Retrospect
Retrospect
Trump's New Tariffs | Retrospect Ep.183
In this week’s episode we discussed President Trump's latest round of tariffs, who they're targeting, why they're being implemented, and how they could impact everything from global trade to your weekly grocery bill. We unpack the political and economic ripple effects with expert insights and practical takeaways.
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Ian
Welcome to the retrospect podcast, a show where people come together from different walks of life and discuss a topic from their generations perspective. My name is Ian, and as always, I'm joined by Jason.
Jason
Hello, everyone.
Ian
And Stoney.
Stoney
Hello.
Ian
How's it going?
Jason
We're going going good, yeah, just kind of watching all this craziness that's happening. And seem like every time I pull up my phone, there's always a, you know, a alert coming over and, yeah, you know, this was going on, and that's going on, and it's all surrounding, you know, the, you know, all the stuff going on with the economy and trade and stock market, stock market, and it's just non stop, yeah.
Stoney
Well, this week, when the trade started taking effect, the stock market went up. Yeah, yeah.
Jason
I mean, I think the seem like stock market is pretty good right now. So I think that was as a result of the the pause on the the tariffs. It was a 90 day pause. And I think the economy, you know, the Wheelers, I mean the wheeling, wheeling and dealing, back and forth, yeah, I think, you know, the markets were such, you know, ups and down. Nobody knew what was kind of going on, how all this was going to settle out. And I think with just the amount of uproar that's going on, I think that probably led to the pause, I think, to allow, you know, deals to be renegotiated. And you
Stoney
see, that's the point, right there deals to be renegotiated, because here's the problem, why is it okay for everybody else to charge America tariffs, and America not charge anybody for tariffs? I don't understand that. In 1790 tariffs were about 20% in 1825 they peaked at approximately 62% so and in 1860 they went back down to about 20% and when you start looking at the numbers of how much tariffs are that are being charged to America today, it's ridiculous, but all of a Sudden, America wants to go back to the tariff thing, and now everybody's in an uproar.
Jason
Yeah, I think prior to the pause, the tariff rate was actually set to reach the highest in more than 100 years, because in 1905 I'm looking at a chart right now from the BBC, it's showing just under, just under 30% which that would have been a very high period of time when, when tariffs were, were primarily used. Now, you have to go back at no time. There was no income tax. That's how the US government, I think, funded itself was through tariffs.
Stoney
Yeah, can I? Can I do something right quick? I took a little time today because a lot of people have some misconceptions about what tariffs are
Ian
before we before you get into that, I didn't realize we're going to be rocking and rolling right into the end of the episode. In case anyone doesn't know from the title, we're talking about the tariff situation, all right. Just want to say that right here at the beginning, because I was like, we're getting into it head first. Yeah, we kind of jump, you're right. I just want to at least clear that out the way.
Stoney
That's so what I did was kind of the the top 10 things to know about tariffs. I
They're really simple. They're really basic. I broke it down to a really simplified to where anybody could kind of understand it. Number one, tariffs are trade tolls. When stuff comes into the US from another country, we can charge a fee. Number two, America was built on tariffs before the income tax in 1913 tariffs paid the bills, and the country thrived. Number three, after World War Two, we lowered our own tariffs to help rebuild other nations. We opened our markets that generously helped generate global trade. Okay. Number four, we forgot to reset it. Other countries kept high tariffs. We stayed low and the imbalance grew. Number five, what we're doing now is not a reset. We're not crushing the global economy. We're rebuilding our own foundation. So we're going back to how the country was started, and we're just being fair, if you're going. To do this to us, we all want to be fair. Maybe we should do it to you too. Some countries, number six, some countries charge 10 times more than us. Like, for instance, India's average is 50% ours is 4% we're just asking for fair gain. Number seven, this is not isolation. We are not trying to isolate America. This is basically an insurance we still trade, but we want to protect jobs, supply chains and economic independence. And then, if you look at how many countries are now saying they're going to invest in America to kind of get around that countries and companies you kind of see that, okay, yes, some number eight, some prices may rise, but it's temporary. Think, man goes in winter, you still get them. They just may not be on sale. Number nine, businesses are already, like I just said, adapting. Companies are moving factories to the US, and others are already investing in US infrastructure. That's jobs and that's growth. And number 10, this is not selfish of America. This is strategic. We gave the world a hand up. Now we're stabilizing our home so that we can thrive again. Well, that's just a real simple kind of so everybody can kind of understand what we're doing and why we're doing well.
Jason
I mean, I think what's going on is, and this is a more fundamental question, is, is what's going on right now? Is the existing liberal international order that emerged out of World War Two is being questioned. And I think this is where you saw, you mean, Stoney, you mentioned that we lowered our tariffs because we were trying to help rebuild Europe now.
Stoney
But we told, we said, Germany, hey, you can sell us these cars, and we're not going to
Jason
charge a bit. I mean, the world was devastated. So, I mean, this was America, the Marshall Plan and all these things to try to rebuild Europe, try to get industry going again, and to try to kind of get things back to somewhat of a normal equilibrium, you know, that existed before, I think fundamentally, we have to ask ourselves, is the existing arrangements working still? And I would say they're not. You know, these things only work if they benefit the host country. And we kind of talked on this idea. I believe in another episode, I don't remember, but I remember this topic coming up, we have to find a way to bring industry back to America that keeps our national security in place when you right now are getting all your defense equipment from China, and you can't make it here, yeah, how can? Well, let me ask you a question. I mean, you could see how that would be a problem. Question I'm
Stoney
gonna throw right your way. What's Silicon Valley?
Jason
What was Silicon Valley? What do you mean? What
Stoney
was it? What was it? We've all heard the term, what was Silicon Valley? That's the original place that computers and computer parts were built, right until we decided to send that out to Taiwan and China. Well, well, how about we bring Silicon Valley back? How about we put that back in the American hands and put it back in the American workers hands?
Jason
Yeah, and that's fine, and I agree with that totally to a degree. Look at the end of the day, there are many countries that their their entire economies are based upon them, manufacturing stuff and we buy it. They're very poor countries, and this is how they call their countries out of poverty, really
Stoney
because Canada charges 298% tariffs on butter 270 on milk. Cheese is 245 chicken is 238% sausage is 69.9% barley seeds is 57.8% copper is 48% you. HVH, vac equipment is 45% aluminum is 45% TVs is 45% vacuums is 35 cable boxes is 35% meats 26 cars is 25 and steel is 25 so how is what America doing gonna hurt Canada when they're charging up to five times for some things that we would charge well, but
Jason
I would venture to say that we there was a change in the 70s when, you know, unfortunately, really, I would venture say, of course, Nixon opened up China, yes to the west. And I would even go further to say that really what changed things was Bill Clinton granting China most favored nation status, and unfortunately, they have utilized that to to steal, to On they, you know, they undermine, they devalue their own currency, they manipulate a lot of their businesses or subsidize and so there's always so we've been running major trade imbalances with China. I think a lot of companies found out that I can increase my profits if I offshore labor, because we all know that labor is your most expensive cost, and unfortunately, it is. It is destroyed many segments of the US economy, the manufacturing has just completely gone away. I think that has led to other issues that you get into Family Policy and Education Policy and everything that kind of flows from that. Communities were devastated. I believe that, you know, drugs settle in, people get depressed. There's no job. You know, at one time, somebody could get a job in a plant or a manufacturing facility and be able to raise a family on that. That changed over time. Now, look, there's arguments back and forth. I mean, you know, with with organized labor and you know, I mean, how just look at cars, you know, for the longest time, what people were starting to buy Toyotas and stuff like that, because their cars were more reliable. They lasted longer. What was the old saying? Well, they bought American cars can be broken in in a couple years. It's creaking. It's so I think the same way behind us there's
Stoney
always used to be that way Made in America. Used to mean something. I have something that I wrote it, I want to say toward the end of the thing about that, because I have something very
Jason
well, I'm saying something changed where it was more about
Stoney
something changes when we started well, they started
Jason
out. They started outsourcing that. But they started outsourcing that because that, what happened was labor costs started going up. So look, at the end of the day, these companies have investors, yeah, and if you haven't, you have money in a company, and you're looking at your dividend statement, and you see, and you're losing money. Well, then you're calling the you know, your board of directors is saying, what's going how do we make the company more profitable? So what do you do? You offshore labor, and so, okay, well, we cut out, you know, 40% or 30% of our now we can make that, turn that into profit, and now more money is going out to shareholders, and then those people are happy, but the victims are the working class. And that's, that's the problem with that. So that's what I'm saying. It's it. There's got to be a way of of, kind of resetting things. So that's what I'm saying. I think this is a broader question, is, is that these arrangements that were made in post World War Two. That's what's that's what, you know, look, You're upsetting the apple cart right now. Yeah, You're
Stoney
upsetting the apple cart. But if you look at the long term, goal of this is not necessarily to completely charge tariffs, but it's to open the market. Okay? European Union, they charge these are our friends, right? European Union is our friends. They charge us 39% tariffs on everything that goes into the European Union. Vietnam is our friend, right? We, you know, we save South Vietnam to a certain extent. They charge us 90% Taiwan, hey, you know they charge us 64% Japan is one of our great friends now, right? They charge us 46% so how about America? Stop giving the handout and say, Okay, if you don't want us to charge the same tariffs that you're going to charge us, you. To open your market up to us, because, you see, that was the deal with the Chinese that Nixon made. You open your market up and we'll open up our market. Do that. They did not make the they did not honor their end of the agreement, right? Okay, it's the same with Canada, okay, NAFTA and all this other stuff. You open your market will open up our market. No one wants to play fair, because America's just we've been this handout. Well, decades and
Jason
decades, American taxpayers basically been, I hate to say, has been subsidizing a lot of these countries. Okay?
Stoney
I mean, we basically give Canada over, um, $220 billion a year. I think they can either become a state, secure their border, or we can quit being their ATM.
Jason
Well, unfortunately, we're the ATM for a lot of countries, for a lot of countries, but they're supposed to be our friends, right? Yeah, but it's at the end of the day people look out for their own
Stoney
I mean, I'll see where Alberta, um, one of the what is Alberta Providence, is that what they're called prostate province. Um, they have said that they would like to join the United States of America. And actually, the was it a governor or whatever, what's, what's the leader of a Providence province? Um,
Ian
I don't remember. I know this Prime Minister is over Canada. And I think that there are, like, governors or something, right?
Jason
Provincial Government,
Stoney
whatever that, yeah, equivalent, whatever that title is, a list of things to the pm and said, You will do these things, or we're going to approach America about joining them.
Jason
Well, I think, I think Trump is playing the long game. He's playing the long game. I just hope, I just hope, that the Republicans in Congress don't just fold up. And that's unfortunate, what a lot of them do when they get just a little bit of pushback. Because look, you are, as I said, You're upsetting the apple cart all the established ways of doing business are being called into question. Now, that causes a lot of confusion. That causes a lot of panic. People don't know what to do, like, you know, right here, all these, these tariffs, these ones that was went into went into effect on April 5. Now he paused that for 90 days there was a lot of, you know, the stock market went kind of yo yo for a little while, but there is still a 10% tariff. That's a baseline that's still there. And China went up 225% I mean, we're talking about which I kind of like, the idea of dropping everything for the European Union and boxing out China, because that's your enemy, plain and simple. That's your enemy. Why
Ian
have you heard recently the back and forth they had a couple days ago that ended
Jason
up China can't survive that because they they require, I think, us, our market, to be open to them, because that doesn't they tank, they tank. And look now China has said we will fight to the end. Now that may come quick if they start that last, that last time of what happened, all of a sudden we had a worldwide pandemic. Somehow managed to just a material mysteriously appear, yeah, so I don't put anything past, past that that the Chinese Communist Well, that
Stoney
was an agreement between China and the Biden crime family. I mean, they needed to win. And I just love COVID. Helped them out.
Ian
I love the tweet. It says, based on this is from President Donald Trump, based on the lack of respect that China has shown the world's market. I hereby raise the tariff charge to China by the United States of America to 125% Yeah, effective immediately, 125%
Jason
plus another 20% link,
Stoney
I was gonna do this. I was gonna read the
Ian
same thing linked to the drug Sentinel at some at some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the USA and other countries is no longer sustainable or acceptable. That's where
Jason
you say we see what happens now. What's what's going to happen is for the Chinese Communist Party to stay in power, yeah, they have to promise a lot of things to their people, and if all of a sudden they can't, I could see some a lot of unrest. So now
Stoney
you got 700 million people that are pissed off well,
Ian
because a big thing is that two companies, Shein and temu, yeah, are both two companies that I think are, if I'm not mistaken, Chinese based that, like, sell very cheap Chinese products for for almost literally nothing. They give it away. And a lot, I think a lot of that is because of the fact that they don't have that imports here are, well, but not but not anymore. And it says it could. These raise package prices 30 to 90%
Stoney
Yeah, but see, you also have to think about what you just said. They're gonna raise it 30 to 90% okay, and that's probably fair. But that tanker that left China a couple of months ago, there was a tanker with a completely full of those big boxes, shipping containers, shipping containers full of T moose stuff. Yeah, and the insurance company just had to write a check for $152 when the whole tanker sunk. Yep, that's a joke.
Ian
Well, I don't doubt it, though that's very It feels very accurate, but that's but I also think this is just a personal thing. I have never liked those services, because it just feels like such cheap stuff. That just feels so they're all
Jason
cheap, disposing anything $1 General, right, right, right. That's all Chinese, but it's
Ian
all but it just for me, the fact that I'm hearing this, and it's like it could raise it by anything, any package, it's from like, 25 to $50 or any package, I think is less than $300 there's, like, a whole huge markup on it could, like, significantly hinder that kind of stuff. I'm like, that's, I kind of think
Stoney
that's good dollars anyway, coming into the
Ian
states anyways. I think that, I don't know. I think people are too infatuated with cheap, disposable stuff, and
Jason
we have too much stuff now, right? That's why the number one thing you see being built are storage buildings. Yes, because we have too much
Ian
crap. That's sad. Personally, I when I see a huge, nice building being built up, like, I wonder what it's going to be, and it's like, oh, it's storage units. I don't know, man, I think this is a there may be other things outside of my skill, scope of perception that I don't know about that are going to be hindering things in a different way. But some of this stuff, I'm like, Hey, I kind of been wanting those things to go away anyways. Some of those services, like, Yeah,
Jason
I mean, well, I mean, like, right now I said, I'm, I'm looking at this articles that there's a 46% on Vietnam, 44% on Sri Lanka, 20% on the European Union. Right now, exports the US are equivalent of 30% of Vietnam's entire economy. Well,
Stoney
think about this. We send 85% of Canada's toilet paper to them. Wow. What you gonna do? You gonna start wiping your ass with the maple leaves? Now, that might be what they have to do, you know? And it's like, I saw this one little meme here. It's like, you know, for Did you know that for years, Canada has been charging these tariffs on American businesses? Eggs, 168 chickens, two, 285, cheese, 240, 6% butter, 300% President Trump didn't start this trade war. He's just finishing it. Okay if you don't want us to charge you tariffs, knock yours down and open your market up to American goods. Right? How hard is that? Apparently it's impossible. It's really not that hard.
Ian
I think, in the also in the tech space, something that's been recently interesting is that if you are even sort of in like the the gaming console sphere, they're about to launch the switch two, yes, and people are upset, because I think that initially the price is set at 450 which is, I think, around $50 higher than the original switch was back, you know, in the how many years ago that was and so people are kind of already a little bit upset about the price increase for that. But the problem now is that they're, like, pausing pre orders because, like, they put they increased the price because there was already a tariff discrepancy between Japan and all that stuff. But now that things are kind of going a little bit crazier, they're stopping pre orders on it because, I think that they're concerning. They have to, I don't this is not factual, about raising the price on that even more. But I think they're concerned that, like they to import those consoles to the US. They may not be able to make any money off of them, and so they're like, we may not be able to ship the switch to to the States until some of this dies down, because it won't be profitable for us or for that's
Jason
what I'm saying. When you can't, right? You can't make any of this stuff in your own country. This is what
Ian
you and the same thing, you're hamstrung. And the same thing is happening for laptops is that right now, any kind of new or newer laptop is kind of having a hold on it right now for the same reason as a lot of it's being manufactured out of the country and being imported in or up, yeah, imported in, and now that there's a lot of like, big computer manufacturers that are like, hey, our newest laptop model that's coming out. Like it may not, it may not happen anymore. Yeah?
Jason
Now I saw that, you know, speaking the tech sector, I saw that Jensen had a meeting at Mar Largo with Trump, and so there was some pause on on some of those chips. Yeah, that, well. Speaking
Stoney
of the chips, TSMC, Taiwan Semiconductor is investing over 40 billion in a chip, a US chip manufacturing plant in Arizona. Good.
Jason
We need to be able to make this stuff. There's
Stoney
a huge Chinese solar and battery firms are quietly opening plants in the south to circumvent turrets. They don't want to put that out there, but Hyundai and Kia have also expanded their EV and battery production in Georgia to avoid us tariffs and qualify for
Jason
Hyundai's building a big steel facility here in Louisiana. Okay,
Stoney
well, they said they're doing $40 billion and we're gonna get a 400 million just to build the plant, let alone the jobs. They're
Ian
not gonna lie. The newest line of Hyundai look really nice.
Jason
I drive it. I've been driving Hyundai for years now. I've enjoyed my Hyundai. My favorite car is that Hyundai Genesis, GV 80. Yeah, that is an absolutely beautiful car. Matter of fact, they are probably right now, pushing the the envelope on on features and looks and cars right now as the South Koreans, I'm
Ian
also a sucker for a good logo design. And I will say the new, I think it's Kia, yeah, logo also looks I just and I think also they
Jason
have a beautiful car. Really cool. They really do the been a good car. The
Ian
people I was talking about, it says HP, Dell, double A and Lenovo have notified the supply chains to suspend shipments for two weeks. The hardest hit areas are concentrated in consumer electronics, with some of this stuff that are all that well, it's how people
Stoney
want to work. Okay, if people want to work in America and get off of the McDonald's and actually go to work, one of the effects of companies coming into America and create, you know, job creation and economic ripple effect, which is what's going to happen. Okay, we just talked about all these companies coming in here and expanding and building plants and doing this. So you got the construction jobs, including the plants, then you have permanent manufacturing jobs. But then think about this too. Not only do you have those employees that work for the plants, you have support industry jobs too, suppliers, trucking, warehousing, maintenance, people to go in there and do that. Then community growth, housing, retail, education and surrounding areas. The Economic Policy Institute has estimated that with each new manufacturing job, one person can support 1.4 to four additional jobs in a broader economy. So that's saying, you know, if you create 1000 jobs, you can create 1400 to 4000 additional jobs to support those 1000 people working. That's impressive, and that's what this country needs. So if you're going to want to work, well, you're going to be able to
Jason
work. I think, as I said, I the existing order is being completely renegotiated right now. And I think this goes back to what we had talked about, about countries not spending enough of their GDP on their own defense. Defense. What happened was because they basically took advantage of these liberal policies, as far as trade with the United States, all these tariffs, I think what happened was they started preaching entitlement programs in their countries, why they're able to offer universal health care to their citizens and all these things, because they're not having to spend what We have to spend on protecting them. So I, in a sense, I'm glad I think it's past time. In 2025 these countries, economies have been rebuilt. They can stand or fall on their own. And it's time to you need to put up for your own defense to a degree, and to kind of get more involved in that. And so I think that, you know, as long as they allow Trump to do this, and I do worry about some, I do worry about the Senate. You got a couple in there that have been kind of, you know, going crazy right now, and you don't know who's been paid off and and who's getting campaign money from who, and and on and on and on. We all know how it works if they allowed Trump to do this. Now, I did see the Senate and the Congress supposedly passed some bill. To supposedly claw back some of the tariff power that's been kind of delegated to the president united states. How that works out? I don't know. I can imagine the phone calls that are being made right now with the business community, because there's a lot of that's what I'm saying you. You've been operating under this model since basically 1945 Yeah, and, and there's a lot of inroads that have to be kind of undone, you know, you got to kind of rewire the circuit, so to speak. And, and it's that causes. There's a lot of people that it's like, you know, nobody wants, nobody likes change.
Stoney
Well, it's like everybody's bitching right now about okay, Donald Trump's empower. How come eggs have only come down a little bit? Okay, the price of eggs has only come down a little bit. It's still coming down, but it takes time. You know, the buying the Biden crime family ordered more than 20 million egg laying chickens in the last quarter of 2024, alone. That's not the ones the quarter before that, after that and everything else. How long you think it's going to take to grow them chickens again? Well, when you can go to Mexico and get them for 75 cents a dozen, okay? But yet ours now are $12 a dozen,
Jason
810, $12 that stay that's the problem with with the nationalizing your agricultural instead of just simply allow farmers to just grow what they want, quit getting out of this business, of doing all this, that's kind of some of the stuff that Robert F Kennedy has talked about is kind of Going back to more of a farm based model for our food and see that's something
Stoney
else with all of this going on right now, no other government entity should be able to own a square inch of American soil. Yeah,
Jason
to me, they're shipping off these poor animals. I've seen stories. They shipping off these horses to these Asian companies where they slaughtering them. I'm like, it's just horrible, you know? I just
Stoney
people are gonna have to slow down and be patient with the process, because it's like with the egg thing. Why aren't the prices of egg? Well, you gotta, gotta have more chickens. You know? Now we're having the plants. People are going to start building plants. Well, you know what that takes time you got planning and permits, zoning, environmental reviews, local incentives have to happen. It's going to take time for people to actually build this infrastructure. Then you got 12 to 14 months, on average, just to build something right? It's going to take time. Then you got to hire workers and train them, supply chain rerouting, you know, there's a whole lot of stuff. It's going to take a year to two years to kind of get this stuff rolling and get it where it needs to go. Yeah, look,
Jason
as I said, I truly believe, and I've listened to numerous news sites, I've listened to several podcasts regarding, you know, kind of this issue, and this is a big gamble. It really is. It is this could either be because I think this could either backfire on us, and it could be a disaster, or it could be the beginning of a new renaissance. I've heard
Ian
some of the arguments whenever this whole tariff discussion first got started, is that, like you, the consumer, the consumer, are gonna pay the the difference in the tariff. Well,
Jason
they just passed the cost, which I agree, and
Ian
I understand that, but I just recently was looking at some conversations that were have, that were being had, that obviously, there's a supply and demand issue. Of, like, it's obviously I want this i Let's just say eggs, for instance. I'm not sure if that's adequate in this circumstance, but like, I want eggs, and I will pay for eggs, but a certain point in time where, like, the threshold of, like, the eggs get so expensive that I'm like, Nah, I'm not going to do that, right? And then the demand goes away, so you can only charge so much more before. I mean, there may be a difference in like, things that are, quote, unquote necessary. But like to go back to the computer example, the I think there's a company called framework, I believe, and they were saying that, like, due to, like, the 30% increase of all the tariffs and stuff like that. We have offloaded 10% of that to the consumers now and again. I don't think they're going to be able to offload any more of that before people are not going to buy it anymore. And that's and that's the whole thing you're writing for. You're right.
Stoney
But how about this? How about that company? Oh, yeah, put pressure on their government, right? And say, Why don't you knock some of these tariffs down that you're charging America, so maybe they won't charge us
Jason
because they're protecting their own industry. But that's right.
Stoney
But why is it? You know what? It's illegal in every freaking country of the world to enter it illegally. Why does it have to be illegal to do it here in America, it's. Okay for every country in the world to charge America tariffs. Why is it bad when America decides to do it? What America is doing, what Donald Trump is trying to do, and hopefully our other politicians are going to finally start seeing what he's doing is he's not trying to destroy it. He's trying to change behavior exactly like what Ian was talking about here. Yes, you're going to have to do that. Put pressure on your country to lower or remove the tariffs and open up the border for our goods.
Jason
I'm saying either you either have tariffs or you have zero tariffs Exactly. And although the problem is you got to be careful with that, because there's still ways to make trading unfair, even with zero tariffs. Because if governments are subsidizing their industries, and other countries are not being subsidized, that means they can offer their goods still cheaper, and you still have some of the problems, like, for example, like Vietnam wanted to go to 0% Trump said, ain't good enough, because what they're doing, they're doing other things. Well,
Stoney
here's the thing, lower their tariffs to zero and then just not open their market exactly. Okay, great. What the hell does that? That does zero good? If you're not going to right? Has to be all you get. You have to have treat
Jason
free trade, and what that means in the term Free Trade means goods go wherever. Every market is open. 100% either people like your goods or they don't. They buy whatever they buy, and you just move on. But the fact is, you know, the fact is, those economies probably need to have those tariffs because of some of the entitlements they grant their citizens, right? That's what pro Hello
Stoney
Canada, exactly. Hello Canada. And they wouldn't be offering all this free crap if they had to do their own defense, right? And didn't chart, you know, come on, yeah, there's
Jason
other things going on here. So that's what I'm saying. So trade is either got to be free and open or it's not. But
Stoney
you see, that's what NAFTA was supposed to be. Canada and Mexico were supposed to open up their markets to free trade. All that America had to do their part, but Mexico and Canada did not, and then all of a sudden they wanted to be able to hire illegals with no restrictions on their vehicles, their diesel trucks, to be able to go back and forth from Mexico to Canada, where they were going to have zero tariffs on each other, but not America. And then they were going to spill all their oil in diesel because of their crap trucks going back and forth to Canada and Mexico, and we put a stop to that and said, No,
Jason
it's this is going to be interesting, like right now. I think the big issue is China. How are they going to respond to this, I do worry about what they're willing to do to stay in power. And believe in the Chinese Communist Party will do whatever it has to do to stay in power.
Stoney
Um, but America needs to be able to do what we can to to stay in power, and we need to start retraining our children and things like that. That's why I'm completely for them destroying the federal education system. Go back to the states and I say that, I can't. I want to go ahead, if y'all don't mind. I've used this statement a couple of times. Chip foo said, the tragedy in America today is that we're teaching our children to buy things and not build things. Well, I was just kind of sitting down and I started writing some Do y'all mind if I if I read this right quick, that's more than a quote. That's a wake up call, not just for parents, teachers or politicians, it's for all of us, because America was not built on consumption. It was built on creation. We are a country of welders, machinists, engineers, tinkerers and dreamers. Kids grew up watching their parents build cars, bridges, furnitures and futures. But over the past few decades, we've slowly replaced craft with convenience tools, with touch screens, and now how to buy it. Now, we've told generations to get a job, not build a good company. It's crazy to me to make what's handed to them, not what's designed, was needed while the company became global. Excuse me, while the economy became global and the shelves became full, something else became empty. Our connection to what we make. So when we talk about tariffs and reshoring. It's not about dollars or trade balances. It's about reviving the biller builders mindset. It's about telling a kid in Detroit, Des Moines or Dallas, you don't have to just buy that. You can build it, you can invent that, you can own that. Because the real wealth of a nation is not how much it can buy, it's what it knows how to build. We can teach that again, and we should let this be the moment we connect with the hands, minds and spirits that made America strong. Because if we don't, who will? We need to get back to building stuff and not buying crap. Well, like y'all said earlier, we have enough crap. Oh yeah. When's the last time somebody built something?
Jason
As I'm saying, our debt is still has gone up. I mean, I think y'all probably saw in the news of the dumping of American, you know, treasury bonds, that's, that's, you know, whether China's behind that or not. But problem is that the Chinese whole is the second biggest holder of US government debt. If it chose to dump all that would be catastrophic, yeah. I mean, your money would be almost worthless. Of course they would basically destroy their economy to
Stoney
destroy theirs too, right? So
Jason
for all intents to perfect, that would be the nuclear option in the economic world. Would basically say, we're dumping all your debt and now you're, yeah, you're, you're, you're gonna fold, because you got nobody holding that up. So Right? This is a problem. That's what we're talking about. This $37 trillion in debt that this country is in right now. This has been driven by these kind of policies that no longer work for this country, these trade imbalances that exist with some of these countries. Is just not sustainable long term. And the only reason we got the Federal Reserve, and that can help some, and I know right now there's a little bit of tension between Jerome Powell and Trump regarding this, because it doesn't look like the Federal Reserve is interested in kind of helping Trump with a tariff deal. I do know that the new Treasury Secretary, Scott bestine, I know he has been urging Trump to negotiate some trade deals with some of our former, you know, our allies, because, you know, we need the g7 on our side. I mean, we, we want to to really box China. We need them basically, not basically soaking up Chinese goods. We basically need them to say we're not buying anything from China, and really put China in a bond, in a bind. So we
Stoney
needed to get rid of the Federal Reserve number
Jason
one anyway. Well, there's a lot of people to say that we should, but
Stoney
Well, if we go by the original Constitution, which is our document, we wouldn't have a Federal Reserve. Well,
Jason
there's a lot of people that that that, that would say that there's there, you know, there's arguments of why the Federal Reserve is created and the good and the bad. And you know, I it is what it is. That's what we have right now. I mean, I mean, it's, how do you basically fund the federal government? Okay? I mean, ultimately, I know Trump has talked about no income taxes, of basically going back to a time when there was no income taxes and tariffs basically funded the federal government. Now, of course, what the federal government did at that time was a lot less, was a lot less involved in the day to day lives of its citizens. You know, I've always said that we entered a new world. You know, after the Civil War the role of the federal government in the States, and then it changed again with the creation of the Federal Reserve and the imposition of the income tax. Now, you know, people complain about it, but at the time, people voted for it, right? I mean, they, they actually, I give them credit back then, they actually did it the way the original intended. The framers of the Constitution gave to amend the Constitution, not by courts, by just simply going through the amendment process. Get two thirds of the state was
Stoney
temporary. Okay? It was to pay for the Civil War. How are we going to do this? How are we going to rebuild the South? What are we going to do? So we started a temporary tax. And then after World War Two, it never went away. They said, Oh, look, free money.
Jason
Well, as I said, China and the. US are projected to account about 43% of the global economy, and this is by the International Monetary Fund in 2025
Stoney
other countries are not they're doing this to us too. Ireland is imposing 125% tariff on all imported goods from America until we take Rosie O'Donnell back. Oh yeah, no kidding. She's eating all their potatoes, apparently.
Jason
Well, you know, at least I give her credit, she's one of the few internet actually left, actually left the country when, when Trump got elected. So, you know, I give her that she's willing to at least abide by her, you know, her rhetoric. So, yeah, I mean, it's, I mean, this is a look, you know, Trump called it Liberation Day. I, you know, I knew, anytime you make these kind of changes, it's gonna just you throwing a wrench into the cog, and, you know, things are clanking and things are steaming and and people don't know what to do, because we've operated under this model for so long. And to undo it, it's going to take a long time to undo it. I don't know if it can be done in in the four years. And be honest with you, Trump's got till the midterms, because if the Democrats win the house, it all comes to an end. They're gonna probably try to reindict him again and impeach him, and then everything is gonna come to a screeching halt. If we can hold the house, we have a chance to actually do some things. So 2026, is gonna be interesting. It really is. And a lot of people, I know, a lot of people, are upset losing their jobs in the federal government.
Stoney
That's not even close. Oh, Obama had fired 600 and something 1000, and Clinton fired what was it? 340,000 people. You know, and that's what's kind of so interesting about Doge. Donald Trump didn't invent it. Who invented Doge? I don't know. I thought that was bit
Jason
under Clinton, Obama. I thought it backed up even before that you went to Clinton was reinventing government.
Stoney
That's what they said they were going to do. But Obama created the United States Digital Service, which was USDS in 14 and all Trump did was rebrand that to Doge. Yeah, because it basically it it legally untouchable, because it was already a fully funded and operational program. Wow. All he did was rebrand it and use it for what it was specifically designed to do. Just actually made it work, right? And I just think you kind of need to watch what's happening, yeah? Because if you, if you watch and kind of look at things, you know, they had the Obama appointed judge ruled it illegal that they were the Secret Service Plan to fire the DEI hired agents. So what Donald Trump did was have them all assigned to Clinton, Obama and Biden, who rejected them and demerit and demanded merit based mail agents. What does that tell you? The hypocrisy of the liberal agenda is ridiculous. They're they're standing on this, this mound of bullshit, and people are wake finally waking up to it. And the media has not completely come on board yet, but it's there. They're kind of waking up too, because this one to 3% is just not going to be enough for them. Americans are tired. We you know, I've said this before on this show, that this is the first generation since George Washington that will not do better than their parents. You've discussed this buying a house and starting a family. You're feeling this too, right? We have to do something to make this country stronger again and save it, yeah.
Jason
Well, you're gonna have to have courage, because I can tell you, the working class people are 100% behind Trump. Because, if you notice, even with all this market uncertainty, yep, his poll numbers have gone up, which tells me that all the people that are that are that are bitching and hollering, and you know this, and that tells me that ain't. That's not the working people that are bit, that's the top dogs. Yeah, they're losing money. Okay? It ain't the worker at the bottom of the deal, because that's what people are tired of, is all the big cats are making all the money, and we're not getting crap, you know, we just aren't. You. And I think there's, there's got to be a rebalancing of some of this stuff. And I'm hoping, I'm hoping that things, people come to the table and let's negotiate some fair deals. Everybody wants free trade. Everybody wants goods to be able to cross the border, but I'm telling you, the United States has got to be able to be in a position to make its most critical things. If America has to go to war, and our number one enemy is China, who's making all this stuff. Where does that put you? Yeah, it puts you in a bad, bad spot. We can't even make medicine. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's sad that we can't do some of these things. So at a minimum, I've always said, I'm not saying that you need to make everything here. It'd be nice if you could. I don't think that's possible anymore in today's world, unless there's another world war and economies get destroyed. Okay? The reality is, I want us to be able to make what we need for our own national security. Well, we don't need anybody else. If iPhones need to be made somewhere else, then they need to be made somewhere that's not critical. We can survive without an iPhone. You can't survive without steel, aluminum. Medicine, medicine, computer chips that your own defense force needs to be able to operate its strategic missiles and planes and everything else, because everything runs on chips now. So that is what I'm hoping to see. But I don't know, I'm kind of worried about China. Look, I've said all along, I fully expect a war with China. It's coming, I really do. And whether it's now or later, it's gonna come. I just think it's inevitable,
Ian
the resource war, the resource the resource war, I
Jason
really do. I mean, you know, we were talking about that pre show, yeah, just a little bit you know, about how the Fallout game, you know, the foreshadowing, foreshadowing of our, of our, you know, coming conflict with China
Ian
and an alternative, not so distant. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah,
Jason
you know, of course, I don't want war. No, no, no. The reality is, I mean, you've got to worry about Taiwan. Yeah, China, I've seen some of their ships that they're building right now to be able to launch an amphibious attack on on Taiwan. Pay attention to what's going on in China right now, because if it's people starts rising up, they're gonna have to do something. They're gonna have to do something. And when people are desperate, yeah, people do kind of stupid things. They just do, oh, yeah, you get desperate. I'm
Ian
experiencing some of that in my personal life. There's some stuff with work where there's some changing over of hands and changing over of power. And everyone, everyone experiences it in their own way, and they lash out in their own way, and they get upset about their own things, and everyone has their moment to feel stuff. And so it's the same thing with this as well, especially when it deals with people's livelihoods, a lot of times, you know, and all that kind of stuff, yes, people, you know, all that stuff. So
Jason
yeah, I see Beijing talking about, you know, Hollywood. Yeah, my favorite, one of my favorite things here in this country, but right now, Beijing restricts us releases to 34 a year. I didn't realize that interesting, that Hollywood has become less important in China as homegrown films increase in popularity. That's the
Ian
kind of stuff that, like they were discussing about with tick tock and all that stuff is trying to their algorithm. Algorithms there are, you know, more catered towards their country's pride and all that stuff. And that feels very adequate that they would do the same sort of thing trying to make their own which, I mean, hey, every country I think should probably have their own media.
Stoney
Made in America, yeah, made in Yeah, you know, made in Louisiana.
Jason
Well, I tell you right now, it's, you know, where these, these tariffs hurt or, you know, there's a lot of Louisiana farmers that that import, you know, export a lot of agricultural goods to overseas, yeah, so they're feeling it. I mean, it's, it's, I'm saying this is kind of a deal where you're gonna, yeah, how much, how much are you willing to sacrifice to get this thing right again? And that, to me, is going to be the key,
Stoney
yeah, but, but, like you're talking about that, but what? About when they had the crawfish festival A while back, and all of a sudden they started realizing that over a third of the crawfish came from China. And
Jason
I say that I have a problem with that. I know Louisiana passed a law, yeah, regarding that, since that's that's really a homegrown industry, yeah, and, and basically you have to label. But they did a they did an inspection, and saw that some places were not following that law, which to me, I would be I always ask, if I'm at a restaurant, are these imported or they? Yeah, they're caught here, which to me, blows my mind that we're actually getting crawfish from China. Yeah, that's absolutely we got them running around.
Stoney
They're in the ditch.
Ian
I mean, it's like that just goes to show that just goes to show how cheap it is. Well, that's what you can get.
Jason
You could have the tendrils have, have just kind of bored themselves into the into the fabric of the US economy, you've got something. You wouldn't think that would be a no brainer, yep, but no, you know, because in the end of the day, if I can get them cheaper from China, I'm like, You know what? Right? You know, especially
Ian
if you want to keep the cost down for your consumers and at a reasonable price, and you want to make money too. You want to make a lot of money, actually, as a owner of a restaurant, you know, not saying it's right, I'm just saying that that's it. Just goes to show how you know how crazy the price discrepancy is between local stuff and just getting it shipped from China. So you just
Stoney
need to be careful, right? We need to be patient. Yeah, we need to help each other, and we need to trust the process. You know, we were told to trust the vaccination process and all this other crap from COVID. We need to trust this process. Well,
Jason
I'm, you know, as I said, that's it's, you know, right now, I haven't felt anything regarding tariffs, yeah, you know, I guess it really comes down to what you buy, right? You know, if you're not buying a whole lot of stuff, well, you know, guess what? Not really gonna affect you. Affect you at all. But for some people, I mean, it's a big deal, but I mean, it's, you know, as it's how important is this is getting the United States into an area for a long term growth, sustainability and growth, or it's the temptation to take the easy way and keep The model that we're operating under, yeah, which I think ultimately is going to lead to bad things, bad things for us. I just think that we can't sustain a, well, we've
Stoney
been a nation of creators. We don't need to be a nation of buyers. Well, I just don't
Jason
think we can. We can handle $37 trillion debt, and it just keeps going up, and you eventually, your, your this, your interest payment on the debt is going to be making up a huge port of your GDP. I mean, I, you know, I just something's wrong with that. I mean, it's just, I'm saying this is out of balance. We've got to get some things back in a little bit better position and but, yeah, I don't know, we'll see. This is a of course, the the midterms will tell you a lot. If the Democrats regain the house, then you could pretty much, oh yeah, it's going to end for the most part, right? And be pressure on them. Basically they do nothing. So be a lot of money from overseas being dumped into these races. I
Ian
think, also, I think that, like, the market is also still kind of artificially over inflated from the from COVID and all that stuff too, which I think so and even before that. So like, I feel like the market is still, I feel like it's crazy to think about the fact that, like, we've been living in, we're still living in the wake of the COVID stuff from, you know, five years ago, but here we are, and I think this is a way to to really shake up, shake that up, and reset it, which is not comfortable, and it's not going to make anyone happy, but I think it could no change is really comfortable if you don't know about it, no, especially when it it deals with people's livelihoods, normality, and their livelihoods and all that stuff and things that they're used to. People like incremental change a lot of times. Or I'll say they like it. They can't notice incremental change until, like, you look at data and you're like, oh my gosh, where it's the markets over inflated or whatever, but it's changed like this. I think that needs to happen. And as I said, six to nine months ago, when I was talking about Trump getting into office, I was like, he only has four years, and I don't blame him for, like, taking this the first few months to like, five. First, potentially, his first year is going to be, like, really shaken things up, because I feel like he has to, if he wants to do anything effective. Yeah, he knows he's got years four. Four years is going to come and go like that, and before you know it, like you know he, if he, I don't think he's available for another term, because he's already had, unless
Stoney
China attacks us, and then they can do that, what they do with Harry Truman, and they gave him a third term,
Ian
but if, if his, if the next less than four years is all he's got. I mean, you got, you got to start making some stuff happen quick and so and again, with that comes aggressive change that is not going to be comfortable and not going to be fun, but like you said, it's a necessity, and we kind of trust the process. So who knows, but not to say that's going to be easy? No,
Jason
it's not, as I said. We'll wait and see what happens. But here we are. It's going to be this is the reality. How? How? How tough are we? Yeah,
Ian
I think we're all gonna make it on the other side, and everyone's gonna be okay. It's gonna be uncomfortable. But buckle up. Buckle up. Well, for any of you out there who want to share your experiences or responses, we have many different ways you can do that. Many platforms have comment sections where you can leave us some comments. Be sure to like and subscribe all the platforms you can as well. We also have an email address get offended together. Get offended together@gmail.com, let me enunciate that better. We also have the website
Stoney
retrospectpodcast.com
Ian
exactly with that being said, thank you so much for listening. Bye,
Jason
Goodbye everyone. God bless.
Stoney
Hey. We've seen what happens when we rely too much on other countries. Now, with smart strategy and long-term thinking, we have the chance to turn that tide. The past teaches us, the present tests us, but the future, that's ours to shape. Let's make it strong. Let's make it American, and let's make it last. You're the best. Peace.