What if tariffs?

[hshdhdhj4444]

It’s actually quite shocking to leave the U.S. and experience the drastic fall in respect.

The U.S. has over a century’s worth of dominance and control built in, so it’s not gonna unravel anytime soon and countries will need to grovel along for a bit.

But the decoupling has begun, is almost certainly irreversible and is gonna hit Americans hard at most a decade from now.

We have no idea the the chain of motion that has already been set in. Trillions of dollars worth of goodwill and respect has been lost in months.

[RestartKernel]

From my Western European perspective: what's specifically striking is how sentiment towards China has improved in turn. Not sure what caused it exactly, but my guess is 1) the U.S. as common rival, and 2) the amalgamation of fears of Chinese manufacturing with newfound fears of U.S. big tech into European nationalism to replace some vague sense of "Western" alliance. The latter may be turning China from the big geopolitical rival to be wary of to just another outside force.

[sojournerc]

I'm not sure it's all that new. During the Bush Jr. years America was not highly thought of.

I'm an American traveling through Scandinavia and Northern continental Europe for the last three weeks, now in the UK.

I haven't experienced a bit of grief. Their opinion of our politics is generally separate from how they treat me personally, and I do the same for people of other nationalities.

American cultural dominance is everywhere. I can barely find a pub or restaurant not playing American music, for instance.

[xnx]

> Trillions of dollars worth of goodwill and respect has been lost in months

And for nothing. Normally you can at least get a good price for selling your reputation.

[CoastalCoder]

> It’s actually quite shocking to leave the U.S. and experience the drastic fall in respect.

My only vantage point is from inside the U.S., but I find the loss of prestige completely believable.

What amazed me was discovering that my own countrymen would vote in, and continue to support, someone like Trump.

My political views are pretty centrist, and I thought I understood the views of most liberals and conservatives.

But I never thought there would be so little resistance to the lies, corruption, authoritarianism, and the breakdown of the separation of powers. And the simple incompetence w.r.t. running the executive branch.

It's like my mental framework has no way to model whatever is going on here.

[LennyHenrysNuts]

To be fair you haven't had a great deal of respect for the last forty years or so.

What you mistook for respect was fear.

[intermerda]

The number 39 refers to the 39% tariff rate on Switzerland.

Kind of insane that the American President just made up a lie that tariffs are paid by foreign countries and rest of the administration just went along with it. It flies in the face of any common sense.

[tzs]

It's even worse than that. Their argument against corporate income taxes is that any tax imposed on a corporation is just passed on to consumers.

Hard to see why companies would pass on a government imposed tax if it is an income tax but not a tariff.

If anything you'd expect it to be the other way around, because an income tax allows deductions for much of the cost of making that income which generally means the amount of tax is lower in times when the business is not making much money, whereas a tariff is on the cost if the businesses imports which can remain high even in times where the business is not making money.

[TrackerFF]

It's not insane when the sitting American president is a known pathological liar, and has been known to be so for half a century.

What is insane, though, is that people voted for him. Elect a clown, expect a circus.

[mbrumlow]

So why would the Swiss company care then? Care so much to make a special watch? It’s no skin off their back, they don’t pay the tariff right? Americans are the only ones affected right?

[lijok]

I don't know how this tariff stuff works, so for my own understanding, how come countries retaliate to US tariffs by imposing retaliatory tariffs? Are they punishing their own nationals?

[croisillon]

it's thanks to the lying that he was elected in the first place, and no one around him dares to contradict him, what would be the incentives to stop?

[mrep]

Depending on the circumstance, the burden of tax can fall more on consumers or on producers based on the elasticity of supply and demand.

Microeconomics 101: https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/microec...

[charcircuit]

>It flies in the face of any common sense.

The consumer paying the tariff is merely an optimization over the exporter paying the tariff such that the tariff money passes through one less hand. Practically they seem pretty similar.

[nicois]

This would be more impactful if we could see the cost to US purchasers was actually 39% more. Sadly some manufacturers spread the cost across all consumers, which actually means non-US customers are actually paying some of the tariff costs too.

[onion2k]

I imagine some manufacturers used tariffs as a reason to lower the price of their products that imported into the US while also raising the price outside of the US to balance that change, but that doesn't mean the manufacturer or their customers outside of the USA are paying anything towards tariffs. The entire tariff transaction is between the customer and the US government, and it's all transacted within the USA.

Tariffs are a tax, paid on the value of imported good, by US citizens who are buying things from outside of the USA. That's it. They are not paid by anyone outside of the US.

[tjpnz]

Seems to have been the case with PS5 and Xbox consoles. The rest of the world was effectively subsidizing US gamers for a while, until prices there were jacked up even higher.

[MadDemon]

The tariff is applied to the import value. For many products you'll get a significant markup on top within the US for distribution, which is not affected by the tariffs.

[spiderfarmer]

Would you trust statistics coming from this administration?

[carlosjobim]

> Sadly some manufacturers spread the cost across all consumers

Of course not. They charge the highest price they possibly can in each market, regardless of other factors. They're not compensating this here or that there. Every company always charge as much as they can get away with, that is the core function of business.

[vachina]

Settlement in RMB, pay the producer not the middleman.

[duxup]

> spread the cost across all consumers

Did they lower the US import price before the tariff is applied in the US?

[bootsmann]

This was a big worry initially when the tariffs were announced but it doesn’t actually seem to be happening. Most manufacturers are not adjusting their price structure because the effects are super hard to estimate (don’t forget that the US is still just 20% of worldwide demand)

[isoprophlex]

So... they swapped 3 and 9 numerals. Does it run counter clockwise then, as a horological commentary on our present age of backwardness?

[brightbeige]

That you can find around southern South America

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-28013157

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am%C3%A9rica_Invertida

[nunorbatista]

no, it's a regular quartz movement.

[comrade1234]

Gotta be careful making fun of trump and the tariff situation lest you get another 10% added, which will make this watch irrelevant.

[stavros]

Let's not capitulate to bullies.

[spiderfarmer]

Nobody should be careful making fun of him. Everybody should confront him and then dial back. TACO 2.0.

[nunorbatista]

He would actually be working against his interest: he has been seen wearing multiple Swiss watches - Patek's, Rolex, Vacheron, etc,

[rapnie]

Tangential. It is fun to note how in ads showing watches the time is usually 9 past 10 as shown in the image. This apparently gives the most pleasing balance of the watch dials for the eye, while not covering the time indicators below.

[hshdhdhehd]

10:09:30 is probably the closest to 120 degree equal separation.

[mlrtime]

Once you know this, you can never stop seeing it. I learned about it years ago and every time I see a watch ad, I notice the same hand position.

[kitd]

It makes the watch face look like it's smiling.

[jenadine]

In the image it is 10 to 2.

[nurettin]

At first I thought tariffs were just more inflation. Import prices increase, sales prices balance it out and people will buy anyway.

But no, it hurt import businesses in unforseen ways. I saw entire shipment crates get discarded because it was suddenly too expensive to get into the country overnight and too expensive to ship back. Just senseless, pointless waste.

[blitzar]

It hurt import businesses in foreseen, expected and one must assume desired ways

[louthy]

Do the hands tick counter clockwise? I am assuming so to make 3/9 swap work, but it’s not mentioned.

[dalmo3]

It can't not be clockwise.

[fainpul]

Boring answer: no, because that would require modifications to the movement and would make the watch much too expensive.

The whole idea of Swatch is based on simplicity, reduction of parts count and automated manufacturability.

[brightbeige]

Only available in Switzerland

Here’s a link to the Swiss store which has more details, like price: https://www.swatch.com/en-ch/what-if-tariffs-so34z106/SO34Z1...

[Quarrel]

I like the "Hopefully, just a limited edition." line too :)

[kitd]

Whoever said tariffs were bad for business? There's a whole industry springing up of people taking the piss out of the POTUS.

[mohas]

Do we still remember that Tariffs are supposed to raise the price of foreign goods and make domestic goods more reasonable for buyers? it targets buyers and this is how it works regardless of how it is presented to the public, I don't imagine lots of supporters if presented as it is.

[advisedwang]

> raise the price of foreign goods and make domestic goods more reasonable for buyers

Tariffs never make domestic goods cheaper. In fact if the supply chain has anything imported then domestic goods become more expensive.

The best argument is that it makes domestic good relatively cheaper, thus supporting US manufacturing and so keeping jobs and profit in the country.

However... that would require domestic goods to be an actual option. I don't see many US manufactured watches available, and the ones that are still don't really compete.

[bbno4]

absolutely brilliant, one of the greatest things i have ever seen. shame its only available in switzerland.

[immibis]

how is a watch with 3 and 9 swapped brilliant in any way at all?

[mndgs]

True that

[bartread]

Interesting: does that mean the watch runs in reverse as well to account for the 3 and 9 markers being flipped? That would be kind of neat.

[zombot]

> glass that allows a side view of the watch’s dial.

Greatest feature, you can glance at it sideways! And the built-in reminders of 39%.

[landgenoot]

I like that it's priced at 139

[Nextgrid]

For a "statement" piece and limited edition with otherwise no notable features I'm surprised how cheap it is.

[shikon7]

For full effect, it should be priced 100 in Switzerland and 139 in the US

[bmacho]

Missed opportunity to initiate a global switch to clocks that go positive direction

[bmacho]

Maybe next time 39 becomes relevant for any reason

[verytrivial]

Haha but seriously, Trump is just starting to ramp up full kleptocracy mode. Each tariff change is going to be associated with billions in trades made with foreknowledge of the move. His robber baron friends will fund him and his regime forever. They can do whatever they want now. We might as well tear down the White House and replace it with a Putin style gilded palace for Oligarchs. Oh wait.

[seydor]

Ironic that it can't be tariff'd

[hshdhdhehd]

Large order in from Venezuela

[smusamashah]

It says Arabic numeral 3 and 9. I don't know why. Arabic 3 looks like this

٣

[orwin]

During the middle ages, France and Spain (and probably Sicily/Southern Italy) used two numerals: Arabic and Roman. In the end, Arabic numerals gave our (western) current numbers and Romans are mostly kept in titles and names.

Some watches still use Roman numerals (XII, III, VI, IX), Swatch specify here that those are Arabic (12, 3, 6, 9).

[Kwpolska]

It looks so terrible I thought the idea behind it was “this is what the US can manufacture without importing foreign materials”. But nah, it’s just an ugly watch with a pretty dumb marketing stunt that makes it less usable as a watch.

[brightbeige]

It’s a part of a collection: “WHAT IF?”

https://www.swatch.com/en-ch/bioceramic-what-if.html

[louthy]

Swatch watches are all ugly tbf (imho, of course). But let’s face it, this is more of a statement than a product

[kleiba]

De gustibus non est disputandum - I actually like the design, but then again, I don't wear watches.