Political interference on the Trump regime’s part has thwarted Amazon’s efforts to offer pricing transparency.
The chaos and destruction unleashed across the US by Trump’s inflationary tariffs is continuing to make headlines. Already, it has caused numerous stock market crashes, triggered a suspected recession, and is bringing untold amounts of economic pain to businesses everywhere. The rising prices are already being felt in numerous sectors including electronics and the gaming sector. What’s more, it is also causing a decline in port activity. From the Guardian:
Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic trade war has triggered a slump in shipments to the US’s most important ports, amid the growing risk of a recession in the world’s largest economy.
In the latest sign of the US president’s tariff policies rattling the economy, figures show the number of vessels scheduled to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles next week is down by almost a third on the same period a year earlier.
According to the data compiled from ocean carrier manifest records by Port Optimizer, the number of arrivals this week is on track to be down by about 11% on the same week last year. Separate figures reported by the Financial Times from Vizion, a data provider, show container bookings from China to the US fell 45% by mid-April compared with a year earlier.
Economists have warned that Trump’s trade battles will lead to a significant slowdown in global trade and come with a cost for US consumers by pushing up prices and raising the chances of a recession. Washington has imposed a 145% tariff on Chinese imports and a blanket 10% border tax on all other countries, barring some exemptions.
This has long been economic reality despite the denial of a psychotic maniac of a president who insisted that his magical tariffs will solve everything from inflation to interest rates to low wages to pretty much everything else you can imagine. Naturally, his devoted followers ate up all the lies, believing that they were on the verge of a new renaissance because if you can’t believe a notorious serial liar who also happens to be an egomaniac, who can you believe? Of course, denial will only get you so far. As I’ve always said, reality doesn’t care what you personally believe, it just does what it does and no amount of lying or deceit will cover it up. I’ve seen my maxim play out again and again on numerous stories and the trade war is proving to be no exception.
Faced with a lack of shipments and higher prices, the tariffs could cause store shelves to go empty. From Huffington Post:
Executives from three of America’s biggest retail chains warned President Donald Trump that things could get ugly if his aggressive economic agenda proceeds as planned, according to a new report from Axios.
During a private meeting in the Oval Office on Monday, the CEOs of Walmart, Target and Home Depot reportedly told the president that supply chains could freeze and prompt stores’ shelves to go barren if he doesn’t rein in his sharp tariff plans, and meddles with the Federal Reserve.
“The big box CEOs flat out told him the prices aren’t going up, they’re steady right now, but they will go up,” an administration official familiar with the meeting told Axios. “And this wasn’t about food. But he was told that shelves will be empty.”
According to a separate official briefed on the meeting, Trump was told that if he doesn’t change course, the impact could be noticeable in as little as two weeks.
A similar story is, of course, playing out for Amazon. Earlier this week, Punchbowl News reported that they were going to be adding a line on prices explaining how much the tariffs are costing consumers. There was actually more to the story then that and the report actually wasn’t entirely accurate as it turned out.
My initial thoughts were that if it was true that Amazon was going to be putting a transparency line on their prices, this wouldn’t be anything new. Whenever large tech companies have to comply with local laws, they tend to put a notice warning users that their experience has been altered to comply with local laws. Whether that is the listing of news articles on Google search results or added costs due to taxes, the large tech companies have a general policy of being open and transparent about these things. So, putting a transparency line wouldn’t have been exactly new for large tech companies if it was across the board.
As it turns out, it was actually for a subset of Amazon services that this would’ve applied to. TechDirt noted that this was actually meant for Amazon Haul rather than Amazon across the board. That is a difference, but a difference that ultimately didn’t matter anyway. The Trump administration freaked out that American’s might actually see the consequences of the tariffs and made some angry phone calls to Amazon, demanding that this action be reversed. From TechDirt:
But the point is this: Trump freaked out about a massive online retailer showing American buyers the impact on pricing of the tariffs that Trump is totally proud of and that will bring America into its new golden age. Tariffs are good, you see, but the public knowing what they do is not.
Amazon issued such a specific and forceful on-the-record denial in part because it had drawn the ire of the Trump administration. In a press briefing early this morning, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked a question about the report, which the administration responded to as though Amazon had made a formal announcement about the policy.
“This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” Leavitt said, before blaming the Biden administration for high inflation and claiming that Amazon had “partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm.”
The Washington Post also reported that Trump had called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to complain about the report.
There is simply no way to square this circle other than to say that Trump knows it will piss off Americans if they see how much cost he is adding to them, rather than to foreign companies and countries as he’s claimed this will all work. So he wants to hide the thing he says is awesome and is proud of from the American people. And he’s willing to put his thumb on commercial interests to do so.
Why? Why is it a bad thing for retailers and manufacturers to inform the public of where the costs of their goods are coming from? If tariffs are so great, why does the public need to be shielded from understanding what they do? These sellers are going to be accused of price-gauging, particularly from anyone who believes Trump’s nonsense claim that anyone but Americans will be paying these tariffs. Why should they endure those accusations in favor of Trump’s game of hide-and-seek?
Indeed, Amazon has since backed down on this plan after the Trump administrations political interference into its private business. Trump, for his part, claimed victory to defending American’s from facing reality for now. Yet, despite this, earnings reports coming out suggests that Amazon sees trouble ahead. From Forbes:
Amazon warned Thursday that “tariffs and trade policies” may complicate its future, while Apple said it expects a nearly $1 billion hit from President Donald Trump’s tariffs, becoming the latest companies to report losses or cut financial forecasts as many cite market uncertainty aggravated by Trump’s tariffs.
So, you have the possibility of empty store shelves and large businesses expecting to see massive losses in the future (Amazon and Apple being just two of those companies admitting this). All of this was foreseeable, yet the tariff insanity was seemingly permitted to march full steam ahead.
Yet, it is almost looking like even Trump is starting to panic over the consequences of the tariffs he has unleashed. Already, Trump has rolled back on some auto tariffs:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection guidance released on Thursday said automobile parts compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade will not be hit with President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Further, it is looking like Trump is now suddenly hoping to meet with China to cut a “deal”:
Beijing is “evaluating” an offer from the US to engage in trade negotiations, the Chinese government has said, a week after Donald Trump claimed talks were already under way.
China’s commerce ministry said on Friday: “The US has recently taken the initiative on many occasions to convey information to China through relevant parties, saying it hopes to talk with China.”
On Thursday, influential commentators in China said the country was ready to engage in talks. The suggestion that Beijing was potentially willing to negotiate with Washington – along with a better than expected report on US jobs – sent markets higher on Friday on both sides of the Atlantic.
Back in March, it looked like the deterrent of stock market crashes was becoming less of a deterrent as the Trump regime started to ignore the crashes altogether and just carry out the original plan of slapping tariffs on everything while not having a clue what they are really doing. At the time, I actively wondered what the heck would act as a deterrent if the stock market crashes weren’t going to do it. Well, as it turns out, the threat of a full blown economic meltdown with high prices and empty store shelves is finally what is getting it through to Trump’s thick skull that his tariff plans are idiotic at best and a downright existential threat to the US at worst.
While the hope is that some degree of normalcy can finally be restored and an economic meltdown can be averted, nothing is all that certain. After all, Trump was able to psych himself up enough to ignore the collapsing stock market to go full stupid with these tariffs. It’s not entirely out of the question the same won’t happen with the threat of economic collapse. Still, it’s nice to know that there is still seemingly a deterrent out there. This even with all the political meddling Trump is carrying out with private businesses like Amazon.
