Hi, Shrewd!        Login  
Shrewd'm.com 
A merry & shrewd investing community
 Best Of MacroBest OfAll BoardsThe Shrewd’m WeeklyLearn to InvestHow to Become Shrewd
Search
Shrewd'm.com Merry shrewd investors
Search
Best Of MacroBest OfAll BoardsThe Shrewd’m WeeklyLearn to InvestHow to Become Shrewd

The week's question
In December 2024, in the thread "Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?", BreckHutHigh asked the members: "What about the long road trips with kids?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
Answer this questionContinue to Shrewd'mThis note won't appear again
Personal Finance / Macroeconomic Trends & Risks
Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (3) |
Author: sutton ✭  😊 😞
Number: of 4460 
Subject: "catastrophic for America’s small businesses
Date: 05/03/25 11:28 AM
Post New | Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!
No. of Recommendations: 8
WSJ today has an interview with a fella named Ryan Peterson, CEO of Flexport:

"Petersen is explaining to anyone who will listen why hefty U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports could be catastrophic for America’s small businesses.

“If they don’t change the tariffs, it’s going to be an extinction-level, asteroid-wiping-out-the-dinosaurs kind of event,” he told me. “Only these aren’t dinosaurs. These are dynamic, healthy businesses.”

He knows this because those businesses are his customers."

And:

"Petersen’s company handles everything from booking space on planes, trucks and enormous ocean carriers to managing all the tedious paperwork along the way.

It’s a sleek tech platform that gives Petersen a window into the entire global economy, providing a real-time look at the situation on the ground and on the water. He can track exactly how much it costs to ship any item anywhere— and how much more it costs because of tariffs. His company has visibility into about 1% of U.S. trade, he said, which is more than enough data for him to connect dots.

“We have a pretty good view of what’s happening,” he says.

And what’s happening isn’t pretty."

And:

" The more companies that Petersen spoke with, the more he felt that he needed to speak up for them.

“It was just very obvious they felt really helpless and that nobody was explaining their point of view,” he said. “Nobody had their back.”"

Nothing particularly revelatory to anyone who's been paying attention, but a useful perspective of someone who is in a postion to see further and with better data than the rest of us. (Spoiler alert: he thinks Orange will ultimately back down)

Ungated, I think: wsj.com - Tariffs china ryan petersen small business

--sutton

Post New | Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!
Print the post
Members reply directly to sutton here — and replies get answered. Reading is free; so is joining the conversation. Join Shrewd'm »
This community has written 4,454 posts about Macroeconomic Trends & Risks. The article-length ones it recommended most:
AI Tarpits · 36 recs · 2026
End of an era - profit slowdown · 36 recs · 2023
Control Panel: Trend changes in 2026 · 34 recs · 2026
From the Oregon Bay Area (a blogger) · 33 recs · 2025
Lerner Symmetry Theorem · 32 recs · 2025
Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (3) |


Announcements
Macroeconomic Trends & Risks FAQ
Contact Shrewd'm
Contact the developer of these message boards.

Ticker or Board Name Author

Best Of Macro | Best Of | Favourites & Replies | All Boards | Followed Shrewds | Open Questions | Moving a community