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PC Case Maker CaseLabs Closes Permanently (pcgamer.com)
U.S.-based PC case manufacturer, CaseLabs, announced on social media that it is "closing permanently" and will not be able to fill all current orders. "We have been forced into bankruptcy and liquidation," CaseLabs said in a statement. "The tariffs have played a major role raising prices by almost 80 percent (partly due to associated shortages), which cut deeply into our margins. The default of a large account added greatly to the problem... We reached out for a possible deal that would allow us to continue on and persevere through these difficult times, but in the end, it didn't happen." PC Gamer reports: CaseLabs is likely referring to the growing number of tariffs being enforced on Chinese imports by the United States government. China and the US are currently engaged in a trade war, causing many U.S. companies to lose money, lay off employees, or close entirely. CaseLabs went on to say that it won't be able to fill the backlog of case orders, but other parts will most likely ship to customers. "We are so incredibly sorry this is happening. Our user community has been very devoted to us and it's awful to think that we have let any of you down."
... that Trump has made for America!
Or, if China has such massive control over manufacturing that tarrifs on sheet metal kill companies, maybe it makes sense to boost the supply on our side?
Yeah, amazing how many people don't get this.
Local steel is $100, import is $80.
Add tariffs...
Local steel is $100, import is $120.
You now buy the 'cheaper' local steel, meaning your production costs go up, leading to fewer sales; thus you close down and so do the steel makers. Good job, idiots.
We figured this crap out in the 70's, just shows there are plenty of slow learners out there.
It's likely suppliers are ripping everyone off. They'll bump up prices to just south of what the tariffs are pricing foreign imports at, simply because the government has picked them as the winners. You don't actually think that suppliers are nice guys who actually want to help out their fellow American businesses, do you?
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
They made overpriced cases (seriously, $600 for a case?) and ran their business badly. They failed.
You left out the last step: Then they blamed it on Trump.
The 70s... you mean the decade when American heavy industry was gutted and the working class standard of living began its steep decline?
U.S.-based PC case manufacturer
The tariffs have played a major role raising prices by almost 80 percent (partly due to associated shortages)
Can someone explain? The tariffs are designed to help American manufacturing, they make American products cheaper than foreign products.
That seems to be the case if you don't think about it. As several comments pointed out tariffs are not making American products cheaper, they are making imports more expensive. By implementing tariffs you are chocking the supply, which allows the local suppliers to raise their prices. So instead of lowering the cost of American products, you are actually increasing it. This is econ 101 stuff.
You can argue that this would incentivize US steel producers to open new plants and boost output. This is not happening (only one manufacturer activated a single furnace they already had) for several reason. Building a steel plant is a major investment that can only be justified if there is a long term strong demand. The plant also cannot stand on its own - you need supply of ore, coke (the fuel not the drink), qualified workforce, transport infrastructure, etc. As things stand now, none of these is in place and the potential clients are going out of business. So no, nobody is going to build a new steel plant anytime soon. Even if production ramps up, volume is not the only problem. There are a number of varieties of steel that are used in US. The user base for some of them does not justify production for the local market. These varieties become viable only of you have access to the world market, which you don't thanks to the tariffs
The tariffs ignore the basic fact that in the 21st century the world economy is highly integrated. US may not produce much steel, but has a large number of thriving businesses that consume steel and other metals to make more lucrative products. Think cars and airplanes. If you are one of those manufacturers, your product now costs more to build and thanks to the retaliatory tariffs cost even more to export. To sell products that use steel outside of US you now need to move production abroad (that's what Harley Davidson is doing). Your alternative is to sell only to US customers. Either way you will employ fewer people in US. If you notice I am not even touching the effect retaliatory tariffs have on unrelated businesses such as farming. Taken together, in a futile attempt to protect a minor set of companies, the tariffs are destroying a large chunk of the economy.
There are objectively few reasons to like almost anything he's done unless you're either very short-sighted and on the receiving end of his wealth transfers to the rich, and/or you're a godawful centipede who gets a boner at gratuitous cruelty toward brown people and wanton damage to global liberal-democracy, including the western world's economy as seen here.
Among non-deplorable people who use facts and math, Trump has made himself a supervillain, and his typical actions will be met with disapproval. DEAL WITH IT. Go full deplorable and revel in the destruction, or stop being an infected sore on humanity's ass and get off the wrong side of history.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
You're forgetting one thing in your example - if foreign steel goes up to $120, that means there is now a massive run for domestic steel. That means domestic steel prices skyrocket due to demand - this is basic supply/demand curve stuff from economics class. So, the price will rise to that of the foreign steel, or even higher. So, if you make finished steel goods, no matter what, you pay a much higher price, and domestic companies get screwed.
I doubt the tariffs were to blame, they have hardly been in place long enough to seriously affect a business. Yeah probably some liberal in the company blaming Trump for a problem with competition and pricing not tariffs.
And this is where I'm just at a loss.
I'm a white male who grew up in the country hunting, fishing and driving pickups and working on farms, who's now upper middle class and headed into middle age. About to move into the suburbs.
I'm pretty much someone who should absolutely be a core republican voter. (Save for a little too much education.) Yet here I sit, repulsed at what the republican party has become. They lost me. For the entire rest of my life. Until everyone who was complicit in the last decade of cynical depravity by the republicans and their spawn has left the party, fuck 'em.
Now that my grandmother has passed, I'm never voting for another republican the rest of my life. The options are democrats or hopefully someone sensible. I just don't understand how a party could draw a hard social line that they know is going to alienate marginal voters for a generation. It's madness.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor