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Texas isn't Florida and over the last 12 months we as a state who faired better then most because of the recession are doing better. Housing was flat, wages were flat and a lot of the people in the oil patch were out of work. We have a lot of new home construction, and increase in wages and people are going back to work in the energy sector.
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To Error Is Human To Forgive Is Not SAC Policy -
Been going on for decades that I know of. Back when the American auto industry was hot people would work in the Detroit area at Ford, GM, Chrysler and AMC. When they retired they came down South not only to Florida but all the SE states particularly the coastal areas. Just a few years ago it seemed like every 3rd car or so had a Michigan tag on it. Some were tourist of course but many stayed here after retirement. They had money but they weren't wealthy. They just wanted a better life than s**thole Detroit.Comment
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The economy is doing fine so why does Trump take a steaming dump on our former friend and neighbor to the north? With whom we run a trade surplus. Anyone got a justifiable answer for that? Who among you who have run businesses or done deals would do it the way Trump does? And who among you think you'd go back to Trump to buy a second truck? Sorry, the guy is seriously f*cked up on the inside no matter how hard you want to pretend it ain't so. Love his show, love the ride, but love the Charlie Foxtrot when it gets here too because make no mistake it is coming.Last edited by togor; 06-10-2018, 07:28.Comment
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Looks like the River Denial has emptied the barge of "our" three weary travels onto the stormy River Styx.
SamComment
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Actually Dobek some of what you are saying has some merit in that it "was" more affordable here than other parts. However claiming all the boom to be due to Trump is no different to blaming Obama for the past recession.... and it was a real recession.
The shoe was on the other foot when here in SW Florida at the end of Bush's period when thousands of homes were being foreclosed. No one seemed to be escaping other parts to come here then and we were laying off firemen and emts . Like him or not, Obama didn't do that ..... any more than Trump has created all of this ...
p.s. this is where Sam Boggs will now interject with a childlike illegal immigrant line.....Comment
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Styx!!
Great 70's band!! Saturdays in the Milwaukee County Park system, guys with big car stereos and tracks like this coming out of their tape decks:
S&M? No way. These guys liked to party no chance they were into any of that 'Deliverance' backwoods stuff. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but for me the scent of spilled beer and stale smoke from tobacco and "not tobacco" is a festive smell!
Another track from that same '75 album, Equinox. After the intro, the lyrics kinda speak to the Trump era a little bit, even though this is right after Vietnam.Last edited by togor; 06-11-2018, 09:10.Comment
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Before answering I would point out that Canada purchases more in goods and services from the USA than the USA purchases from Canada. I understand that we sell more goods to the USA and buy more services but when taken together, the USA comes out ahead. When it comes to the proposed tariff on steel, I am somewhat perplexed since this is one area where we sell less steel to the USA than we buy. Given that an almost automatic counter tariff would happen, it seems that the USA will lose out so I don't understand why Mr Trump would select this commodity to start a trade fight over. The other thing that leaves me totally perplexed is why he would start a trade war with the EU and ourselves when the real problem is with China. There may be some strategic vision that I can't understand but being simple minded I would have expected him to take on his real trade enemy and not his friends.
As for his word being taken seriously, the answer is that his trading partners have to take it seriously. The power that he has is so great that nobody can take the risk that he is just BSing as part of a negotiating strategy. They have to do this even if he has developed an unfortunate reputation for not telling the truth because even if he makes things up sometimes, he does not do so always. You just can't take the risk that he is bluffingComment
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I agree, there must be more going on than we know about. China and Mexico are the main ones to go after. There's no mention about Japan--they used to be the biggest offenders on trade. All I hear about now with the summit over is that Trudeau pissed Trump off after everything was apparently agreed upon. Trade balance may include more than just = goods or = $. In other words are we buying items we don't need or want? An example would be selling Japan steel , plastics and wood just to buy it back in the form of Toyota's and furniture. All we have done there is bypassed U.S. labor. We make those items here. Then there is the issues on how to handle U.S. plants on foreign soil and foreign owned plants here in America--are those to be considered imports or exports?Comment
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Mark--
Trump has no friends. Only people who have some degree of leverage over him. Be they tabloid publishers or foreign rulers who can squeeze his base through trade policies of their own, or heads of state whose intelligence agencies have certain materials on file. It's a sign of decency in person that they look at Trump and are perplexed. This guy is wholly transactional. Who has the leverage over who? In that respect he's like some sort of f*cking machine gone awry in the Oval Office.
The way to beat the machine is to get it to overplay its hand and run into the ditch. It means pain all around and so people are reluctant to go there before it is absolutely necessary. BTW, one of the reasons Trump dislikes multilateral negotiations (like trade) and prefers bilateral deals is because his schtick doesn't work in a full room. He learned that the hard way with the bankers. That means that the outcome of a "successful" round of worldwide bilateral trade deals would be that US exporters and importers have to deal with a huge stack of regs, much higher than a competitor who lives in a trading bloc with efficient rules.Comment
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More for my Canuck friends. From an article, with a Republican Senator quoted on the record. For Trump, all relationships are measured in leverage. And who would aspire to true friendship with some jagoff who is constantly trying to lever everyone.
Trump knows Republicans are uneasy with his current strategy, so much so that the president called Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey on Sunday night from Singapore for a “long” discussion about their disagreement on trade policy.
The conservative Pennsylvanian said the president told him: “These 232 tariffs that you don’t like, Pat, this is how I get leverage over Canada. This is why I need that.” But Toomey has not come around to Trump’s position, telling WAEB-AM on Monday, “what [Trump really wants, I’m afraid, is to kill NAFTA.”Comment
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Question is IF nafta dies does it hurt who?
SamComment
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And who is helped by killing it?Comment
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I have read conflicting data that shows that if killed, Mexico would suffer the worst. Would it not be easier for Canada and the US to simply open our borders for equal trade with each other? Each nation can trade freely with no hinderance to each other, to come closer together instead of apart? Each nation can benefit from each other, why not?
SamComment
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