Our paths were similar as I also had a period of struggle with work in the recession of the 1990s, although not nearly as long as you experienced. That must have been extremely tough.
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What will the impact of prospective -- and possibly impending -- U.S. tariffs be on audio gear?
- Thread starter Bruce Morgen
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I was young with other things to do to pass the time, so it wasn't so bad. No money at all, of course, but I don't recall ever worrying about it.
I went back to college part time for the last two years, they let you do that if you were long term unemployed.
Only lasting effect was that I still can't get used to having money and have to constantly remind myself that I can now afford things I want. Still seems alien to me.
Galliardist
Major Contributor
I'd like to throw a couple of points into the discussion:
Firstly, US tariffs of the 1920s through to the 1934 Reciprocal Tariff Act caused more harm than good to the country and overall international trade (this mirrors earlier battles between protectionists and free trade advocates in the UK, which also turned out to benefit more from free trade). The US balance of trade was improved by WW2, and remained good through the post war economic frameworks such as GATT: effectively, lower tariffs and agreements favoured the US, and US banks were supported by institutions such as the IMF when other countries got into serious trouble. Through to 1980, that held. Tariff wars generally have favoured nobody, but the biggest economies have been the biggest losers - their market power tends to win out more in conditions of freer trade.
To discuss much of what has happened since involves politics too much to mention here, but the balance of trade for the US has declined massively since then. The biggest fall was during the period of the highest offshoring of manufacturing jobs, which may be no surprise. I'd argue that the main US problem however has been a transfer of wealth from the government to non-manufacturing business which has retained the US as a large economy, but at the expense of government debt. You can read all of this according to your own political bent, as there is more than one interpretation to be made, as always with economic data.
tradingeconomics.com
Firstly, US tariffs of the 1920s through to the 1934 Reciprocal Tariff Act caused more harm than good to the country and overall international trade (this mirrors earlier battles between protectionists and free trade advocates in the UK, which also turned out to benefit more from free trade). The US balance of trade was improved by WW2, and remained good through the post war economic frameworks such as GATT: effectively, lower tariffs and agreements favoured the US, and US banks were supported by institutions such as the IMF when other countries got into serious trouble. Through to 1980, that held. Tariff wars generally have favoured nobody, but the biggest economies have been the biggest losers - their market power tends to win out more in conditions of freer trade.
To discuss much of what has happened since involves politics too much to mention here, but the balance of trade for the US has declined massively since then. The biggest fall was during the period of the highest offshoring of manufacturing jobs, which may be no surprise. I'd argue that the main US problem however has been a transfer of wealth from the government to non-manufacturing business which has retained the US as a large economy, but at the expense of government debt. You can read all of this according to your own political bent, as there is more than one interpretation to be made, as always with economic data.
United States Balance of Trade
The United States recorded a trade deficit of 61.62 USD Billion in April of 2025. This page provides the latest reported value for - United States Balance of Trade - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus...
tradingeconomics.com
Galliardist
Major Contributor
I recognise myself in your story, except that my way out was the Open University. And that last line... my partner, who has a patchy work history while I benefited from a good job after we moved to Australia, can't get her head around that at all!
UK has also run a balance of trade deficit since the 1980s. If you view that as a profit and loss account and the country as a whole as a business then it would have gone bust years ago. But then a business can't funnel the losses into the national debt which I suppose is like a sort of suspense account.I'd like to throw a couple of points into the discussion:
Firstly, US tariffs of the 1920s through to the 1934 Reciprocal Tariff Act caused more harm than good to the country and overall international trade (this mirrors earlier battles between protectionists and free trade advocates in the UK, which also turned out to benefit more from free trade). The US balance of trade was improved by WW2, and remained good through the post war economic frameworks such as GATT: effectively, lower tariffs and agreements favoured the US, and US banks were supported by institutions such as the IMF when other countries got into serious trouble. Through to 1980, that held. Tariff wars generally have favoured nobody, but the biggest economies have been the biggest losers - their market power tends to win out more in conditions of freer trade.
To discuss much of what has happened since involves politics too much to mention here, but the balance of trade for the US has declined massively since then. The biggest fall was during the period of the highest offshoring of manufacturing jobs, which may be no surprise. I'd argue that the main US problem however has been a transfer of wealth from the government to non-manufacturing business which has retained the US as a large economy, but at the expense of government debt. You can read all of this according to your own political bent, as there is more than one interpretation to be made, as always with economic data.
United States Balance of Trade
The United States recorded a trade deficit of 61.62 USD Billion in April of 2025. This page provides the latest reported value for - United States Balance of Trade - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus...
Maybe that's too simplistic but I do wonder.
How is Australia? Any regrets?
I was lucky to get in on the cell phone boom in the mid 1990s. A friend I met at college was working in it and got me a job too ('It's not what you know...').
Then made some more money on the internet poker boom a few years later.
All just 'right place at right time' luck - and a lot of hard work and long hours of course.
a4eaudio
Senior Member
Economic volatility is lower over the last 50 years than the prior 50 years. Recessions are about every 10 years since 1980.
1969 (Nixon). 1973 (Nixon), 1980 (Carter), 1981 (Reagan), 1990 (Bush), 2001 (Bush), 2007 (Bush), 2020 (Trump)
The era was interrupted by the Great Depression 1929-1939 that started a decade before WWII, lasted a decade, and finally came to an end due to WWII.
tmtomh
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The idea that the President will have strong incentives not to tank the economy relies on a couple of assumptions:
1. The president, the billionaire patron of the VP, and the president’s apparent “government efficiency” appointee, along with others of similar wealth, have no reliable way to increase their wealth by taking advantage of the conditions of a recession.
2. The president believes that his economic legacy, at least while he’s alive, is beyond his control (and the control of his media allies) to shape, regardless of the actual facts.
Neither of those two assumptions is reliable in my view.
Even if they impose 100% tariff penalties on all those DACs etc, often the price will remain very low compared to alternatives.
From a macro-economic point of view, it's simply something that *must* be done, penalizing "countries" that take utter unfair advantage of a more open global economy and basically fund economic warfare with government cash and debt. The goal is clear, and I think we have to collectively look beyond cheap audio. I have seen some great posts that look back at the history of trade deficits, past sanctions and how they sometimes backfired. But the China situation is unprecedented. When Germany cars started to grow in the USA, they were *not* undercutting US cars in price to gain increasing control of the US economy. It was not about a hostile plan. China has been doing it at an unprecedented and blatantly evident way... and it was all our own fault, because we funded their economy for many years to gain access to their consumers... our own greed funded this, and our complacency has prevented us from addressing it.
I am perfectly aware that the Zeitgeist has shifted away from any self-sacrifice to ensure the common good, but I think it's like 20 years overdue. We can't complain about jobs moving out of the USA while we buy their stuff because it's cheaper.
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Yes and we can no longer designate or tax corporations, as US Corporations when the majority of their employees reside outside the US. IMO
Not sure about this. The prices of Chinese gear went up because of 25% tariffs. It’s why I stopped selling Topping and Matrix.
Utterly completely spot on. With a $150 DAC, I can toss it into the trash and buy the next one that's 1dB better in SINAD a month later. Why would I care right? It's so wasteful.
And the TV example is perfect. It used to be TVs were things that would be kept for a long time. I think my family had the exact large, expensive color TV from Philips for over 20 years (and it only got replaced because there was a house fire). Now I see TVs in the trash all the time. But... in my own case... I bought a Samsung flat panel very early in the cycle, and I remember it cost me like $5k or more. I am not a big TV watcher (I was married at the time) and winced writing that check to Fry's Electronics. And I *still* have that TV, and it works and looks great, and I am going to make sure I get my money's worth out of it - I haven't ever considered buying a new TV.
a4eaudio
Senior Member
Yeah, I put it out there as a hopeful possibility. Your not going to get many arguments from me that its going to turn out well.
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Read what the actors involved now were saying about Japan in the 1980…
What do China and Japan have in common that Germany does not?
a4eaudio
Senior Member
Really good sushi
The net result would be the rich inevitably cannibalizing on themselves?Tank the economy, buy the assets, increase wealth.
Tachyon88
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BRICS is on the rise exactly because of what you're promoting as a good thing. Weaponization of the dollar and the military to achieve political outcomes dressed up as protecting freedom and democracy.
I think I'm actually suggesting the opposite thing.
Yep, that’s what happening but that’s another discussion not for this thread
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