Just when I thought that Donald Trump could not get any dumber...

[Jehanne]

...he surprises me and takes stupidity to a new low:

Soybeans Are Fungible

When politicians violate domestic laws, they may or may not get away with it. When they violate the laws of economics, economics always wins. Case in point: soybeans. Every soybean looks pretty much like every other soybean. You really can't tell them apart. As a result of the trade war that Donald Trump started with China and the Chinese retaliatory tariffs, U.S. soybean exports to China have dropped 98%.

Fortunately, U.S. soybean farmers are creative, so they started selling a large volume of soybeans to Brazil and Argentina. However, these countries also produce a large volume of soybeans themselves. So what are they doing with their domestic soybeans? Selling them to China, naturally. The net result is that China ends up with as many soybeans as it wants anyway, but U.S. farmers get less money because the South Americans can't pay as much as the Chinese for the beans. The moral of the story is that tariffs often don't achieve the goal they were intended to produce (in this case, to hurt China) but end up damaging the country that started the trade war in the first place. (V)

Soybeans Are Fungible

[Amarok]

...he surprises me and takes stupidity to a new low:

Soybeans Are Fungible

When politicians violate domestic laws, they may or may not get away with it. When they violate the laws of economics, economics always wins. Case in point: soybeans. Every soybean looks pretty much like every other soybean. You really can't tell them apart. As a result of the trade war that Donald Trump started with China and the Chinese retaliatory tariffs, U.S. soybean exports to China have dropped 98%.

Fortunately, U.S. soybean farmers are creative, so they started selling a large volume of soybeans to Brazil and Argentina. However, these countries also produce a large volume of soybeans themselves. So what are they doing with their domestic soybeans? Selling them to China, naturally. The net result is that China ends up with as many soybeans as it wants anyway, but U.S. farmers get less money because the South Americans can't pay as much as the Chinese for the beans. The moral of the story is that tariffs often don't achieve the goal they were intended to produce (in this case, to hurt China) but end up damaging the country that started the trade war in the first place. (V)

Soybeans Are Fungible

Yup Trumps using an outdated playbook on trade

[downbeatplumb]

But trade wars are so easy to win.

[AFTT47]

I laughed at this. It clearly shows the problem of simplistic thinking though and Trump is as much a simpleton as they come.

[onlinebiker]

If you thought Trump couldfn get any dumber - that just says you lack imagination....


Take ANYTHING he does - add a red clown nose, and have his zipper down....


He just got dumber.....


How hard is that???

[Jehanne]

Another Ooops (emphasis mine):

General Motors Will Slash Jobs and Trump Is Not Happy

When Donald Trump signed the GOP tax bill and later started a trade war with China, he promised Americans that these actions would create jobs. Not all companies got the memo, apparently, as General Motors announced yesterday that it is closing plants in America and Canada and will lay off 14,000 workers. That wasn't in the script.

Donald Trump was not happy that GM's CEO, Mary Barra, was undercutting his plan to bring more jobs to America. He did help out though, by giving her some friendly advice: "They say the Chevy Cruze is not selling well. I say well, then, get a car that is selling well and put it back in." If Barra hadn't thought about focusing on cars that are selling well and dropping those that are not, now she knows what to do. Oh, wait. The plant closures Barra announced were the ones that made the cars that weren't selling well, including the Cruze, the Volt, and the Impala. So much for a businessman-president.

Part of the problem is the tariff on imported steel that Trump levied earlier this year. He did it to help the workers in the companies that make steel, but forgot completely about the much larger number of companies that use steel, like GM. Now that decision is coming back to bite him.

Republicans naturally attacked GM, rather than Trump's tariffs, as the problem. For example, Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) said he was "deeply frustrated with General Motors' decision." There may be more disappointment ahead because the closing of five assembly plants is going to have a big effect on the thousands of companies that make the parts the plants assemble, which is sure to lead to more layoffs in the Midwest. Many of the people laid off probably voted for Trump in 2016, since he claimed he was going to help them. They may be a bit more skeptical come 2020. (V)

General Motors Will Slash Jobs and Trump Is Not Happy

[onlinebiker]

Another Ooops (emphasis mine):

General Motors Will Slash Jobs and Trump Is Not Happy

When Donald Trump signed the GOP tax bill and later started a trade war with China, he promised Americans that these actions would create jobs. Not all companies got the memo, apparently, as General Motors announced yesterday that it is closing plants in America and Canada and will lay off 14,000 workers. That wasn't in the script.

Donald Trump was not happy that GM's CEO, Mary Barra, was undercutting his plan to bring more jobs to America. He did help out though, by giving her some friendly advice: "They say the Chevy Cruze is not selling well. I say well, then, get a car that is selling well and put it back in." If Barra hadn't thought about focusing on cars that are selling well and dropping those that are not, now she knows what to do. Oh, wait. The plant closures Barra announced were the ones that made the cars that weren't selling well, including the Cruze, the Volt, and the Impala. So much for a businessman-president.

Part of the problem is the tariff on imported steel that Trump levied earlier this year. He did it to help the workers in the companies that make steel, but forgot completely about the much larger number of companies that use steel, like GM. Now that decision is coming back to bite him.

Republicans naturally attacked GM, rather than Trump's tariffs, as the problem. For example, Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) said he was "deeply frustrated with General Motors' decision." There may be more disappointment ahead because the closing of five assembly plants is going to have a big effect on the thousands of companies that make the parts the plants assemble, which is sure to lead to more layoffs in the Midwest. Many of the people laid off probably voted for Trump in 2016, since he claimed he was going to help them. They may be a bit more skeptical come 2020. (V)

General Motors Will Slash Jobs and Trump Is Not Happy

Very simple solution that works in every country that' s done it before --

To increase the sale of lightweight, smaller, more fuel efficient cars ---


Increase the gas tax by about $3 a gallon.


GM would be wishing they hadn't shitcanned the Saturn brand..

[Jehanne]

I suspect that the majority of those 14K workers who will be losing their jobs voted for Trump.

[Divinity]

He can't get any dumber. It's just he's dumber than you already thought.

[Anomalocaris]

.....Just when I thought that Donald Trump could not get any dumber...

What possessed you to think that?

---

He can't get any dumber.  It's just he's dumber than you already thought.

Just because he can’t get dumber doesn’t mean he won’t get dumber. That is the genius of trump.