• EndOfLine@lemm.ee
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    19 days ago

    I am starting to think about that Trump just learned what a tariff is during this election cycle. Still has no idea how they work, what their purpose is, when they should be used, nor how they impact local and global economies but, gosh darn it, if he isn’t excited to show off his new knowledge.

    Maybe if they have him write out the word “TARRIF” on a piece of paper and put that paper on the white house fridge, he can be proud of it everyday and be able to move on to his next vocabulary word.

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    19 days ago

    It’s like he’s trying to kill the US dollar. Nobody who was actually trying to protect our currency would be making these moves.

    It’s not a shocker why all the cryptobros are behind him either, because that’s their goal, too.

    But I mean god damn it is really hard to exaggerate how stupid and easily manipulated Trump is.

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      18 days ago

      No “like”, he is. Russia and China want to devalue the dollar and replace it as the world currency.

      Obviously Russia is unlikely to achieve that, but I’m sure China encourages the use of RMB in their global operations, like in their belt and road projects.

      • David J. Shourabi Porcel@lemmy.world
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        17 days ago

        Russia benefits from a stronger US dollar insofar as its oil and gas exports are settled in that currency. The more valuable the US dollar is (as measured against the ruble), the more rubles Russia’s exports end up yielding — or the better they compete with other producers in international markets.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    18 days ago

    So trump is going to start a trade war with the entire world now?

    What is the next word after “great” when talking about economic depressions?

  • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
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    18 days ago

    The bizarre Republican project of burning America to the ground, because they love it so gosh darn much, continues apace.

    • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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      17 days ago

      For those with enough wealth, it’s a win-win. Either the dollar stays strong and you continue to trade assets/stocks/bonds accordingly, or it craters and you invest in cost-competitive labor on par with India and China.

      In the latter case, while foreign goods are priced out of reach, a booming manufacturing sector will come in and “save the day” in states with poor worker protections/rights. The real magic trick is making sure you (the 1%) are in the room when the decisions are made to hold or fold before the general public knows anything about it.

  • acargitz@lemmy.ca
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    18 days ago

    If a trading bloc abandons the USD, that means they are less interested in trading with the US. Slapping a tariff in them means that they will be even less interested.

    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      17 days ago

      If a trading bloc abandons the USD, that means they are less interested in trading with the US.

      Not really. It could mean that they just want a just and fair trading system not ruled by a monopoly on green paper with slavers on it.

      • acargitz@lemmy.ca
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        16 days ago

        Are you seriously saying that the capitalists from BRICS countries are interested in justice, fairness, and cancelling slave owners as opposed to their own economic self interest while jostling for position with western capitalists about who should be higher in the pecking order of exploiting the global working class? Because if you’re serious about that, I would love to trade you some magic beans for your cow.

  • AmidFuror@fedia.io
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    19 days ago

    Why do I get the feeling Trump doesn’t know that tariffs can go higher than 100%? Nobody tell him.

    • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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      19 days ago

      I think in his head, 100% tariffs mean that other countries give the USA goods for free, or something like that.

    • carpelbridgesyndrome@sh.itjust.works
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      18 days ago

      No he’s thrown 2000% tariffs around at least once in the last few months. Fortunately for all involved he seems to have stopped doing that and switched to something a tiny bit less stupid.

  • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
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    18 days ago

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the world needs a neutral reserve currency, not one issued and controlled by whatever country happens to be the dominant superpower.

    • LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      18 days ago

      I feel like this doesn’t solve much of the things you think it would.

      Also, capitalists will never agree to this. They like having their own currencies cause they can manipulate them.

      • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
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        18 days ago

        …capitalists will never agree to this.

        I think this is the only way the capitalists can make their global, free market work. If the capitalists were smart, they’d want a neutral, global reserve currency. But, since most capitalists aren’t smart, it will probably never happen.

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      18 days ago

      Who would issue it? What would it be backed by? Gold is globally valued due to its material value, but good luck getting your local coffee place to take it.

      • boonhet@lemm.ee
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        18 days ago

        Congratulations, you’ve stumbled upon the one place where cryptobros would have a point if they weren’t mostly trying to make their “currencies” be investments rather than actual currencies.

      • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
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        18 days ago

        It would have to be issued by some world central bank.

        Money doesn’t need to be backed by anything, necessarily. Or, I guess you could say money is “backed” by all the goods and services available to purchase.

        • RinseDrizzle@midwest.social
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          18 days ago

          Not trying to be a prick; here for discussion. Wherrrree do we actually put central bank? I guess that maybe matters less than staffing the thing?? Obviously not an easy thing to do overnight but man we’d need to have like, serious cooperation and transparency to do that proper. Maybe not impossible though!

          • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
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            18 days ago

            We’d want it to be in a neutral place, if at all possible. Perhaps a country would be willing to donate a small portion of their territory so an independent jurisdiction could be formed, not unlike Washington D.C.

        • catloaf@lemm.ee
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          18 days ago

          For anything more than basic bartering, i.e. credit, it needs to be backed by an assurance that the fiat currency will be managed properly. Your basic loan is predicated on the trust that when you borrow $1000, the US won’t go and print another $1000 for shits and giggles and halve the value of what you get repaid. (I’m ignoring interest for simplicity here.)

          For example, let’s say a car costs $30,000. I borrow that on a three year loan. But after one year, a maniac takes charge of the federal reserve and starts printing money. Now, since the value of the dollar has dropped, the same car costs $90k, but I’m still buying it at the original price. (Remember, the bank owns the car until I pay off the loan.)

          For a real-world example, look at any hyperinflation scenario. When the unit value of a currency drops that fast, nobody wants to trade in that currency, because they would lose buying power.

          This is why a currency has to be backed by a trustworthy body. Cryptocurrency is great, but if the operators have no consequences for manipulating it, then it’ll never replace traditional government-backed currency.

          • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
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            18 days ago

            …it needs to be backed by an assurance that the fiat currency will be managed properly.

            That’s the point of having a global central bank. They would manage it, and we would want to ensure that all appropriate mechanisms for oversight and accountability were in place. Transparency would also be of high importance.

            Edit: I should point out that this is already somewhat in place. The US dollar, a fiat currency, is currently the world reserve currency, and it’s managed by the US federal reserve central bank. The problem is, the US federal reserve is the US central bank and it is not neutral, nor is it accountable to the rest of the world.

          • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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            17 days ago

            A hypothetical neutral reserve currency would be a fiat-style monetary system. It would also require some kind of central bank and governance over it. It’s not impossible to achieve, but the politics around such a thing would be impressive to behold.

            Also, I doubt the US would embrace either before seeing the dollar crash. It would take too much power away from the Federal Reserve, and by extension, global leverage.

            • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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              17 days ago

              The reason for fiat was to take the power of setting global monetary policy from people who had gold mines and give it to people who had big economies. At that time, it was the US because they didn’t fight WWII on their own soil, which was unique at the time.

              Realistically, if the dollar crashes, it is in nobody’s interest to go to anything than the next biggest currency, likely the Euro. Except for the US of course, but what are they going to do about it? Start wars?

              They will definitely do that.

      • GHiLA@sh.itjust.works
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        18 days ago

        Get with the times. Blackrock owns most of it.

        Crypto can be controlled by the whales that own the majority.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        18 days ago

        Switching to a “currency” that has never been stable and has a huge volatility problem? Sorry, I want that gallon of milk I bought in the supermarket to be roughly the same price when I need more next week than when I got it this week.

        It’s very telling that most advocates of Bitcoin are very happy to volunteer how much money they’ve made investing in it. That’s not how currency is supposed to work.

        • WildPalmTree@lemmy.world
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          18 days ago

          To be fair, it is only volatile because you view it from the perspective of something you feel is stable (perhaps USD). If you instead viewed other currencies from the view of, let’s say, bitcoin then the other currencies would be fluctuating wildly. It’s a bit like Alabama and time: it’s all relative.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            18 days ago

            I’m viewing it from the perspective of a regular consumer. That’s really all that matters to most people. That if milk costs about $3 last week, it will cost around the same amount this week. Changes will come, but come slowly.

        • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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          18 days ago

          I’ve seen USD go up and down 30% compared to other “stable currencies”. Stability of BTC would come from adoption from a larger number of people, after the initial price spike caused by increasing demand.

          I bought some in 2023 for 30k and sold it for 60k over a year later. Right now it’s worth 100k. I don’t think people should by at this high a price range, it’ll probably be much more affordable in a year and spike again later before and after the halvening.

          At some point it’ll be too big to pump or dump, and doing so is already highly illegal in many countries. There’s basically no risk of a person buying in and having it decline to never recover.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            18 days ago

            Yes, the dollar is, as all currencies are incredibly volatile in times of crisis. No shit.

            Bitcoin has, as I said, never been stable. It’s not even designed to be stable. Week over week, in general economic times, the dollar has the same value. You simply cannot say the same about Bitcoin. Again, this is why most advocates of Bitcoin are happy to volunteer how much money they’ve made investing in it.

            Unless you are a high-end currencies trader, people generally don’t talk about how much richer they are in Euros this week than they were last week. Because that’s not how currencies are supposed to work.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                18 days ago

                Cool meme and all, but the fact that you yourself are talking about when someone should or shouldn’t invest in bitcoin just proves my point. That’s the opposite of stability. People don’t regularly move their savings from dollars to euros and back depending on which is worth more.

                Good for you for getting rich on your investment opportunity though. I’m sure that’s very nice for you.

                • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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                  18 days ago

                  You couldn’t find the point if it was layed out cleanly before you, as I clearly explained it is not currently what it very easily could become, and also that it is virtually no long term risk even in its current state.

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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    19 days ago

    This either means the US economy will suffer … or America will fight back violently to force others to follow their rules

    Either way, someone, or everyone is going to suffer

  • Spacehooks@reddthat.com
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    18 days ago

    Guys don’t you see how much the economy will grow?

    If it drops 50% it will be a 100% growth once it’s back where it was. That’s like stable genius!

    /s

  • Skyrmir@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    BRICS, Canada and Mexico should be making a trade treaty right now, before Trump even takes office.

      • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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        19 days ago

        I don’t know if you noticed, but the B stands for Brazil and those 2 countries aren’t exactly buddy-buddy. Treaties are more than their constituent members.

        • Vikthor@lemmy.world
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          18 days ago

          But I am European, anything that breaches sanctions against putins russia isn’t good for me either.

          • Skyrmir@lemmy.world
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            17 days ago

            Russia wouldn’t really matter in the equation. China, Brazil, Mexico, Canada would be the main players. They don’t like each other, and have some serious diplomatic issues of their own, but could easily agree to stand together in self interest. Pulling in any other major US trading partners would also help all of them.