Simply put, a tariff is a tax imposed on goods when they cross international borders. Tariffs (at least the type we’re discussing here) are paid by the country that exports the goods being taxed.

The pros of a tariff on steel is that countries like China will have to pay more to sell steel in this country, so they bump up their price to earn back the extra tariff. Since the cost of Chinese steel goes up to U.S. consumers, it incentivizes U.S. consumers to purchase steel domestically.

The cons of a tariff on steel is that the cost of steel goes up to U.S. consumers. So companies that use steel, like construction companies and car manufacturers have to pay more for the materials to make their product and they pass those extra costs onto the consumer. Which takes us back to “who pays tariffs”…that would be us.

Another con of tariffs is that when we put a tariff on steel imports, countries like China will often impose a tariff on items we export to China, such as soybeans, so that U.S. soybean farmers will have to charge more for soybeans when they export them to China, and sell less.

The interplay of trade tariffs and trade wars is incredibly complex and nuanced…much more than I could describe in a blog post.

Sorry for the dry economics lesson…but the real lesson is to demonstrate the ignorance of Trump and his supporters who want to “stick it to China” and “protect U.S. interests” by imposing tariffs. While tariffs done with careful planning and negotiations can help economies by evening out some of the different factors in different countries, the ham-handed way tariffs are viewed by Trump and his supporters is (as usual) impetuous and ill-conceived.

At least previous presidents, like Bush and Clinton that didn’t have a full understanding of the impacts of tariffs, relied on people that do.

Just my latest annoyance with this POS POTUS.

Current Knitting

I ended up finishing the Garter Stole and it turned out more beautifully than I can capture in photos.

\

I assumed it would end up being wider than 9 inches, but even with using up both colors of sock yarn that’s what it ended up being.  It is a generous 88 inches long.

And the drape and warmth are truly perfect.  And I love how the fine colored stripes show up when examined closely, but blend to a beautiful non-color from afar.

I also got some additional work done on the next Knitted Cross Stitch Scarf.

This is another project that is difficult to capture in photos…the colors are deep and rich with flashes of brightness.  I imagine this scarf will sell quickly at this coming weekend’s craft show.