Warren Buffett: Tariffs are ‘an act of war’

[fresh_42]

It's not just your opinion. I think it is fairly widely recognized that he REALLY, REALLY, REALLY wants a Nobel Peace Prize.

You know, we can concatenate nouns in German, and there is a nice little word. We say "reality-loss" if someone can no longer properly distinguish between reality and their internal fiction. It is often a symptom of dementia, but I guess narcissism has similar consequences. In this case, I'd say that both are given.

 

[Jonathan Scott]

Most of the tariffs have now been declared to be illegal, although the White House is of course appealing (and being excessively rude about the relevant judges, one of whom was appointed by Trump himself).

US federal court blocks Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/28/us-court-blocks-trump-tariffs

Tariffs typically need to be approved by Congress but Trump has so far bypassed that requirement by claiming that the country’s trade deficits amount to a national emergency.

The court’s ruling stated that Trump’s tariff orders “exceed any authority granted to the president … to regulate importation by means of tariffs”.

The judges were keen to state that they were not passing judgment on the “wisdom or likely effectiveness of the president’s use of tariffs as leverage”. Instead, their ruling centred on whether the trade levies had been legally applied in the first place. Their use was “impermissible not because it is unwise or ineffective, but because [federal law] does not allow it”, the decision explained.

The court ruling immediately invalidates all of the tariff orders that were issued through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a law meant to address “unusual and extraordinary” threats during a national emergency.

 

[fresh_42]

I began to watch a movie. I usually look up the short description of its content and the country where it was produced. Its title is Pandorum (2009, an intimate sci-fi play and proof that Quaid cannot only play screwball comedies!). It was produced in Germany and Alderney - yes, Alderney! The main actors are Americans, Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster.

How in the world would you tariff such a thing?

 

[jack action]

Oct 15, 2024:

Trump Says Experts Are All 'Wrong' For Telling Him His Tariff Proposals Won't Work

[...]

After Micklethwait, who worked at Chase Manhattan Bank and was editor in chief of The Economist magazine before joining Bloomberg News, suggested that there would be a “massive” negative effect on the economy from Trump’s proposed tariffs, the former president snapped back.

“It must be hard for you to spend 25 years talking about tariffs as being negative and then have somebody explain to you that you’re totally wrong,” Trump said.

Feb 13, 2026:

Trump plans to roll back some tariffs on steel and aluminum goods, FT reports

U.S. President Donald Trump plans to scale back some tariffs on steel and aluminum goods, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Officials in the Commerce Department and U.S. trade representative’s office believe the tariffs are hurting consumers by raising prices for goods including pie tins and food-and-drink cans, the FT report said.

Voters nationwide are worried about prices, and cost-of-living concerns are expected to be a major factor for Americans heading into the November midterm elections.

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that 30% of Americans approved of Trump’s handling of the rising cost of living, while 59% disapproved, including nine in 10 Democrats and one in five Republicans.

Shares of U.S. steel and aluminum producers slipped in early U.S. trading. Steelmakers Nucor (NUE.N) and Steel Dynamics (STLD.O) fell about 5% each, while Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF.N) slid 7%.

Among aluminum producers, Century Aluminum (CENX.O), declined 12% and Alcoa (AA.N) lost 5%.

[...]

The Trump administration is now reviewing a list of products affected by the levies and plans to exempt some items, halt the expansion of the lists and instead launch more targeted national security probes into specific goods, the FT report added.

 

[fresh_42]

At least his tariffs achieved what I had never done before: looking up whether my maple syrup is actually Canadian or not, and possibly hidden American, and actively avoiding companies like Mars, Mondeléz, Kraft/Heinz, Vicks, or Procter and Gamble. Good, I preferred Scotch over Bourbon anyway. I never thought about it. But as we say here: Wie man in den Wald hineinruft, so schallt es heraus. (How you shout into the woods is how it echoes; What goes around comes around.) And I was pleasantly surprised that you can buy peanut butter from the Netherlands or Germany.

 

[EricDMMiller]

I actually like bourbon and US rye whiskey more than any alternatives. But, I also haven't bought any in the last year. It is not an unendurable hardship to go without a boulevardier after work.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I actually like bourbon and US rye whiskey more than any alternatives. But, I also haven't bought any in the last year. It is not an unendurable hardship to go without a boulevardier after work.

Luckily I have about 12 bottles. Can't drink it fast enough lol.

 

[Jonathan Scott]

Some encouraging news from the BBC:​

Trump's sweeping global tariffs struck down by US Supreme Court​

 

[Borg]

This is good news for U.S. consumers but there will still be the problem of all those retaliatory tariffs from other countries that won't necessarily be rolled back right away. That will be the gift that keeps on giving with respect to U.S. exports.

 

[placebo]

The Supreme Court punted on the question of whether or not the illegally collected tariffs have to be returned.

 

[Grinkle]

The Supreme Court punted

Nice work, if one can get it. Just answer the parts of the litigants case that you feel like answering, delegate down the parts that seem too messy.

How can one consistently argue that the money was collected without legal basis and then leave open the question of whether it should be refunded? If this were personal income tax, I'd be chapped if SCOTUS said the tax was without legal basis but we aren't sure if you should get your money back.

At least they had the stones to make the obvious ruling with respect to legality.

Edit: On second thought, perhaps I take that back. This gives consumer rights advocates a chance to consider class actions to give consumers refunds, since some companies passed the tariffs on to consumers. And doing that would be incredibly complicated, but now that I think about it more, just giving the money back to Amazon after it was me that paid for the tariff in terms of higher prices doesn't seem right either.

 

[Grinkle]

'Time for a refund'? The movement to give Americans tariff money.

Democrats have demanded refunds after the Supreme Court ruled against President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs.

www.usatoday.com

$1700 per household I could get behind.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

'Time for a refund'? The movement to give Americans tariff money.

Democrats have demanded refunds after the Supreme Court ruled against President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs.

www.usatoday.com

$1700 per household I could get behind.

Then Trump has admit he was wrong and taxed ppl. He won't do it.

 

[placebo]

Then Trump has admit he was wrong and taxed ppl. He won't do it.

He might, though he'd claim it is a dividend from the tariffs the other countries paid. And he'd insist his name is printed on the checks.