Please explain the positive value of tariffs to the U.S.

[Tripoli]

For reference, Congressmen make $174,000/year.  Until this January, Mr. Schiff was a Congressman, and had been since 2001.

[al_infierno]

Yeah...I did read he's very, very anti Trump after I posted.

I'm not bothered about his motives. Frankly I'd have preferred a Republican to do it so the "partisan" argument could be left at the door. Alas...partisanship appears its on both sides of the house.

I'm just glad someone is asking if there could be a check on who was trading and when, the timings of those trades and whether they had knowledge of the tariff plan or not.

Ask yourself why any politician on capital hill, whose salary is maybe $200,000 annually at best, is a millionaire many times over. Every single last one of them. Why do you think there is so much virulent resistance to DOGE?

Setting aside the blatant hypocrisy (DOGE staffers were revealed to be pulling massive taxpaid salaries despite Musk claiming they're not paid), all the resistance I've seen to DOGE is about their methods and qualifications, not their mission. Everybody agrees government waste is too much and politicians are corrupt, but they seem to be taking a "break everything and then see what we need" approach to all manner of things, often without apparently understanding what they're actually doing. The whole stupid "bomb-making condoms for Gaza" thing, which turned out to be a totally different Gaza than the one they thought, is a perfect example. It's one thing to take this approach to a social media company like Twitter, but another thing entirely when people's lives are being affected.

I do hope Musk does something about those ridiculous salaries and whatever shady stuff is going on.

[Jarhead0331]

Yeah...I did read he's very, very anti Trump after I posted.

I'm not bothered about his motives. Frankly I'd have preferred a Republican to do it so the "partisan" argument could be left at the door. Alas...partisanship appears its on both sides of the house.

I'm just glad someone is asking if there could be a check on who was trading and when, the timings of those trades and whether they had knowledge of the tariff plan or not.

Ask yourself why any politician on capital hill, whose salary is maybe $200,000 annually at best, is a millionaire many times over. Every single last one of them. Why do you think there is so much virulent resistance to DOGE?

Setting aside the blatant hypocrisy (DOGE staffers were revealed to be pulling massive taxpaid salaries despite Musk claiming they're not paid), all the resistance I've seen to DOGE is about their methods and qualifications, not their mission. Everybody agrees government waste is too much and politicians are corrupt, but they seem to be taking a "break everything and then see what we need" approach to all manner of things, often without apparently understanding what they're actually doing. The whole stupid "bomb-making condoms for Gaza" thing, which turned out to be a totally different Gaza than the one they thought, is a perfect example. It's one thing to take this approach to a social media company like Twitter, but another thing entirely when people's lives are being affected.

I do hope Musk does something about those ridiculous salaries.

You can pick and choose what to criticize all you want, but the reality is that difficult and painful decisions needed to be made and many are going to suffer as a result. This is necessary so that we all don't suffer in the near future. DOGE doesn't exist by choice. It exists by necessity. Cutting government spending is something nobody and I mean NOBODY, democrat and republican, has had the balls to do in I don't know how many decades. So people can go out and protest by destroying Teslas or Tesla dealerships for I don't know why. DOGE has already saved the US taxpayer billions and uncovered massive fraud, but yeah, lets focus on those few "massive taxpaid salaries".

[al_infierno]

It's not the salaries I have a problem with but the lack of transparency. It doesn't exactly inspire trust that everything else he's saying is 100% true.

FWIW I agree about the Tesla vandalism thing, it's totally stupid and wrong, especially with the number of leftists vandalizing them with swastikas.

[Crossroads]

Interesting article from Steven Jackson Games on the effect of recent tariffs on board gaming.

https://www.sjgames.com/ill/archive/2025-04-03

On April 5th, a 54% tariff goes into effect on a wide range of goods imported from China. For those of us who create boardgames, this is not just a policy change. It's a seismic shift.

At Steve Jackson Games, we are actively assessing what this means for our products, our pricing, and our future plans. We do know that we can't absorb this kind of cost increase without raising prices. We've done our best over the past few years to shield players and retailers from the full brunt of rising freight costs and other increases, but this new tax changes the equation entirely.

Here are the numbers: A product we might have manufactured in China for $3.00 last year could now cost $4.62 before we even ship it across the ocean. Add freight, warehousing, fulfillment, and distribution margins, and that once-$25 game quickly becomes a $40 product. That's not a luxury upcharge; it's survival math.

Some people ask, "Why not manufacture in the U.S.?" I wish we could. But the infrastructure to support full-scale boardgame production – specialty dice making, die-cutting, custom plastic and wood components – doesn't meaningfully exist here yet. I've gotten quotes. I've talked to factories. Even when the willingness is there, the equipment, labor, and timelines simply aren't.

We aren't the only company facing this challenge. The entire board game industry is having very difficult conversations right now. For some, this might mean simplifying products or delaying launches. For others, it might mean walking away from titles that are no longer economically viable. And, for what I fear will be too many, it means closing down entirely.

Tariffs, when part of a long-term strategy to bolster domestic manufacturing, can be an effective tool. But that only works when there's a plan to build up the industries needed to take over production. There is no national plan in place to support manufacturing for the types of products we make. This isn't about steel and semiconductors. This is about paper goods, chipboard, wood tokens, plastic trays, and color-matched ink. These new tariffs are imposing huge costs without providing alternatives, and it's going to cost American consumers more at every level of the supply chain.

We want to be transparent with our community. This is real: Prices are going up. We're still determining how much and where.

If you're frustrated, you're not alone. We are too. And if you want to help, write to your elected officials. Ask them how these new policies help American creators and small businesses. Because right now, it feels like they don't.

We'll keep making games. But we'll be honest when the road gets harder, because we know you care about where your games come from – and about the people who make them.

-- Meredith Placko

GMT's Letter of the Month is not a happy read. For all I know they maintain a huge portfolio with a relatively small staff, their games are top notch, and yet, they fear for their survival:

]April 17 Update from GMT - Tariffs and Action Plan

Issue #1. Cash Flow. This isn't the one you hear about as much as you do "game prices" when you hear game companies talk about the tariff impacts, but it's definitely the one most likely to kill us. Because of the 145% tariff, those batches of games that we have currently printing in China (and any subsequent batches) are going to cost us EXORBITANTLY more cash than we planned for when we were told that tariffs would be 10% (we had a plan for that, and even for 20-40%). For example, we currently have 14 games at the printer. The cost to print all of those titles is right around $500,000. It looks right now like they'll be coming in three separate shipments, but that's still in normal times a $500,000 cash commitment from us to pay for all the games. And FYI, P500 charges are designed to provide us with the funds to pay the printers, while other sales to distributors and longer-term direct sales to customers pay for our overhead and create some profits. So right now, as long as a lot of customers don't cancel orders before we charge and ship for those games, we can expect about 500K in P500 income that would in normal times pay for those games.

With the 145% tariff, though, those games will now cost over 1.2 MILLION dollars to get to our warehouse. That's $700,000+ extra for.....basically nothing. So how we price the games (the next issue) isn't the biggest problem we have at all. Rather, it's how to pay for the games at the scale and frequency that we print them with a 145% tariff (in this case, $700K) tagged on. As a business model, with that level of tariffs, printing at a pace we need to in order to cover our overhead, it's unsustainable. Basically that group of three shipments alone, unless we make some big operational changes quickly, will eat up all of our cash reserves and leave us with no funds to pay our employees and other expenses.

(emphasis mine)

... and this is just a small snippet of their newsletter, do read it for the full horror story - and also for how we could help them  


In other news, Lock n Load is halting new orders for games that would require printing for now as well. From their FB group:

Q: I managed somehow to not pledge for Red Gauntlet, anyone know if LnL will have more available in retail (or reprint)?
A: Hi xxx, I am pretty sure we are already sold out and can't purchase anything from overseas now. We know for sure in a couple of weeks.

[Tripoli]

I'm planning on buying a couple of games that I ordinarily would not have purchased from GMT.  As their post indicates, there is a discount associated with doing so. I encourage y'all to do the same.  I lived through the destruction of SPI and Avalon Hill, and it was bad for the hobby.  It took over a decade to begin to undo that damage.  IMHO, quality game companies like GMT deserve our support.

[Crossroads]

I'm planning on buying a couple of games that I ordinarily would not have purchased from GMT.  As their post indicates, there is a discount associated with doing so. I encourage y'all to do the same.  I lived through the destruction of SPI and Avalon Hill, and it was bad for the hobby.  It took over a decade to begin to undo that damage.  IMHO, quality game companies like GMT deserve our support.

I am looking for something to buy as well, maybe digital, this time. For instance: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/28960/GMT_Games_Bundle/

[Tripoli]

I'm planning on buying a couple of games that I ordinarily would not have purchased from GMT.  As their post indicates, there is a discount associated with doing so. I encourage y'all to do the same.  I lived through the destruction of SPI and Avalon Hill, and it was bad for the hobby.  It took over a decade to begin to undo that damage.  IMHO, quality game companies like GMT deserve our support.

I am looking for something to buy as well, maybe digital, this time. For instance: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/28960/GMT_Games_Bundle/

I have all of their computer games, and they are worth buying.

[Jarhead0331]

I got an email from Winwing yesterday saying that all shipments to US addresses for orders made from their global store will be halted. They do have a US store that they claim will continue to ship as normal for the time being, but I think the stock is much more limited with the US store.

[JudgeDredd]

[JudgeDredd]

[JudgeDredd]

[Crossroads]

From the Ukraine thread:

The Trump administration was quoted estimating that everyone would be 'kissing my a**' and pleading 'Please, Sir, make a deal. I'll do anything. I'll do anything, Sir,' quote unquote. I am not seeing that happening from what I am reading. At all.

Well, to my chagrin that appears to be exactly the UK's position. Rather embarrassed by it if I'm honest.

I found this article interesting in trying to figure out the end game and whether we arrive to any of them.

The Newstatesman; Trump's Plan for Chaos

[JudgeDredd]

[Jarhead0331]

Listen, I'm not watching these videos, but based on the titles they don't seem to be unbiased or analytical with respect to tariffs as a general matter. I've been lax on moderating posts that cross over the line of R&P as they relate to the War in Ukraine, but I don't want this stuff to proliferate here. Please give the political stuff a rest.

Thanks.