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Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

(www.wsj.com)
462 points JumpCrisscross | 1 comments | 30 Aug 25 20:56 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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haunter ◴[30 Aug 25 22:47 UTC] No.45078660[source]▶
In the end it's the biggest leopard ate my face moment ever:

China has very high growth momentum that surpasses American living standards soon, and not long before it will surpass American security standards too. China's purchasing power is probably more comfortable than most western countries, with extensive housing and high speed rail and electric cars etc. When a country becomes rich, inevitably other countries ask for their help. That's why China's growth must be curbed, fast > tariff them to their death or so. But I really don't think it will work at all. And personally I don't even think it's a good idea at all to begin with.

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decimalenough ◴[31 Aug 25 00:19 UTC] No.45079201[source]▶
The craziest thing about all this is that Chinese exports to the US aren't even that big a part of the Chinese economy (3% or so). Sure, it'll hurt and there's multiplier effects, but the entire rest of the world is more than happy to take up the slack. So the tariffs really are the US cutting its own nose off to spite its face.
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refurb ◴[31 Aug 25 00:37 UTC] No.45079300[source]▶
What do you mean “the rest of the world will take up the slack”?

Is the rest of the world suddenly going to start buying something they haven’t in the past? Why?

And the US consumer market is 2x the size of the next biggest (EU).

How exactly is the the rest of the world going to replace the demand of something several times its size?

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1. seadan83 ◴[31 Aug 25 05:21 UTC] No.45080570[source]▶
When demand is reduced, you lower prices. Rest of the world suddenly are buyers. Governments can throw subsidies at impacted sectors too to cover the price difference while supply chains adjust. With growing trade relations, economies of scale and transition costs become factors. The cost of trade with the new trade relationships become cheaper and so does the reluctance to change (for example with a 3 year production pipeline baked, you don't walk away easily).