American classic: How did Reagan use tariff to save the last American motorcycle
manufacturer?
1. In 1980 Harley-Davidson faced near-bankruptcy situation because of competition from Japanese motorcycle manufacturers Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha.
2. The US International Trade Commission (USITC) concluded that Harley-Davidson was being harmed by Japanese import. Thr tariffs were only 4.4% then.
3. President Reagan took action on April 1, 1983 (Trump must copy that date from Reagan playbook 42 years later, but changed it to 4/2 for superstition reason . LOL), raised tarriff by a fucking 45% (4.4% to 49.4%).
4. Harley-Davidson used the time and breathing room provided by the tariffs to improve its quality, modernize its business practices, and introduce new products.
5. By 1987, Harley-Davidson became profitable again and fully recovered.
6. The tariff expired in 1988 when the company no longer felt it needed tarriff.
Replies to: American classic: How did Reagan use tariff to save the last American motorcycle
A minute targeted tariff is not a blanket global tariff tax.
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You probably hated Reagan back in the day.. like I did when I was a liberal... but...
he was against blanket tariffs.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Mj6N-WBPrVw
I agree with the guy in the clip. The people who have been wrong about everything the
Last few years are all of sudden right about the tariffs. If they are crying, Trump must be doing something right.
Link: https://x.com/_johnnymaga/status/1907920150042460348?s=61
What could go wrong?
From the article:
[In other words, the world has been the way the world has been these past 80 years because America was the way America was: a superpower ready to let other countries take some advantage of it in trade, because previous presidents understood that if the world grew steadily richer and more peaceful, and if the United States just continued to get the same slice of global G.D.P. — about 25 percent — it would still prosper handsomely because the total pie would grow steadily larger. Which is exactly what happened.
The world has been the way the world has been because China brought more people out of poverty faster than any other country in history, largely on the back of a giant, relentless export engine that took advantage of the U.S.-engineered global free trade system.
The world has been the way the world has been because the United States had the good fortune to be bordered by two friendly democracies, Canada and Mexico. Together the three nations wove a network of supply chains that made them all richer, no matter that many goods manufactured in North America could have a label saying, “Made by America, Mexico and Canada together.”
The world has been the way the world has been thanks to the alliance between the United States and both the other members of NATO and the European Union, which, with U.S. help, have kept the peace in Europe from the end of World War II right up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This vast, prosperous trans-Atlantic partnership has been a pillar of global growth and security.]
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/opinion/trump-tariffs-us-security-stability.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
i’m not a fan of the tariffs, but a couple issues…US share of global GDP is and has been
shrinking. Reliance on entitlements has grown faster than GDP.
Link: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/social-spending-oecd-longrun?country=~USA
Take a closer look at the data...the % dropped during the Clinton admin...then rose due to Bush's
Great Recession, which Obama then reduced/flattened...only to be followed by COVID, which Biden halted, per the graph data.
Bottom Line...when only the very wealthy are benefitting, it puts added stress on the vast majority of Americans...thus necessitating government assistance...or just let them slip into poverty.
And it will start tanking. And no more university research to remain on cutting edge.
Things will go south.
We are headed towards Grapes of Wrath. And you voted for it!