Tariffs Are The End of the World: Ramirez and Isbister

Pretty much it's time to just pack up the plant and go home.  Sell the place for pennies on the dollar, hope you can pay off the banks, retire to a small shack in West Texas, work as a dishwasher.

Or so you'd think, reading the context-less facts typed out in the Propaganda Biz Times essay here.

...“We’re just setting ourselves up for constrained economic growth,” said Mary Isbister, president of Mequon-based GenMet Corp.

Isbister joined Husco International president and chief executive officer Austin Ramirez...

(Bill Isbister's daughter (in-law?) and Gus Ramirez's son.)  OK, then.

...According to data released by Tariffs Hurt the Heartland, Wisconsin companies paid roughly $3.8 million in tariffs on $408.5 million in goods imported from June to August of 2017.   ....with the new tariffs imposed this year Wisconsin companies paid more than $58 million in tariffs.

Oh.  Yah....well........how about the REST of the facts??

...The U.S. has imposed tariffs on just under $300 billion of imports. Forty-seven billion, or around 15 percent, of those tariffs are on the steel and aluminum tariffs, which Trump mentioned. The bulk of the rest is aimed at just one country, China. The remainder are on individual products, such as solar panels and washing machines. A bit here and there for specific violations of U.S. anti-dumping laws. For almost all other imports and all other trading partners, Trump has not increased tariffs at all.
The total dollar value of goods the Trump administration has imposed tariffs on is small when compared to the $2.9 trillion of imported goods and service the U.S. took in last year. The new tariffs range from 10 percent to 25 percent on around 10 percent of all of our imports. Call it a 1 percent to 2.5 percent import tariff, at least in the short term. That’s not exactly disruptive. It’s certainly not a screeching halt to global trade....

(US Steel announced that it would be awarding pay-increases of 3.5%/year for the next four years in a row at its Gary, IN., plant--that announcement came about 10 days ago or so. )

When you make the decision to source raw materials from a Communist/Mercantilist state, and your choice means that US workers will be un-employed or lose the race to the cost of living, we are not particularly sympathetic.

As to "day-to-day" pricing?  Neither of these "Chief Executives" is old enough to remember it, but it's happened before.  Get out your history books and check under "Inflation, US."  Then learn how to manage a supply chain which benefits US workers.