Our "booming" economy?

[thewayne]

The "boom" is from the implosion from the sudden vacuum.

The Port of Los Angeles, through which 45% of its volume is Chinese goods, is expecting a 35% reduction in volume starting NEXT WEEK.

Because of this, UPS is planning the layoff of TWENTY THOUSAND PEOPLE and the closure of 73 buildings.

Think about the downstream of the reduction of shipping containers from the port. Because of that, truckers are avoiding going to the port because they'll likely have to deadhead back (travel without a load). Without goods coming in, distribution warehouses are going to cut hours, sack people, and close facilities.

Then we get to the retailers. How many of your clothes are made in the USA? The last two pair of shoes that I bought were a pair of Tony Lama boots and MBT shoes. Made in China and Vietnam. Nigh unto 100% of my clothing comes from Asia. Walmart: I saw a figure that 70% of its non-grocery inventory is from China! In 3-4 weeks, those shelves are going to start having problems being restocked.

And that will be the upstream from that? Walmart truckers laid off, distribution centers closing and consolidating, buyers being surplus to requirements because there's nothing to buy. Now might be an interesting time to short Walmart stock if you're interested in such.

We lost several trucking companies during Covid, and several more have died since. This is likely to cause the failure of yet more. That will have a likely follow-through effect of damaging truck manufacturers. Why buy new trucks if so many surplus and serviceable trucks are going up for auction as these smaller trucking companies collapse? Sure, nice is new, but cheaper is... cheaper.

Amazon has been implementing a lot of robot picking in its warehouses for years now, I don't know how this will affect them. So much of their merchandise comes from China that there's no doubt that it will. The number of goods that they have on offer in the USA will plummet, and with that so will their sales. But they make huge profit off of their cloud services, I think Jeff will be able to get his next super yacht.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/29/port-of-los-angeles-sees-shipping-volume-down-35percent-next-week-as-tariffs-bite.html


Canada is probably going to be fine. They signed a 15 year oil deal with China at full price! Their oil sales to the USA was discounted, so more money for them to be made. They'll have to build some pipelines and upgrade some ports, but they'll recover all that pretty quickly. There's lots of countries willing to buy what Canada can produce. And they got the PM that they needed who actually understands how economies work. Compared to our idiots who think only one side can win in a trade deal.


Meanwhile, the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, while talking to the Economic Club of New York on Thursday said "Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream, the American Dream is rooted in the concept that any citizen can achieve prosperity, upward mobility, and economic security. For too long, the designers of multilateral trade deals have lost sight of this."

Nice words. Problem is that you and your administration buds are defining 'citizen' as just your own little coterie and screw everyone else. And now you're destroying so many jobs at so many levels that those people won't be able to be reabsorbed back into the work force, there aren't enough positions. And there are a number of farmers about to lose generations of family work who would like a word with you behind the barn, Scotty. They had security and reasonable prosperity until things like USAID were destroyed by your administration.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/06/treasury-secretary-bessent-says-the-american-dream-is-not-about-access-to-cheap-goods.html

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has a vision of generations of American families working in factories, apparently said vision is making microchips and such. This type of work, for a lot of workers, is actually kind of low-skilled - it can be trained on the job - and doesn't pay well, $11-16 an hour. It takes about $22 minimum to support a family. Generations of, what is effectively, slave labor. Maybe said factories will start stores where their workers can buy everything they need, in convenient company scrip that they'll be paid in.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-poverty-trade-war-economy_n_6814ee26e4b08575d39c9a8a


Of course these two rectal haberdashers won't be hurting or working on an IC assembly line.

Howard Lutnick: In 2018, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated his net worth to be US$1.5 billion. In 2018.

Scott Bessenet, according to Wikipedia, "As of December 28, 2024, Bessent's net worth was at least $521 million, according to his financial assets disclosure by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, although his actual net worth is speculated to be much higher."

Comments

[richardf8]

"Generations of, what is effectively, slave labor."

That's MAGA. It's always been MAGA.

[thewayne]

Indeed so.

[moonhare]

My Justin boots were made in the USA, but with ‘global parts.’

My ceaseless rhetoric has been “blame the US companies for outsourcing to begin with.” I know that’s a simple line, but they found a cheap and acceptable alternative to making goods in this country.

“rectal haberdashers” is a great term!

[thewayne]

The government encouraged them to build overseas factories, and that began the flight of capital from the USA.  It's never coming back.  The cost of labor and the expectations of jobs by the American public don't match what the current administration think.

[moonhare]

“ The government encouraged them to build overseas factories…”

This I never heard of. When did that begin?

[thewayne]

This 2015 article is a good source:
https://theweek.com/articles/486362/where-americas-jobs-went

Especially this quote about then GE CEO Jack Welsh: "The trend began in earnest in the late 1970s at large manufacturers such as General Electric. GE’s then CEO, Jack Welch, who was widely respected by other corporate chieftains, argued that public corporations owe their primary allegiance to stockholders, not employees. Therefore, Welch said, companies should seek to lower costs and maximize profits by moving operations wherever is cheapest. “Ideally,” Welch said, “you’d have every plant you own on a barge to move with currencies and changes in the economy.”

This 2004 page from the AFL/CIO is also informative:
https://aflcio.org/about/leadership/statements/outsourcing-america

Basically the Golden Rule showing that the government has been beholden to those with the money for a very long time.

[moonhare]

Ok, Bush is taking a hit for this by the AFL-CIO; all in all it is still the bottom line that drove the exodus. I hate to sound like I agree with the current administration’s tariffs, but as the US needs to revitalize its industry these would help: only after we actually had some semblance of a plan to do so! Six gun Donny just fires off directives without any regard, or understanding , as to how to implement them.

Capitalism… go figure.

[thewayne]

Plans?  PLANS?  We don' need no steenkin' plans!

[ndrosen]

Tariffs would not be likely to be effective, even if designed by someone much more intelligent and capable than Don the Con. I recommend reading Henry George’s Protection or Free Trade, written more than a hundred and forty years ago, and still fresh and relevant.

[moonhare]

Thank you for the info :o)

[disneydream06]

Sounds like the disaster is just barely getting started. :o :o :o
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

Yep, that's the size of it.  It's going to start accelerating through May and the reality will begin hitting home towards the end of the month, especially for those who do all their shopping at Walmart.

[disneydream06]

It's been years since I stepped into a Wally.

[warriorsavant]

I think it's called the Trans Mountain Pipeline. Recently opened to ship Alberta Oil to west coast (i.e. British Colombia) ports. Not quite running a full capacity, but seems likely to be in really near future.

[thewayne]

Wouldn't surprise me if they lay a parallel pipe right next to the existing one.

[white_aster]

"Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream, the American Dream is rooted in the concept that any citizen can achieve prosperity, upward mobility, and economic security."

..................???? Do they think that people being "prosperous" and "upwardly mobile" and economically "secure" is....NOT linked to the cost of goods? ??? These people are idiots. But then, when your litmus test is "loyalty", a lot of things (such as "competence") fall by the wayside....

I have a friend who is very much trying to purchase everything she can think of now now now. Like...prepper level of 'HOSHIT THE TARIFFS ARE COMING'. I sympathize, because she's not wrong. I myself have tried to stock up on what I can, but A) I have limited space and B) now I'm looking at being unemployed in about a month, so buying much of ANYTHING is at the bottom of the list.

[thewayne]

Exactly.  It would be nice to be a prepper, but not having storage space and other factors can make such very difficult to do.

[silveradept]

Prosperity for them and penury for us has always been their plan, and they're trying rather hard to make it so that we're all serfs to their corporations rather than independent peoples or people who have inalienable democratic rights and protections from corporate pillage and destruction. Certainly easier to control a population when they have to depend on a corporation for their entire livelihood.

[thewayne]

That does seem to be the ultimate game plan.