This is all just Japan from the 80s all over again. There are a bunch of movies from the period with Japan as the bogeyman. The peak probably being the backstory of Die Hard.

The key difference this time is the USA was paying for Japan's defense, had a massive military base, etc. China doesn't have that problem, so they can counter American demands with their own demands.

Interestingly, look at interviews with Trump from the 80s, he'll talk about Japan almost with the same language that he uses for China now. The most famous was probably an appearance of Trump on Oprah.

What's funnier is that the Americans could have dropped Chinese raw materials if they had built a collaboration before tariffing China, but the current Government have only one tactic: try to bully everyone at once. They really did make their own mess.

We should wonder if we want t be this dependant on one country for all our tech needs. I think the answer is no…

It's also by far the biggest market for those materials, and a massive scale industry there. The IRA did incentivize local supply chains for many materials, but the high ROI scarcity model in US, had many announced projects cancelled, and new administration's love for fossil fuels and funding sources for tax cuts for the rich, threaten other projects. The reason projects were cancelled is that price, even after subsidy, would be horribly uncompetitive relative to China, and includes further uncompetitive processing industry requirements, that aren't usually the same expertise as a mining operation.

trade dependence is bad

is something you can say only when global peace is impossible, but also when your country is the one that fully decides global peace or war. War is not a path for shared prosperity. Trade dependence can be very prosperous (PPP GDP is far more important measure than nominal). Markets usually function because sellers are not forced to hate buyers, instead of trying to usually be their friend.

Far crazier than OP high tech industry suicide, is food and apparel. 1930s Smoot-Harley tariffs didn't just amplify great depression, they directly led to global famine. Farming bankruptcies and low global trade means planting less, if surplus can't be sold anywhere. No one will import avocados or apparel this week, and that has a bigger short term impact on lives.

Ha ha, but for real. They'll just turn people's power off, tell them to ration, and/or jack the price per kWh to 500% what it was.

Team Orange let's no good calamity go to waste. Everything is potential profit if you have no moral compass.

Don't worry. Russia is willing to work with Trump and Trump can say that Russia is its only ally.

According to the Trump that's exactly what he wants, countries to sell off the bonds they have in exchange for super long term bonds that defer interest for like 100 years.

Europe also tries their best to improve the situations in the other mines (some are so awful they're basically off-limit for western companies because of child slavery and such stuff) and find new patches for example in Scandinavia or middle- and south America which could then be extracted with the respective countries.

Brussel does a lot of bullshit, sometimes phenomenally so (in the end it's just politics as well), but in this case they really seem to try.

Imagine all the people living for today!

It's difficult if you try. But worth it.

Can you imagine, living for today?

And no borders?

Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can.

Where is the tech?

In China.

Where is the tech?

We won't have any

“Let’s not make this political”… the calling card of the embarrassed conservative.

https://news.ycombinator.com/

This is a tech/manufacturing challenge issue.

His bluff didn’t work this time. He wants to play another hand. His shifty eyes are betraying his poker face. He’ll win the next hand! Who cares anyway, he’s not playing with his money.