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Trump Tariffs

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No.
At no point did I suggest that tariff collections would be lower for the year or that higher tariffs can’t increase tariff revenue.

So now have at it. Call me a pussy, a wimp, a dimwit, you pick. Go ahead, have at it.
You don't have the courage of your convictions for a gentleman's bet, so you lose your shit? lmao
 
The blanket tariffs went in place in April but Trump had already been placing miscellaneous tariffs prior to then namely on Canada, Mexico and China.

That is chiefly responsible for the surge customs collections. Not the nonsense you’ve been posting.

You’re out of your depth Nood. You’re a know nothing.
You've got Noodle replying to himself. lol
 
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Xi will be back when his unemployed factory workers hit the streets.
Yeah I wouldn’t bet on that. Covid cratered the Chinese economy just like everybody else, but not a whiff of social unrest out of China. Although given what a black box China is I’m not sure we’d even know if there was. A government willing to weld people into in their homes doesn’t really care much about a rising unemployment rate.

If the EU actually cuts a new trade agreement with China we could find ourselves in a tough spot. And speaking of the EU, what exactly is their problem? They’re happy to rake the U.S. over the coals and accuse us of abdicating leadership for not being sufficiently antagonistic towards Russia.

But when the U.S. pivots to confront the real threat to the global order in China they are nowhere to be found. Not their backyard, not their problem. Even worse they start gravitating towards the Chinese. With allies like that, who needs enemies?
 
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What would the return on our investment be? Isn’t that an important piece of understanding how it would affect the debt?

A devil’s advocate means someone just takes the opposite view in different arguments. You’re not a devil’s advocate, you’re just a shill for the CCP.

Just like you would belong perfectly in the Soviet Union, reading your Fox News Pravda every day.
 
Xi will be back when his unemployed factory workers hit the streets.

Yeah I wouldn’t bet on that. Covid cratered the Chinese economy just like everybody else, but not a whiff of social unrest out of China. Although given what a black box China is I’m not sure we’d even know if there was. A government willing to weld people into in their homes doesn’t really care much about a rising unemployment rate.

If the EU actually cuts a new trade agreement with China we could find ourselves in a tough spot. And speaking of the EU, what exactly is their problem? They’re happy to rake the U.S. over the coals and accuse us of abdicating leadership for not being sufficiently antagonistic towards Russia.

But when the U.S. pivots to confront the real threat to the global order in China they are nowhere to be found. Not their backyard, not their problem. Even worse they start gravitating towards the Chinese. With allies like that, who needs enemies?

I assume you guys have never played organised sports? One thing about sports or in business is that you never underestimate your opponent.

Meanwhile, I suggest you guys need to educate yourselves on global economics and/or history. It might just widen your knowledge base. Less Fox News because it will just rot your faculties.
 
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I assume you guys have never played organised sports? One thing about sports or in business is that you never underestimate your opponent.

Meanwhile, I suggest you guys need to educate yourselves on global economics and/or history. It might just widen your knowledge base. Less Fox News because it will just rot your faculties.
Your posting is absolutely nauseating. You’d think with the number of times you’ve made reference to living in Asia you might have a unique perspective but somehow you come up short of offering that again and again and again.

“Stop watching Fox News; it’s Pravda”

“Who are we to judge other cultures”

“In international business I’m always striving to understand my opposition”

Please. Stop cluttering up the board with your junk. You’re not intelligent and your writing is hack and repetitive.
 
Your posting is absolutely nauseating. You’d think with the number of times you’ve made reference to living in Asia you might have a unique perspective but somehow you come up short of offering that again and again and again.

“Stop watching Fox News; it’s Pravda”

“Who are we to judge other cultures”

“In international business I’m always striving to understand my opposition”

Please. Stop cluttering up the board with your junk. You’re not intelligent and your writing is hack and repetitive.
The irony here is thick
 
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Promises made. Promises kept.


Trump definitely hit the ground running in hopes policies such as his tariff programs will actually gain support before the 2026 mid term elections.

Whether his programs work out, or end up as hasty boondoggles as seen by the body politic by 2026 could have historic consequences.

Let's buckle up and hit the ground prayimg, as we are in for a bumpy ride.
 
Your posting is absolutely nauseating. You’d think with the number of times you’ve made reference to living in Asia you might have a unique perspective but somehow you come up short of offering that again and again and again.

“Stop watching Fox News; it’s Pravda”

“Who are we to judge other cultures”

“In international business I’m always striving to understand my opposition”

Please. Stop cluttering up the board with your junk. You’re not intelligent and your writing is hack and repetitive.
I’m not sure which is worse, his Chinese propaganda or all of the creepy posts he used to make about all of the hookers & ladyboys he hooked up with…
 
It’s just amazing how horrible gov is. Just leave us alone. Business swimming along nicely. Gov. We’re shutting your industry down. Covid. Who decides. People getting guaranteed checks.

We’re adjusting. Everyone regrouping. Tariffs. Worldwide. No. F off. Leave everyone alone .
That's true as long as we can continue making the miniumum interest payments on our national debt.

Once we can't do that, kiss the USA goodbye.

I'd rather take the pain now and at least slow the debt enough that the GDP growth makes it payable and - dreaming, I know - bring the budget closer to balanced.
 
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I’m not sure which is worse, his Chinese propaganda or all of the creepy posts he used to make about all of the hookers & ladyboys he hooked up with…
'little brown fecking machines' is the descriptor I remember.
 
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Since you felt the need to insert yourself, yes Court your posting is also awful. In Sglow’s defense he is actually capable of more than a sentence or two of snide bullshit or some offhand insult.

You are not. Run along creep.
Irony yet again

nerve touched yet again.

lol
 
Your posting is absolutely nauseating. You’d think with the number of times you’ve made reference to living in Asia you might have a unique perspective but somehow you come up short of offering that again and again and again

Please. Stop cluttering up the board with your junk. You’re not intelligent and your writing is hack and repetitive.

And yet you keep responding... it says more about you than me dude.
 
There has been a MAGA shift on tariffs. Since they (of course) will raise prices, they had to make a shift. It appears the new argument is that they can just avoid buying things subject to the tariffs. Aside from lack of consumer choice being a bad thing, it’s completely wrong to think any of us can just avoid buying these things. The lengths some will go to for Trump are really wild.
 
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There has been a MAGA shift on tariffs. Since they (of course) will raise prices, they had to make a shift. It appears the new argument is that they can just avoid buying things subject to the tariffs. Aside from lack of consumer choice being a bad thing, it’s completely wrong to think any of us can just avoid buying these things. The links some will go to for Trump are really wild.
'lengths' ?
 
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There has been a MAGA shift on tariffs. Since they (of course) will raise prices, they had to make a shift. It appears the new argument is that they can just avoid buying things subject to the tariffs. Aside from lack of consumer choice being a bad thing, it’s completely wrong to think any of us can just avoid buying these things. The lengths some will go to for Trump are really wild.
@larsIU , any tariffs on Nigerian goods? Is this our time?
 
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This fits into my earlier point about just not buying things from China is not a real strategy. Many industries have no other options and could be forced out of business by the tariffs.

 
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Below is an email from a wargaming company about the tariffs. GMT is one of the bigger players in the niche hobby, not nearly as big as some standard gaming companies. It is an interesting read on how the tariffs are going to impact some companies/industries.

They have been asked for a long time why they do not print in America. Simply put, explained below, they did. It cost 4 times more and up to 25% of the product was not up to standard and the American printers refused to give them credit for the mistakes.

The rest is the email.

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Hi everyone!

First off, I want to note that due to the length of this first section of the newsletter this time (my apologies for the length, but I want to be as transparent as possible with you, so that you understand what we are facing), we are eliminating or abbreviating several of our usual sections. They will be back next month!

As most of you know, it's been a wild and challenging month of April already in terms of tariffs and trade wars that have a direct impact on GMT and our operations, and we're barely halfway through the month. Before I get to all that, though, I want to personally thank all of you who took part in our 40% off sale from April 1-7. I know that you got some products you wanted at great prices. I also know that many of you bought items in the sale because you really wanted to help us through what has been a very difficult time here at GMT. I just want you to know that all of us at GMT appreciate your kindness and concern and willingness to help us. You DID help us improve our cash reserves, which makes us more flexible and resilient as we face the new challenges in the form of heightened tariffs.

The Elephant in the Room - Tariffs. So let's just get into the tariff conversation. First off, I'm not at all interested in talking about the politics of all this, especially in public. The tariffs create a huge functional cash flow and pricing problem for us, as they do much of the board game industry. Today I'm going to be as transparent as possible as I explain the issues we face, what we intend to do to move forward, and how you can help us. First of all, we hear this question a lot...

"Why Not Just Start Printing in the US?" How we wish we could! Unfortunately, we don't have the option to just "move your printing back to the US" because the quality and precision of manufacturing needed to produce many of the components in our games just does not exist at the scale and pace that we need in the United States. Believe me, we've searched for them and continue to do so (see Kai's more detailed note in her Production section later in the update). Price is, of course, an issue—as the bids we've received from the US-based companies we've asked to bid on projects were 3-4 times what it currently costs to print our games. But the key thing, sadly, is that even at hugely increased costs, the few US companies that can do SOME of the work that we need can't produce anywhere near the quality that we (and you) are used to with mass sophisticated game production in China.

We printed in the US for many years before moving offshore due mostly to quality issues (we were tired of and frustrated with those "bad old days" of paying for 10,000 countersheets and having to throw away 25% of them because they were miscut—often with no refunds or credits). For the few of those companies that still exist today, their machinery is older now and their capability to produce high quality game components has not kept pace with what the game market now expects. And they are very limited in how many projects they can run concurrently; they are certainly not in a position to print 25+ games a year for us, which is what we need financially to make GMT work. Ironically, although we're "too big" for such older companies, there are a couple of pretty high end European companies that have facilities here in the US, but we're "too small" for them (with minimum print runs required of 20-25,000 copies). That leaves us with virtually no viable options to print in the US at high quality and the scale that serves GMT and all of our customers.

We have been exploring, and will continue to explore, alternative arrangements for printing outside of China, but we have not yet found any that are satisfactory. See Kai's production section below if you'd like more details on our "search."

We're in this together. As you'll see from the financial details I'm sharing below, these tariffs and their meteoric rise over just a couple of weeks, have presented a set of huge, potentially fatal problems for us at GMT. What I want you to know is that we are doing everything we can to plan a viable route through the tariff minefields. And I want to tell you that we absolutely cannot do it without all of you, our customers, sticking with us. One of the effects of these tariffs and the dialogue around them is that a lot of people who live outside of the US are angry at the US government right now, some even boycotting US products. I just want to remind you that, although we understand the frustration and anger, this doesn't mean you have to be angry with GMT. We believe that we've done right by our customers over these 35 years, providing quality products and customer service and treating you all with kindness and respect. We've hosted hundreds of you at our various GMT events here in the US over the years, numerous GMT team members have attended your conventions in your countries, and many of us have become friends. But this environment of heightened tensions, frustrations, and anger created by the tariff/trade issues is a challenge to all of us. Will we retain our good relationships and friendships and mutual support amidst the chaos? That's a question that each of us individually has to answer, but what I can do today is tell you how we at GMT are approaching this.

Honestly, our response to this challenge is pretty simple. We will stay true to ourselves and will treat ALL of our customers, employees, and strategic partners—in any country—as friends who are worthy of kindness and respect. Despite what's happening on a national level, that doesn't have to—and will not—change who we are. What's being modeled for all of us at higher levels right now is "Care about yourself. Get your advantage. Don't worry about others. Demonize your opponents." Of course, the "us vs them" vitriol that this kind of approach has ignited between parties and countries is NOT the way we believe in treating people or how we do business here at GMT. Over 35 years, that kind of exclusive, divisive, selfish thinking has just never been part of our company DNA.

I hope, for all of our sakes, that these tariff conditions and trade issues don't last for long. But even if they do, it's not going to shake our commitment to treating our customers as friends and trying our best to create "win-win" scenarios for all of us. You matter to us. And frankly, as we've told you many times over the past 35 years, we can't do what we do without you. This is collectively OUR hobby, not any one company's or any one country's. It's something that many of us are passionate about and that we all enjoy TOGETHER around our game tables and online. So here at GMT, we're going to do everything we possibly can to continue to be transparent with our customers and to show leadership, kindness, and respect to each other and to all of you even through these rough times. We intend to make sure—to the best of our human efforts and abilities—that we can all continue to enjoy this hobby—and the games that we create and produce here at GMT—together for many, many years. I would respectfully and imploringly ask you all to join us in these commitments to each other as we consider how to keep GMT creating great games for you even in the face of the biggest threat to our continued existence as a company in the past 35 years. As you'll see in what follows, we absolutely need your support in order to survive this and to someday thrive together again.

Now Let's Look at The Big Financial and Operational Issues Created by the Tariffs.

Issue #1. Cash Flow.
This isn't the one you hear about as much as you do "game prices" when you hear game companies talk about the tariff impacts, but it's definitely the one most likely to kill us. Because of the 145% tariff, those batches of games that we have currently printing in China (and any subsequent batches) are going to cost us EXORBITANTLY more cash than we planned for when we were told that tariffs would be 10% (we had a plan for that, and even for 20-40%). For example, we currently have 14 games at the printer. The cost to print all of those titles is right around $500,000. It looks right now like they'll be coming in three separate shipments, but that's still in normal times a $500,000 cash commitment from us to pay for all the games. And FYI, P500 charges are designed to provide us with the funds to pay the printers, while other sales to distributors and longer-term direct sales to customers pay for our overhead and create some profits. So right now, as long as a lot of customers don't cancel orders before we charge and ship for those games, we can expect about 500K in P500 income that would in normal times pay for those games.

With the 145% tariff, though, those games will now cost over 1.2 MILLION dollars to get to our warehouse. That's $700,000+ extra for.....basically nothing. So how we price the games (the next issue) isn't the biggest problem we have at all. Rather, it's how to pay for the games at the scale and frequency that we print them with a 145% tariff (in this case, $700K) tagged on. As a business model, with that level of tariffs, printing at a pace we need to in order to cover our overhead, it's unsustainable. Basically that group of three shipments alone, unless we make some big operational changes quickly, will eat up all of our cash reserves and leave us with no funds to pay our employees and other expenses.

Issue #2. Game Pricing. So, assuming we can figure out how to manage the cash flow issues above, how do we deal with game prices that were set 1-4 years ago (both P500 and Retail) when now our costs have increased by 145%?

First off, I will tell you that the price increases and shipping mods we made near the end of 2024 did what they needed to do. Our internal operational price models work now to cover our expenses. Well, they DID work before the tariffs. FYI, most of the 10% tariff increase that we were told we'd get and long expected was covered by that price increase. Every tariff increase after that (20%, 54%, 104%, 125%, and now 145%) needs to be covered in some other way.

I WISH we were a rich enough company that we could just absorb all the tariffs and have our customers pay nothing extra for our games. But that's Gene in fantasyland again. This one is going to take some creative, strategic reworking of how we operate. So we have developed an Action Plan to help our international customers AVOID the tariffs, and to MINIMIZE and SHARE the cost for our US Customers (and I'm sorry to our US Customers; these tariffs are the law right now and we have to pay them). I'll give more details on how we will accomplish this in our ACTION PLAN below.

Issue #3. Worldwide Availability of our Games. In a situation with both direct tariffs on goods moving from China to the US and potential reciprocal tariffs between the US and many other countries, how can we help ALL of our customers still be able to get our games without huge additional price increases?​

 
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