On Monday, April 19, 2021 at 1:58:46 PM UTC-4, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Mon, 19 Apr 2021 14:24:51 +0100, Bod
wrote:

On 19/04/2021 14:04, trader_4 wrote:
Lumber has skyrocketed over the last two years, most common lumber
doubling, or tripling in price. Among the reasons? Trump's tariffs on
Canada substantially reduced Canadian imports, while raising prices.
I hope the Trumpets are happy.

Yup, here's more info:

'Fed study finds Trump tariffs backfired'

https://www.marke****ch.com/story/fe...red-2019-12-27
The use of "backfire" in this headline makes the implicit assumption
that the goal of the tariffs was to make life better for a large number
of Americans.

People of all types, reporters, columnists, pundits, politicians,
"average Americans", and foreigners make this mistake all the time. The
people I just listed here still don't recognize that trump is a
sociopath or they don't understand all that that means. They think it
means someone who spits on the sidewalk or is rude. They don't imagine
someone who conjures up imaginative ways to hurt as many people as
possible.

In fact, the goal of the tariffs was to make life worse for all but
those selling lumber from USA sources, and it did that. The tariffs
were a success.

But don't imagine that the main goal was increased profit for American
lumber suppliers. That was a side benefit**. The main goal was to make
housing unaffordable for poor people, for the lower middle class, and to
force the middle class into smaller houses.

As much as I despise Trump, even I think the above is nuts. Trump himself
doesn't benefit by screwing the middle class, forcing them into smaller
houses? WTF?




Do you find it hard to believe that this would be the *main* goal?

Yes, because it makes no sense. I think Trump did his tariffs because he
figured he was going to help all American workers, help our economy,
that we've had unfair competition from foreign countries for too long.
The problem is he directed that everywhere, not where it belonged, eg China.
And instead of having a coordinated strategy with our allies against China,
Trump attacked them, levied tariffs on them too. He's stupid, he doesn't
understand economics or trade, but there is no evidence he did it to screw
American workers. And mostly he didn't screw them, we reached record
low unemployment, real income increased substantially and taxes were
lowered. Some in certain industries hurt by tariffs did get screwed.