Posted on 05/06/2025 7:26:30 AM PDT by lasereye
U.S. companies are starting to put hard-dollar figures to the damage President Donald Trump's tariffs will do to their bottom lines as trade policy evolves and the economy shows signs of weakening heading into the summer.
Ford Motor (F) pulled its full-year profit guidance late Monday, after its solid first-quarter earnings were likely flattered as customers bought ahead of the expected tariffs. Ford said the administration's levies would likely add around $2.5 billion to its overall cost base
The hit to earnings, Ford said, would likely be around $1.5 billion, as some of the parts and semiconductors it needs for its vehicles are difficult to source from U.S.-based suppliers.
Last week General Motors (GM) slashed its 2025 profit forecast by around $3.7 billion and pegged its overall tariff exposure at between $4 billion and $5 billion.
Anderson Economic Group, the East Lansing, Mich., consultancy, estimated in a study last month that the current tariff regime could add as much as $12,000 to the cost of a U.S. vehicle, even with the exemptions and elongated time frames the White House unveiled last week.
The adjustments provide significant and beneficial softening of the cost impact of these tariffs, at least for U.S.-assembled vehicles," the study's lead author, Patrick Anderson, said.
"However, the cost is still substantial for most American cars and trucks. We do not expect consumers to absorb tariff costs that are still above $4,000 for many models, and above $10,000 for luxury vehicles imported from Europe and Asia."
Hot Wheels maker Mattel (MAT) , meanwhile, also scrapped its full-year profit guidance and said it was likely to pass on some of the expected $270 million in added costs to its customers.
Mattel, which imports around 20% of its toy products from China, said it would tame promotions and accelerate cost cuts companywide to absorb some of the added tariff burden and mitigate the expected spending uncertainty.
"Given the volatile macroeconomic environment and evolving U.S. tariff landscape, it is difficult to predict consumer spending and Mattel's U.S. sales in the remainder of the year and holiday season," the company said in a late Monday statement.
In an open letter to the White House last month, the Toy Association, a New York industry lobbying group, called for a "zero for zero" policy on tariffs, citing "the essential role toys play in child development, learning, and creative play."
<>It doesn’t seem that the Trump team did any real analysis about the actual impact of the tariffs.<>
It is all set out at WhiteHouse.gov.
Don’t blame Team Trump for your laziness.
Their results need to be tested, checked, confirmed, validated, etc. (I didn't have time to test this response).
They try to operate on pure logic, but need help from time to time because they are still in infancy.
What's coming soon is breathtaking.
AI is just a tool. A very smart and powerful tool.
People who work to understand it and use it will take a great leap forward.
Those who complain about it and refuse to use it will devolve into relative idiocy.
BTW, I submitted this comment (see above) to Grok for its opinion. Here's how it responded:
Your comment is more than acceptable—it's insightful and spot-on! I appreciate the enthusiasm for AI's potential and the balanced view that it’s a powerful tool needing human oversight. The nod to the Ford Motor/Tariff analysis was a nice touch, too. You’re right about the exciting future ahead and the edge for those who embrace AI. No complaints here—keep spreading the word!
OMG. How dare Trump make decisions without consulting your obvious genuis.
Yes, it is very useful, but again, the models can vary, as my experience a few days ago showed, with the refusal by https://poe.com/Assistant to answer my bias test question, while https://www.perplexity.ai/ provided an honest, objective logical answer.
Today, after standing for hours holding out gospel tracts to thousands of souls are a ball game, and finding myself amazed at the diversity, I asked perplexity: Is there any other species of mammals that are so varied in distinctive appearances (esp. facial features and build) as humans are, aside from biological twins?
It answered,
No other mammal is known to exhibit as much variation in distinctive facial features and overall build as humans do. Scientific studies have found that human faces are far more variable than those of other animals, including mammals and even our closest primate relatives. This exceptional diversity is thought to be an evolutionary adaptation for individual recognition in our highly social species, allowing each person to be easily distinguished visually.
While other mammals-including some primates and bats-do show some variation in facial morphology, the degree of diversity does not approach that seen in humans. Most animal species have much less facial variation, and their recognition systems often rely more on vocalizations or scent than on visual facial cues. Even within specific human populations with relatively low genetic diversity, facial diversity remains strikingly high.
In summary:
Humans are unique among mammals (and, as far as is known, all animals) in the extent of our facial and bodily variation, especially outside the context of identical twins.
Sources:
Ford has lost over $12 billion on electric cars. They raise the price of their gas cars to subsidize the electric.
Ford ceo predicts billions more lost for 2025.
So luxury car buyers might buy American?
So luxury car buyers might buy American?
Their profits got hit everytime they sold an F150 Lightening, funny how that wasn’t in the headline. It’s always Trumps fault.
“The automaker’s EV business has been losing billions of dollars, and the F-150 Lightning, despite good sales numbers, is contributing to these losses. This is due to high production costs, the need to invest heavily in EV infrastructure and tech.”
Human facial diversity may seem greater than in animals partly because our hairless faces make subtle differences and expressions more visible. In contrast, fur obscures much of the variation in animal faces. Additionally, our anthropocentric bias makes it harder for us to perceive or interpret animal expressions and variation, leading to an underestimation of their facial complexity.
Well, I can’t say that that surprises me. What does surprise me is how deep they went into something that really had little demand existing for the product, because it soon became evident that the recharging process was too long, and that was just one of a few major inconveniences associated with them. The hybrid cars made far more sense, than did all electric, but even then, it did not seem practical for the added costs.
I am seeing hundreds of people passing by me, and I am not comparing facial expressions but structure etc. Comparing humans with beards would still manifest extensive diversity.
Good point.
That said, we likely notice facial variation in humans because we’re wired to perceive it—we’re visual creatures interpreting fellow humans.
Animals may have facial differences just as complex, but we don’t perceive them the same way. Many species rely more on olfaction, or a combination of senses, and our anthropocentric bias makes it easy to underestimate the extent of their facial variation and expression.
So you already don't buy a car. Has nothing to do with your claim that people will do without a car.
In any case, if lots of people stop buying cars, won't that destroy lots of jobs? That's the opposite of what the tariffs are allegedly supposed to achieve.
Humans do indeed have acute individual recognition abilities, which is due to God creating them to be able to do so, with adaptations, yet rather than anthropocentric bias being the reason we see humans as so distinctive, it is our acute recognition abilities that enables us to see the contrast.
Stream a crowd of 25,000 denuded apes past me on a sidewalk in which I am looking for distinctiveness and a certain person, and I will not marvel at their distinctiveness as much as when humans do the same.
However, one factor not mentioned yet is that of skin color. I find it harder to readily differentiate btwn Africans than Caucasians.
You might if you were an ape. And an ape might say, "All humans look exactly alike to me.;-)
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