You have to endure this just like the rest of us…although it’s probably worse for you. And for that, I donate to NPR.

Actually, what we have seen is massive purchases of stock ahead of tariff imposition and shuffling of inventory to bonded government storage to avoid higher costs. fortune.com/article/cust...

That’s not a good thing either.

Fed Chair material, no doubt.

Oh, please...does your family even recognize you anymore???

This guy has some serious mental issues.... Just a totally creepy dude.

Dumbest presidential administration ever.

I’m sure the next headline will be about how businesses feel bad for consumers and lower their profit margins in response. “We don’t care about the shareholders” they’ll say. Businesses infamously act for the benefit of society first.

So Basset Hound is saying that share holders are paying the tariffs, and in many cases those shareholders are also…wait for it…US consumers! What a disingenuous shell of a human being.

Yeah, right. Pull the other one.

I'm not sure his admission is going to sit so well with his handlers.

Bessent (and the rest) know better but are willing to flat out lie every day in their own short term advantage in having power and prestige but mainly for those huge sweet income tax savings on their .01% level incomes.

Econ major here. In a competitive free enterprise economy profit margins for any factor will always necessrily tend toward low numbers. They can and will take a hit for a bit particularly in a changing not predictable situation but eventually it will necessarily all end up in retail prices.

At least he didn’t lie like tRump does and say the foreign country pays the tariff

Yeah, it's a choice. Either importers pay and don't pass on those costs, which is unlikely and in fact unsustainable, or they pass those costs to consumers, far more likely but for many, unsustainable. This country is dying. What will come out of the ashes?

They could have just left the corporate tax rate alone in these case

This would be a good spot for a Ralphie Wiggums meme but I’ve lost the will to go on.

🖤

When Bessent says, “what we’re seeing” what specifically are they looking at? Because yesterday I saw the price of my favorite Strawberry Preserves jump from about $5.00/jar to $8.39/jar.

Every idiot commentator needs to ask why the price of beef is sky high.

So he is good with allowing a foreign company take “market share” from an American automaker?! This only leads to job loss, profit loss, closed plants and the losses will trickle down through the American economy into other sectors. Certainly not going to increase American manufacturing. Idiot.

Wow. Just wow. So much to unpack here. And there are millions who believe this.

It’s like dialogue from “Green Acres”.

I would never have thought of that, but it’s absolutely spot on.

Damn I loved that show. It’s like Eddie Albert is stuck in an insane asylum so the analogy certainly fits.

🤯

Pants on fire.

Who is this imbecile? Where did trump find this guy?

😂😂

I guess in addition to loyalty, Trump demands that you can say outrageous lies and not break into hysterical crying laughter? I mean, this guy goes home at the end of the day and says to his family, "I had a good day at work today?"

Sounds like you're having a tough day. I think @atrupar.com's quote might be the reason why. "Kill me" seems like a pretty dramatic response to a politician's spin, but I get it.

@kairyssdal.bsky.social You make my days better with your pithy (pissy?) little comments😆

Talking head response is then: “so this is a tax on business?”

Bessent is auditioning in no uncertain terms to replace Powell...whether soon if Trump pushes him out, or in a year when his term is up. And that audition means saying anything Trump wants to hear. I am 100% certain he knows the truth, but to spread these lies is good for Bessent's career path.

401k or higher prices -- the choice is theirs

If they are, they damn well should. Because those profit margins under Biden were the highest in 70 years, yet the public blamed Biden. Bessent is evasive. He's having a difficult time with an outright lie.

Fuck me…..Mike Barnicle is still on MJ?

Hahaha! Like corporations are going to voluntarily give up some profits, which they are bound by law to produce for shareholders, to do a solid for the American consumer. Hahahaha!

Why are they speaking to Bessent like he is a serious person?

They really believe we are all as stupid as MAGA.

This seems appropriate after that answer from the Secretary.

Thaaat's a keeper.

Ironically said by a man representing a group of people who are so against individual choices

And who didn’t get wealthy themselves by cutting into profit margins.

No but please stop watching Morning Joe. #NoJoe

Let’s raise taxes on businesses then. And billionaires. Just eat into your profit margin a bit, don’t call it a tax.

Alternative facts, I guess

How does a company eating the tariffs and not raising prices add to their profit margin? Doesn't it come out of profits? And aren't those companies American? You know, Americans paying the tariffs like a TAX?

never, your snarkiness is what keeps me going.

why not just tax them directly, then?

Unbelievable that this narrative is still being pushed.

they learned from the first term that if they lie a lie enough times then the Press will stop pushing back, because ultimately the Press don't want conflict and do want access

and he is considered the reasonable/smart one.

Well he is used to fellating.

You really went for lowest common denominator on that one…

not by everyone...

He is a smart one but birds of a feather flock together.

A bowl of putrid feces is “better” relative to a dumpster filled with putrid feces.

Every time I see Bessent's smug face I think of him saying "silly peasants"

That "so far" is Bessent knowing that thousands of companies have been doing what this MN-based company just wrote about.

It doesn't matter the rhetoric - one way or another the buyer always pays.

🤣

"Who pays the tariff is a choice". What a fucking joke.

Suicide is never the answer so long as homicide remains an option.

Exactly how long will a company like General Motors eat the fee? They will raise prices very shortly

Conclusion! Tariffs ARE paid by the importer. Bessent is correct that the importer can either eat the tariff or pass it on to the consumer. Thus, tariffs will either be a tax on consumers (+inflation) or a tax on businesses (lower profit). Ultimately the market/product will determine the decision.

Bessent inadvertently admits that it is the importer that pays the tariff; not the country from which the product is sourced. When you perpetuate lies, eventually you make a mistake and the truth slips out. I think the administration has been promoting that false line just to get Kai rattled.

"Substantial portion" is not "all."

Here’s a better question. Does the president understand, that No Means No?

Just fucking admitted it is NOT the ‘country’ who pays tariffs.

💙💙💙 he’s never gonna fucking admit it. He thinks he’s so brilliant and he’s had this type of plan for years and years and years he thinks he’s doing a great job.

Are we sure he's not AI generated?

So is the President happy about killing the profit margins of American businesses?

If only a journalist would ask THAT instead of letting them Gish gallop and avoid the fact that there are consequences to tariffs that are not “the foreign country will give us tons of money that will pay for everything in my agenda”

Not HIS American businesses, of course. That must be understood.

And less profit sharing checks for employees and less dividends for stockholders.

Ah, so it’s a corporate tax increase?

Me too.

It’s getting pretty obvious they are trying to do just that

Yeah, I have seen articles on the price increases at Walmart and Target.

They really expect us to believe this nonsense?

Weapons-grade stupidity is a job requirement for all of the circus performers in the regime. In addition, they are required to memorize the despot's scripts and repeat them ad nauseam. Their brain cell number is not permitted to exceed their chromosome number.

We like you Kai

Not you...

Lies! Just look at your pocket books Americans: We’re being hustled by Trump and his Lying Spin Doctors. Start the Trump Tax Resistance, March on DC

Who pays is a choice? No that’s not how this works! This guy needs something I can’t say here or they will suspend me again. These people are the most outrageous idiots.

That is simply the dumbest thing any official has said ever.

Morning Joke still on air? Trump must be a fan

Republicans embracing corporate tax hikes to defend Trump's financial illiteracy

Choice? 🤦‍♀️

No, we need you Kai!

The gaslighting is off the chain. Please tell me f so online called him out… ( I bet no one did)

Okay, but only if you kill me first.

That’s RFK Jr.’s job.

Just allowed to lie

To be fair, I think cocoa has been expensive recently due to poor harvests... tariffs won't help though

Same with coffee which is already suffering from Climate change...I hope the lobby will pay whatever Trump's bribe is so they don't affect my small business and thus my job

poor cocoa harvests are largely due to climate change, and he's doing everything he can to destroy climate research and green energy sources.

Even if that was true, and just humor me for a moment, wouldn’t that mean businesses hire fewer people, invest less in R&D, and—the horror!—give smaller dividends to shareholders?

This is like when someone on Twitter said "tenants don't pay property tax"

That’s really strange because I just got an invoice stating a 3% tariff charge. Can I pretend it’s an Epstein fine and also non-existent?

Like where does he think a company’s revenue comes from?

Key words: “…gonna have to…..” You bet your sorry arse he has to, if wants to keep his sorry job.

And he's the last "adult" in the room 🤦🏻‍♂️

The administration's war against soulless capitalism continues apace. Who'd have thunk it? When will people who voted for Trump's tax cuts realize they've been taken for a ride?

That smug SOB is lying. Why this continued deference to companies instead of the American people?

I really despise the smart ones who just cater to the tyrant. The dumb ones cannot really help it, but Bessent knows full well his boss is an inept idiot who know nothing about economics (or business, foreign policy, defense, or any other government matter, or being a decent human being).

Stupid is a brand standard of DonOlds administration

Doesn't that argument apply to raised wages? Which Republicans insist must be 100% passed onto customers?

this doesn’t seem to give a consumer the option to pay or not to pay, other than to not shop link to article: archive.md/2025.07.18-0...

LOL the once respected Scott Bessent

Does he even know what he says?

Make that man the chair of the Fed!

Right... That's why I have an item I just got an invoice for where the item is $19.99 but the mixed shipping charges alone is now over $22 including the added tariffs. But it's a choice, right? Sure is. Since the item hasn't left the warehouse, I'm cancelling the order. Some choice.

Tariffs are a tax. If consumers pay the tariff because businesses pass it on, it's a sales tax on consumers. If businesses don't pass it on? It comes from their profits, and it's an additional tax on businesses. I've not seen anything from Bessent that changes this.

We think alike! I gave virtually the same reply as you before reading yours. Importantly, Bessent does admit that it is the importer that pays the tariff; not the country from which the product is sourced. Oops!

It's hard watching this stuff play out. If anybody points out it seems to make no sense? They double down. Worse, supporters of this administration are convinced it's all because we don't like him. But I don't care who proposes things - just that they work. I just don't see this working.

Based on the prices I’m seeing when I shop these days, the consumer pays the tariffs. Period.

Zero shame.

Yeah, somewhere in Bizarro World a CEO is telling the board that they plan on making less money because ‘reasons’.

Aye Right! 🙄

Nope. We're stuck stuck picking up the pieces of everything the rich assholes have broken.

And if they "take it into their profit margins" they'll be less profitable and they'll probably lay people off and then the unemployment rate will go up and. . . oh never mind. I'm totally math-impaired but I can follow the dots better than this bozo.

No, if you were math-impaired you'd think that drug prices could come down 1000%.

Fortunately, I can recognize when the math doesn't math.

Hence the big tax cuts?? Any way you slice it, it’s less money for individuals or businesses. If big businesses can absorb the costs they were gouging us (already knew this) and it will put down small businesses that don’t rely on comparable volume to produce profitability

And the other substantial portion?

Just playing in our collective faces

We're deep, deep into the Utter Lunacy Timeline

bsky.app/profile/carl...

Translation - we're going to screw over small businesses that will need to eat the tariffs, until they can't do it anymore, then transfer the screwing to the majority of consumers.

As a Canadian customer, I had zero choice when UPS billed me for the tariffs of an item I had shipped in from the states. 🤨

U.S. Manufacturers. Since corporations are people,we are

It is an insult to call a rock dumb, compared to these people.

Sure, and layoffs are inevitable

So mystified that this dude ran Soros’ fund as he has the financial literacy of a 4th grader.

Haha sure companies will give up their profits by eating the tarriff cost rather than passing on the cost to consumers 🤦

Dear Bessent, in the words of the wonderful Jon Stewart, “Go fuck yourself.”

I mean he's not wrong, but its also not sustainable

I went to the grocery store yesterday and bought the ingredients to make one chicken Caesar salad for lunch, plus the cheapest pack of toilet paper in the store. It was $84. I’m tired of being psychologically tortured every day. It’s time to revolt.

Get in line, Kai.

How is that better?!?

Pull the cord in the back of his head for a different answer.

Bessent is officially unemployable after his stint in Trump's Never Never Land

Heritage Foundation or Fox Business will pick him up. The swill swills together.

A little insight...

Econ 101 should be a requisite, no matter what your major is. Trump holds no degrees that anyone will confirm, but I'm sure at least a handful of his staff did. I recall yelling at Reagan during the "service economy" speech on the car radio. We are still paying for that.

Right?! Follow up-The President says “deals” are what tariffs the other countries pay. You’re saying the companies are eating the cost of the tariffs. Isn’t that the opposite of what the president is saying? OR The “deal” with Japan is better for them than American citizens. Japan put no tariffs?!

That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.

Where pray tell does he see this? They take “into their profit margins”… JFC!

Read the 10-Q filings starting to arrive this week. That is clearly not happening. Bessent is lying or high as a crypto coin.

Why do we keep pretending that Drumpf doesn’t understand that tariffs are taxes?

🦄🦄🦄🦄🦄🦄

@kairyssdal.bsky.social and a pompous ass, to boot.

You're not getting off that easy, Kai. You'll have to suffer through this hell with the rest of us. Keep on goin'.

So they also have the choice to lay off workers so they can keep their profit margin, or close plants -- then workers lose jobs, we pay unemployment ---NO THIS ISN'T A CHOICE~

I’m sure, in an administration that only sees what it wants to see, reality be damned, that that is exactly what he’s seeing.

When your economic messaging drives NPRs thoughtful, professional, long time Marketplace reporter to this reaction. 😬 😂😂😂💀

bsky.app/profile/r-s-...

same same-still us you dolt

And that is helping the economy???

The dumbest gay man in America

Back in the '08 crash, I bought Ford shares at ~ $2/sh; I sold many shares in 2011 at ~18/sh. I made money buying from the basement and selling on the upper level. I believe this is what the Trump admin is doing to our economy--forcing a tank so his friends can do to our assets what I did w/ Ford.

Trump standard operating procedure: 1. Just lie. 2. Do whatever you like. 3. Ignore all rules and laws. 4. "What are you gonna do about it?" 5. If they "do something about it" stall stall stall

GDP growth projections for the first 2 years are at or under 1.5%

So he's saying that businesses are paying the tax, leading to lower profits and ultimately lower valuations.

Idiots.

Morning Joe producers should buy a raft of cheesy Trump tschotskas, show where they're manufactured & show the price differential once Trump's tarriffs are applied.

no big deal man, it's either bad for the consumer, or the US business

So basically, you driving manufacturers and suppliers out of business

Does Scott Bessent know that many American’s have 401(k)’s invested in these companies, the ones that are taking the short term hit? He thinks we are stupid, and we must be as a whole to have someone like him helping to run the country/economy.

I didn't watch the segment but I already know Joe didn't challenge him on his lie

As a Canadian watching our Prime Minister and his team day after day, with so many issues on their plate, having to deal with this moron, one of the Trump Misfits, say that manufacturers are going to eat the tariffs. Right, everyone in business is doing so to lose money. MADNESS

Ford said it ate some of the tariffs which killed its profits in Q2. But I think it’s rare and won’t last long with shareholders

A choice? Ok, I pick to not pay the tariff. Thanks!

Shuckin’ and jivin’

But who would present Marketplace :(

Marketplace isn't long enough to tackle why this is nonsense. Podcast incoming???? Please?

Like does NOT mean endorse, Kai. ❤️

Softball questions from Barnicle with no follow-up when Bessent dodges the question. Why is Morning Joe giving these people their platform to distribute their propaganda/lies?

Oh no dey deh-ent. WTAF?