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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Box-By-The-Riviera™ who wrote (212917)4/6/2025 12:09:25 AM
From: TobagoJack  Respond to of 217852
 
re <<geeezus>>
bloomberg.com

Trump Promised a Manufacturing Boom, But Industries Aren’t Sure


Donald Trump holds a reciprocal tariffs chart in the Rose Garden on April 2.Photographer: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg

By Catherine Lucey

5 April 2025 at 22:00 GMT+8

  • President Trump's tariff strategy is questioned by manufacturing advocates and economists, who argue that it may not lead to a resurgence of domestic manufacturing due to supply chain issues, high costs, and workforce needs.

    Summary by Bloomberg AI

  • Trump's approach is seen as a gamble, with potential short-term pain outweighed by the promise of a restructured US economy, but critics argue that the tariffs may not be enough to convince companies to move operations to the US.

    Summary by Bloomberg AI

  • The tariffs have already sparked uncertainty and criticism from manufacturers, with some seeking exemptions and others warning of the impact on investment, jobs, and supply chains.

    Summary by Bloomberg AI
President Donald Trump has vowed his historic tariff blitz would revive domestic manufacturing, but industry worries about his approach are raising fresh doubts about whether he can deliver on his promise of an economic boom.

In the Rose Garden on Wednesday, Trump declared “jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country” and predicted new “golden age” in America. Since then, he has stood by his decision to hike US tariffs to their highest levels in more than a century, even as the move sparked a global market meltdown.

Some manufacturing advocates and economists questioned Trump’s underlying logic, saying supply chain issues, high costs, workforce needs and the laborious process of moving production to the US stand in the way. Continued uncertainty about Trump’s long-term policy could also have a chilling effect, they said.

If the tariffs aren’t enough to convince companies to move operations to the US, it could mean Americans bear the heavy burden of the economic havoc Trump’s announcement unleashed without the promise of future benefits. That could heighten political risks for Trump and his fellow Republicans.

“While we certainly agree we should aggressively pursue any policy that helps us make things in America, the idea that you can move every part of the manufacturing process back to the US does not align with reality,” said Kip Eideberg, senior vice president for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers.

Eideberg, whose group represents makers of equipment used in construction, agriculture, mining, utilities and forestry, added that with businesses relying on components and labor from around the world, “you can’t just pick all that up and just move it over the US.”

Economists say companies are not going to commit to the time and investment required to reshore production to the US if they don’t think the tariffs are permanent, and Trump has vacillated between saying his policies will never change and he’s open to negotiations.

Economic gambles

“We remain very skeptical that tariffs will trigger a large wave of reshoring, given the huge labor cost savings available by producing goods overseas, as well as uncertainty about how long protectionist policies will last,” Samuel Tombs, chief US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said in a note.

The White House pushed back on criticism Friday. Top Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller declared on Fox News that “changes in advanced manufacturing technology, 3-D printing, robotics, artificial intelligence” make it “more and more affordable to manufacture, produce and build at scale in the United States.”

With his tariff strategy, Trump is betting both economically and politically that any short-term pain over tariffs is worth it for a restructured US economy. Early in his presidency, President Joe Biden made a similar gamble, passing a series of infrastructure and pandemic relief bills that he said would eventually boost the economy even as Americans grappled with inflation.


Joe Biden signs the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021.
Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg

In Biden’s case, voters did not see impacts quickly enough to inspire them to hand control of Washington to Democrats in 2024. Trump is constitutionally prohibited from serving a third term. But if voters sour on his policies, that could spell trouble for his party in the 2026 midterm elections or the 2028 presidential race.

How long?

“It makes people nervous,” said Dennis Darnoi, a Republican strategist in Michigan, where there will be a race for an open Senate seat and governor in 2026. He said the question is where political moderates land on Trump’s policies. “How long are they going to give him before things start to sour?”

A CBS poll released before the tariff announcement showed that 55% of Americans though that the Trump administration was focused too much on tariffs and 64% thought they were not focused enough on lowering prices. That poll also showed that just 23% thought that Trump’s financial policies are making them financially better off.

Aftershocks were evident immediately for manufacturers after Trump rolled out his plan. Levies rose to 46% on Vietnam, a vital location for Apple Inc. and Nike Inc. Cambodia, where Abercrombie & Fitch Co. gets about one-fifth of its merchandise, faces a 49% rate. Indonesia, where Japan’s Panasonic Holdings Corp. operates, was hit with a 32% charge.

Jay Timmons, president of the National Association of Manufacturers said in a statement that the tariffs “threaten investment, jobs, supply chains and, in turn, America’s ability to outcompete other nations.”

Scott Paul, who heads the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a partnership of the steelworkers union and manufacturers, was more bullish.

“There will be adjustment. This will take more than hours or days. It will take more than weeks months or longer,” he said. “I actually think moving forward that things are going to get better, not worse.”

Exemptions sought

Before the tariff announcement, some companies sought to boost investments in the US. Hyundai Motor Co. announced plans to build a new steel plant in Louisiana last month and did an event with Trump at the White House.


Chung Euisun, chairman of Hyundai Motor Co., announces a new steel plant in Louisiana while speaking at the White House.
Photographer: Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg

White House spokesman Kush Desai cited investments from companies like Apple and Hyundai as “indicative of how this administration is working with the private sector while implementing President Trump’s pro-growth, pro-worker America First agenda of tariffs, deregulation, tax cuts, and the unleashing of American energy.”

Still, one emerging challenge to bringing manufacturing back is Trump’s own tariffs, companies say.

In recent months, businesses have filed hundreds of requests to the US Trade Representative for exemptions on China tariffs for machinery needed to set up US production lines and that they say cannot be sourced domestically.


Elon Musk
Photographer: Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg

Among them is Tesla Inc., led by Trump adviser Elon Musk. Tesla filed a series of requests for exclusions just two days before Trump announced his latest duties, arguing that exemptions would help them boost manufacturing in the US.

Another issue is whether the US has the workers to staff more manufacturing facilities. There were 482,000 open manufacturing jobs in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In a survey of manufacturers conducted by NAM in the first quarter of 2025, 48.4% cited attracting and retaining a quality workforce as a challenge. And Trump’s crackdown on immigration could also slow labor force growth.

Looking ahead, Trump is hoping to further juice economic growth with an upcoming tax bill. But economists at the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office have cautioned that an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts won’t yield much economic growth because it mainly lowers individual taxes, rather than business levies.

Republicans are still debating what will be included in the bill, but the legislation will likely heavily tilt toward rate cuts and deductions for households, rather than big reductions for corporations.

— With assistance from Shawn Donnan



To: Box-By-The-Riviera™ who wrote (212917)4/6/2025 12:15:09 AM
From: TobagoJack  Respond to of 217852
 
re <<stop that>>

bloomberg.com

Wall Street Gets Rude Shock as Bessent Plays Second Fiddle on Tariffs


Scott Bessent during a television interview following President Donald tariff announcement on April 2.

Photographer: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg

By Saleha Mohsin, Dawn Lim, and Katherine Burton

6 April 2025 at 02:51 GMT+8

  • Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent received calls from hedge fund managers and finance executives seeking his help in swaying President Trump on tariffs, but he wasn't the primary driver of the tariff announcement.

    Summary by Bloomberg AI

  • The tariffs have caused market carnage, wiping out $5.4 trillion in value, and have led to recession fears, with some Republican lawmakers and Wall Street executives expressing concerns about the economic impact.

    Summary by Bloomberg AI

  • Despite the backlash, Trump remains committed to his tariff policy, focusing on the long-term goal of reviving the US manufacturing base and reducing reliance on rivals, with some administration officials hoping for a shift in policy but acknowledging it would have to come from the president alone.

    Summary by Bloomberg AI
From the moment President Donald Trump unveiled his sweeping tariffs Wednesday through the ensuing market mayhem the following day, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s phone lit up with text messages from executives tied to his former industry.

Multiple hedge fund managers and finance executives reached out, seeking his help in swaying Trump on the levies, according to people familiar with the matter. After all, as the former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, Bessent was a potential ally. He was seen as someone who could explain to the president that extreme new levies would damage the economy and continue to wreak havoc on markets.

But, in fact, Bessent wasn’t the primary driver of the tariff announcement, according to a person familiar with the matter. He used his role in Oval Office meetings to lay out potential scenarios for markets and the economy based on different tariff levels, the person said.

The tariffs were largely shaped by a small group within Trump’s inner circle, with critical decisions about the duties’ structure going down to the wire before the president’s announcement. A Treasury spokesperson declined to comment.

Now, Trump’s bid to remake the US economy and boost made-in-America products is at odds with a Wall Street establishment that has profited for decades from the idea that international trade drives the world order. And even some Republican lawmakers are sounding the alarm.

For the past two days at least, the market carnage that Wall Street feared has come to pass, wiping out $5.4 trillion in value and dragging down the S&P 500 to the lowest level in 11 months. Recession fears are growing around the globe. And executives who had rallied behind the Trump administration’s promises to cut taxes and ease regulation are now contending with an economic agenda that stands to roil their businesses.

Private equity firms are calling off initial public offerings and tempering expectations of a deal comeback that they hoped would help juice fundraising. Hedge funds are weighing whether Trump’s next move is too unpredictable to even wager on. Bank leaders who had forecast a more pro-growth agenda are having to peel back expectations, with JPMorgan Chase & Co. economists predicting a US recession this year.

The market plunge has even caused some of Trump’s most ardent backers in the political world to predict broader fallout: Texas Senator Ted Cruz said tariffs everywhere “would destroy jobs here at home and do real damage to the US economy.” On his podcast, he warned the levies make Republicans vulnerable to a “bloodbath” in 2026 midterms elections.

Trump — who in his first administration paid close attention to the stock market’s performance — has shown that he won’t be easily persuaded to change course by the tariff-induced plunge. He said Friday that the policy will remain and that large corporations are unconcerned by the tariff plan. As markets slid the most in five years, the president was at his West Palm Beach golf club.

Within the administration, the market fallout has caused nervousness, and officials will be eyeing whether the market fallout extends into a third session on Monday. Yet there’s a sense that any shift in policy would have to come from the president alone. And Trump is focused on the long term with tariffs, a person familiar with the matter said. He has stressed the need to revive the US manufacturing base, secure supply chains and reduce reliance on rivals.

“The only special interest guiding President Trump’s decisions is the interest of the American people,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said. “The entire administration is aligned on addressing the national emergency that President Trump has rightfully identified is posed by our country running regular trade deficits.”

Tariff Roll Out

A Trump adviser who isn’t part of the administration criticized how the levies were rolled out and the White House’s communication strategy as markets were crashing. It should have had teams of economists, business leaders and union workers explaining the plan on TV, this person said.

In the weeks leading up to the tariff announcement, some Wall Street executives had already started to appeal to the Treasury secretary for help. Others went public with their warnings. Citadel founder Ken Griffin repeatedly criticized planned tariffs, saying they would dull the US’s competitive edge, while Warren Buffett called tariffs “an act of war, to some degree.”

Bessent remains a key member of Trump’s economic team, according to an administration official. But senior counselor Peter Navarro and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick dominated the president’s attention on tariffs, said a person close to the matter. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was also an integral part of the team.

Bessent, in an interview with Bloomberg Television after the tariffs were announced Wednesday, said he wasn’t a part of negotiations with other countries and has been focused on the administration’s tax agenda.

Private equity firms had seen Trump’s arrival heralding the return of IPOs that had been largely dormant the past three years and looser strictures on attracting wealthy individuals as clients. Instead, this week left them scrambling to determine how portfolio companies would be affected by the tariffs and are nursing painful stock slides. Shares of Apollo and KKR & Co. notched the biggest two-day slumps in their history.

Dealmakers note that some sectors — like domestic manufacturing — could still be poised for big boosts under the Trump administration. But they have expressed concerns to acquaintances that prolonged uncertainty and a slumping market will make it harder to exit bets at the prices they hoped. Already, companies including Klarna Group Plc and StubHub Holdings Inc. have paused their IPOs.

They’ve avoided airing their views publicly for fear of drawing the president’s wrath, and instead are trying to backchannel their concerns through proxies and lobbyists instead.

There are signs of some pushback among Trump loyalists on Capitol Hill as well. Senator Chuck Grassley and three other Republicans co-sponsored a bipartisan bill that intends to bring back tariff power to Congress, requiring approval of most new tariffs within 60 days. Majority Leader John Thune, who ultimately has the power to decide whether to bring the bill up for a floor vote, said he plans to look at the legislation.

“I know there is some interest in it,” Thune said on Friday. He acknowledged that the party was watching Wall Street carefully, and said he hoped they would see results from Trump’s plan “fairly quickly.”

Meanwhile on Saturday — as traders and executives across Wall Street and corporate America were still reeling from the market mayhem — White House aides issued an announcement: Trump had won the second round of the Senior Golf Championship at his Jupiter, Florida club.

He’d be advancing to the championship on Sunday.

— With assistance from Joshua Green, Emily Flitter, Josh Wingrove, Alicia Diaz, Catherine Lucey, and Laura Benitez



To: Box-By-The-Riviera™ who wrote (212917)4/6/2025 12:20:53 AM
From: TobagoJack  Respond to of 217852
 
re <<do something with one of your hands>>
“THIS IS AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, AND WE WILL WIN,” Trump wrote. “HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic.”


bloomberg.com

China Pledges Resolute Measures to Hit Back at Trump Tariffs

6 April 2025 at 00:43 GMT+8

  • China has pledged to take "resolute measures" to defend its economy and sovereignty in response to US tariffs.

    Summary by Bloomberg AI

  • China has imposed a 34% tariff on all US imports starting April 10 and restricted exports of rare earths, following the US's introduction of steep tariffs on Chinese products.

    Summary by Bloomberg AI

  • The trade tensions between the US and China have worsened, with neither side showing signs of backing down, and global markets have been affected as a result.

    Summary by Bloomberg AI
China pledged decisive action to defend its economy, a day after unveiling levies on American goods and export controls on rare earths in response to Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Beijing will continue to take “resolute measures” to safeguard its sovereignty, security and other interests, the state-owned Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday.

On Friday, President Xi Jinping’s government announced it will impose a 34% tariff on all imports from the US starting April 10, matching the level of Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs on Chinese products. Authorities in Beijing announced several other measures, including immediately restricting exports of seven types of rare earths.

China’s measures followed Trump’s move to boost tariffs on global trade partners by introducing the steepest American duties in a century, dealing a blow to global markets. The US tariffs announced this week will raise levies on nearly all Chinese products to at least 54%, potentially crippling the country’s exports to the US.

Tensions between the world’s biggest economies have worsened since Trump’s return to the White House. The US president has yet to speak with his Chinese counterpart more than two months after his inauguration. The countries are locked in a stalemate over China’s alleged role in the flow of fentanyl into America, which Trump cited as a rationale for the previous two rounds of tariffs.

Global equities extended their slump on Friday, with shares of companies including DuPont de Nemours Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. suffering some of the steepest declines. Stock markets in China and Hong Kong were closed on Friday for a holiday.

Despite the market turmoil, neither country is showing signs of backing down. On Saturday, the US president posted on his Truth Social site that China “has been hit much harder than the USA, not even close.”

“THIS IS AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, AND WE WILL WIN,” Trump wrote. “HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic.”



To: Box-By-The-Riviera™ who wrote (212917)4/6/2025 12:40:01 AM
From: TobagoJack  Respond to of 217852
 
re <<geeezus>>

reminder of backstory Message 34985474 , that TikTok is essentially an American-controlled concern built with China-talent, and Team China holds a Golden-Share for veto-purposes, plus, China can exercise thumb-up / thumb-down on whether the algorithm can be transferred, leased, or otherwise made continuously available to TikTok before / after transfer if transferred

TT drama is kabuki theatre where other groups of US Oligarchs wants in on several groups of same before inevitable IPO

and now, ... as the Trump declared war against China, China not playing

bloomberg.com

Trump’s TikTok Plan Upended by Chinese Objections Over Tariffs

By Stephanie Lai, Kurt Wagner, and Annmarie Hordern

5 April 2025 at 05:12 GMT+8

  • President Donald Trump was close to an agreement with ByteDance to spare TikTok from a US ban, but the deal was scuttled after China withheld its approval following the tariff announcement.

    Summary by Bloomberg AI

  • The proposed deal would have launched a new US-based version of TikTok owned and operated by a majority of American investors, with ByteDance's holdings reduced below 20%.

    Summary by Bloomberg AI

  • Trump has extended the deadline to reach a deal by 75 days, and has tapped senior administration officials to help vet potential buyers, including Oracle Corp., Blackstone Inc., and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

    Summary by Bloomberg AI
President Donald Trump had nearly clinched an agreement with TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance Ltd. that would spare the popular app from a US ban, but the deal was scuttled after China withheld its approval following this week’s tariff announcement, according to a person familiar with the matter.

After months of negotiations, US officials were close to an accord Wednesday that would launch a new US-based version of TikTok owned and operated by a majority of American investors, according to the person. The proposal called for reducing ByteDance’s holdings below 20% to comply with a US law requiring the Beijing-based company to divest its TikTok stake or see the app banned in the US.

White House officials had planned for Trump to sign an executive order approving the proposal — which had the blessing of investors and ByteDance — and opening a 120-day window to complete the transaction, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions. The announcement would come in time before an April 5 deadline to avoid a TikTok ban.

Yet the plan quickly hit a wall a day later, the person said, in the aftermath of Trump’s decision to impose sweeping tariffs on US trading partners, including levies that boosted the total rate imposed by the president on many Chinese imports to 54%. Representatives from ByteDance on Thursday warned that authorities in Beijing would no longer give their blessing until there could be negotiations on tariffs that have angered China and prompted retaliatory measures against the US, the person said.

ByteDance didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

With newfound uncertainty hanging over the plan, Trump announced on Friday that he would extend the deadline to reach a deal by another 75 days, while ByteDance gave its first public confirmation of talks with the US government over TikTok. The company said that key matters still need to be resolved and that any agreement would need to be approved under Chinese law.

In a post on his Truth Social network, Trump reiterated his desire for China to help negotiate a sale and suggested that the US could provide tariff relief in exchange for Beijing’s approval.

“We hope to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs,” Trump said in his post. “We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark.’ We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal.”

A Chinese embassy spokesperson said that Beijing has previously made its position on TikTok clear.

“China has always respected and protected the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises and opposed practices that violate the basic principles of the market economy and harm the legitimate interests of enterprises,” spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in a statement. “China’s opposition to the imposition of additional tariffs has always been consistent and clear.”

Under a law signed last year by former President Joe Biden, ByteDance was required to divest TikTok’s US unit by Jan. 19, but the company has balked at selling a lucrative business, which has been valued from $20 billion to as high as $150 billion depending on the proposed terms and technology included.

Trump’s order marks the second reprieve he’s granted to buy time for a deal to keep the app running in the US. The latest extension, however, goes beyond the bounds of the divest-or-ban law, which permits the president to give a “one-time extension of not more than 90 days.”

To help secure a deal, Trump has tapped a handful of senior administration officials to help vet potential buyers, putting the portfolio in the hands of Vice President JD Vance as well as National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.

Trump and other top officials reviewed a proposal on Wednesday from a consortium of US investors including Oracle Corp., Blackstone Inc. and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz that had emerged as a top contender to buy TikTok, according to two people familiar with the meeting.

Under the potential arrangement, new outside investors would own 50% of TikTok’s US business in a unit that would be spun off from ByteDance, according to sources familiar with the planning. ByteDance’s existing US investors would also own about 30% of the business, cutting ByteDance’s stake to just below 20%.

The proposal envisions Oracle taking a minority stake in TikTok’s US operations and providing security assurances for user data. Under that plan, the app’s influential algorithm would remain with ByteDance, removing a potential obstacle to winning approval from the company and Chinese authorities.

Critics of the proposal, though, argue that leaving the algorithm in Chinese hands would fail to comply with the divest-or-ban law and potentially allow China to access user information through a backdoor. Allowing ByteDance or China to keep the algorithm would do little to squash concerns that TikTok could be used to spread propaganda, claims that ByteDance and officials in Beijing have previously rejected.

Trump’s support for TikTok marks a turnabout from his first term in office, when he sought unsuccessfully to ban the app in 2020 over national security concerns. During his comeback bid for the White House last year, he embraced the app as a way to reach younger voters and said it helped seal his November election victory.

In 2020, Oracle was Trump’s original choice to buy TikTok from ByteDance as part of a consortium that also included Walmart Inc.That deal fell apart in the final months of his first term amid legal challenges by ByteDance and the widening Covid-19 pandemic.

This week, Amazon.com Inc. entered the running with a submitted bid to the White House via a letter to Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, according to a person familiar with the matter. That proposal, however, has not been taken as seriously by the administration, according to the person.

Other publicly known offers included one from a group led by billionaire Frank McCourt and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian; another featuring tech entrepreneur Jesse Tinsley and YouTube star MrBeast; a merger offer by San Francisco-based Perplexity AI; as well as a bid from AppLovin Corp.

— With assistance from Ryan Gould and Josh Wingrove



To: Box-By-The-Riviera™ who wrote (212917)4/6/2025 12:59:15 AM
From: TobagoJack  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 217852
 
re <<geeezus>>

Wondering what happens on Monday NYT market open, reviewing history, and then much to consider, about dead bodies floating to the surface, secrets revealed, etc etc