The Hidden Tax You’re Already Paying: The Truth About Tariffs!

(00:00.974)

That tariff bump is coming. It is what it is. You know what? A lot of it’s actually already been here. We’ve already taken a look at durable goods numbers. We talked about it. Scott Bessent had a bit of a Freudian slip. A bit of a Freudian slip. Let me tell you something. He’s pretty guarded. He does a pretty darn good job towing a company line on TV, that’s for sure. He did say that tariffs could lead to a one-time price bump.

Now let’s think about that for a second. Let’s say tariffs go up on average by 20%. Let’s say that businesses eat a part of that cost in some way, shape, or form, let’s say 50%. So you’re gonna get a 10 % increase in price. Now, if you get a 10 % increase in price in everything, that one time bump is basically the equivalent of five years of inflation. Is that good?

Is that a good thing? Are you going to be thrilled? If you’re be filled with the cost of things from overseas are going to go up by 10 percent. don’t worry. It’s just a one time price hike. You know, the thing about these one time price hikes is they price never come back down. They just keep going up again. You’re already seeing it. U.S. department store chains, Macy’s Nordstrom.

Dillard’s, it’s starting to show up. Recent price increases in apparel, footwear, bags. Basically, they’re starting to go up, just like we said they would. Now, again, you will get the various different spokespeople out there just lie to you. You know, that old saying, lie becomes the truth. I guess if you repeat it often enough, people might believe it.

I don’t know. I don’t know. Every study that I’ve seen, whether it be the regional Fed business survey, whether it be coming from a myriad of different firms, taking a look at who is going to eat the costs of tariffs, the overwhelming majority say that close to 70 % tariff costs are going to be borne by you and I.

(02:29.42)

Meaning what? It’s a tax. It’s tax. And again, you’re not going to see it. It’s not going to show up as a sales tax, but you’re going to pay it. It’s kind of like, like I said, I just got back. I just got back from Europe. They have like a VAT tax. A VAT tax on items that is there, but you don’t see. Now,

As an American, if you buy something over there, my wife, I say, gets a pair of shoes. If it’s over a certain price, you basically can get a refund of that tax at the airport. But if you are a European citizen, you’re paying it. It’s embedded along with the already the very high income taxes they have all across the European Union. Essentially, that is what a tariff is.

It’s a tax that you and I are gonna pay. Again, I’m going back to this Vietnam deal that Trump was jumping up and down about saying how awesome this is. know, this trade deal, who this is really awesome for, I’m gonna say it again, is for the people of Vietnam.

The people of Vietnam are not going to have to pay a higher price on our computers, our agricultural products, the various different things that they buy from the United States. We are going to have to pay more on the items that we ship from Vietnam. Meaning what? Sneakers, sneakers, clothing, other apparel, anything that comes into the United States, we are going to be paying more.

Who got the better of that deal?

(04:23.054)

I’m just asking, who got the better of that deal? Did the Vietnamese get a better deal or did we here as American citizens get a better deal? They keep touting these numbers. And again, it’s part of the grand conspiracy to keep people poor and stupid. They keep, oh, look at all these tariff revenues. Yet Scott Bissett say, hey, this could almost be a $1.8 trillion over 10 years.

a tax increase of $1.8 trillion. And let’s just throw it out there saying that maybe these companies will eat it. Eat it. Maybe part of it. Not all of it. Let’s say they eat. We’re still getting taxed an additional trillion.

I mean, that is the reality, people. Somebody’s got to pay. It’s some way, shape, matter, or form. And again, I mentioned this before, companies are, they’re not gonna wanna see their bottom line hit. What are they going to do? They’re gonna find ways to be more productive. They’re gonna figure out ways. They’re gonna eliminate labor costs. For crying out, Amazon already has in their factories now,

more robots than humans working. That trend is going to continue.

(05:49.184)

And this, is the reality. This is what taxes, this is what tariffs are going to do. I know today is strongly worded letter day where we’re sending out letters. My baby just sent me a letter, wrote me a letter. That’s how the song went. Anyway, yeah. Trump is writing letters out to countries saying, okay, this is what you’ve got to pay. If you want to do business with the United States, thank you for your attention to this matter. Like he likes putting at the bottom of his tweets. I don’t know if he’s putting that.

letter but anyway hoping that people are gonna pick up the phone and pay the phone and give us a call and start negotiating. Again they spin it a mirror different ways weren’t we supposed to get 90 deals and 90 days and oh and the next two again it’s like the money pit two weeks two weeks we’re getting another tariff deal okay okay again I hope it I hope it works out

I guess they pushed the Liberation Day tariffs back to August 1st. That’s good. I don’t know where they’re gonna end up, but we shall see. Watchdog on wallstreet.com.