Secondly, it was a catastrophic error for the U.S. to become so deeply dependent on imports from China. \u00a0This is something that I have been writing about for years. \u00a0Our stores are now teeming with products that were made in China, and thousands of our supply chains simply cannot function without equipment, parts or products that come from China.<\/p>\n
But our leaders refused to listen to those of us that were sounding the alarm, and now we have a real mess on our hands.<\/p>\n
Because we have become so deeply dependent on China, the trade war that has now begun is really going to hurt<\/strong>, and everyone should be able to see that.<\/p>\n On Thursday, the White House confirmed that the total tariff rate on Chinese imports has now risen to 145 percent<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n The U.S. tariff rate on Chinese imports now effectively totals 145%, a White House official confirmed to CNBC.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s latest executive order hikes tariffs on Beijing to 125% from 84%.<\/p>\n But that comes on top of a 20% fentanyl-related tariff that Trump previously imposed on China.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n One economist is warning<\/a> that high tariff rates on both sides will lead to \u201ca hard decoupling\u201d, and he says that it would be \u201creally hard to overstate the expected shocks this is going to have\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cThis is probably the strongest indication we\u2019ve seen pushing towards a hard decoupling,\u201d said Nick Marro, principal economist for Asia at the Economist Intelligence Unit, referring to an outcome where the two economies have virtually no trade or mutual investment.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to overstate the expected shocks this is going to have, not just to the Chinese economy itself, but also to the entire global trading landscape,\u201d as well as on the US, he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I fully agree with his assessment.<\/p>\n What we are witnessing is going to cause a tremendous amount of disruption.<\/p>\n Apparently lots of other people see things the same way, because a wave of panic buying has now started<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n Across the country, people have been rushing to stores<\/strong> or going online to buy everything from iPhones to coffee to designer bags and jewelry in anticipation of the toll the tariffs will take on their wallets.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n If there is something that is made in China that you really need, I would get it now while you still can.<\/p>\n One woman that just visited her local Costco said that she has \u201cnever seen it so busy\u201d<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n Costco was a total nightmare yesterday. I\u2019ve never seen it so busy<\/strong>. I walked out after seeing the lines going down each aisle with no end in sight.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Another woman that lives in New York City admitted to a reporter that her mother is literally \u201cpanicking\u201d<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cActually, I already have. I\u2019ve already started stocking up. My mother has a whole stockpile, and she\u2019s panicking<\/strong>. But I told her we\u2019re going to be okay, as we live in New York City,\u201d said Amelia Guilford, a retail worker who was visiting her mother in the city.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The price hikes that we will soon see will be quite a shock to the system, and this will particularly be true for big ticket items.<\/p>\n For example, it is being projected that the cost to manufacture an iPhone could go up by hundreds of dollars<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s new tariffs on Chinese goods mean the cost for Apple to manufacture an iPhone could jump from $580 to $850, according to a report from TechInsights.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In anticipation of the coming price hikes, there was a \u201cfull-blown buying spree\u201d<\/a> at Apple stores over the weekend\u2026<\/p>\n Apple just faced a weekend retail frenzy<\/strong> more typical of iPhone launch day than early April. With the Trump administration floating a 54% tariff on Chinese-made goods including Apple\u2019s flagship devices U.S. consumers rushed into stores, fearing sharp price hikes were imminent. According to reports from multiple locations, sales surged as worried buyers sought to lock in current prices, turning what\u2019s usually a quiet season into a full-blown buying spree<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Many of the parts that go into our new vehicles also come from China, and it is being reported that U.S. auto sales were quite a bit higher than expected<\/a> last month as people rushed to purchase new vehicles before the tariffs were implemented\u2026<\/p>\n US auto sales for March came in higher than Deutsche Bank analysts expected, the bank said in a Friday report, rising from February levels. That might indicate \u201cpanic buying\u201d<\/strong> as Americans sought to get ahead of the tariffs on foreign-made vehicles that took effect last week.<\/p>\n The analysts said they had expected higher numbers due to a pre-tariff pull-forward. But \u201cthis impact appears far greater than we anticipated,\u201d the report read. Deutsche Bank expected auto sales to be strong through June, then weaken in the back half of the year.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Unless the U.S. and China can reach some sort of an agreement, and that appears very unlikely at this stage, our standard of living is about to change dramatically.<\/p>\n According\u00a0to CNBC<\/a>, approximately 70 percent of the goods sold on Amazon come from China\u2026<\/p>\n Many sellers on Amazon count on China for manufacturing and assembly due to lower costs and established infrastructure \u2013 up to 70% of goods on Amazon come from China<\/strong>, according to Wedbush Securities. With nearly all imports from China being taxed a staggering 145% under the latest tariffs, Amazon sellers are having to decide whether to raise prices or absorb the vastly increased cost of importing their goods.<\/p>\n Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on Thursday told CNBC that its vast network of third-party sellers will likely \u201cpass the cost on\u201d to consumers. He added that Amazon has done some \u201cstrategic forward inventory buys\u201d and looked to renegotiate terms on some purchase orders to keep prices low.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Reuters spoke to five Amazon sellers in China. \u00a0Three of them said that they would be raising prices, and two of them said that they would be leaving the U.S. market completely<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n Of the five sellers who spoke to Reuters, three said they would look to raise prices for their exports to the U.S., while two planned to leave the market entirely.<\/p>\n Dave Fong, whose products range from schoolbags to Bluetooth speakers, said on Thursday he has raised prices in the U.S. by up to 30% and would let inventory levels fall and lower spending on Amazon advertising fees, which once took up 40% of his U.S. revenue.<\/p>\n \u201cFor us and anyone else, you can\u2019t rely on the U.S. market, that\u2019s quite clear,\u201d Fong said. \u201cWe have to reduce investment, and put more resources into regions like Europe, Canada, Mexico and the rest of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n If this trade war persists, it will be an even bigger economic shock than the pandemic was.<\/p>\n But to me, there is potentially an even bigger concern.<\/p>\n The threat of economic sanctions has always been one of the barriers that has made China think twice about invading Taiwan.<\/p>\n But now that our two economies are rapidly decoupling anyway, the Chinese may come to the conclusion that this is actually a perfect time to make a move on Taiwan.<\/p>\n This crisis with China is a far bigger deal than most people realize, and it could have some very serious unintended consequences.<\/p>\n Michael\u2019s new book entitled\u00a0\u201cWhy\u201d<\/a>\u00a0is available\u00a0in paperback<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0for the Kindle<\/a>\u00a0on Amazon.com,\u00a0and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at\u00a0michaeltsnyder.substack.com<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n About the Author:<\/strong>\u00a0Michael Snyder\u2019s new book entitled\u00a0\u201cWhy\u201d<\/a>\u00a0is available\u00a0in paperback<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0for the Kindle<\/a>\u00a0on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including\u00a0\u201cChaos\u201d<\/a>,\u00a0\u201cEnd Times\u201d<\/a>,\u00a0\u201c7 Year Apocalypse\u201d<\/a>,\u00a0\u201cLost Prophecies Of The Future Of America\u201d<\/a>,\u00a0\u201cThe Beginning Of The End\u201d<\/a>, and\u00a0\u201cLiving A Life That Really Matters\u201d<\/a>.\u00a0 When you purchase any of Michael\u2019s books you help to support the work that he is doing.\u00a0 You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his\u00a0Substack newsletter<\/a>.\u00a0 Michael has\u00a0published thousands of articles on\u00a0The Economic Collapse Blog<\/a>,\u00a0End Of The American Dream<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The Most Important News<\/a>, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.\u00a0 These are such troubled times, and people need hope.\u00a0 John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: \u201cFor God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.\u201d\u00a0 If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ\u00a0to be your Lord and Savior<\/a>\u00a0today.<\/p>\n The post A Wave Of Panic Buying Has Suddenly Erupted At Retailers All Over America<\/a> was first published by Michael Snyder on The Economic Collapse Blog<\/a> and is republished here with his permission. Please support his efforts.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do you remember the panic buying that we witnessed during the early days of the pandemic? \u00a0It\u2019s back, and I have a feeling that it is only going to intensify in the days ahead. \u00a0As more Americans begin to realize that products made in China will soon more than double in price and that some …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":2402965,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[71],"class_list":["post-2402963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news-politics","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2402963"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2402964,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402963\/revisions\/2402964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2402965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2402963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2402963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2402963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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