09/17/24 Afternoon CommStock Report – Tariffs-Aghast from the Past

Part 1 of 3 There is history that tariffs came before income taxes as the means to fund the government. We know this because tariffs provided most of the revenue that funded the US government from the birth of the country up until 1913 when the US adopted the income tax which replaced tariffs. The concept of tariffs providing the revenue to fund the country is being revisited in this century by DJT, who sees tariffs as the solution to many of our fiscal problems including the deficit. They are the other side of his tax cuts, being seen by him as the means to replace lost domestic tax revenue. He loves the concept that the rest of the world would or could be made to pay our way in that world. He does conveniently leave out the fact that they may not want to cooperate with this economic model.   Countries, friends and foe alike, will not take the imposition of tariffs on the levels proposed by DJT lying down. They will retaliate with tariffs of their own as well as construct new economic and political alliances to benefit and protect themselves from the loss of US market access….