The CBO reports that 96% of the extra costs of tariffs is borne by the consumer.

NOT an opinion.

"I seriously doubt that."

 The CBO may report it that way but they got most of that information, in my opinion, from the Kiel Institute report found here:

 

https://www.kielinstitut.de/fileadmin/Dateiverwaltung/IfW-Publications/fis-im...

Eegore wrote on 01/21/26 at 09:34:56:


I work for an international company and many of our overseas suppliers were subject to tariffs. Some made the point of telling us they were not passing on the cost, they’d cover it, some did pass on a part of the cost, some passed on all the cost but as of this point, we did not pass along any costs to a customer in the form of a price increase. And by the way, eating the cost was often times accomplished with a price decrease to make up for the fact the exporter paid the tariff and passed that cost onto us. Don’t think a foreign manufacturing company and exporter they used are separate. They may be technically separate, but they operate together in situations like this often.

I go back to the question which I’ve asked many times, and which I’ve heard others ask, there was a big push to increase minimum wage, which is a cost, but there was no concern about if this would be passed on to the consumer. The consensus was the companies would just eat that cost and not pass that cost along to the consumer. In fact, it was expected of them.

Why is it not expected companies should eat the tariff?

The minimum wage argument is just BS. You can't argue that prices will increase with a higher minimum wage when the prices increased anyway. Very simply, it is capitalist greed. The corporations refuse to make LESS than they've made in the past. They pay their top management many times what they are worth, and pay the workers, who are the REAL source of their wealth, like garbage. That also means US capitalism can NOT compete on the world markets.

The minimum wage argument is just BS. You can't argue that prices will increase with a higher minimum wage when the prices increased anyway. Very simply, it is capitalist greed. The corporations refuse to make LESS than they've made in the past. They pay their top management many times what they are worth, and pay the workers, who are the REAL source of their wealth, like garbage. That also means US capitalism can NOT compete on the world markets.

 I can say that the local pizza joint had to increase prices they otherwise would not increase based off the increase in minimum wage.  

 They did have other options, like reducing staff.  The owner makes about 60k a year, so I guess he could take a cut and get a part-time job, but I think it's more realistic to add a dollar to the delivery fee and 30 cents to the chicken toppings.  This is my opinion.

 I know a number of businesses where the minimum wage directly impacts their profit margin.  

Egore--- those aren't businesses. A real business makes a profit AFTER paying the cost of doing business.

Buster--- your TV has obviously been broken for years...

Egore--- those aren't businesses. A real business makes a profit AFTER paying the cost of doing business.


 They do make a profit AFTER expenses.  I literally said the owner pulls 60k a year.  That's profit.  

 My point is a small business is impacted by wage increases, especially those that pay minimum wage, and the ideal mitigation is to pass that cost to the consumer.  

 Of course we can dodge that truth by creating some false misnomer that only large businesses or corporations are "real" businesses, but we all know that's an amateur way to misdirect.  Profitable small businesses raise prices due to wage increases, that's not uncommon in my opinion.

Eegore wrote on Yesterday at 06:45:52:


Trumps inconsistent tariffs, and just as important, threats about imposing tariffs, create chaos in the market. It certainly has an ours. In Trump’s  opinion, that’s a benefit to the United States. All of “the sky is falling” predictions over the past year have not come true so I would say Trump’s strategy has worked.