Yesterday, we randomly walking into a "Marshalls" department store. For those unfamiliar with stores in the US, this is a country-wide chain owned by TJX affiliated with TJ Maxx which specialises in new surplus, job-lot and inexpensive to moderate import merchandise.

The racks were jammed with product. Massive boxes of goods clogged the aisles and the store seemed to be bursting at the seams.

I've been following a Japanese clothing merchandiser named "Fast Retail" (best known for their "Uniqlo" stores. Much of their merchandise is manufactured in China with the balance sourced elsewhere in Asia. While their story is currently more complex than it was a feww weeks ago, they did mention that they had landed six months of inventory into the US before the tariffs went up.

The most expensive consumer items many people buy, on a regular basis, are their mobile phones (especially if they are of the group who needs to own the latest and greatest iPhone) and their PC. Intersting that, as of a day ago, there are no tariffs on these "high value add" manufactured goods marketed to middle and upper middle classes. Massive tariffs remain for cheap Cheap consumer items that benefit those lower on the economic ladder. It has not been discussed how much potential tariff tax has been sliced out of the potential pot by this "slight" change.

Last week, I mentioned how much money one could make with even a few minutes notice of posts by the head of our administration. Apparently soome in government read my post. With Trump’s tariff pause, stocks jumped upward in one of the biggest single-day gains since World War II. Hedge fund manager Spencer Hakimian posted a graph showing that Nasdaq call volume—bets that stock values would rise—spiked minutes before Trump’s announcement. A widely circulated video appears to be Trump bragging to NASCAR drivers visiting the White House that investor Charles Schwab made $2.5 billion on Wednesday and that another investor made $900 million. It would be interesting to see which members of Congress, family and close "friends" front-traded in the proper direction that day.

It would be interesting if China were to impose "export taxes" on the items that the US administration reduced the tariffs on by the same amount as the drops. After all, all's fair in love and war.

Jeff