this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2025
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Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that the administration's decision Friday night to exempt a range of electronic devices from tariffs implemented earlier this month was only a temporary reprieve, with the secretary announcing that those items would be subject to "semiconductor tariffs" that will likely come in "a month or two."

"All those products are going to come under semiconductors, and they're going to have a special focus type of tariff to make sure that those products get reshored. We need to have semiconductors, we need to have chips, and we need to have flat panels -- we need to have these things made in America. We can't be reliant on Southeast Asia for all of the things that operate for us," Lutnick told "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl.

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[–] barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 18 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I caught that the instant he said it. So they are planning another round of Market Manipulation in a month or two, got it.

We've already had 3 rounds, in less than 90 days. It seemed like his 90 day pause on this last round was a bit longer because he wanted to let it cool down, but I knew he wouldn't be able to resist the lure of dirty money at the expense of the poors.

I'm happy for the heads up. Unfortunately, I dont have the kind of money required to take full advantage of this, but at least Ill know to hang on.

[–] frog_brawler@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

I hate to say it, but Musk was right; this guy is a moron.

[–] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 143 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This makes sense. Give the companies like Apple and nvidia time to set up some local factories. How long could it take to acquire land, set up a chip foundry, and train up staff? 90 days?

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 50 points 1 day ago

90 days and 10 dollars.

[–] krebssteven@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

that's a matter of years, at best. Lutnick is just lying to appease the MAGA base.

I think you flll for sarcasm.

[–] Buelldozer@lemmy.today 82 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

These people are all fucking idiots. No business can plan anything when costs are whipsawing and our trading partners are already tired of reacting to these near daily changes.

I just don't have language strong enough to convey my utter exasperation and the depth of my contempt for these people.

[–] Coreidan@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

They all work for Putin. What you see is by design.

We lost the Cold War.

[–] GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 day ago

They don't even have a Steve Mnuchin type character this time who at least has a clue about how things work. This time Trump surrounded himself with all of the dumbest and most loyal kool-aid drinkers.

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago

They definitely have to stop announcing tariffs effective in next few hours. Maybe a 2 year effective date announcement allows "progress" in US reindustrialization with CHIPS act type subsidies.

[–] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I mean probably? No one knows what this fat, dementia and cocaine addled geriatric will do after all. Might be a month, might be next Thursday.

[–] cocolowlander@feddit.nl 72 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (19 children)

Thank you American voters, who voted for Trump or sat out because the opposition wasn't "good" enough.

Sincerely,

European resident

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[–] fox2263@lemmy.world 42 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Just like the tariffs would not be paused. Cannot trust a thing that comes out of their mouths. Even if they think it is the truth and the current plan, the plan can change on the whim of agent orange.

[–] ZeroCool@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yep. Trump's going to contradict this statement within 24hrs, guaranteed.

[–] CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You're correct, he just announced that there is no pause on electronic device tariffs.

[–] ZeroCool@lemmy.ca 2 points 21 hours ago

Lmao of fucking course... God damn do I hate this timeline.

[–] Binturong@lemmy.ca 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's frankly embarrassing that I don't see more people pointing out that his name very easily becomes NutLick.

[–] gibmiser@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Lol. Now this is the content I'm here for.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I still don't get the point of tariffs. Here's a Reason TV interview w/ Danial Hannan, a Conservative politician in the UK (bias: Reason TV is a "libertarian" publication), and he says there are three arguments the Trump administration is making in favor of tariffs:

  1. They bring in revenue and can reduce income tax
  2. Bringing jobs back to America
  3. Negotiating tactic

The interviewee argues all three are wrong, and argues that they're incompatible:

  • if they're bringing in revenue, then they're not bringing in jobs because the imports are still coming in
  • if they're bring back jobs, they're not bringing in much revenue, because local products don't pay the tariffs
  • if they're a negotiating tool they're doing neither of the other two

Here are some other fun arguments:

Show me a country that wholly relies on manufacturing and I will show you a poor, developing country. You move from agriculture, then to manufacturing, then to services. And with each of those moves, you get richer, you work shorter hours, and you live better.

So why would we want to move manufacturing here? It's just going to shift jobs away from services to manufacturing, which would be a net reduction in total value.

The better solution is to train the workforce to develop services, which are more lucrative. There's an argument that we need some amount of local production for national security reasons (i.e. if supply lines get disrupted, we need some minimum level of production capacity in wartime), but we don't need to make everything.

[–] SaltSong@startrek.website 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Most of us are not getting richer, nor working shorter hours, nor living better than our parents. We're past "services" and on into "parasites."

In principal, tariffs can prop up domestic industry that is having trouble competing with cheaper imported products. In practice, this winds up being really complicated, because the world is a lot more interdependent than it was 80 years ago.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Is that actually true though? You have access to technology that was science fiction when your parents were kids, and at least in the US (I don't know where you live), median inflation adjusted earnings are higher than they were 45 years ago.

Statistics obviously don't matter to individuals at the fringes, but they are helpful in understanding trends. Maybe you are worse off than your parents were at your age, idk, but the statistics show that more people are better off than worse off (that's what medians show).

tariffs can prop up domestic industry

In theory, yes. In practice, it's a lot more complicated. There's good evidence that Hoover's tariffs, which were intended to revitalize American industry, turned a recession into a depression.

Tariffs make things more expensive, which means people buy less. If people buy less, companies produce less, which means they need fewer employees. This can become a terrible cycle where demand craters, jobs vanish, and inflation skyrockets. Tariffs can maybe work if targeting a specific industry, broad tariffs just make everything more expensive.

Economists tend to prefer stimulating the economy with lower borrowing rates, which reduces the cost to expand business, which can lead to more employment, which can lead to more money circulation, etc. It can also lead to more inflation, since there's more dollars chasing the same number of goods, so it needs to be used with care (i.e. only when production/employment is lagging).

I personally think that, largely speaking, if imports are cheaper than local production, that's a good thing! You're getting more value for your money, so people can live a better life with the same amount of money. Since local production is no longer valuable, people can take more lucrative jobs, like services. Cheaper imports should be embraced, not tariffed, and people should be trained properly to qualify for those better jobs.

Look at the top 10 exports:

  1. Mineral fuels including oil: US$320.1 billion (15.5% of total exports)
  2. Machinery including computers: $252.4 billion (12.2%)
  3. Electrical machinery, equipment: $213.9 billion (10.4%)
  4. Vehicles: $143.8 billion (7%)
  5. Aircraft, spacecraft: $134.2 billion (6.5%)
  6. Optical, technical, medical apparatus: $106.3 billion (5.1%)
  7. Pharmaceuticals: $94.4 billion (4.6%)
  8. Plastics, plastic articles: $80.1 billion (3.9%)
  9. Gems, precious metals: $73.8 billion (3.6%)
  10. Organic chemicals: $51.9 billion (2.5%)

Those require a lot of expertise to produce, and they're largely complex, finished goods. That means there's a lot of non-factory type work that goes into them, unlike iPhones and plastic crap, which are mostly labor (the technical bits are already largely designed by Americans).

We should be looking to outsource more (anything we can't automate), not less, and use the savings to improve education. If you want better jobs, more access to advanced tech, and generally a better life, this is how you get it.

[–] SaltSong@startrek.website 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I have nifty tech, yes, but I also have vaccination deniers, Nazis, and my fourth "once in a lifetime" economic crises. I'm never going to buy a house. I'm never going to retire. I'll probably never even pay off my student loans.

I personally think that, largely speaking, if imports are cheaper than local production, that’s a good thing!

I'm hardly an economist, right? But I agree with you, broadly speaking. But first covid, and now Trump round two is showing is the weakness of global integration. As long as everything goes smoothly, it's jam for everyone. But let something screw up the logistics, or someone duck up the balance of trade, and everything can go to shit really fast. There are lots of things we can't make here, but we rely on them. That is less than ideal.

I don't know that tariffs are the way to address that issue, or even if it needs to be addressed at all. O do know that the way Trump is doing it is all wrong.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

One of my sons is an accelerationist, and his argument has been that Trump is a piece of shit, but in the course of exploiting it for his own gain, he has ripped the mask off a lot of evil that's already in the system. So now we know that we'll have to undo all of Trump's damage, but also that we can't just return to status quo ante.

My view is that this is a problem statement, not a proposed solution. And it is clear that, consistent with the law of entropy, the clean-up process always takes more energy than making the mess did.

[–] SaltSong@startrek.website 1 points 1 day ago

Agreed. With the added bonus that we have too live in the system while we burn it down. I'm not a huge fan of the idea, but then, I'm a maintainer by nature.

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[–] TwinTitans@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago (3 children)

This guy doesn’t even know what semiconductors are.

[–] CobraChicken3000@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Nutlick is not a smart man

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago

Probably thinks conductor like for a symphony driving a semi truck

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[–] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

These power tripping motherfuckers get off on purposefully stepping on rakes.

[–] Joncash2@lemmy.ml 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I wish it was that. No, this is actual evil, not incompetence. Trump has turned the US economy into the largest pump and dump scheme ever. Worse, he's bragging about how his friends made billions. I can't even believe this is happening. I'm in utter shock. I knew Trump would be bad, but straight up flaunting corruption like it's a joke and even bringing the SCOTUS on board with this. I'm just gob smacked.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

No, this is actual evil, not incompetence.

It's both. You may have heard of the dictatorship of the proletariat. This is the dictatorship of the subnormal bullies.

[–] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I get it, I really do. It is malevolent, but I also think they have the stupidity to think that it will work. It won't. They are dumb, power-vaccuming, racketeering, embezzling white supremacists who think they really are rebuilding manufacturing in the US.

[–] Joncash2@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Your right. It could be both. I mean, my wife said to me the other day that she heard Trump was doing the tariffs to lower the bond interest rates. I said while in some types of recessions that's true, that wouldn't work in this case and you'd have to be an idiot to think it would. Sure enough the next day Trump puts a stay on tariffs to most of the world because the bond market got rocked. All I could think of is omg, are they really that fucking stupid?

[–] phdepressed@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 day ago

Tbf the bond market getting rocked was in large part due to Canada, Europe, and Japan doing coordinated but relatively minor sales of the bonds they hold as part of the tariff response. Carney probably understands global finances more than any other world leader for getting that done the way he did.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Howard, you ignorant slut.

[–] eric5949@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Yay more chaos.

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Trump and Lutnick will be turning the American economy into a Lootbox/Skinner Box economy... let the FOMO purchasing flow through you, buy buy buy before the tariffs go on again!

[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

C'mon Gina! Give us germanium!

[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 3 points 1 day ago

Usa continues to sail away from all the rest of the world.

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