Aprés Tariff, anyone?

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  • December 10, 2024 at 7:15 pm #153817
    Mackeyser
    Moderator

    I’m an Econ geek and wondered if anyone wanted to discuss tariffs.

    There’s a lot of mis- and missing information out there as well as context, both historical and current.

    Sports is the crucible of human virtue. The distillate remains are human vice.

    December 11, 2024 at 12:17 am #153820
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

    I know nothing about tariffs.

    So just post merrily away on the topic.

    December 11, 2024 at 1:52 pm #153835
    Avatar photoZooey
    Moderator

    I know even less than zn does.

    December 11, 2024 at 8:10 pm #153843
    Avatar photojoemad
    Participant

    dozens of years ago i wrote a college paper on how import tariffs helped Harley Davidson recapture US market share in the late 80’s and beyond.

    Quick summary

    Harley Davidson; started by 2 brothers by mounting a combustible engine to a bicycle with beefy suspension in the early 1900s
    HD got big quick contracts with US Army to use these motorized bikes in combat during WWI and WWII.

    Harley Davidson bikes gained popularity in 20s and 30’s for bootleggers.

    Harley Davidson evolves in 50 and 60’s to become premier bike in the US for both image and quality.

    in the late 60’s or early 70’s Harley Davidson family sells company to AMF… (AMF, the sporting goods company that made shitty volleyballs, basketballs that were mainly used in school playgrounds and sold through retailers) This was the bike that Kelly Leak rode in the Bad News Bears in 1976…., ….. Harley Brand goes to shit under AMF

    Meanwhile, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, made reliable dirt bikes and transitioned them to very cool looking fast bikes in the late 70s and 80s through today….. (i owned a Yamaha YZ 600, it was fast and handled like a dream) for about $1500 to 2,000 bucks. …the Tom Cruise bike in Top Gun)

    Harley Davidson family buys the brand back from AMF in the late 70’s to early 80’s but can’t compete with these superior Japanese imports.

    Harley Davidsons asks the US gov’t for a protection tax on these Japanese imported bikes… and overnight, these Japanese imports double in price. This bought Harley time to retool and reimage their bikes to everyone, from yuppies, the bikers, to the casual rider and more importantly to compete on price. …and the rest is history for HD.

    in addition, I’ve been managing global pricing offerings for the past 20+ years to support hi-tech business. Transactions on cross border business have related import fees, freight, import duty, import taxes to ship products between “County A to Country B” based on commodity type. These actual incurred fees are passed on to the end use customer.

    Mac, is this true and correct?

    April 4, 2025 at 5:47 pm #155778
    Avatar photojoemad
    Participant

    Did my Harley Davidson example throw a wet blanket on this thread?

    I think it’s timely for an import duty discussion.

    The Harley Davidson example was specific to a US scope of products, industry, and company that had plans in place to address the trade imbalance with the Japanese imported sport bikes. e.g., Harley’s US business was not sustainable in the early 1980’s without the help of increasing import duty on Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki et al…….

    Trump is shot gunning import duty on everyone and everything outside the US with no real plan on what alternative sources to source or build US versions of these impacted imports. … .. .

    the question is why is he placing an import tax on everything?

    April 5, 2025 at 12:15 pm #155782
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Thought this lady had an interesting take on the subject

    April 5, 2025 at 1:33 pm #155783
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    April 5, 2025 at 6:09 pm #155784
    Avatar photocanadaram
    Participant
    @stateman009

    s Trump right about Canada charging 250% tariffs? | #traff #fyp #tiktok #news #tranding

    ♬ original sound – ZAHIR

    • This reply was modified 11 months ago by Avatar photocanadaram.
    • This reply was modified 11 months ago by Avatar photozn.
    May 22, 2025 at 2:08 am #156516
    Mackeyser
    Moderator

    Not at all. Life just got busy.

    Tariffs can play an important role and were crucial in combatting some of China’s market manipulation where the state would subsidize cost and effectively pull a Walmart and lower the price so low, no one can compete and once they’ve bought out or destroyed the competition, then extract monopoly rents.

    Harley Davidson is another example, for sure. Lord, those AMF Harley’s were pieces of shit.

    Tariffs aren’t inherently bad, but the current take of their use in a truly global economy where we don’t even have a true definition of what constitutes “Made in America” is using a wrecking ball on a house to fix a roof tile.

    Sports is the crucible of human virtue. The distillate remains are human vice.

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