re: Swatch Group raises prices on watches, frontloaded exports to get ahead of tariffs

They still making these shitty things?

Oh no!... anyway..

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No, two quarters from now you'll understand. These tariffs drag the economy, and will cause Donny to beg the fed to save his arse again.

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I'm unswayed by any argument using future economic damage as a primary premise for avoiding action. Future economic damage is coming either way. Our economy is already riddled with cancer, so doing nothing is not a way to make it better. In fact, any fix that works will first cause an economic slowdown. I prefer to try something that gets at the underlying disease process.

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He's destroying your future for short term gains to make him look better. Anyone with basic economic understanding will tell you this.

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I spent decades studying economics and finance. I'll stick to my own understanding.

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I spent decades studying economics and finance. I'll stick to my own understanding.

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No, you;'ll stick to your bias.

Because if you spend decades studying tariffs you would know long term tariffs drag the economy, not lift it.

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In other words, when we either fix our economy or break it completely, the tariffs will no longer be necessary or useful. Right now, they may at least forestall our day of reckoning.

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Nope. They make it worse. It forces our economy to be less productive by forcing us to use capital to overpay for goods that we could buy at a discount.

Are you familiar with the “broken window fallacy”? If inefficiency built wealth we should go around breaking all the windows, so we could have an entire industry of window repair services. That way we’d have full employment, high wages and we’d all be rich.

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Nope. They make it worse. It forces our economy to be less productive by forcing us to use capital to overpay for goods that we could buy at a discount.

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You would think a guy who has spent his life studying econ and finance would understand this objective truty.

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Raising costs of foreign goods will reduce our trade deficits, either by reducing consumption of foreign goods, increasing consumption of domestic goods, or probably some of both.

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The focus on “trade deficit” is silly. We don’t have to pay thst back, ya know? It’s not a “debt”. In fact it indicates that the goods we’re buying… we are buying at a massive discount because of our strong currency. Effecting a “minimum wage” for imports is as silly as it is for employment.

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Because if you spend decades studying tariffs you would know long term tariffs drag the economy, not lift it.

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Just like cancer drugs drag the body. My bias is based on my understanding which predates Donald Trump by decades. I don't like tariffs, but we've reached a state of emergency. Until we can address the underlying economic problems, they are better than doing nothing.

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Aren’t we talking about Swatch? Don’t they make those $80 plastic things?

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They do make the cheap plastic Swatch watch.

But Swatch group also owns Blancpain, Breguet, Omega, Glasshutte, Tissot, Rado + others.

Thankful I bought my Omega several years ago.