[NA] Practical tariff impact

AV8R_87 said:
Ok, impromptu poll. When is the last time any of you has seen a foreign movie, in any format? (cinema, stream, physical media)
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The last episode of The Grand Tour (9/13/24).

I plan to watch Clarkson’s Farm season 4 when it releases later this month.
 
AV8R_87 said:
Ok, impromptu poll. When is the last time any of you has seen a foreign movie, in any format? (cinema, stream, physical media)
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does that exclude OTA movies or movies on cable?

If the movie was shot in Canada, is it a foreign movie?
 
172andyou said:
Elf 5 will still cost the same. The problem is that the Chinese knock-off of Elf 5 will cost $300. :D
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Except that, as per the article, it is entirely unclear what the scope of this tariff is. As with most things these days, movies have effectively a global production chain, so even blockbusters that on the surface seem entirely American, have some foreign aspects to their production. It is entirely uncertain what would be subject to tariffs because, as with most things from this administration, nothing has been thought through or made clear.
 
AKiss20 said:
Some of us have taste that is not so insular as it seems yours is.
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Your assumptions might be flawed.
And I can read subtitles quite well, so I don't need to watch dubbed stuff if I can avoid it.
 
AKiss20 said:
Except that, as per the article, it is entirely unclear what the scope of this tariff is. As with most things these days, movies have effectively a global production chain, so even blockbusters that on the surface seem entirely American, have some foreign aspects to their production. It is entirely uncertain what would be subject to tariffs because, as with most things from this administration, nothing has been thought through or made clear.
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Quit analyzing a perfectly terrible joke. :p
 
AV8R_87 said:
Ok, impromptu poll. When is the last time any of you has seen a foreign movie, in any format? (cinema, stream, physical media)
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Weirdly enough, last week I watched the original version of "Taken". Pretty sure it's a French production.
 
Speaking of French, the original version of "The Man with One Red Shoe" is worth watching.
 
If we're on French films, "22 Bullets" wasn't bad. Kinda like "falling down" if the protagonist had a reasonable motive, was relatively ethical, and was a hit man instead of a nitwit.
 
Some of the best, most thoughtful films I’ve seen have been foreign. Too many to list over the years, but “Seven Beauties” and the original “Swept Away” come to mind. Most recent big productions I can recall were “Parasite” and "Godzilla Minus One". It’s welcome to have options beyond the latest Superhero or Minecraft movie*.

The idea of putting a tariff on foreign films is ridiculous.

*Apple TV has a recent series called “The Studio”. It mocks the idea of producing a “Kool Aid” movie. Not much more ridiculous than some of the tripe coming out of Hollywood today.
 
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So Japan on Friday hinted they might sell off the 1.1T in treasuries; as part of the tariff negotiations. Now, they walked that back on Sunday.
But, the door has now been opened.
Question is, will Congress listen and start addressing the deficit before trade negotiations cause someone else to dump the treasuries?

Tim
 
donjohnston said:
Because that would result in lot more democrat congress members, senators and electoral votes.
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Not in Alberta lol. Those guys may as well be Okies/Texans. There's a reason they call Edmonton the "Houston of the North". They are blue collar oil patch guys who couldn't stand Trudeau and resented half of the Eastern provinces (especially Quebec) for using them as a cash cow to fund all of the government program stuff. Upset with absurd housing prices and open immigration as well. If there was any Canadian province willing to step into US statehood it would be them. However, they are still proud Canadians and I doubt even there disdain for French Canada would allow them to fly a different flag.
 
SoonerAviator said:
If Trump polled many Americans, they probably would have been fine letting Hollywood starve, lol.
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If Trump polled many Americans, they probably wouldn't know which films were made where and who financed them. Ever read the bottom of the credits that list the companies/nations/organizations that are financial partners in the film?
 
murphey said:
If Trump polled many Americans, they probably wouldn't know which films were made where and who financed them. Ever read the bottom of the credits that list the companies/nations/organizations that are financial partners in the film?
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Sure, but I doubt that if tariffs forced a shift to only using US-based companies/locations that the average viewer would notice. All sorts of movies get filmed in a location that is nowhere near the location in the script.
 
AV8R_87 said:
Ok, impromptu poll. When is the last time any of you has seen a foreign movie, in any format? (cinema, stream, physical media)
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What's your definition of foreign movie? If filming location and/or financed by non-US entity, well.....I'm betting the folks around here have seen at least half of these, probably more:

Let's start with Australia & New Zealand
avatar 1 & 2
all the Mad Max & Road Warrior
The Baz Luhrmann trilogy
Crocodile Dundee
Everything Lord of the Rings
Some of the Marvel empire

Canada TV - all the Stargate tv series and the Stargate movie
Brokeback Mountain
Deadpool
Titanic
Superman (the original with Chris Reeves)

The UK
Doctor Who tv series (altho Disney seems to have grabbed the latest incarnation)
The Avengers (Diana Rigg & Patrick MacNee)
Everything Monty Python
Everything James Bond

China financing:
The Martian
Independence Day
Deadpool

Made in China
Kill Bill 1 & 2
Crouching Tiger, HIdden Dragon

Don't forget Mexico:
Clear & Present Danger
Treasure of Sierra Madre (Bogart if you don't remember)
Dusk to Dawn (truly brilliant comedy & horror by Tarantino)
Fist Full of Dollars
Magnificent Seven


 
AV8R_87 said:
Speaking of French, the original version of "The Man with One Red Shoe" is worth watching.
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The original La Cage aux Folles. The "Birdcage" is almost word-for-word translation.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Not in Alberta lol. Those guys may as well be Okies/Texans. There's a reason they call Edmonton the "Houston of the North". They are blue collar oil patch guys who couldn't stand Trudeau and resented half of the Eastern provinces (especially Quebec) for using them as a cash cow to fund all of the government program stuff. Upset with absurd housing prices and open immigration as well. If there was any Canadian province willing to step into US statehood it would be them. However, they are still proud Canadians and I doubt even there disdain for French Canada would allow them to fly a different flag.
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Show me where I wrote that all ten provinces would be democrat.

If they were to become US states, out of the ten provinces, how many do you think would be red and how many blue?
 
donjohnston said:
Show me where I wrote that all ten provinces would be democrat.

If they were to become US states, out of the ten provinces, how many do you think would be red and how many blue?
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I wasn't refuting your claim. No need to show you where you wrote anything. Summer donna.
 
My shotgun shells have increased about 20% from last year. I didn’t understand why until I did a little research and found out that almost all shotgun shell hulls are manufactured in Europe and imported to the US where they are loaded by US companies.
 
DavidWhite said:
My shotgun shells have increased about 20% from last year. I didn’t understand why until I did a little research and found out that almost all shotgun shell hulls are manufactured in Europe and imported to the US where they are loaded by US companies.
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for comparison, consider how much shotgun shells increased in the 2020, 2021 timeframe.
 
DavidWhite said:
That was just a factor of supply and demand. This increase is entirely self-imposed and unnecessary.
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I'll just leave it as I disagree with both your claims.
 
Weather crummy in Denver, TStorms and winds gusting to 40. Fun movie was on this afternoon, School of Rock & Roll with Jack Black. Guess what's at the bottom of the credits?

produced in association with
MFP Munich Film Partners New Century GmbH & Co. SOR Productions KG,
Grünwald, Germany
 
I think what frustrates me most about this tariff stuff is the economic literature is profoundly in the camp of them being a net loss. It leads to a small boost for a protected industry but an overall loss as input cost rise and exports fall with retaliatory measures. Steel tariffs in the 70s-80s,2000s the recent 2018 tariffs and their continuation. They dont shift the balance of trade and just increase cost. I've been looking at JSTOR and doing a good faith search for literature on tariffs and in pretty much every instance protected industry stagnates, rent seeking increases, and cost rise. I can't figure out the logic for these things applied in such a blanket manner. Its very underpants gnomes logic. step one tariffs step 2 .... Step 3 profits! Its gonna reshore manufacturing (but not be inflationary) but its also gonna raise a bunch of revenue (thought we were reshoring) and also not inflate prices cause raising the cost of imports to reshore manufacturing somehow will not increase cost anywhere along the line.

Tariffs on this level are basically a form of socialism, an attempt at centrally planning an economy dominated by state action. Rather than market forces driving things its the government saying (literally) "This is the new model, where you work in these plants for the rest of your life, and your kids work here, and your grandkids work here." Whats old is new, elites thinking they can somehow plan an economy better than the free market. We have a century of countries experiencing success as they liberalize markets and reduce the socialist economic policy tendencies and here we dive full steam ahead back into what I thought was a defeated ideology.

EDIT: thinking more on my tariff hatred. I don't understand why trade deficits (reason for a lot of this crap)are seen as a bad thing. Trade deficits exist all throughout life from an individual level (buying goods off marketplace) on a family level, a city level, a state level, region level, and yes a country level. Trade deficits is nothing more than comparative advantage made manifest, a core of capitalism and one source of why we are so wealthy. If we buy 50 million bags of coffee from Brazil and they import nothing from us how are we harmed? I think people see deficit and their intuition says thats bad. Maybe we should phrase it as we have too much money.
 
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murphey said:
What's your definition of foreign movie? If filming location and/or financed by non-US entity, well.....I'm betting the folks around here have seen at least half of these, probably more:
<snip>

Don't forget Mexico:
Clear & Present Danger
Treasure of Sierra Madre (Bogart if you don't remember)
Dusk to Dawn (truly brilliant comedy & horror by Tarantino)
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I can get behind most of that, but to me "Dusk to Dawn" was awful... like it was written by an angry, drunk Benny Hill on crack.

falconkidding said:
I think what frustrates me most about this tariff stuff is the economic literature is profoundly in the camp of them being a net loss. It leads to a small boost for a protected industry but an overall loss as input cost rise and exports fall with retaliatory measures. Steel tariffs in the 70s-80s,2000s the recent 2018 tariffs and their continuation. They dont shift the balance of trade and just increase cost. I've been looking at JSTOR and doing a good faith search for literature on tariffs and in pretty much every instance protected industry stagnates, rent seeking increases, and cost rise. I can't figure out the logic for these things applied in such a blanket manner. Its very underpants gnomes logic. step one tariffs step 2 .... Step 3 profits! Its gonna reshore manufacturing (but not be inflationary) but its also gonna raise a bunch of revenue (thought we were reshoring) and also not inflate prices cause raising the cost of imports to reshore manufacturing somehow will not increase cost anywhere along the line.

Tariffs on this level are basically a form of socialism, an attempt at centrally planning an economy dominated by state action. Rather than market forces driving things its the government saying (literally) "This is the new model, where you work in these plants for the rest of your life, and your kids work here, and your grandkids work here." Whats old is new, elites thinking they can somehow plan an economy better than the free market. We have a century of countries experiencing success as they liberalize markets and reduce the socialist economic policy tendencies and here we dive full steam ahead back into what I thought was a defeated ideology.
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Taxes, tariffs, are in a way like a 45 automatic. There's no inherent morality or political association linked to them, they're just tools, and people tend to base their views on which way they're pointed. Ideally, tariffs are balancing forces against unfair competition caused by differences in labor and environmental conditions and 45's are carried by folks like Audie Murphy, but in reality the motivations are often a bit darker all the way around. Although not as dark as that movie mentioned above.
 
Bob Noel said:
caused by a variety of things.
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Yes. Certain of our trading partners have relied on a wide range of negative effects to disrupt a natural balance of trade for the last several decades. Among these are:

> Manipulated currency exchange rates
> Artificially low labor rates
> Weak or non-existent labor safety standards
> Refusal to abide by international IP standards
> Artificially low energy costs resulting from lack of adherence to environmental standards (China's electricity is 60% from coal, and they are still building new coal plants)
> Dumping of manufactured products
> Weak or non-existent environmental controls on manufacturing processes
> Anti-competitive government subsidies supporting targeted industries

The list goes on far longer than this. For 30 years we have been living fat, dumb and happy while enjoying artificially low priced imported goods that have undercut our industrial capacity and the middle class wage base that accompanies it. It's time to pay the piper, start to restore a trade balance, and grow our middle class back to where it should be.

Are tariffs the right approach? Maybe not - what do you propose?
 
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Bob Noel said:
can't propose anything due to POA ROC
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Well played. :lol:

To be clear, I see this as a non-partisan issue. It's been brewing for decades across every combination of political branch control, and sooner or later it needs to be addressed by somebody.

There is no pain-free solution, and I share your dislike for the "blunt instrument" use of tariffs. Something needs to be done, though.
 
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StraightnLevel said:
Well played. :lol:

To be clear, I see this as a non-partisan issue. It's been brewing for decades across every combination of political branch control, and sooner or later it needs to be addressed by somebody.

There is no pain-free solution, and I share your dislike for the "blunt instrument" use of tariffs. Something needs to be done, though.
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I just which the tactic was more pointed scalpel rather than a broadsword, especially in regard to our border-sharing trade partners. It seems like it would have been a better tactic to use local legislation to persuade US-based companies to onshore desired manufacturing and put financial constraints on foreign companies with regard to pulling out profits or obtaining capital goods (land/buildings especially).
 
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