peteb

Anthony Scaramucci (an ex Trump adviser and a very good centre right pundit these days) reckons that Trump is trying to “Brexit” the US from the rest of the world, aping the last Conservative government in the UK and pushing policies (i.e. tariffs and DOGE) that are similar in intent to austerity and Brexit. He suggests that this will have disastrous consequences for ordinary Americans, or as he puts it “Austerity plus Brexit, no bueno for the average person in the country". https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/ex-aide-says-trump-trying-to-brexit-america_uk_67ebc39ae4b0d9a17eccc67f?fbclid=IwY2xjawJaHBZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHRSzC5vrMrzkgLrQVqnr7ID70_vh4nGkKaSF5Adr1ALDsoXNGF7jvVtwtg_aem_anEwx5GxDnhKnI3dDYdb3w

That's very unlikely. Labour costs (wages, health & safety, benefits, pension & healthcare contributions, etc) are generally the biggest component of the cost of manufactured goods. If labour costs in Asia are less than half that of the USA (I imagine that they will be, would have been even less than that a few years ago), then the tariffs have be large enough to offset the additional labour costs minus shipping and any other costs. I doubt that 25% is going to do that, but even if it is, this is assuming that the USA still has the manufacturing capacity to produce the goods that are currently made in the far-east. All of this capacity has moved to the east since the 80s and it will cost trillions to build the factories and buy the plant to build up this capacity again. Who is going to invest that sort of money, given the long payback period and that it is highly likely that a future American government may be forced to scrap the tariffs and go back to the globalist model? Also, supply chains tend to move across national borders these days, which makes the decision to put the same tariffs on Canada and Mexico even more stupid! What will happen is that prices will go up, companies will take increased short term profits and wages will stay the same. What money is raised by the tariffs will be given as tax cuts to Trump's backers, while living standards will fall for working households due to the higher prices of everyday goods. Of course Trump will then double down, saying the reason the tariffs haven't worked is down to Biden, Canada, the EU, woke culture, etc and he's going to raise them even more (or at least threaten to), leaving the next administration to deal with the mess he's made!

What you say is correct, except, there is no potential for things to change for the better for American workers. The reliance on cheap labour from other countries isn't going to change until domestic wages go down in real terms to the same level.

, The import / export of jam is probably not the best example, but the USA does have a lower average external tariff on goods imports than many of its trading partners. However, the difference in average tariffs is less than 1% with the UK and less than 2% with the EU. Remember that the USA ked the charge for globalisation in the 80s and has structured its economy accordingly. This was massively beneficial to the USA economy, but not for the average American worker in the manufacturing sector. Trying to reverse this process is going to have a further negative impact on these workers, as wages would have to go down to compete with the levels in the far east - you can't put the genie back in the bottle! Trying to address this with tariffs will lead to big price increases, making ordinary families much worse off. They are screwed either way, but will probably be much worse off under Trump's policies. But, don't worry, the very rich will still do aright!

That will mean either a significant fall in the standard of living for western workers, or a big drop in income for venture capitalists / rentiers (for want of a better term). I wonder which will happen?

Mark Bass gear just works! I've gigged a couple of their combos (102 & 103) and still have a LM3 head. Not necessarily the most impressive amps I've ever owned, but they never let me down and always worked well in a mix. If for some reason, I was forced to use MB for the rest of my gigging career, I wouldn't complain!

The trouble with that figure is that it is almost certainly b0011*cks! It has gained a lot of media attention, but they neglect to mention that it originates from a company that advises wealthy people on where to relocate for tax reasons and that they apparently based their 'research' on a small sample of about 200 people who had changed their LinkedIn status! (source: 'Should Rachel Reeves target the super rich? ', The New Statesman YouTube channel - the video does point out a lot of the issues of establishing a blunt wealth tax and suggests that there are other things the Govt could do before that).

Exactly! I can be done if they go about it the right way, but it will be a bold move for a timid government that knows it will get massive pushback from incredibly powerful people, who will have the media in their side. But what is the alternative? We can't keep going on the way we have been doing and we are creating the conditions for a populist political party to come to power who will make things even worse.

Taxing the top 5% would do it...!

I know a few guys who have bought a cheaper guitar / bass just for fly gigs, as they can't face the thought of trusting their beloved (and expensive) guitars to the tender embraces of airport baggage handlers!

In my experience, most musicians at that level don't (unless they are being paid to promote them). There are exceptions and I have seen guys occasionally turn up with a decent Squier (the great Jack Pearson's main guitar is a Squier strat), but those are few and far between.

But I'm not in the market as I've got a few basses of a similar quality, all of which I paid about £1.5k more or less (actually £900 to £1.7k, but thereabouts)! The OP is looking for something similar for that budget, and as you say, a Japanese Sadowsky at £1.3k could be the last bass he ever has to buy. I've been gigging for many (40+) years and have been lucky enough to play with quite a few guys who make their living from playing music (or used to), some of whom have been in famous bands, or played with people who have been in very famous bands. One thing they have in common is that none of them play entry level instruments as their main gigging guitar / keyboard / whatever. I don't know any bass player at that level who plays a headless Hofner or whatever. But what do I know...

All really good choices. If I was in the market for a 4 string jazz, I would definitely buy @jay-syncro's Sadowsky!

All of this will have serious repercussions in the long-term. But remember that Trump just doesn't care about any of this, as the consequences are likely to be when he is no longer president.

Come on, you’re just being an apologist for Trump! Biden did extremely well to rejuvenate the economy, following the chaos of Trump’s first presidency and the disastrous response to the pandemic. But no western economy has every really got over the financial crash of 2008 and the Trump heartlands were always going to suffer under any capitalist system. It has been aptly demonstrated that trickle-down economics just doesn’t work and the industries that these people rely on are finished. No amount of blaming Biden and the dems is going to change that and Trump is, if anything, going to make things much worse for them. Also, do you really believe that Trump and co have a definite plan regarding a future global economic strategy? China has no interest in propping up the USA as the world’s leading superpower and Russia will be forced to remain a war economy for the next ten / twenty years, as a hostile Europe starts to re-arm on their doorstep. Russia will take whatever it can from Trump, but won’t trust America in the medium (yet alone long) term, when the next US administration (or the one after) could be incredibly hostile. I think that you are underestimating the incompetence of the American right and the conflicting interests at play here. I would guess that the USA may well go down the route of a mixture of mid 90s Russia (probably without the bloodshed, but who knows) and post Brexit Britain. The growth of an oligarchy obsessed with its own wealth and status, mixed with a country finding that destroying trade with its established partners isn’t the best idea for running a major economy.