The United States has placed Switzerland on a list of countries with “unfair trade practices”.

  • Clbull@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Does Trump want to fuck with the impenetrable banking fortress nation that is Switzerland?

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    And we have been doing exactly what President Trump wants for a long time.

    And now you can see where it put you. Nowhere.

  • rxbudian@lemmy.ca
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    13 hours ago

    Welcome to the Trump’s list of bad countries, lets trade with each other.
    We’re growing fast …

  • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    Trump is all about pretenses.

    There are the “reasons” he’s making those decisions, and then there are the “pretenses” he uses when the opportunity comes around to make them.

    Swiss banks hold a lot of money from oligarchs and billionaires. Putin wants pressure put on them. But Trump has to find the “pretense” to do it so as to at least nominally not be seen as a russian asset. But what a coincidence, Lindt announces that they’re going to supply Canada directly from Europe to avoid his tariffs. And BOOM. Pretense established.

    • Wanpieserino@lemm.ee
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      21 hours ago

      As Belgian I do think Switzerland is one of the best countries on the entire planet. There’s a reason why they have 30% immigrants, and it’s not because German is a fun language to learn 😁

      • ajikeshi@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        German

        you do not need to learn german, switzerland has german, french and italian speaking regions

  • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Can we get a digital badge that the citizens of any advanced liberal democracy that Magastan panels as “bad” can proudly display on their socials?

    • ahal@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      Don’t sully the “-stan” countries like that, they don’t deserve that association.

        • ahal@lemmy.ca
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          24 hours ago

          Yeah, it does. But I think the intent of “Magastan” is to draw a comparison to “those countries”. But this is stooping down to Trump’s level imo

          • T00l_shed@lemmy.world
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            23 hours ago

            Hmm yeah it could certainly be interpreted that way. I get your point. I’ve said Canukistan before, but not to denigrate others, however it could certainly be interpreted in a negative manner.

  • Dzso@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    How many months is it going to take for the Magats to realize they fucked America over?

    • Hanrahan@slrpnk.net
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      8 hours ago

      They won’t, they’re immensely supportiv"

      I did not mean that Conservatives are generally stupid; I meant, that stupid persons are generally Conservative. .-- John Stuart Mille

      These are Cipolla’s five fundamental laws of stupidity:

      1. Always and inevitably, everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.

      2. The probability that a certain person (will) be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.

      3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.

      1. Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular, non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places, and under any circumstances, to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.

      2. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.

      • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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        23 hours ago

        Or they’ll say they need to go through this difficult transition in order to return to their former glory.

    • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      they’ll long be dead and their grandchildren will still claim this as “the best time in American history”.

  • Atherel@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    Switzerland has a positive balance of trade in goods and therefore appears on this list.

    Ah that’s why…

    We have good arguments. And we have been doing exactly what President Trump wants for a long time.

    Maybe it’s time to fucking stop pleasing the orange cunt, he doesn’t care!

    • Eatspancakes84@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      This focus on the balance of trade is sooo stupid. The US spends more than it produces so it has an aggregate deficit on the trade balance. To stop this, you need to force Americans to spend less (I.e. ignite a recession), or produce more.

      Tariffs against selected countries that have a strong bilateral trade surplus with the US will not affect the US’ aggregate trade balance, since it doesn’t affect consumption by/ or production of the US economy. This is common knowledge from econ 101, and shouldn’t need to be explained to a president that supposedly has a degree in business.

      • mmddmm@lemm.ee
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        1 day ago

        To stop this, you need to force Americans to spend less (I.e. ignite a recession), or produce more.

        Well, you need them to import less (i.e. stop making foreign government loans) or export less (i.e. start buying foreign government loans from other countries).

        Neither of them is exactly a recession, but it’s a large change that would trigger one if done badly. (AKA, the current administration will absolutely trigger one if they try - they aren’t trying by the way.)

        • Eatspancakes84@lemmy.world
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          24 hours ago

          Ehm you have that reversed (or your phrasing is terrible). Production>consumption implies export>imports implies lending to abroad exceeds borrowing from abroad. Said differently, if the current account is in surplus, the capital account is (by definition) in deficit.

          To make this all a bit more intuitive: suppose instead of spending money on consumption goods, we invest in foreign assets. In that case we spend less meaning that we either import less foreign goods or have more domestic produced goods available for export. The consequence is an increase in the current account surplus.

          • mmddmm@lemm.ee
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            24 hours ago

            or your phrasing is terrible

            It’s the standard phrasing.

            The loan is a piece of paper (well not anymore, but it used to be) that you make and sell around.

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    Lmao what the actual fuck? Switzerland…? He’s going after the Swiss now…? I just… wow. What is happening.

    Edit: it’s apparently about - and I shit you not - chocolate. And it’s their volume market brand. Not even the really good stuff.

  • Jhex@lemmy.world
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    24 hours ago

    LOL… well the clowns were elected to the presidency… why are we surprised at the never ending circus?!

  • N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 days ago

    Europe needs to see that unity is the way to go. A united Europe is needed to stand against the mad kings in Russia and the US.

    • LePoisson@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Is this a legend to the five rings card?

      Where’s the mtg card at, get outta here with your shoddy card game!!