Friday, January 24, 2025
Tariffs would hurt Mexico
tariffs would hurt Mexico — Maybe Mexico will accept some responsibility and sit down with the Trump administration to fix this border crisis. https://t.co/2ligIyxGOI
— American Thinker (@AmericanThinker) January 24, 2025
Perhaps President Trump knows best, because tariffs against Mexico would hurt that country a lot. This is what they are reporting south of the border:
President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on Mexico could limit economic growth to 0.6% in 2025, financial services company Moody’s Ratings warned on Monday.
“Our estimates indicate that the Mexican economy would lose around 1 percentage point of growth in 2025. We are estimating that Mexico would only grow 0.6% this year,” said Director of Economic Analysis for Latin America at Moody’s Analytics Alfredo Coutiño in an online conference Tuesday.
On January 17, the International Monetary Fund predicted Mexico would see economic growth of 1.4% in 2025. The revised Moody’s forecast suggests growth may falter in the wake of U.S. tariffs causing trade to slow.
Ouch, that hurts. To be fair, we'd be hurt too because Mexico exports a lot to the U.S. Texas, for example, does a lot of business with Mexico. On balance, Mexico would suffer more.
Are tariffs inevitable? Let's hope that the issue can be resolved.
Mexico can start by recognizing that it has a terrible national security issue with so many criminal elements ("crimen organizado" as they say) living in the neighborhood. These cartels (as we call them) terrorize local governments and journalists and have too much cash to spend.
Second, it can close the southbound border and stop all the guns and cash headed that way. Mexico complains that guns are going south but they do nothing about it. As for the cash, it gets washed in businesses and bribes politicians. Mexicans hate to hear that, but it's the truth.
Third, they can go back to a time when Mexicans controlled their southern border. Once upon not a very long time ago, Mexico had agents at bus stations stopping Central Americans and sending them home. Today, the word is out that you can travel to the U.S. border as long as you pay someone to take you there.
To be fair, the Mexicans are right that we are consuming the drugs. We should do better, but Mexico needs to understand just how damaging the open border is to them, too.
Maybe Mexico will accept some responsibility and sit down with the Trump administration to fix this border crisis. I hope so, because their economy will be devastated if the tariffs go through.
P.S. Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos.
We remember John Belushi (1949-1982)
We remember Sharon Tate (1943-69)
Sharon Tate was born in Dallas, Texas, on this day in 1943.
Sharon was killed by Charles Manson in 1969. It was an awful story because Sharon was pregnant and apparently alone in a ranch.
Sharon Tate was in various films, such as "Valley of the Dolls" in 1967.
Happy # 84 to Neil Diamond
We remember Neil Diamond who was born on this day in 1941.........happy birthday to a very talented man.....Diamond wrote and recorded many songs.....it's hard to pick one but let me try......I love "Stones" and the arrangement.......
P.S. You can listen to my show. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.
We remember Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Churchill was one of the great leaders of the 20th century and UK Prime Minister 1940-1945 and 1951-55.
Churchill was also a great author and won The Nobel Prize in Literature for his six-volume books of World War II and for political speeches.
How young Winston discovered Cuban cigars
Churchill was one of the great leaders of the 20th century and UK Prime Minister 1940-1945 and 1951-55.
Churchill was also a great author and won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his six-volume history of World War II and for political speeches.
Churchill apparently fell in love with Cuban cigars during a visit to the island circa 1895. My late father once told me that the Cuban embassy in London would often deliver Mr. Churchill a complimentary box of cigars. Eventually those long cigars that he smoked came to be known as "Churchill".
Cuba was still a Spanish colony at the time of young Winston’s visit or three years before the Spanish American War that paved the way to Cuban independence in 1902.
According to H.P. Klepak, author of "Churchill Comes of Age, Cuba 1895", the young Churchill spent 18 days in Cuba.
He was there on loan from the British army to observe colonial Spain’s defense against independence fighters, as Klepak said in an interview:
History previously recorded that Churchill saw combat in Cuba and discovered the siesta, which would later help him keep long hours as British prime minister during World War Two.Neat story. This is also a book that you may want to pick up when you need a break from politics. It is another chapter in the amazing life of one of the most important figures of the 20th century.
But Klepak, a former Canadian military officer, argues previous works overlooked how influential the Cuban venture was, including the months of maneuvering Churchill needed to land his assignment.
With his Cuba experience he became a war correspondent, political analyst, strategist and liaison with a foreign army, all for the first time. His writings start to show legendary humor. He discovers rum and Cuban cigars’ breadth and quality.
Inspired by observations from local historian Lourdes Mendez, Klepak believes he became the first to scrutinize and cross-check the Cuban, British and Spanish archives, discovering for example that Churchill was fired upon by no less than Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gomez, two of Cuba’s greatest independence leaders.
“Very quickly when I looked at it from a historical perspective it was pretty obvious that this was an amazing story which for some reason had never been told,” Klepak said.
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk). This is the book:
A word about January 24
