pull down to refresh

Donald Trump pressed China to initiate trade negotiations, stating the US does not need a deal. Tensions escalate as both countries impose high tariffs. The latest being a whopping 245% imposed on Chinese goods by US.
“The ball is in China’s court. China needs to make a deal with us. We don’t have to make a deal with them,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday.
“There’s no difference between China and any other country except they are much larger, and China wants what we have, what every country wants, what we have — the American consumer — or to put it another way, they need our money,” the statement continued.
This isn't looking good atm. China has been pressing US for dealing this trade war with a dialogue but US wants them to first deescalate from the higher tariffs China rose in retaliation.
Here's the actual text:
On Liberation Day, President Trump imposed a 10% tariff on all countries and individualized reciprocal higher tariffs on nations with which the U.S. has the largest trade deficits in order to level the playing field and protect America’s national security. More than 75 countries have already reached out to discuss new trade deals. As a result, the individualized higher tariffs are currently paused amid these discussions, except for China, which retaliated. China faces up to a 245% tariff on imports to the United States as a result of its retaliatory actions.
This includes a 125% reciprocal tariff, a 20% tariff to address the fentanyl crisis, and Section 301 tariffs on specific goods, between 7.5% and 100%.
So this mention of 245% is just because there already was a 100% tariff on electric vehicles set by Biden on May 10th 2024, see for example: https://www.ft.com/content/9b79b340-50e0-4813-8ed2-42a30e544e58 (archive link)
reply
250 sats \ 1 reply \ @optimism 16 Apr
PS: it looks like this news was originally brought to you by Benzinga. The literal news for shitcoiners. And then copied by every publication that does not do research or publishes it despite research done.
I'm very much against vibe coding but I'm now going to trick an AI into coding me a publication_shitlist.py
reply
Thank you Qwen QwQ for being actually pretty good at writing python code so I don't have to.
Sharing so y'all can have your own sovereign shitlist.

code

# Copyright (C) 2025 opti <optimism@stacker.news>
# This work is free. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
# terms of the Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License, Version 2,
# as published by Sam Hocevar. See http://www.wtfpl.net/ for more details.
import sqlite3
import sys
import re
import argparse
from datetime import datetime

DB_FILE = 'publications.db'

def sanitize_input(s):
    """Sanitize input"""
    return re.sub(r'[^0-9A-Za-z:./ ]', '', s.strip())

def create_table(conn):
    with conn:
        conn.execute('''
            CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS publications (
                id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
                name TEXT NOT NULL UNIQUE,
                url TEXT NOT NULL UNIQUE,
                reason TEXT NOT NULL,
                timestamp DATETIME DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
            )
        ''')

def insert_publication(conn, name, url, reason):
    with conn:
        conn.execute('''
            INSERT INTO publications (name, url, reason)
            VALUES (?, ?, ?)
        ''', (name, url, reason))

def get_all_publications(conn):
    with conn:
        return conn.execute('SELECT * FROM publications').fetchall()

def main():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Track unreliable news publications')
    subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(dest='command')

    # Add command
    add_parser = subparsers.add_parser('add', help='Add a publication')
    add_parser.add_argument('name', help='Publication name')
    add_parser.add_argument('url', help='Publication URL')
    add_parser.add_argument('reason', help='Reason for listing')

    # List command
    subparsers.add_parser('list', help='List all publications')

    args = parser.parse_args()
    conn = sqlite3.connect(DB_FILE)
    create_table(conn)

    if args.command == 'add':
        # Sanitize inputs
        name = sanitize_input(args.name)
        url = sanitize_input(args.url)
        reason = sanitize_input(args.reason)

        # Validate sanitized inputs
        if not name or not url or not reason:
            print("Error: All fields must contain valid characters after sanitization")
            sys.exit(1)

        try:
            insert_publication(conn, name, url, reason)
            print(f"Added: {name}, {url}, {reason}")
        except sqlite3.IntegrityError:
            print("Error: Publication name or URL already exists")

    elif args.command == 'list':
        publications = get_all_publications(conn)
        if not publications:
            print("No publications recorded")
        else:
            for pub in publications:
                print(f"Name: {pub[1]}, URL: {pub[2]}, Reason: {pub[3]}, Timestamp: {pub[4]}")
    
    else:
        parser.print_help()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

proof-of-it-works:

(env) opti@box shitlist % python3 publication_shitlist.py add benzinga benzinga.com "shitcoiners"
Added: benzinga, benzinga.com, shitcoiners
(env) opti@box shitlist % python3 publication_shitlist.py list
Name: benzinga, URL: benzinga.com, Reason: shitcoiners, Timestamp: 2025-04-16 15:27:23
reply
Putting this in terms where China now has to lose face if they want to compromise is ... interesting.
reply
It seems they are ready to sit on the table but this 245% came as a suprise and might setback the chances.
The dialogue from US is more like of a bully.
reply
I know there's so much written about this already, but it will not be consequence-free to make it extremely obvious to the whole world that the US's privileged place in the world is a shitty deal for them. They kind of have to take the deal, for the time being, but now they'll be very motivated to get out of it. VERY motivated.
Kind of like SWIFT sanctions on Russia in 2022, a wake-up call. I suppose good for btc?
reply
Definitely good for BTC when two fiats colliding. The bigger the fiat wars, the better it is for Bitcoin.
I've heard that China might weaponise US Treasuries, for which it is the second biggest holder after Japan, to put the pressure back on the US.
reply
It'll be interesting to see. This must be an enormous boon to China's export competitors.
reply
This must be an enormous boon to China's export competitors.
It may be. However I'm thinking how it would impact the already inflated prices for certain imported goods. This whole of tariff thing seems more like avoiding the real issues that's America is facing right now. One of them is inflation. I've outlined one of them for Medicare Prices here #945557
reply
Most people who pay attention know about these problems. It's just not politically feasible to fix them.
reply
No, China doesn’t need to make a deal. They are a dictatorship for God’s sake and they will do what the fuck they want. Have you seen their reaction to Covid? China will not bend. Americans will be fucked without Chinese goods though. Good luck.
reply
10 sats \ 1 reply \ @galtgpt 16 Apr
In this trade war, which countries are benefiting? Who is out of this radar?
reply
Vietnam for sure. I am trying to jog my memory (havent had coffee yet) but SE Asia in general as US companies have been moving manufacturing over there.
reply
Quality of Crab Rangoon go down, Rate of Tariff go up....that's what this is over, right?
reply
Here's a breakdown of the 245% Tariff
125% Reciprocal Tariff:
20% Fentanyl-Related Tariff:
Section 301 Tariffs:
Reasons for the Tariff Increase
Retaliation Against China's Tariffs:
Export Controls on Critical Materials:
Addressing the Fentanyl Crisis:
Impact on Imports
Medical Devices:
Electronics:
Consumer Goods:
reply
I sometimes wonder if there's communication and negotiation happening through back channels.
Usually there would be but when the public posturing is this aggressive, I wonder
reply
Got Bitcoin?
reply
Thoughts on how China just canned their previous top international trade negotiator for someone new?
reply
USA is fucked without Chinese supply chains. You cant even make face masks or toothbrushes. Let alone machine tools, ships, cranes and iphones... US consumer say hello to 50% consumer goods price inflation!
Nobody wants to buy those $9 Trillion of USTs coming up for auction this year. US govt debt serving about to go through the roof-approaching insolvency. End of USD/SWIFT reserve currency hegemony and empire imminent.
reply
Omg you are just soooo obsessed with me you silly little guy! I am sorry I cant devote my entire time to you </3
P.S. Get off your knees for BRICS its embarrassing <3
reply
I address the issues and you respond with crude and feeble attempts to shoot the messenger...
Because you cannot credibly refute the facts and issues raised.
You thereby concede defeat, by default, in the contest of ideas.
reply
0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Cje95 17 Apr
  1. I was never crude I mean if you thought I was then idk what to tell you because it’s called different ideas.
  2. I dropped sources multiple sources from different things you would maybe drop one if you dropped any
  3. You are so obsessed with me for engagement you chase me down over on another post like please babe don’t be so possessive!
Finally you didn’t answer anything and just brought up different stuff 😂 I mean babe this is sad and sorry. I hope to God you are not a voting American cause holy shit wherever you vote they are in trouble with people like you.
Also I am by no means a Darth fan but you are the crude one I mean…
YIKES
reply
Good to see you have started your journey toward understanding the historical context starting from the Opium Wars around 1840 and going forward from there. Getting this deeper historical understanding will stand you in good stead in your work with the US govt and its current struggle to adapt to the fact that China has won the trade war and is close to extending its dominance to the area of trade payments via mBridge- enjoy.