From time-to-time I draw attention to a woman owned and/or controlled business. Well, one such is the Eagle Crusher Company, Inc., of Galion, Ohio. Its CEO is Susanne Cobey, who is also in the hall of fame of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers in the USA.
Significant is that Ms Cobey, very early on, fully embraced the recycling of demolition debris. Now considered a focal part of the industry, Eagle Crushers led the pack in embracing this change.
Interesting views here, China has experienced unprecedented levels of growth and are now ascendant. They listened, learned and implemented measures that worked. And what does the US do? It sets out to stamp on them, not ask them how they did it and learn themselves.
Note that Red States will bear the full impact of effective bans on poultry, pork, wheat and soybeans. China can easily replace these supply lines with output from Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand and Australia.
Further, Canada and Mexico are still where they are:
I'm struggling to keep up with Trump's latest moves, which appear increasingly unhinged. Conflicting reports say that Canada and Mexico are unchanged, I don't know exactly what applies to steel and aluminium, or cars for that matter.
China has hit back at the US by implementing an 84% tariff on imports of US goods. This seems quite cleverly pitched as the measure isn't countervailing, meaning a reply with equal force, but it will be debilitating for US exporters. Good news for other exporters though:
A lot to unpack here, no idea who this bloke is, but he's very bright. I like his idea that what we're seeing now is huge wealth transfer - again. That's because the US must always import some things, it simply has to. So these imports will be tariffed, making the price of everything in the US much higher. The US doesn't have the manufacturing capacity to substitute with its own output.
So, people on lower incomes will pay higher prices, an effective tax in other words. Small business will be driven to the wall, they're collateral damage. The winners will be large corporates which can fund the imports, and the difference between retail prices and the cost of production will be subsidised by the taxpayer. The people end up paying twice, another wealth transfer. Sounds logical, and explains why the takedown of the US economy.
Oh no, he did what? This is not going to end well. What it openly says to all of Asia is, that's what they really think of us. And they'll react accordingly.
Secular Talks is a left-of-centre podcast out of the US. He's often quite perceptive and I laughed while watching this recent rant about how jiggered we are right now, what with imbeciles in the White House setting out to destroy the western world.
New Zealand Defence has today released its new spending plans over the next fifteen years. Spending will lift to 2% of GDP; it's long overdue and finally NZ is beginning to take its defence seriously.
But plans upon plans won't arrest the decline, sadly, as why would young people join up to defend their country, only to risk being thrown under the bus, and betrayed by the government who are, let's face it, a bunch of blowhard incompetents or worse. The real problem is recruiting the people and then retaining them. Since 2020, all trust has been destroyed. I would not recommend a young person join up. It's not worth it.
Got a solution NZ government? Yeah, I thought not.
Here's a YouTube video where the bloke thinks there's not a lot of thought gone into the current trade war, started by the US. If there is any sense to it, then, possibly, it is intended to force a renegotiation of any trade rules and relationships that do exist. The idea being to skew those new deals in favour of the US.
My own idea is that this government of billionaires are intentionally crashing the market. They make money short-selling on the drop, and then buy up entire industries when it bottoms out. They'll end up owning everything this way, and for cents on the dollar. If this is even close to their thinking, that is very dangerous indeed as it may become the French Revolution all over again.
What authorities and elites fail to remember, is that the thin blue line is a very thin line when the proverbial hits the fan.
They're made in Christchurch, New Zealand; and exported around the world. Police and emergency services everywhere use Tait as they're reliable and secure. Very few people know that.
Err, I doubt the EU has the economic muscle to defeat the US in a trade war, but I guess we are about to find out. What is more likely to happen is the whole world decides to deal with one another and move away from the US dollar.
I see reports on New Zealand being listed as charging the US a 20% tariff on its goods. In fact, NZ charges about 1.9% on average, plus 15% GST. The total of the two is 16.9%, the tariff being paid by the end-user, while the GST is refunded to the importer when they file their periodic GST return.
However, this is NOT the methodology America appears to have used. How did NZ get listed at 20%? The US appears to have looked at the trade balance, currently NZ exports to the US, about $1.1 billion more than it imports from the US ($4.5 billion). Thus, the $1.1 billion surplus represents 19.65% of NZ's exports ($5.6 billion). They've rounded that 19.65% up to 20%.
Any country whose surplus increases from hereon will likely face increases in tariffs if that surplus becomes a greater percentage of its exports to the US. The US is effectively saying, you need to buy more from us, if you want to sell more to us. You cannot buy nothing and expect to sell more. Do you see?
I'm sure NZ officials do not understand this methodology, so if you're reading this, please contact the NZ government and inform them.
New Zealand are world leaders in private high altitude aerospace development. Kea Aerospace is another company with aircraft up and running from its base in Christchurch. Clever idea this one; they're making aircraft that fly perpetually, with solar panels charging batteries during the day. Being in the air so long, they can do accurate testing, provide cost-effective communications, you name it. One of the founders is Mark Rocket, who was also a founder of Rocket Lab. Mark Rocket is a clever guy and I've spoken to him previously, he complimented me once by saying I had good ideas (heh).
In the below video at about the 1:03 mark, you can get a good aerial view over Banks Peninsula with Akaroa Harbour on full display. This harbour is massive, you could lose several cruise ships in it, wondering where did they go?
I have previously mentioned that New Zealand leads the world in private companies accessing space. Rocket Lab is fully operational and launches satellites on its NZ built conveyance from its launch facility on the Mahia Peninsula, near Gisborne in the North Island.
Now, almost up and running and currently testing is Dawn Aerospace in Canterbury, the South Island's largest province. The vehicle is a purpose built rocket aircraft for launching payloads into space. The aircraft has approval and can potentially launch from any airport in the world.
Their aircraft, the Mk-II Aurora became the first civil aircraft to go supersonic since Concorde, when it went supersonic on the 12th November, 2024.
Dawn Aerospace, proudly announces that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has awarded it a certificate to fly the Mk-II Aurora at unlimited speeds, including supersonic, up to 80,000 feet altitude. This certification permits operations beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) without the need for restricted airspace.
The Mk-II Aurora is a rocket-powered aircraft, designed to be the first vehicle ever to fly to 100 km altitude, the edge of space, twice in a single day. It is rapidly reusable and low cost, making it well suited for a variety of applications in microgravity, high speed flight research, earth observation, as well as other defence and civil uses.
“This unlocks the next major performance milestone for the Mk-II vehicle, namely supersonic flight,” said CEO, Stefan Powell. “To the best of our knowledge, this would be the first privately funded UAV to break the sound barrier.”
April 2nd., 2025 is almost here and we will soon find out what effect Trump's tariff regime will have on world trade. While I think it unlikely, I wouldn't be surprised if some overseas based manufacturers pull out of the US market altogether, just to make doing business simpler.
As he announced 25% auto tariffs last week, he alleged that America has been ripped off because it imports more goods than it exports.
“This is the beginning of Liberation Day in America,” Trump said. “We’re going to charge countries for doing business in our country and taking our jobs, taking our wealth, taking a lot of things that they’ve been taking over the years. They’ve taken so much out of our country, friend and foe. And, frankly, friend has been oftentimes much worse than foe.”
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The Republican president plans to tax imported pharmaceutical drugs, copper and lumber. He has put forth a 25% tariff on any country that imports oil from Venezuela, even though the United States also does so. Imports from China are being charged an additional 20% tax because of its role in fentanyl production. Trump has imposed separate tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico for the stated reason of stopping drug smuggling and illegal immigration. Trump also expanded his 2018 steel and aluminum tariffs to 25% on all imports.
