Expect Stamp Prices To Weaken Over The Next Few Months .

Milton Friedman would disagree. It depends on whether the Fed allows the money supply to expand to accommodate the tariffs. If not--if the money supply does not increase--consumers either have to reduce consumption of tariffed items, or reduce consumption of non-tariffed items. Predicting outcomes is complicated by differing elasticities of demand as consumers grapple with substitution effects. If the tariff achieves its intended effect of increasing native output, it could lead to wage increases that offset the price increases.

Like all things in economics, it depends.

The Fed rarely doesn't continuously expand the money supply, but let's say they hold it flat or decrease it. This isn't a case of demand driven inflation. Slap a higher tariff on something and it becomes more expensive. It doesn't matter if a person only has the same $X to spend and can only buy 8 things instead of 10. Those things cost more and that is called inflation.

Tariffs make things more expensive, which screws the vast majority of Americans. There are far more people in the lower economic strata than there are rich people. Nothing good will come of them, no matter how many economic theories are discussed.

The classic mistake that this administration is making, is the same that the Reagan Administration made. In a globalized world you can no longer separate domestic and foreign economies.
To make it more philatelic, Scott can not ignore the home country market values when setting catalog valuations in a publication primarily used in the US market.

Which is precisely why other Countries tariff the heck out of us. They want their people to purchase domestic goods or goods from Countries that they do not tariff the heck out of. It seems egregious that we need to just put up with it even as we send many of these Countries enormous foreign aid and protect them militarily.




I could be entirely wrong, but I don't think the goal is isolationism but rather a fairer playing field. How is trade with fairer terms for us a bad thing?

Imagine you want to sell your stamp products in India but India puts up trade barriers and slaps a 97% tariff on your stamp products while Indian stamp product sellers send their wares to the US with virtually no tariff and zero barriers. You could just ignore the Indian market but as you look to other Countries you find the same situation. You resign yourself to selling in the US and maybe one or two other Countries but that does not go well because the Indian companies are vastly undercutting you. You can't compete and so you lay off your 25 employees, give up your company space, stop buying materials and spend your days at Walmart and Amazon buying Chinese goods. The End

If we take the EU as an example of a major trading partner, it does not "tariff the heck out of the US". EU and US tariffs on the same goods need not be identical. The basic current tariff framework was arrived at during the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations. Countries offered, and signed up to, various concessions, which needed to be seen as part of a whole. The "playing field" does not consist of a crude narrative around car sales.

I note that the geniuses in Washington are not offering up concessions to other countries to offset the US's substantial balance in respect of trade in services.

The prison of two ideas is alive and well. We should revisit this in the Summer and see how things are turning out.

US mortgage rates just dropped to the lowest sing since (darn autocorrect) October 2024.

Money (value) is only created through manufacturing and resource extraction. That money then supports service economies for a limited time until all value is taxed away by the government and spent or given outside of the USA or sent out of the USA by workers to support others outside of the USA.

The idea is to draw back the resource development and manufacturing into the USA, part of that which was lost during the last half century, such that the USA is again producing money (value) not just using diminishing funds in a service economy.

Folks seem to forget that as prices got cheaper for good from outside of the USA's borders, they were happy to be saving their own money without understands they lost their jobs for the same reason.

Here are the observations of another, earlier successful business man, not politician, running for POTUS.



Of course the financial success felt by folks in China drove up the values of Chinese stamps and they were repatriated home. This is just one example of effect, positive effect, on stamp values.

Edited to add a missing "s" and to say, anyone who took a short position on Tesla because of the boycott, really made a killing for reasons beyond the trumped plea to hurt Tesla and its owner. Perhaps some of that new money will go towards stamps.

" anyone who took a short position on Tesla because of the boycott, really made a killing for reasons beyond the trumped plea to hurt Tesla and its owner. Perhaps some of that new money will go towards stamps"

Abd perhaps the people who were long on Tesla will sped less on stamps.

Eyeonwall --- That was my original reason for posting .........Interest rates falling from 5% to 3.5%,means retired people like me will buy less stamps . The crazyness of the market ,interest rates ,falling sales on the internet stamp section makes it harder to sell unwanted material .Not a time of more buying .

Scott will likely raise the minimum value in catalogs.

Ok --- Let's see how "seat -of -the pants " stamp buyer did last night .

To test and see how good my market call was ......and settle this issue .

I decided to use real money and let a real stamp auction settle this issue .

I put in 10 different bids all on better worldwide stamps ,nothing expensive but on stuff like U.S. ,Canada and Cape of Good Hope stamps all solid collecting stamps ,stuff that is not high price but stamps that add a wow factor to a worldwide collection .

All my bids were at half of the estimate and at opening bid . Plan was not to run prices up but to put in bids in one hour early so all of you can step on my opening bid prices . Plan was maybe on a good day I will get 30% or maybe 50% of lots .

The auction closes and guess what ? Now remember solid stamps from blue chip countries ,not Upper Mongolia Prince Di issues . Solid stamps all pre-1940 collectibles .

Shock of all shocks they gave SEAT OF PANTS all 10 lots at opening bid .......where the heck were the buyers ?

Scientific for sure.

Your logic here escapes me. Apparently you think we should get screwed because others are getting screwed. You must do business overseas, or be fortunate enough financially that prices do not matter to you. So whatever happens to the vast majority does not concern you.