Talk of Trump Enacting a Value Added Tax to Raise Revenue Lays Waste to Retailers

The Washington Post is out with a few more leaks today, this time purporting that Trump is set to impose two liberal wet dreams on the people, VAT and carbon taxes.

Washpo said the administration is trying to find ways to raise revenues, in order to provide the people with the tax cuts they promised. Moreover, they painted this in a light that Trump and his team are trying to extend olive branches to the batshit democrats, by way of onerous taxes on the American people, to meet them ‘halfway’ in an attempt to find common ground.

A carbon tax would target the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouses gases in the burning of gasoline, coal and other fossil fuels. Many Democrats support the creation of a carbon tax as a way to address climate change, but they couldn’t even reach an agreement on the issue when they had control of Congress and the White House during the early years of the Obama administration.

I call 100% bullshit on this fake news.

A man who eschewed global warming as nothing more than a Chinese scheme to deindustrialize America does not simply agree to carbon taxes as a means to an end.

The VAT tax, or ‘value-added tax’ is used in other countries of lesser qualities. It serves as a national sales tax, targeting fuckheads to enjoy to spend all of their money at the mall. Critics argue it target the weak and the poor. It does.

Here is how Washpo described their unnamed sources feeding them this nonsense.

Administration officials stressed that no final decision has been made and they are reviewing different alternatives. Two officials and a third person confirmed the consideration of the value-added tax, while one official and the third person confirmed the consideration of the carbon tax. The carbon tax idea is very controversial within the administration, and some officials strongly oppose it, one person said.

“Two officials and a third person” said Trump was considering a VAT tax, but ‘some officials’ strongly opposed the carbon tax. Therefore, the Washington Post felt it necessary to lie to the American people by suggesting Trump was considering a carbon tax, in order to create resentment amongst his base.

There is a 0% chance that Trump will impose a carbon tax. Write it down.

All of this talk of taxes has reignited the discussion of a ‘border adjustment tax’, which is having a ruinous effect on the shares of retail stocks. Shares of $JCP are leading the way lower by 6.5%, followed by losses in $M, $KSS, $EXPR, $JWN and so many others. It is a bloodbath in retail today.

The problem for retailers, aside from the blackhole that is Amazon, is two fold, amidst today’s news of Trump’s tax ideas.

By enacting a VAT tax, the price of goods will rise, effectively reducing the volume of goods sold and of course profits. The border adjustment tax would cause the price of goods to rise dramatically for retailers, depending on the tax rate, which again would directly affect their bottom line.

Clearly, the party at the ‘made in China’ punchbowl might be coming to an end — ushering in a new era of American austerity and shift away from consumerism.

Are we capable of such a switch after decades of targeted ads brainwashing us into believing we ‘needed’ that latest gadget?

Probably not.

 

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