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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: 0.001s | 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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refurb ◴[31 Aug 25 00:34 UTC] No.45079283[source]▶
It’s statements like these that remind me to not take social media so seriously.

China does not have “very high grow momentum”, in fact growth has been seriously slowing since Covid

I’m not sure sure what “growth momentum” is what it has to do with living standards.

China’s PPP is not more comfortable than the US because it’s still 1/4th that of the US.

China has very serious growth problems, a massive debt overhang from real estate (that is still slowing the economy), a supply planning model that is leaving it with an oversupply of things like cars and batteries.

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9dev ◴[31 Aug 25 06:41 UTC] No.45080904[source]▶
Well, at least Trump is working hard on implementing an American supply planning model as well, so the damn Chinese won’t be leading on oversupply much longer!
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1. simonh ◴[31 Aug 25 17:14 UTC] No.45084909[source]▶
By making the imports needed for domestic production and infrastructure development more expensive through tariffs, before there are domestic alternatives available, and expelling large swathes of the labour force necessary for such construction, no he really isn’t.

It would be possible to develop domestic supply capacity, starting with the inputs necessary to feed that development, and then nurture and encourage the process with a targeted ramp up of tariffs. That’s not happening though, instead domestic investment is collapsing.