Politics

[Tubby’s Canteen]

In Nova Scotia alone Americans own 3.6% of residential properties. With just shy of 450k residential properties that is around 16k properties. If vandalism is not curbed and soon at least some Americans will feel the pinch in more places than the stock markets.

 

[spike.t]

China playing the tariff game ......

https://twitter.com/x/status/1908876105764716734

 

[mdwest]

In Nova Scotia alone Americans own 3.6% of residential properties. With just shy of 450k residential properties that is around 16k properties. If vandalism is not curbed and soon at least some Americans will feel the pinch in more places than the stock markets.

Maybe...

Admittedly I dont know how insurance works in Canada..

but depending on the value of the property and the extent of the damage, most wont feel a pinch beyond the deductible on their insurance policy..

Theres the pain in the ass factor.. that matters some.. I'd get tired pretty quickly of having to call some handyman to repair my broken windows or to repaint my cabin in the woods..

but vandals running off 3.6% of the property owners in Nova Scotia creates a MUCH bigger problem for Nova Scotia than it does for the US (16K property owners is a very tiny % of the US population.. and they are likely somewhere between upper middle class and wealthy if they can afford a vacation home in Canada).

So what happens when those 16K properties (out of only 450K properties in the entire province) get sold off? even at a cheap price to Canadians or anyone else that can or will buy them?

How does that impact the economy? What happens to tax values and tax collection related to the properties? What about the money those Americans were bringing to Canada and spending while they were visiting their Nova Scotia homes? Will the new Ontario or Quebec owners have the same amount of money or be willing to spend the same amount of money?

Shitting in your own back yard has always been a terrible way to "protest"..

It certainly didn't help LA during the Rodney King riots, or many of the American cities where the BLM and ANTIFA idiots chose to vanadalize and/or steal during their protests... for the short term satisfaction of getting to damage a property and the short term gain of being able to steal a few things.. the long term results have genuinely sucked in every measurable way... property values decline for everyone (to include the vandals).. revenue streams decline for everyone (to include the vandals), etc..

Its frankly a pretty dumb way to demonstrate dissatisfaction..

 

[mdwest]

China playing the tariff game ......

https://twitter.com/x/status/1908876105764716734

Thats just extortion of Africa by another means..

China already wanted all of Africas raw materials..

What they don't have an appetite for is African consumer goods..

So they arent going to tax themselves any longer on importing African raw materials.. and they arent going to tarrif consumer goods that they weren't buying anyway...

 

[WAB]

How do you justify that in the face of state sponsored industry? Dairy for example as much as 73% of American dairy returns are directly from subsidies. The entire reason the U.S. dairy producers want access to the Canadian market is to offshore a product they would otherwise be forced to dump because they routinely out supply domestic demand.

View attachment 677223

unless Americans are going to stop all dairy subsidies than your not actually asking for fair trade at all your just demanding another market for your products which seems to be trumps Favourite past time.

Spot on. It’s totally hypocritical to complain about the tariffs others apply to your products without addressing the subsidies you provide to those same products. Let’s not even start on softwood lumber! This is a tangled web. Applying a sledge hammer is not the way to solve it.

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

Maybe...

Admittedly I dont know how insurance works in Canada..

but depending on the value of the property and the extent of the damage, most wont feel a pinch beyond the deductible on their insurance policy..

Theres the pain in the ass factor.. that matters some.. I'd get tired pretty quickly of having to call some handyman to repair my broken windows or to repaint my cabin in the woods..

but vandals running off 3.6% of the property owners in Nova Scotia creates a MUCH bigger problem for Nova Scotia than it does for the US (16K property owners is a very tiny % of the US population.. and they are likely somewhere between upper middle class and wealthy if they can afford a vacation home in Canada).

So what happens when those 16K properties (out of only 450K properties in the entire province) get sold off? even at a cheap price to Canadians or anyone else that can or will buy them?

How does that impact the economy? What happens to tax values and tax collection related to the properties? What about the money those Americans were bringing to Canada and spending while they were visiting their Nova Scotia homes? Will the new Ontario or Quebec owners have the same amount of money or be willing to spend the same amount of money?

Shitting in your own back yard has always been a terrible way to "protest"..

It certainly didn't help LA during the Rodney King riots, or many of the American cities where the BLM and ANTIFA idiots chose to vanadalize and/or steal during their protests... for the short term satisfaction of getting to damage a property and the short term gain of being able to steal a few things.. the long term results have genuinely sucked in every measurable way... property values decline for everyone (to include the vandals).. revenue streams decline for everyone (to include the vandals), etc..

Its frankly a pretty dumb way to demonstrate dissatisfaction..

also a P.I.A. For those of us looking out for our neighbours. I’ve been picketing my hounds at the head of the road every evening to alert when cars turn in but it can’t last. A couple more degrees of water temperature increase and I’ll be on the water every day until may 31

 

[Scott CWO]

I know this is of little interest to those who believe in Trump, but with today's open of 37,550, the DOW has lost $1.3 -1.7 trillion in value - across all investments the number is likely $5+ trillion.

Yes but on the flip side it is an awesome opportunity that many of us may never see again. The market will recover. I follow Thomas Peterffy a bit. Like many of us, he is a reluctant Trump supporter and spent a lot of his personal money backing other candidates in the primaries. In the end, he held his nose and supported Trump in the general election because Peterffy is vehemently anti-socialism, having grown up in Hungary. He is the majority shareholder in Interactive Brokers, the largest electronic trading platform in the USA and it is the largest foreign exchange market broker. Today, he said that this sell-off is the best buying opportunity he has ever seen and he is 80 years-old. He also mentioned that the automatic margin calls that IB is seeing are nothing compared to the 2008/2009 financial crisis.

I did buy this week. I wish I had even more cash to invest right now but I have been doing a lot of hunting the past several years and have other hunts booked. I have a hunting fund with which I only spend the increases. I don't spend the principal or dip into our other accounts. I've done a lot of hunting the past several years with the gains. Right now, that account is just above my original principal investment I put in during the pandemic but I have done several hunts since 2020, almost for free, in a way. I would encourage anyone with some extra cash to get in and buy good, solid company stocks soon or now. It will allow you to go on a good hunt in a couple years. Good companies are on sale right now. I'm looking forward to booking more hunts when the markets go back up. I have not sold anything since February and that stock I sold then was up 17% since January 1st. We will get through this but that doesn't mean I am happy about it. I would encourage people to look at it as an opportunity. My son-in-law does not have a lot of cash on hand because he is young and working his way up in the world but even he put a couple thousand into the market today.

 

[Red Leg]

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/07/jamie-dimon-trump-tariffs-inflation-economy.html

I think this is a pretty fair and sober assessment from one of the brighter minds on the Street. His summation is spot on.

“Economics is the longtime glue, and America First is fine,” Dimon said, “as long as it doesn’t end up being America alone.”

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

Maybe...

Admittedly I dont know how insurance works in Canada..

but depending on the value of the property and the extent of the damage, most wont feel a pinch beyond the deductible on their insurance policy..

Theres the pain in the ass factor.. that matters some.. I'd get tired pretty quickly of having to call some handyman to repair my broken windows or to repaint my cabin in the woods..

but vandals running off 3.6% of the property owners in Nova Scotia creates a MUCH bigger problem for Nova Scotia than it does for the US (16K property owners is a very tiny % of the US population.. and they are likely somewhere between upper middle class and wealthy if they can afford a vacation home in Canada).

So what happens when those 16K properties (out of only 450K properties in the entire province) get sold off? even at a cheap price to Canadians or anyone else that can or will buy them?

How does that impact the economy? What happens to tax values and tax collection related to the properties? What about the money those Americans were bringing to Canada and spending while they were visiting their Nova Scotia homes? Will the new Ontario or Quebec owners have the same amount of money or be willing to spend the same amount of money?

Shitting in your own back yard has always been a terrible way to "protest"..

It certainly didn't help LA during the Rodney King riots, or many of the American cities where the BLM and ANTIFA idiots chose to vanadalize and/or steal during their protests... for the short term satisfaction of getting to damage a property and the short term gain of being able to steal a few things.. the long term results have genuinely sucked in every measurable way... property values decline for everyone (to include the vandals).. revenue streams decline for everyone (to include the vandals), etc..

Its frankly a pretty dumb way to demonstrate dissatisfaction..

insurance would be a complex issue , it would depend if the policy was updated recently or not housing prices have skyrocketed in recent years where as seasonal homes locally at least are in a lot of cases multigenerational and or have been owned the by the same owner for at least a decade. 2.9% of the 3.6% have not changed hands in the last 10 years.

To the housing market a cooling of the market would be a relief locally. There is a major shortage of housing on the market. A there is also localized discontent over the number of ocean front properties owned by foreigners and environmental laws prohibiting further commercial development of the coast line.

It is a complex issue about one step ahead of burning teslas on the intelligence scale , a very very small step.

 

[Alistair]

Your media tells you that...

Do you completely trust your media?

Your politicians tell you that..

Do you really trust your politicians?

I don't doubt for a moment that Europeans are upset..

But our news sources are telling us that European markets are shitting themselves and desperate to find resolution (the DAX in Germany being down 4.1% today, and dumping 11.5% over the past 5 days tells me this is likely correct... The CAC 40 in France is down 11.62% over the past 5 days... the IT40 in Italy down 14.4%.. FTSE100 in the UK down 10.26%.. etc..etc..)..

Where the DOW is down 9%.. and barely dropped anything at all today.. and the NASDAQ actually had a tiny little gain today..

European markets tell me that people can boycott all they want.. and they can quit coming to the US to wear mickey mouse ears... and the European economy will still be harmed much more significantly than the US economy..


So.. the question remains.. what exactly is Europe going to do? Continue to cry, bitch, moan, and refuse to buy American products that they already largely weren't buying (US consumer goods across most sectors arent exactly high demand items in Europe... its industrial goods that Europe buys in large quantities.. and the EU already came back today offering 0:0 tariffs on industrial goods)..

Boo hoo.. the impact on the US will be minimal (again, Europeans already don't buy a lot of California wines, Ford trucks, Winchester rifles, or American cheese...)...

The US is the large consumer... we tend to buy tons of French and Italian wines, German cars, styer rifles, and God only knows how much European cheese..

when those sales go away, Europe suffers unless it can find another consumer to replace the US (which it clearly cannot do)..

when Germans quit coming to Disney.. Disney suffers...

But I have news for you.. Disney is one of the most hated companies in the US... a full 50% of the country will celebrate Disneys demise.. (FWIW one of my daughters has worked for Disney corporate for 3 years and interned with them in college.. while I don't buy disney stuff, I wont be among those celebrating)..


Canadians are indeed furious.. in many cases rightfully so..

But the argument remains the same for Canada as well...

Bitching isn't fixing anything...

So.. come up with a solution...

Come to the table and make a deal... or figure out a new deal with someone else..

But the facts don't lie.. a new deal isn't really in the cards for the overwhelming majority of Canadian and European products... certainly not in the short term (defined by at least a decade).. So.. that might not be a very good option..

I'll close with the same thing Ive said many times..

Trump is easy to hate.. he is an asshole.. no one, to include members of the far right are going to deny that..

But, do you really believe Europe (and Canada, and Mexico, and others) didn't play a role in things getting to where they are? Did Trudeau, Merkel, Macron, and a hundred other world leaders that sat in office in Europe, North America, and elsewhere not participate? Do you really believe they just sat on their ass, completely unaware of any possible problem with the status quo or any understanding that there could be a problem in the future if they didn't actively seek a solution at an earlier time?

Or were they happy with the status quo and just thought fuck it.. we'll ride this as long as we can and hope pretty please and pray to God that Trump or some other populist wouldn't find their way back into the Whitehouse at some point?

2016 should have been a pretty good indicator of the future to come... perhaps ignoring it was a bad idea..

I have no problem with Germans hating Trump, Brits hating Trump, French hating Trump, Canadians hating Trump, etc..

I do find them all pretty silly, childish, and ridiculous however if at the same time they cant acknowledge a similar hatred for Scholz, Starmer, Macron, Trudeau, etc..

Your politicians set you up for your countries current problems...

And our politicians are now exploiting those problems...

Everyone has shit on their shoes...

Taking the easy road and just pointing at the shit on Trumps shoes is a pretty short sighted and disingenuous position to take..

Worth remembering that the US is not an economy based on tangible goods.

It is an economy based primarily on services, and intangible goods, and IP. The stuff that has fuelled the US economy ever since someone thought that 'the internet' might be a good idea.

Trump has focused on goods for a reason. The US runs a deficit on goods, but a massive surplus on services. Huge chunks of the revenue of the largest companies in the US.. comes from foreign markets.

Foreigners might not buy American cheese, or automobiles, or steel. But you can be sure they buy licenses for Windows. And financial services. And they buy advertising on Google, and stuff on Amazon, and watch US movies, and play US computer games...

If the world really wants to retaliate against Trump, they have some strong options.

20% tariffs on Italian wine? Fine. 20% tariffs on Facebook ad revenue in Italy.

50% tariffs on Chinese goods? Fine. All US held patents have no legal standing in china.

20% tariffs on Japanese cars? Fine, 20% tariffs on all finacial services provided by US companies in Japan.

The same could be done to Google, or to Apple, or JP Morgan, or to Microsoft, or any number of US companies. And that's when the US would really start to feel it.

It's the nuclear option if course, but the reason the nasdaq especially isn't tanking as hard as foreign markets is mostly because no country has yet decided to play hard ball.

They're retaliating against the goods where the US runs a deficit. The stuff that isn't integral to the US economy. The areas where they have much less bargaining power. Not the stuff that the US actually does export and where their actions would hurt the most.

But they might if this continues much longer. No one wants that, least of all the US.

 

[wesheltonj]

. . . 50% tariffs on Chinese goods? Fine. All US held patents have no legal standing in china. . . .

I think IP holders already believe that China already believes the US patents have no standing.

 

[Alistair]

I think IP holders already believe that China already believes the US patents have no standing.

Informally it's a risk to doing business in China yes. But it's it's formal policy? No tech firm could operate there at all. So, so much lost ad revenue.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

Holy cow, I'm 20 odd pages behind on "Politics" and don't have the time to read all that. Anyone want to recap what was important in the last week?

Cliff Notes - AH Politics Thread

Tariffs - good? bad? Somewhere in between?
The effects on the stock market...
Snarky comments by Brent...

Consider yourself caught up good sir.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

Holy cow, I'm 20 odd pages behind on "Politics" and don't have the time to read all that. Anyone want to recap what was important in the last week?

Cliff Notes - AH Politics Thread

Tariffs - good? bad? Somewhere in between?
The effects on the stock market...
Snarky comments by Brent...

Consider yourself caught up good sir.

 

[Alistair]

Worth remembering that the US is not an economy based on tangible goods.

It is an economy based primarily on services, and intangible goods, and IP. The stuff that has fuelled the US economy ever since someone thought that 'the internet' might be a good idea.

Trump has focused on goods for a reason. The US runs a deficit on goods, but a massive surplus on services. Huge chunks of the revenue of the largest companies in the US.. comes from foreign markets.

Foreigners might not buy American cheese, or automobiles, or steel. But you can be sure they buy licenses for Windows. And financial services. And they buy advertising on Google, and stuff on Amazon, and watch US movies, and play US computer games...

If the world really wants to retaliate against Trump, they have some strong options.

20% tariffs on Italian wine? Fine. 20% tariffs on Facebook ad revenue in Italy.

50% tariffs on Chinese goods? Fine. All US held patents have no legal standing in china.

20% tariffs on Japanese cars? Fine, 20% tariffs on all finacial services provided by US companies in Japan.

The same could be done to Google, or to Apple, or JP Morgan, or to Microsoft, or any number of US companies. And that's when the US would really start to feel it.

It's the nuclear option if course, but the reason the nasdaq especially isn't tanking as hard as foreign markets is mostly because no country has yet decided to play hard ball.

They're retaliating against the goods where the US runs a deficit. The stuff that isn't integral to the US economy. The areas where they have much less bargaining power. Not the stuff that the US actually does export and where their actions would hurt the most.

But they might if this continues much longer. No one wants that, least of all the US.

Further context on this.

47% of jp Morgan's revenue comes from overseas.

50% of microsoft's revenue comes from overseas.

67% of Apple's does.

71% of Google's does.

90% of Facebook users are outside the US and canada.

There's lots and lots of scope to bleed the US if other countries wish to... and they might, given no other option...

 

[shootist~]

I think IP holders already believe that China already believes the US patents have no standing.

Pretty much so:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1907569786839617560

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

Spot on. It’s totally hypocritical to complain about the tariffs others apply to your products without addressing the subsidies you provide to those same products. Let’s not even start on softwood lumber! This is a tangled web. Applying a sledge hammer is not the way to solve it.

Soft wood lumber is basically the perfect counterpoint to the dairy argument. America claims because harvesters cut on crown land at a set stumpage they are basically subsidized and because of that claimed subsidy they impose a tariff after a certain quota is reached to protect American producers. Sounds awfully familiar doesn’t it.

 

[steve white]

I caretake a couple of pieces of property for a family friend from New Jersey so far I’ve been able to keep vandalism to a minimum (one window smashed) with the use of trail cams and my dogs alerting when vehicles turn off the main road. Other properties have not been so lucky. There are a lot of summer properties owned by Americans in the area and vandalism is on the rise several have burned down.

With or without a Tesla parked in front...?

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

With or without a Tesla parked in front...?

Nothing parked in front there vacant this time of year there summer properties we won’t start seeing the come from aways until the ferry starts running

 

[Wheels]

Further context on this.

47% of jp Morgan's revenue comes from overseas.

50% of microsoft's revenue comes from overseas.

67% of Apple's does.

71% of Google's does.

90% of Facebook users are outside the US and canada.

There's lots and lots of scope to bleed the US if other countries wish to... and they might, given no other option...

Countries could certainly make America hurt. The key is getting their act together and being able to coordinate a response. If 50 countries are already trying to negotiate with America the chances of that happening may be pretty low.

Edit: I do think the EU will target tech and financial services. It will be interesting to see if Trump's response would be similar to his response to China.