Political Discussions (2024)

[justbroke]

BKForum would like to limit all political discussions to this Topic.

We understand that we are living in very politically charged times of outrage and unrest.

No matter what your political views are, remember that our forum's primary purpose is to be the place to help each other to survive through the unprecedented tough times ahead of us.

Please keep all discussions respectful.

(moderators please merge any political topics into this topic)

[Barbisi]

What impact do you two bankruptcy gurus, justbroke and shipo, think the new Trump tariffs will have on consumers, inflation, imported goods, international travel, upcoming bankruptcy filings, and the whole economy (i.e. jobs and housing, etc.)
Your perspectives should be most enlightening.

[justbroke]

I moved your post here, since we like to keep political discussions away from the core bankruptcy discussions. I'm sure shipo has some things to say. Let me say this... it hasn't affected me yet and I'm not going to worry about the trade negotiation and strategies employed by incoming administration. That administration did the tariff thing the last time and we ended up with better trade agreements. I'm sure they are--and I am--hoping that the same strategy works and there is some pricing relief for all Americans.

I don't see any surge in bankruptcy filings other than from the economy we have today. Florida bankruptcy are likely to tick up a little due to the hurricanes. I suspect parts of the Southeast would have similar upticks in bankruptcy filings to save and protect homes if they can't get FEMA loans. (FEMA loans are not all that easy to obtain and many are sent to the SBA for EIDL loans. Those EIDL loans require a minimum credit score which is typically about 640+.)

[Barbisi]

justbroke, I had temporarily forgotten about the devastating hurricane impact on the Southeast. We just survived the historic PNW Bomb Cyclone which left many without electricity, hot water and heat for a few days and annihilated some homes with downed trees and power lines. We fortunately only lost power for nearly four days and managed to salvage all our food with one small working generator. We survived some frigid nights with a small electric heater solely powered by the same small generator. Needless to say, we definitely appreciated Thanksgiving in a whole new way this year.

[Carmella]

Barbisi I am sorry to hear what you went through and glad it wasn't too awful. We had 5 tornados in the area I live this past summer we were not directly in any of the paths, but very close. The street parallel to where my husband works had several downed utility poles as did a few other streets. Fortunately there were NO reports of loss of human life which is pretty amazing, mostly damage to property from fallen trees or poles. My daughter and her husband were without electricity for a week and stayed with us since she needed internet access to work they really couldn't rough it out. Not to mention it was very hot outside and they rent in an upstairs unit. I totally disregarded the tornado warnings as we always get them and it's usually nothing, I was at a little store nearby driving home very close to where the tornado hit everyone's phones went off with the "emergency" no one seemed concerned. I actually drove home looking at the blue skies thinking it would be cool to see a tornado--off in the distance!

Back to politics. I am not concerned with the tariffs as justbroke mentioned there are strategies. I heard a podcast or interview about this topic and it seems like it can definitely work in our favor. And there was an example given about a tariff, if I remember correctly LBJ started it, and is still in place today which is on trucks and lead to opening plants to build (non American brand) trucks within the US to avoid the tariffs if they were built outside of the US. It can encourage more product to be produced in our country which ends up to be lower cost to us and more jobs for our people. I don't know a lot about tariffs, but it was interesting and it's not as simple as having increased tariffs means other countries will do business as usual and just charge more because it's more complicated than that! I am obviously not an expert on this, but it has worked before so it's not all that far fetched of an idea.

I think it's crazy to think that right now it can be cheaper to build a car overseas and ship it across the ocean (and no one complains about the carbon footprint of that!) than building it right in our country. I think it's also prudent to make more products here for several reasons that benefit all of our citizens.