Not my problem.

IBTL

Wondering what beelzeboob thinks and how Taxman will respond.

Is it alright for us to get off topic in the usual ways?

You know, like Rascal_H asking about beelzeboob and I? Then Mr. New Jersey comes in saying something about "teal" and the whole train wreck happens like it normally does?

That's fine...we're just trying to avoid diving into politics, since those discussions usually tend to go sideways.

teal

Will it help with Stern's quality?

Welcome to the whysnow cliche festival.

Im sure this will go well....

what do you expect the changes and impacts to be? As an insider there must be talk about this at work and what possible implications are and how you plan to skirt them?

All depends if other countries follow suit with tariffs and/or import taxes.

I voted for Trump (for full disclosure), but I don't like the idea of trade wars. It isn't good for anyone. Just look at the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. That act set the stage for the Great Depression. The government's response to the damage the act caused, is what gave us the great Depression, but that's a topic for another time.

What people fail to realize, is that countries don't trade with one another...people do. If someone from Australia purchases a Stern or JJP machine, the transaction is between the Australian and Stern/JJP. It is not between Australia and USA.

Pinball is full of imported parts which could be easily taxed. So everyone's price goes up.

Trump isn't talking about taxes products going out. Only certain products coming in. For instance, say Stern decided to build machines in Mexico. Only the machines built in Mexico coming back into the USA would be taxed.

Has there actually been talk of widespread tariffs or import taxes? So far I have only heard of import taxes being put on products by American companies who move the jobs out of America for cheaper labor. And the tax would be on the bringing the product back in to sell.

(edit: I type slow)

And of course talk or renegotiating other trade deal that he feels are bad in general and can be effected by currency manipulation (China). Obviously if a large player like China gets mad and a trade war does happen that has global implications.

But I don't see anything pinball related.

Pinball companies can take a page out of auto manufacturing handbook. Ship playfields separate from cabinets and have them put together here. Dodge sprinters did it for years.

I think it will not affect our ability to trade games.

It could lead to an economic slowdown.

That isn't good for anyone.

I think this whole topic is solely intended to incite argument. Ridiculous.

What happens with Heighway or Homepin when selling games/parts in the US?

What happens with all the refurbished/rescued obsolete chips, EPROMs, NVRAM, and other components that we have been relying from China & Hong Kong on as of late? The shipping costs are largely subsidized at the moment.

Economic slowdown is not always a bad thing. Too much boom can lead to a sudden collapse. It's happened before.

Mods can delete this if it's too much, but my 2 cents is there is zero way to discuss this kind of thing here, you can't just say "lol no politics". I don't want to see Trump's name in the topics even.

See post #15.

When has it happened before? Can't say 1929, because the economy didn't collapse in 1929. The following 13 years was all government created.

I'll let somebody else argue this with you. I'm not wasting my time.

+1

Actually Heighway could do better. After the Brexit there will be a lot of clamoring for new trade deals.

Still, when you are talking $B/$T companies and products like cars they play those games. It is not worth their time to write laws about a couple of thousand pinball machines or $6 chips to raise them to $7. Unless overall shipping gets effected.

I think some of this stuff is more of a scare tactic. "There is a new sheriff in town" to keep everyone from trying to get away with too much. Same thing happened when Regan got into office. Everyone was saying he was Ronny Ray-Gun and was going to start WWIII. So everyone was so afraid something would happen they all played nice together.

Kind of like - "Hey kids, your angry father just pulled in the driveway. Are you going to keep this up?".

We are a great customer, if they hit back it will be minor.

Trade deficient with Germany -
TOTAL 2016 -59,556 this is in millions of dollars.

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c4280.html

Interesting

Does anyone ever tax outgoing products though? Isn't the idea that you're taxing imports to drive up the price of imports and make locally made goods more competitive? No point in taxing exports (except in unusual case of trying to discourage export of rare/essential commodities).

Setting aside the likelihood of Congressional approval, can you realistically expect new tariffs to go unanswered? Would the US just sit on its hands if our exports were suddenly facing big new tariffs in Europe? Sounds like a pipe dream to me.

I don't want to see any tariffs.

The good thing, is Trump just can't set tariffs to whatever he wants them to be. Need an act of congress to bring about tariffs. I just don't see this happening.

IMO, the focus should be on the business climate in this country. Make it easier for businesses to conduct business. I own a small business. The downside to it, is that I have a 45% partner that does 2 things: 1 - Takes 45% of my profits and 2 - keeps making it harder and harder every year on me with cumbersome rules and regulations.

What does any of this have to do with import tax/trade policy?

150 days is temporary.

To do what Trump is talking about doing, he needs congress.

This isn't a political discussion.

Perhaps if the price goes up high enough on some of the chips, there will be a market to make new ones and niche chip makers will fill the void. Kind of like when the cost of oil got high, I became profitable to remove the oil from the sands to refine. Which wasn't economically feasible at the lower prices.

Hope trump doesn't screw with NAFTA much or he will put me out of business. It's a big fear for many Canadians.

It all depends on how it's actually implemented. If it's a blanket tariff then it will effect everything and everyone. If it's only used as a tool to prevent outsourcing manufacturing that is currently done in the US, it will have little if any effect.

I don't see a problem with that. If there is a trade deficit between us and the rest of the world shouldn't we try to fix that. China's trade policy is the one most discouraging.

Yeah Why is Germany a priority? Shouldn't China be the point of changing trade policy? I don't have a problem with them exporting so much product but they should allow the importing of product from other countries to be fair.

Maybe there's a legitimate argument to be made that throwing big tariffs on imported goods could benefit the US economy in the long term by making US low-skilled labor price-competitive again. I just questioned the argument that the new administration isn't threatening to tax US exports. Of course they're not, why would they? But one thing you can count on is that if you take aggressive action to curb imports, the affected exporting countries are going to notice and reciprocate, and that will have very real and potentially harsh consequences for the US economy.