AP Photo/Abbie Parr
Billionaire entrepreneur and former campaign surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris, Mark Cuban, argued this week that Donald Trump’s threats of widespread tariffs are already impacting the economy negatively.
Cuban railed against Trump’s campaign promise to use tariffs to fix the economy, arguing throughout the campaign that they would only negatively impact American consumers.
“Right now every company that imports from China is taking all the cash they can muster, and buying up as much as they can and stuffing it in a warehouse, in anticipation of the tariffs creating accelerated demand for imports,” Cuban wrote on Threads, adding:
That money would have been used for expansion, raises, bonuses and other operational elements.Because cash is relatively expensive, and it costs money to store inventory, those companies will increase prices as if they had paid the expected higher tariffs.On the flip side, companies that export are expecting retaliatory tariffs. So they are calling their Chinese buyers and begging them to do what American companies are doing, buying up all the can.Sounds good. More sales now. Except they
have to accelerate buying up all the components in the bill of materials. Which may be at a constant price today. But if other companies need those components, the price goes up.When those retaliatory tariffs hit , the companies have to pray that the companies in China they sell to, can afford their products. Or far worse, possibly the Chinese government tells them, if they can, to stop buying from the USA altogether.
“This is all happening right now,” Cuban concluded, adding, “If anyone has any examples. Would love to see them in the replies.”
Read Cuban’s full thread here.