Posted on 04/22/2019 5:43:15 AM PDT by reaganaut1
President Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on imported washing machines has had an odd effect: It raised prices on washing machines, as expected, but also drove up the cost of clothes dryers, which rose by $92 last year.
What appears to have happened, according to new research from economists at the University of Chicago and the Federal Reserve, is a case study in how a measure meant to help domestic factory workers can rebound on American consumers, creating unexpected costs and leaving shoppers with a sky-high bill for every factory job created.
Research to be released on Monday by the economists Aaron Flaaen, of the Fed, and Ali Hortacsu and Felix Tintelnot, of Chicago, estimates that consumers bore between 125 percent and 225 percent of the costs of the washing machine tariffs. The authors calculate that the tariffs brought in $82 million to the United States Treasury, while raising consumer prices by $1.5 billion.
And while the tariffs did encourage foreign companies to shift more of their manufacturing to the United States and created about 1,800 new jobs, the researchers conclude that those came at a steep cost: about $817,000 per job.
Mr. Trump imposed the tariffs last year in response to a complaint by the Michigan-based manufacturer Whirlpool, which claimed foreign competitors were cornering the American washing machine market with cheaper models that threatened domestic manufacturers. The tariffs started at 20 percent per imported washer and rose to 50 percent late in the year, after total imports exceeded a quota set by the administration.
Mr. Trump, a self-proclaimed lover of tariffs, hailed the move as a way to help American production and jobs.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Did they accurately calculate the benefits and costs ? Probably not.
Another crackpot Free Traitor wailing about #MAGA and a strong manufacturing base.
I am sure this article is as accurate as anything else in the NYT.
The article tries to claim that the Washing machine tariff inadvertently affected driers.
Somehow I think that since washers and driers are typically package units, that the government expected both to be affected.
Like anyone actually believes the NYT any more.
Journalists? meh......
But the foreigners pay the tariffs, so we’re really nailing our competitors! /sarcasm
The numbers don't add up to either 125% or 225%.
And again, these same actions occurred under Rat administrations, toward different countries, and we never heard a peep at how tariffs (taxes by another name) hurt consumers.
However, ask the ~1,800 people who gained job, and US appliance manufacturers who have a way to fight the Chinese governments job of boosting their companies, at the expense of the rest of the world.
Tarrifs are not ALL bad just because they are tariffs.
When a foreign government helps support a product overseas so they can sell it here dirt cheap that hurts american manufacturers
Some times other countries do it long enough to drive US companies out of business
What? No claim Pres. Trump got the money personally?
Is the NYT going after the EU and China, who are even greater lovers of tariffs? China will impose tariffs even though they are on the positive end of a massive trade deficit. Does that sound fair?
As I’ve always said, if we want government to artificially create jobs we should just have a WPA type program funded by broad taxes.
It’s much more efficient and creates less market distortion than tariffs.
Heavens! Think about those 1800 poor NEW employees impacted by the tariffs. They probably ALL bought Whirlpool dryers and took home less money!
And to think, they were recently comfortable with EBT and ADC while hanging their laundry on a cotton rope between tenements.
Horrors!
Daymn you Donald J Trump! now I cant afford a new Chinese green machine, and will have to call the Maytag repairman!
I feel dirty for agreeing with the NYTimes.
I bought an American-made Maytag washer and dryer set earlier this year. If it cost more than it might have without a tariff, I didn’t notice. I value American jobs.
Prices will be higher until domestic suppliers come on line. But us takes time to reverse decades of traitorous trade policies. The situation is dynamic and not static like Free Traitors™ would have us believe. Lies, bully scare tactics and deception are the hallmark of the free trader.
The NYT doesn't want people to work because they would lose control over them. Rather they would have them collect 'welfare' than to make things.
Siding with the NYT. LOL.
EVERY cost imposed on companies is paid by consumers. (Who pasys the SS taxes of employees? : the customer.)
Yet only tariffs are reported as so!
Anyway, can’t believe a word of the NYT. They’ve just been dishonest too often.
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