Are you still in the stock market?

Aunt Bea said:
Me too!

It’s going to be a very bumpy ride as the new tariffs are examined and a variety of exemptions are granted on some products or countries.

I’m confident that if we do enter into a bear market or recession we will eventually work through it and the markets will move higher as they always have.

Never bet against America.
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The problrm is, when the market bounce back and move higher, you and I may or may not be around. This is a senior forum.
 
OldOld said:
So you moved from equity to CD and bonds abruptly by realizing a sizable gain and paying the capital gain tax.:)
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Did you even read my last post? I am still 40% in equities because those are the ones that would have cost me taxes on capital gains.
 

I spent most of this morning parsing the tariffs, learning how they'll affect my industry (apparel) should they fully come to fruition.

Asian and Southeast Asian countries, the US's primary apparel and shoe providers (among other goods), are being hit by staggering numbers.
Quick list of some of the new tariffs among those countries:
Vietnam (46%), Cambodia (49%), China (rising to 54%), Bangladesh (37%), Sri Lanka (44%), Myanmar (44%), Madagascar (47%).

Be aware, global and American apparel companies will not rebuild the (highly polluting) fabric mills in the Carolinas and Georgia that closed in the 1980s. Nor will they build dye houses, or button, snap, zipper, thread, interlining, and other support manufacturers.

Nor will they plan to train tens of thousands of American citizen employees to professionally cut, sew, trim and press hundreds of garments each day.

Owners of offshore manufacturing plants, US importers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers can't and won't absorb the tariffs. They'll be passed along to the consumer.

It's mind boggling to imagine this scenario for nearly everything I buy, need, use or regularly consume that is wholly or partially sourced internationally.
 
OldOld said:
The problrm is, when the market bounce back and move higher, you and I may or may not be around. This is a senior forum.
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Last I checked, the minimum age to join this forum is 55. Your definition of senior may be different than others. I'm a "senior" but I am 67 and most of my relatives were around until their late 80s or 90s. I'm in it for the long term. What is your definition of a "senior forum"?
 
Lara said:
No worries. As I understand it, all the recent tariff activity of leveling the playing field with countries that have taken advantage of America for a very long time, is causing the Dow to go down for now.

But, in the long run, our country's economic future will sky-rocket from heading toward bankruptcy to finally reaping the benefits of evening up the unfair playing field. Check out the chart showing what all the country's tariffs are against America right now and what they will be in the near future. We are still charging those countries less than they are charging us...by large margins!
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Sorry but you definitely don’t understand how this works. You are just believing the lies spewed by this administration. No economists think these tariffs are a good idea.
 
Mine's lost over 2% in a month. For some reason whenever I get money I lose it, whether it's by theft or by stock market loss. I understand why when my mum died (the year before last), she didn't leave me anything in her will.
 
OldOld said:
The problrm is, when the market bounce back and move higher, you and I may or may not be around. This is a senior forum.
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If that’s a concern for you, you probably shouldn’t be invested in the stock and bond markets.

Find something that suits your temperament or time frame and allows you some peace of mind.
 
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Aunt Bea said:
If that’s a concern for you, you probably shouldn’t be invested in the stock and bond markets.

Find something that suits your temperament or time frame and allows you some peace of mind.
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Yes I have a big peace of mind now. I said I hope the market crashes 50%. When everyone is poor, I am rich. :)
 
Aunt Bea said:
I’m confident that if we do enter into a bear market or recession we will eventually work through it and the markets will move higher as they always have.
Never bet against America.
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The fear-mongers and pearl-clutchers should take a page from your book, Bea. (y) I see a lot of knee-jerk reaction to what's going on now, and not a whole lot of critical thinking. @Aunt Bea
 
Tariffs are and economic weapon against our enemies real or perceived. I am wondering what Trump is using these tariffs for, since they don't make sense to economists. One article I read from Business Insider suggested that Trump may be trying to drive up inflation so that the National Debt can be paid off in inflated dollars. Of course this is just one speculation, and speculation tends to run rampant when no one can make sense of a situation.
 
IMO the tariffs are a way to get a boatload of money from Americans without having to fight the battle of actually raising taxes.

It’s a bold idea that could go either way.

My hope is that the government actually uses this ‘windfall’ to reduce the debt and doesn’t continue spending more than it takes in on new and different projects.

We’ll see!
 
JustDave said:
Tariffs are and economic weapon against our enemies real or perceived. I am wondering what Trump is using these tariffs for, since they don't make sense to economists. One article I read from Business Insider suggested that Trump may be trying to drive up inflation so that the National Debt can be paid off in inflated dollars. Of course this is just one speculation, and speculation tends to run rampant when no one can make sense of a situation.
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WSJ - "new tariffs were pegged to amounts it said other countries impose on the U.S. In many cases, those amounts appear to match a basic formula: the size of a country's goods-trade imbalance with the U.S., divided by how much America imports from that nation.

The numbers don't necessarily match what foreign countries charge against imports from the U.S."

Oh really! They're just making this stuff up?

NYT - "Lesotho is one of the poorest countries on Earth. Its 2.3 million citizens spend an average of only $3 on American goods and services each year not because they’re trying to cheat the United States but because they have very little money.

And what of the stuff that Americans buy from Lesotho? Diamonds top the list. We could improve our trade balance with Lesotho by purchasing fewer diamonds, but we can’t mine our own. There are no commercial diamond mines in this country."
 
Aunt Bea said:
IMO the tariffs are a way to get a boatload of money from Americans without having to fight the battle of actually raising taxes.

It’s a bold idea that could go either way.

My hope is that the government actually uses this ‘windfall’ to reduce the debt and doesn’t continue spending more than it takes in on new and different projects.

We’ll see!
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The opposite will happen, tax revenue will decline, there will be no windfall. All this does is discourage trade, destroy hard earned trading relationships w the US inevitably leading to fewer exports and will result in bailouts as it did the last time we went through this.
 
This morning the DOW is down 1000 pts in the first 15 minutes of trading. Now I'm thinking about buying back in. Is it too early?
 
JustDave said:
This morning the DOW is down 1000 pts in the first 15 minutes of trading. Now I'm thinking about buying back in. Is it too early?
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That is why I don't sell, it's really hard to predict the optimum re-entry.

IME it's too early, we've yet to see if any of these countries roll over and play dead as expected, or come right back at us like China did. And even if countries did comply this strategy is a long term fail as our trading partners discover they can only plan 4 years ahead and move on to more stable countries.
 
StarSong said:
Be aware, global and American apparel companies will not rebuild the (highly polluting) fabric mills in the Carolinas and Georgia that closed in the 1980s. Nor will they build dye houses, or button, snap, zipper, thread, interlining, and other support manufacturers.

Nor will they plan to train tens of thousands of American citizen employees to professionally cut, sew, trim and press hundreds of garments each day.
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. . . And if they do (in reference to the bold letter part of your message) the cost of paying those Americans will be exorbitant, if they can even find "tens of thousands" of American citizens willing to do that kind of work.
 
MACKTEXAS said:
. . . And if they do (in reference to the bold letter part of your message) the cost of paying those Americans will be exorbitant, if they can even find "tens of thousands" of American citizens willing to do that kind of work.
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Exactly so. Back in 1974, when I first started working in the apparel industry, sewing machine operators were virtually all immigrants, undocumented or with recently issued green cards. Hunching over a sewing machine for 8 hours a day is grueling, minimum wage labor.

Even during economic downturns when jobs were scarce, native-born American citizens didn't apply for sewing machine operator jobs. Warehouse jobs, yes. Machine operators? Nope.
 
I
StarSong said:
Exactly so. Back in 1974, when I first started working in the apparel industry, sewing machine operators were virtually all immigrants, undocumented or with recently issued green cards. Hunching over a sewing machine for 8 hours a day is grueling, minimum wage labor.

Even during economic downturns when jobs were scarce, native-born American citizens didn't apply for sewing machine operator jobs. Warehouse jobs, yes. Machine operators? Nope.
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I find that interesting because in Wisconsin Jockey had a big factory where all the workers were white women that were citizens. They were paid by the piece so the faster you sewed the more money you made. How do I know this? Because that’s what my mom did for a living.
 
Teacher Terry said:
I find that interesting because in Wisconsin Jockey had a big factory where all the workers were white women that were citizens. They were paid by the piece so the faster you sewed the more money you made. How do I know this? Because that’s what my mom did for a living.
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I can't say how it works/worked in other states but California employers had to pay at least minimum wage.

Yes, the operators' production was tracked by piece-work, but many didn't surpass the daily piece-work threshold that gave them more than minimum wage. Good operators were highly valued.

I stand by my statement: factory sewing for a living is hard work. Tedious, extraordinarily repetitive, and rough on the back.
 
Teacher Terry said:
I find that interesting because in Wisconsin Jockey had a big factory where all the workers were white women that were citizens. They were paid by the piece so the faster you sewed the more money you made. How do I know this? Because that’s what my mom did for a living.
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And 2 women in the neighborhood where I grew up took in ironing, charging a set price per shirt. As we know, times have changed a great deal since those days.
 

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