Rating China’s retaliation in the trade war: ‘On a scale of 1-10, it’s an 11’

CNBC ^ | 08-05-2019 | Michael Sheetz

[billyboy15]

Nah. TV’s are so much made as they are assembled and much of that can be automated. There are other factors such as taxes, rent, utilities and other things not having to do with employee cost which have an effect on the final mfg cost and by extension the retail price.

[central_va]

At Most you are looking at a 10% increase in production costs if made in the USA offset by a reduction is shipping costs.

[billyboy15]

Have no idea where you are getting these numbers from but you seem to be forgetting the subsidization of mfg by foreign governments, especially China.

When I said labor wasn’t a big thing I didn’t mean it was minimal. In many cases the benefits American businesses are forced to pay to retain employees is almost or actually equal to the hourly wages paid.

[Zhang Fei]

[And,of course,the Butchers of Beijing don’t have to worry about elections.]

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China’s rulers have always had to worry about coups:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hua_Guofeng

And revolts by their subordinates:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuan_Shikai

That’s the reality of absolute rule - the threat is from ambitious subordinates who have carefully masked their ambition for the top spot in order to rise up the ranks.

[Tennessean4Bush]

Isn’t this essentially cutting off your nose to spite your face? Devaluing your currency affects all goods and services, not merely the ones targeted by tariffs.

[Rockingham]

Most large US government bonds have a set interest rate and are payable in dollars. For countries and economies that are based on or tied to the dollar, yuan devaluation makes Chinese yuan bonds easier to pay off. Large bond holders though tend to adopt hedging strategies that mitigate the chances of dramatic gains or losses on their long term bond holdings.