full 4-hour #video #interview with #Ethan-Thornton of #Mach-Industries, 3 weeks ago. The interviewer, Shawn Ryan, is this ex Navy SEAL dude who is into some bullshit about supernatural beings building the pyramids.
Thornton doesn’t really understand the Tragedy of the Commons, thinks it’s about companies making insufficient profits because of competition.
Atlas Shrugged is his favorite book.
His childhood summers were fixing old tractors and combines on the West Texas farm of his grandfather farm, who also had a hobby of building and flying experimental aircraft.
He got a visit from the ATF in high school after he started Mach at 16 because he built .50-calibre oxyhydrogen rifle #weaponry and had paid a machinist to build a better one.
“I think the stratosphere is sort of the most important military domain moving forward.”
Also as a teen he stole his mom’s credit card and bought a microscope and two sheep’s brains online to learn about neurosurgery.
He says he’s motivated by “individual sovereignty”, which is why he’s passionate about #Ukraine’s national sovereignty, but “China/Taiwan is orders of magnitude more important”.
“Decentralization” is also why Viper is vertical takeoff: so there’s no runway to bomb.
He envisions making up to 2 million Vipers and having them do everything a fighter jet can do, although right now it’s a kamikaze.
Ryan points out that decentralization means discarding the entire world military infrastructure of bases. Thornton points out that it means you can’t require a tanker to refuel. Containerized anti-ship missiles mean any container ship is a potential destroyer in disguise.
Thornton mentions Anduril’s "Eagle Eye".
At 2h48m Ryan presents him a rifle as a gift.
He says the company would not be in business today if he hadn’t moved from Austin to Huntington Beach, in Orange County, CA, where 95+% of the engineers he needed to hire lived (“niche RF, niche propulsion, niche GNC”).
Both Ryan and Thornton are fairly right-wing, but both agree that the US government has lost a lot of trust internationally and needs to regain it, in particular alluding to Trump and Vance’s shenanigans to increase European defense spending and to #Trump’s unpredictable #tariffs, but don’t see how that trust can be regained. Also interesting to hear Thornton express concern about and opposition to the “terrifying” “neofeudalist” planned obsolescence of iPhones, John Deere tractors, etc., which I normally think of as a left-wing concern.
on 02026-04-04#news: “Following the Biden administration’s move to impose 100% #tariffs on Chinese #EVs, Canada implemented similar surtaxes, effectively freezing companies like #BYD, #Nio, and #Zeekr out of the market. (...) #Canada has agreed to allow an annual quota of 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles into the country at the tariff rate of just 6.1%.” #USA #politics #China
on 02026-01-16#Trump #tariffs may need to be refunded, about a trillion dollars for #USA #politics
on 02025-09-09#WSJ #news about #Trump #tariffs and resulting pricing uncertainty in #USA on, for example, hand-hammered copper sinks, due to #politics
on 02025-08-30#news #toread “#Trump reacts to court striking down #tariffs as illegal under federal law” #USA #politics
on 02025-08-29#Trump wants 100% import #tariffs on semiconductors to #USA, except for companies planning to build fabs there, and demands that #Intel’s CEO resign
on 02025-08-08#news #video on #Trump #tariffs coming back into effect yesterday, in many cases over 30%. #USA GDP grew at annualized 3% during the second quarter. But the labor department revised its job growth numbers for May and June downwards by a large factor, like 6× or something. Mostly filler: talking heads and stock footage. From the #WSJ. #economics
on 02025-08-08#news #video from 2 days ago saying #USA drops #tariffs on #China to 30% for 90 days #toread
on 02025-05-15#UK and #India sign a deal to drop #tariffs. #news
on 02025-05-10#Trump threatens #Mattel with 100% #tariffs if they move production out of the #USA #politics
on 02025-05-09#news #video on #China policy on #tariffs from the #SCMP; apparently the vice premier is going to Switzerland to have talks with #Trump officials in a few days, and there’s a lot of monetary easing on the part of the central bank. #politics
on 02025-05-08#news #video saying world stocks have recovered back to their level of a month ago when #Trump announced his #USA #tariffs
on 02025-05-04#news #video by Sal #Mercogliano, who specializes in maritime shipping, saying that the currently-starting week’s drop in shipping at the Port of LA is only 24% rather than 35% as expected, with smaller year-on-year drops of 13% for each of the following two weeks. Excerpts from the Bloomberg Surveillance #interview with Gene Seroka of the Port of LA. He mentions that #tariffs are affixed based on the date that cargo is loaded in #China unless you move your cargo off the terminal to a “bonded warehouse” (which allows you to pay the tariff at the time that you take it out of the warehouse) or ship it back to China.
on 02025-05-04“Spooked by Trade Wars, Trump Officials Hoard Supplies: ‘It Would Be Stupid Not To!’: Some Trump administration officials are stockpiling toilet paper and food before #Trump’s #tariffs cause prices to skyrocket” #USA #politics #survivalists
on 02025-05-03#news #interview #video with #MercadoLibre CEO claiming they have US$21 billion of revenues, 50% growth year-on-year (!!), and almost 100,000 employees. “I think it’s fair to say that the [#USA] was the country with the lowest #tariffs [anywhere], and [that] became unsustainable.”
on 02025-05-03#news #video by Sal #Mercogliano, who specializes in maritime shipping, saying that he thinks next week’s 35% drop in shipping at the port of LA (first full week of May) is real and indicative of a broader trend of less container ships arriving in #USA, which will hit the East Coast 2–4 weeks later. He recommends the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics website. #tariffs
on 02025-05-02#CNBC #news #video with Brad Setser, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, saying, “If #China really wanted to play nasty, they could say, ‘We’re going to limit exports of iPhones.’” The video is pure talking-head and stock-footage filler crap. #USA #politics #tariffs
on 02025-05-02#Vietnam considering cracking down on #transshipment of products of #China to evade #Trump #tariffs in #USA #politics
on 02025-04-30#Vietnam is imposing 37.5% “anti-dumping” #tariffs on galvanized steel from some companies in #China and South #Korea starting a month ago, April 1. #politics
on 02025-04-30#news #video largest container port in Western Hemisphere, Los Angeles, projects shipping volumes down 35% next week because of #Trump #tariffs. #USA #politics
on 02025-04-30#video #news saying Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, says the best-case scenario for #USA is a mild recession from #tariffs. US stock market down 8.4% in #Trump’s first 100 days, Canada up 3.4%, UK up 10.2%, Germany up 18.5%, Mexico up 20.9%.
on 02025-04-30Scott Alexander is opposed to #Trump but says the populist Right needs to take responsibility for the #tariffs disaster. #politics #USA
on 02025-04-30#news #video Karoline Leavitt says #Trump has 18 proposals on paper from countries around the world who “recognize that they have, in fact, been ripping off the United States” on #tariffs #politics
on 02025-04-25#news on #Trump backing down somewhat on #China #tariffs #politics
on 02025-04-23#video #toread about “the death of affordable computing” #tariffs
on 02025-04-23#news saying the #USA Federal Reserve is planning a bailout of the stock and bond market (perhaps via reverse repurchase agreements: treasury securities sold by the Federal Reserve in temporary open market operations, as was done massively in 02022 and 02023, a number that has dropped from US$400 billion two weeks ago to under US$100 billion now), because #Trump’s pause on #tariffs hasn’t stopped the bond market from getting tighter and tighter as hedge funds deleveraged. #politics
on 02025-04-17#news on #China offering #USA and EU citizens 240-hour visa-free shopping tours to buy luxury brands from OEM factory outlets at factory prices, blitzing TikTok with information about how those brands are really produced in China, in response to #Trump #tariffs. #USA #politics
on 02025-04-17#news #video speculating that #China will invade #Taiwan now that they don’t have to worry about losing trade with the #USA, having already lost it to the #Trump #tariffs. Points out that Chinese imports from the US are easily replaceable things like soybeans, unlike fine chemicals and microchips. #politics
on 02025-04-12#news #video #toread from #Deutsche-Welle about the #Trump #China #tariffs exempting smartphones and laptops #politics #USA
on 02025-04-12#news #video: The #Trump administration says it will exclude electronics such as smartphones and laptops from latest #tariffs. That means such devices and their components won’t be subject to the current 145 per cent tariffs levied on #China, or the 10 per cent baseline tariffs elsewhere. #politics #USA
on 02025-04-12#news #video about #China’s new #USA export restrictions (not a full ban) on #rare-earths and other #critical-minerals in response to #Trump #tariffs.
on 02025-04-09#video from yesterday, Victor Gao saying, “We retaliate against what the United States will do even at the cost of a total war between #China and the United States, in terms of tariff war, or trade war, or otherwise.” #tariffs #politics #news
on 02025-04-09#Al-Jazeera #news #video reports that Lula is also considering a “retaliation ... bill to give Brazil’s government [administration] broad powers to respond quickly to unfair trade barriers. It can increase its own #tariffs on imports as well as suspending the payment of intellectual property rights and royalties.” Lula says protectionism has no place in today’s world.
on 02025-04-09#video #news of (JPMorgan Chase CEO) Jamie Dimon saying it’s perfectly reasonable to say that trade barriers were unfair, not just #tariffs, but that a recession is likely.
on 02025-04-09#video #news on #China and #USA #politics, mostly about #Trump #tariffs, mentioning that the #Hutchison ports sale to BlackRock has been paused by Beijing
on 02025-04-09#video from the European Commission opposing #Trump #tariffs; the posture Ursula von der Leyen articulates here doesn’t seem to leave space for making common cause with China in response, though, promising more protectionist measures in response (and not just against the US). #politics
on 02025-04-09#news #USA #tariffs #politics “#China’s Finance Ministry also announced new export controls on medium and heavy rare-earth elements, including samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium.”
on 02025-04-08#news #video quoting Bill Ackman (Pershing Square Capital Management): “we are heading for a self-induced economic nuclear winter” #tariffs #politics #USA
on 02025-04-07#video #news on #Elmu criticizing #Trump #tariffs and also personally attacking Peter Navarro: “He ain’t built shit.”
on 02025-04-07#video of reverse-engineering the #Trump #tariffs formula. #news
on 02025-04-07#video #news with Altimeter Capital CEO Brad Gerstner on #Trump #tariffs: “Most of us are supportive of the president’s pro-business policies (...) but (...) these are not precision tariffs. This is a Navarro nuclear-style attack on American business.” JP Morgan raises recession odds from 40% to 60%.
on 02025-04-07talking-head and stock-footage #video from #Visual-Economik about the Plazza Accords and #Trump’s (poor) chances of achieving something similar today by way of promising to remove #tariffs.
on 02025-04-05#PDF proposal to restructure the global trading system, apparently by Stephen Miran, who seems to be #Trump’s advisor and the architect of his #tariffs.
on 02025-04-05#video #news from #Deutsche-Welle on #China imposing reciprocal #tariffs on #USA #politics, mostly just stock footage and talking heads. 34% tariffs on imports from the US, and a ban on seven rare-earth exports to the US and Europe. Jerome Powell, President of the Federal Reserve, predicts that the tariffs will probably cause #inflation in the US, unemployment, and slower growth. #toread
on 02025-04-04#video about #USA #tariffs #politics
on 02025-04-02#video about #USA #tariffs #politics with Larry Summers
on 02025-04-02#Fox #news #video about #PRC’s statement that it is ready for “any kind of war” with #USA on the basis of #Trump’s #tariffs. Trump announces the creation of a “office of shipbuilding” and promises to invade #Panama to get the canal back. #politics #China
on 02025-03-06#news on the #EU imposing 35.3% punitive import #tariffs on electric vehicle (EV) imports from #China earlier this year on top of the 10% standard import duty (and I suppose VAT). China ended its joint-venture rule in 02022, maybe due to #Tesla, while the EU is maybe enacting it as a way to, in effect, drop the tariffs. This #video (by #EV-Insight) is pure irrelevant stock-footage filler. #politics #EVs
on 02024-11-26“Crystalline Silicon #Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People’s Republic of #China: Final Results and Partial Rescission of Countervailing Duty Administrative Review; 2020” #USA #solar #politics #tariffs #subsidies
on 02024-06-16potential new #USA #tariffs on #EVs and #solar #photovoltaic panels from #China #toread #energy #politics
on 02024-06-16