Louise Matsakis: Yes, this is an absolutely beautiful quote for me who really wants to wear a hat, t-shirt or bumper sticker. The absolutely incredible photos that Minister Lutnick painted there. There are two basic camps within the Trump administration, and I think that’s part of why you see this confusion because these two camps are a little bit of a war with each other. They are both on TV. So, in a camp is the art of trading crowds. We call them this. People say Trump is the ultimate negotiator. This is an incredibly provocative measure. These tariffs are a starting point, the goal is not to maintain the height of tariffs, but to create a new world economy, in which these unfair trade deficits do not deprive the United States of America, and we are ushering in a new world that makes the United States treat the United States more fairly, we abandon our power, and you will soon see things change. I would say it was a false camp where Walter Bloomberg tweet was talking to. Another camp, perhaps we call them the army of iPhone workers, believes that the actual goal here is not to remove tariffs or simply use them as a negotiation strategy. Of course, we can definitely get some concessions from other countries. Perhaps the tariffs will adjust over time. But broadly speaking, tariffs will remain in place because their purpose is to revival in the U.S., and no one really may assemble an iPhone, but instead bringing various industries back to the U.S. They have a very vague explanation of which industries they want to prioritize here. But, honestly, I think this is a little grown on some male Twitter, like some in some people in some American populations, especially men with only high school diplomas, which has undergone a brief globalization change. So the idea is to go back to this era, where the man goes to work and does masculinity, puts tiny screws in the iPhone and offers his family something similar, rather than having a nameless, feminine email job. This is another camp.
Zoë Schiffer: Yes. OK Well, I definitely want to get into manufacturing with all this, and I think we’ll talk about that in the next section. But we need a quick break. We will be back with Louise Matsakis. Welcome back Incredible valley. So let’s talk about some of the implications of subsequent tariffs and market madness. From your report, how is this going to hit small businesses and manufacturing?
Louise Matsakis: So these tariffs are basically conceivable for every kind of small business disaster. Therefore, your local coffee shop is importing beans from Indonesia and Colombia. A clothing manufacturer, boutiques on the street, they are importing clothes from China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and maybe Bangladesh, etc. I think it is true, that’s not necessarily the tariff rate. Obviously, it is important to try to figure out how your small business might already be running on a very thin margin to absorb 30% of the cost, but the real problem is uncertainty. So these tariffs are really suddenly announced. When Trump talks about them, no one knows how high they may be. I’ve seen some reports from The Post actually show that they’re still considering the height of tariffs and the calculations hours before Trump’s announcement. They move during the period of announcement. I think after the market closed, they ended up doing it because they knew there would be such a big crash. So, this means, for example, suppose you are making shoes. You are a footwear designer in the United States, but you make shoes in China. These businesses, they work for months, sometimes one year, one year, one year, 12 months in advance. So they have set prices, they have spoken to buyers, retailers who are about to carry shoes, and they have agreed to the price for the next season. Like now, footwear manufacturers may be producing as early as fall shoes, but their winter shoes may have started, or they are at least in negotiations with manufacturers now. And their summer shoes, the price was five months ago, six months ago. In some cases, those summer shoes are already on board. So you have paid for them the manufacturer and that ship is coming and suddenly, like that ship is from China, you will have to pay a 34% tariff, which you didn’t expect. So, I think that really makes it hard for any business to plan right now.
