Posted on 02/12/2019 6:30:29 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
U.S. manufacturing is once again in the news. New data shows America’s factories adding 261,000 jobs from January 2018 to January 2019. In the State of the Union, President Trump emphasized the urgency of confronting predatory trade from countries like China.
There’s no doubt that America’s manufacturers are currently rebounding. The tariffs that President Trump imposed a year ago on steel, aluminum, solar panels and washing machines have already created more than 11,000 new jobs.
Even U.S. car companies are doing well at home. Ford’s North American operations posted a $2 billion profit in the fourth quarter, while GM’s North American net income topped $3 billion. Major steel consumers like Caterpillar and United Technologies have also reported strong results for 2018.
Despite this, critics of the tariffs still abound, particularly among large retailers claiming the tariffs will necessarily lead to price increases.
But that’s not what’s happening. Prices for new cars — which contain plenty of steel — remain steady. And the price of aluminum-canned beer is also rising at less than the rate of inflation.
America’s consumers simply aren’t seeing any major price increases from the tariffs, and core inflation has remained low at 2.2 percent. But industrial users of steel and aluminum haven’t seen price jumps either.
After a short-term increase in the summer, steel prices have actually fallen back to the levels of last January and February — before the tariffs even took effect. And federal data shows the Producer Price Index rising a cumulative 2.5 percent in 2018, exactly the same as it did in 2017.
U.S. industrial production has continued to climb throughout 2018, though, including a 7.8 percent increase in one of the heaviest metal-using sectors, motor vehicle and parts manufacturing.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Democrats Outraged!
Freeze federal spending and hiring, cut all federal alphabet agencies by 15% this year. Then see what you get the year after. Reelection guaranteed.
While I wholeheartedly support the proposed tarrifs President Trump has talked about, they really have not started yet, and to tell the complete truth, our trade deficit with China, just set another all-time high.
And December’s totals are not even included yet.
But they would from the next hike. Maybe not much though. China has eaten the increases from tariffs so far.
But there's a much bigger picture than trade in play.
Go Trump! Get it all!
The tariffs need to be permanent.
and to tell the complete truth, our trade deficit with China, just set another all-time high
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That makes sense. Our economy is booming. So many more people are working. They have money to spend. Most of the crap we buy comes from China.
Would like to see Levi come back to America. That's about as American as you can get.
So will this data silence the Free Traitors who since NAFTA have told us how bad buying American is ?
“But they would from the next hike. Maybe not much though. China has eaten the increases from tariffs so far.”
I am worried about the fed, rate hiking and rate hiking repeatedly to crush the economy in time for 2020.
China has a lot of USD denominated debt due this year. Raising fed rates makes that harder for them to pay.
Makes lowering the Yuan expensive.
Fun stuff all around!
No true, there are a lot of Democrats who support Trump's trade and tariff policies.
Democrats have to try harder to stop Trump in his quest to Make America Great Again, otherwise, they don’t stand a chance of getting a democrat president for at least10 more years. And, their desperation is very evident with everything they do and say, on a daily basis.
But that’s not what’s happening. Prices for new cars — which contain plenty of steel — remain steady. And the price of aluminum-canned beer is also rising at less than the rate of inflation.
America’s consumers simply aren’t seeing any major price increases from the tariffs, and core inflation has remained low at 2.2 percent. But industrial users of steel and aluminum haven’t seen price jumps either.
After a short-term increase in the summer, steel prices have actually fallen back to the levels of last January and February — before the tariffs even took effect. And federal data shows the Producer Price Index rising a cumulative 2.5 percent in 2018, exactly the same as it did in 2017.”
There are idiots here on Free Republic that swear this can’t happen, due to their understanding of economics.
They are amazingly stupid. Be sure to tell them that.
Now that Trump’s Tariffs brought foreign jobs back to America, the Republicans can import more foreigners to work them.
F’ing slavemasters.
You know Trumps policies are working when the leftist media stops talking about them.
Works for me
That was not the case, just one generation ago.
America has been sold out.
Only Rino effing communist moles would say we are declaring a trade war when China , Mexico et al were molesting us and destroying us in a trade war without retaliation
Tennessee, and you have never been across the border to Virginia? Hard to believe.
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