You might remember when the producers of the Dukes of Hazzard tried to replace Bo and Luke with their “cousins,” who – obviously – were not Bo and Luke. The switcheroo had to do with contract negotiations; the actors who played Bo and Luke wanted raises. The producers didn’t want to give them raises. So the actors stopped acting. The producers thought they could get rid of the actors by replacing them with new ones willing to act for less money.
The ratings of the show tanked – because the audience didn’t want to see the “cousins.” They wanted Bo and Luke.
In no time at all, they were back!
It looks like the Hemi V8 is coming back, too. Mopar Insider says an even more powerful iteration of the Hemi will return for the 2026 model year in the Ram 1500 TRX, the highest-performance iteration of the Ram half-ton pickup. Apparently because the TRX’s replacement – the Ram 1500 RHO – had the equivalent of the Duke boys’ “cousins” under its hood. Instead of a supercharged Hemi V8 – the engine that powered the TRX – a turbocharged in-line six. It made plenty of power (540 horses) but it’s not the horses that matter so much as the number of cylinders to people who want essentially the same thing that fans of the Duke Boys wanted.
As opposed to something else they didn’t ask for.
But there’s even better news. It appears that the regular Ram 1500 will be getting back the V8 that was taken away, too. Leaked details from a dealer meeting in Wisconsin suggest that Ram will be reintroducing the 5.7 Hemi V8 as an option next year as well.
“5.7 Hemi will be back in 1500s” reads the screenshot from the presentation reportedly given by Stellantis.
It’s even better news than the news that the Duke Boys were coming back to the Dukes Hazzard. Because this is real rather than a show on TeeVee.
It’s also really important – in that it is significant. It amounts to a wave of the white flag of surrender by Stellantis, the euro-combine that owns the Ram and Jeep and Dodge and Chrysler brands. Former CEO Carlos Tavares thought he could dictate to the market what it would buy and the market would just buy it. He cancelled the Hemi V8 and replaced it with a new in-line six and cancelled the Dodge Charger and Challenger outright, replacing both with a device called Charger. But people who loved the Charger and Challenger did not get a charge out of the device.
The devices accumulate, unsold because unwanted. Put more finely, because no one asked for them.
It is a similar scenario with regard to the Ram 1500 – which was extremely popular and sold well after its last major update back in 2019. But then the decision was made to pull the 5.7 V8 that had been the Ram 1500’s optional engine and replace it with a new engine half the size with two fewer cylinders. The thinking – if you want to call it that – was that Ram buyers would either not notice the difference or be indifferent to the difference.
It became quickly apparent that while there’s nothing wrong, per se, with the new 3.0 liter “Hurricane” six, it isn’t a V8 and that matters when you’re trying to sell a truck to people who do not want a six, no matter how powerful it is.
It’s the same as regards the device called Charger in that it does not matter how quick you make a device when you are trying to appeal to buyers who do not want a device. There are Teslas and other devices for buyers who do. But good luck trying to shuck n ‘jive (as Bo and Luke would have put it) the people who like V8s into accepting a device.
It’s a case study in not knowing your market and also an example of the way the relationship between buyers and sellers has changed over the past decades. Car companies used to spend a lot time and thought trying to figure out what people wanted and how to offer it to them. Then – by a gradual process that included the car companies getting into bed with the government – that changed. The car companies waxed insolent. Here is what you’ll get, they seemed to be thinking – and making.
And people have been doing exactly that.
Now Stellantis and some of the others are beginning to understand their mistake and trying to correct it – much like the producers of the Dukes of Hazzard. The “cousins” were shown the door and Bo and Luke were back.
And now it appears the Hemi will be coming back, too. It is probably not a coincidence that Tim Kuniskis is back, too. He is the guy who used to run Dodge – before the Hemi and the Charger and Challenger were run out of production by Tavares. He’s been hired back – to run Ram.
And maybe just in the nick of time, too.
. . .
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Don’t hold your breaths. There was definitely some sort of deal made with the devil, which means that the Rams/Chargers/Challengers (as well as any other previously demonized piece of Americana) will CONTINUE to remain “unobtainium” for us common folk. Either the BASE price will be six-figures, or they’ll be exclusive to NAS(ty)CAR and other motorsports organizations, etc.
Hi Blue,
They may try that – low volume/high cost – but if so, it will not save them. Because selling a few thousand $100k trucks is not going to save them. They need to sell hundreds of thousands of trucks and to do that, hundreds of thousands must be able to afford to buy them.
Of course the real news for me in all of this is the diesel coming back in the Ramcharger! Since so many outlets are reporting that the new EPA honcho has turned it around, maybe we will see the DEF/DPF silliness go away?
“…maybe we will see the DEF/DPF silliness go away?”
Yeah, and Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab, and George Soros (et al) will all be swinging in the breeze, a la Mussolini.
Hey! I can dream, too, can’t I? 😀
Whoops! Meant to only italicize the first line. *runs away with tail between his legs*
Hundreds of millions to develop the hurricane 6 cylinder that nobody wants and can only fit in the full size truck and charger because it’s too long for anything else they make. Now tens of millions to retool everything to make the 20 year old but still good Hemi. All of that money really needed to be spent on a NEW dohc small, turbo v8 that could get the fuel economy of the 6 cylinder but also have the right sound to please the customer.
Why did this engine get developed??? Because of (((USFEDGOV))) regulations, not because CDRJ wanted to make it. This smaller engine creates less “carbon emissions”, but with turbos to make up for the power loss.
The “free market” meant freedom from (((Government))) regulations, PERIOD, not under whatever guise of EPA, DOT or any other non-constitutional regulatory body telling companies & consumers what they could buy, sell, or trade.
Will the Trumpster fix this??? Here’s to hoping, and he is trying, but the entire US Government Khazarian Mafia is against him.
Fire them all, and let the courts sort it out.
Certainly I’m burning up my popcorn supply, watching all this entertainment, working on my plans B, C & D.
Hope y’all are too!!!
EPA guy Lee Zeldin just announce big rollbacks in regs. No real details yet, but we can hope.
The rumors were true as I suspected. Ram was hemorrhaging sales with the I6TT. Count me as one of them. I recently needed two new trucks as my Ram 5.7’s were aging out (for me), so I chose not to buy the new I6TT.
So in ’26+, I can go with Ram 5.7’s again, and maybe the 6.4 will be avail per your picture? Count me in. Don’t care how much extra it costs. One thing I have learned, is when you have a desirable truck, it’s worth that much more when you sell it. My dealer friends oggled over my trucks and every time I came in for service they would present big trade-in numbers, way more than I ever expected.
I am hoping that the new hemi’s are still port fuel injected, like they have been for a long time. If they go direct injected I will not be happy. And while their at it, delete the stupid multi-cylinder lifters that are plaguing many of today v8’s. gm is about to get in serious trouble ($B’s) if the feds make them recall their lifter failure problems. I’m theorizing that there are lots of gm lobbyists in DC right now trying to get the feds to allow them to re-program their ECU’s to delete the stupid multi-cylinder thing (all for percents of percents of CO2 as Eric has mentioned often)
“delete the stupid multi-cylinder lifters that are plaguing many of today v8’s”
this got my Ram.
proved to me that the 5.7 was not ready to work, so i ditched the truck
never again with that fuel saving nonsense.
once I heard gm was using the same thing in their 5.3, I passed on them too.
‘delete the stupid multi-cylinder lifters that are plaguing many of today v8’s.’ — ChrisIN
Vaguely aware of this issue. But sounds like it merits a fuller treatment by Eric.
You buy a [rare, exotic] V8 … and then it bricks on you?
What is wrong with this picture?
Hi Jim,
The other poster refers to the cylinder deactivation systems used by a number of automakers, including GM. Basically, an evolution of the V8-6-4 thing Cadillac tried back in the ’80s. It’s another compliance thing, in other words.
Yes, it is basically e-hydrauiic lifter(s) that can be turned on-off at fractions of seconds. Can you imagine the stress these things have at thousands of rpm’s?
Since I am in Manufacturing, any good Manuf. knows it’s warranty rate. The Manuf. I know start getting concerned past 3% warranty claims. Anything over 5% is bad and things are done to correct it ASAP.
I do not know the numbers, but my guess is the GM AFM (Hemi calls it MDS) warranty rate is approaching or above 5%, and the Feds are looking at it for a potential recall. In GM’s case close to a million engines. Not unlike Toyota which recently recalled close to a million of their new V6T engines (huge $$$$$)
Todays answer is to just turn these systems off right now by re-programming the computer. Bu the Feds/EPA won’t let them because of the ’emissions’ thing. That’s about to change.
And Saxons is correct, these crazy engine designs was driven by Regs.
In the case of the HEMI, turning it off might be the problem. I have watched several analysis that suspect the oil channels are not good enough to deliver oil to all 8 lifters.
Others say to do a deactivation, but haven’t seen numbers on problems after doing that.
IDK Dan, I would guess that it’s the ‘action’ of extending and collapsing the lifter that is the reliability problem. Is the system smart enough to only extend/collapse when the cam lobe is on the other side? I doubt it, meaning it could be extending/collapsing when the cam lobe is trying to open the valve, high stress for sure.
I’ve owned about 6 5.7 hemi’s so far, and could never even tell when it’s in 4cy mode cause it almost never is, maybe coasting down a hill.
Gerdau is a Brazilian steel corporation that operates in the US.
You need a smelter’s license to melt metals. Ever see magnesium burn?
Gerdau lost 48 percent of its business in steel sales when Chinese steel was dumped into the market Conehead style.
Gerdau’s share price has suffered the past few years.
The steel makers in China don’t care.
US Steel was down in the dumps just above 5 dollars per share around 2019.
Nippon placed a bid and US Steel jumped to 50 dollars. Nippon must know US Steel can make steel in Pittsburgh.
Make Power Wagons like they used to.
Kept a roll of 3/16 magnesium wire in my school desk for fun on movie day. Enlightened my whole acid soaked 7th grade class with flaming drops of white light as we reviewed Tommy. Private school is fun.
Even with the return of the original Duke boys, it was still the beginning of the end for the tv show unfortunately.
The ratings increased a bit when they returned, but never returned to the levels before they left. The show was damaged and would never truly recover.
Hope this isn’t the case for RAM. The Trump regime is only buying a bit of time and breathing room for the automakers. They need to move fast and unfortunately they never do. Glad the Hemi is coming back, but they need to change what makes it endangered all the time. They can never really put in major money into development if they think its a just few years from being banned again.
I loved the Dukes of Hazard when I was a kid back in the 1980’s. I had begun watching it again on cable tv as an adult just before the show was unfortunately pulled again. It was one of those shows that it was exactly as I had remembered it and I still love it. It wasn’t one of those shows ruined by growing into an adult remembering it in a way it really wasn’t.
I do hope the Hemi makes it way back into the Charger and Challenger. Though if I do buy a Challenger I should buy a 60’s one…..
The last gen Challenger will be a kick ass winner with the hemi. Hope to rent one soon.
That’s great…
Now get rid of the Teevee screen, the GPS monitoring and the breathalizer.
Ditto!
Government tells you what you can and can not put in your body, they take your money without consent, they tell you who the bad people are, and will enslave you to go kill them, you have to ask permission to hunt, fish, and get married. Tell me again about your freedom…
No worries, the TV screen fails way before everything else.
Wow a supercharger! No laggy turbo- nice.
But can the auto makers ever recover their losses in going along to get along? Sure, people will buy them, but will they buy enough of them to recover what was lost?
@Eric – If you haven’t been to one of the Cooter’s Place museums/stores in Tennessee, take a road trip in the near future, before Ben Jones passes.
The 70s and “The Dukes of Hazzard” live on in those stores. The show was starting to be huge again in reruns prior to Charlottesville.
V8s returning? You’ll likely need a thirty year usurious mortgage.
What will tariffs accomplish?
Millions of retired grandmas and grandpas surviving on SS alone will once again be paying taxes. Yay! Win, Win. Even Mums buying that lab grown milk and meat, (yum yum) or collecting food stamps or just fleecing the system will pay. Hospitals/doctors immediate 25% increase. Lumber, building materials,,,, boy a whole new scam system!
RE: “What will tariffs accomplish?
Millions of retired grandmas and grandpas surviving on SS alone will once again be paying taxes. ”
Sshh, they’ll lower your social credit score, Comrad. People are gonna notice.
Ya gotta pretend like that’s, ‘stickin’ it to da man’.
Rumor is the Hemi’s will be made in the US now vs Mexico prior.
Well, there they go again. Despite a better than expected CPI report this morning, an opening gap nigher in stocks has receded back in the red vs yesterday’s close.
For some unfathomable reason, an orange-haired NPD victim managing a $28 trillion economy out of his hip pocket does not seem to have improved the prospects for corporate earnings.
As long-time observers of the Washington DC entity, we all know what comes next: DOUBLE DOWN until morale improves!
Out of the blue and into the black
You pay for this, but they give you that
And once you’re gone, you can never come back
When you’re out of the blue and into the black
— Neil Young, Hey Hey, My My
Which stocks would those be, Jim? My Sliver Trust has gone up three days straight. You may not want to invest in iRobot. Microsoft and AMD may be worthy as a buys though. I can’t tell what is going on with Nvidia…it looks like the Swiss Alps over for the last six months.
Silver….I may need spell check.
RG, it proves you are not an AI bot.
Nice that the Ram truck may be offered with a Hemi V8. But what about the Hemi Charger, much less the legendary Hemi Challenger?
Fuhgeddaboudit. Meddling fedgov ‘crats have taken it upon themselves to define four categories of vehicles: SUVs, crossovers, sedans, and pickups. Pickups are entitled to relaxed gas mileage requirements based on footprint, which explains why they’ve metastasized into giant hulking beasts the size of garbage trucks.
It also explains why it’s possible to put a Hemi V8 into a Ram pickup without being punished too severely by CAFE fines. But don’t try this with a sedan. Those have been almost regulated out of existence, except for econoboxes.
Get brain-dead ‘crats THE HELL OUT of defining vehicle envelopes and categories.
CARB is our misfortune.
The more Hemis they sell, the more money Enron Musk gets from the carbon credits!
I have a stupid question: which US.GOV agency facilitates the transfer of carbon credits (aka CASH) from Stellantis to Tesla?
All this DOGE bs cost cutting going on….is the Dept of Carbon Credit Transfer still operational? Or has their building been bulldozed and the staff banished to Mars?
Im 50 shades curious about that 6.4 option. Can they also bump up the power a little?
Eric,
I heard Ram is also going to offer the 6.4L Hemi in the 1500. Have you heard this?
My guess is that the Hemi will be offered only in the highest trim line or you’ll pay so much to get it you won’t.
RG’s right. There is a market for a more basic vehicle but Govco regulations make them a lot harder to bring to market here.
I would love to buy a brand new 2001 Corolla exactly like my present one, no nannying or spyware and reliable as can be. Also gets 40mpg highway; if govco would get out of the way I’m sure it could be built for under $20k and would sell like crazy.
We WILL see any and everything BUT the practical vehicle youve described.
It’s been one of Ram’s attractiveness, that they did not just put the 5.7 Hemi in the highest trims. You could get their lower trim levels with the 3.6 v6 or the 5.7 hemi.
Unlike GM, that would only put the 6.2 in the highest trims, and one of the reasons I switched from gm to ram.
Who knows what they will do in ’26?
Make V8s by the millions, it’ll be great.
Dug a pretty big hole in the auto manufacturing budget, EV bidness is on the ropes.
You have to be there to help.
Necrosis began to set in, gangrene first, you know the rest.
Well I don’t wanna hurt no more
My legs are turning green
Won’t you give me some of that soldier’s joy
If you know what I mean
Ten dollars for the morphine
Five dollars for the beer
Ten dollars for the morphine
Gonna take me away from here – Soldier’s Joy
Great, Dodge is bringing back the V8…who will be buying it? Is the price going to decrease $20k and will they be removing the surveillance equipment? I am glad the auto manufacturers like Stellantis are waking from their coma, but I want my car to track to me as much as I want my refrigerator to notify me when eggs are getting low…which means not at all. Just an FYI: not all of us liked Knight Rider.
An acceptable interior? One that looks like the inside of a 2007 Lexus RX330 or better yet, a 1999 Isuzu Rodeo. I don’t need an IPAD, I am old enough to remember how knobs worked.
Amen, RG –
But this is at least a step in the right direction. What’s really needed, in my opinion, is a Dakota-sized pickup with a V8 that starts around $25k.
This! I have a crew cab, long bed Colorado (with a V6) and living with it’s smaller (relatively speaking lol) size is really easy. If it had our bullet proof, old style LS as the powerplant it would be nirvana on wheels! 😀
Hear, hear. I hate the way interiors look these days. I hate virtually everything about modern cars. I don’t care whether they are gas, electric or even have a V8. I would sell one if it was given to me.
The “Knight Rider” pilot had Richard Baseheart in one of his last on screen appearances, and Baseheart’s voiceover played over the credits throughout the series run.
Serious sci fi cred even though the show got silly. OTOH, so did “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea”, also featuring Baseheart.
He narrated the Canadian docuseries “Vietnam: 10,000 Day War”
I figured out that US waged war was all bullshit and it was economic policy at age 8 because of it.
RIP
“5.7 Hemi will be back in 1500s” reads the screenshot from the presentation reportedly given by Stellantis. — eric
More $60,000 giant pickups, which I’ve labeled a human folly? Forgive me if I sound skeptical about this ostensible good news.
One has to wonder whether Stellantis knows something we don’t about CAFE penalties, of which it is a major payer. Either CAFE fines must go away … or the Ram 1500 Hemi must sell with a huuuuuuge surcharge.
Meanwhile, Donnie Fubar just shot the auto industry in the foot with his steel and aluminum tariffs:
‘For automakers struggling with challenges such as rising competition from Chinese rivals, costly technological transitions, and signs of a slowdown in U.S. consumer spending, the new steel tariffs are expected to further squeeze profits.
‘The 25 percent levies, which went into effect on Wednesday, are expected to cause steel prices in the United States to rise about 16 percent compared to prices in 2024, according to the research firm Wolfe Research.’ — NYT
https://archive.ph/gVF09#selection-871.0-875.428
Why would the Orange Orangutan punish metal-USING industries, which are some fifty times larger than primary metal-PRODUCING companies, with his Trump-McKinley tariffs? Oh wait, he’s a Tesla buyer! See you at the charging station, narcissistic twat.
Hi Jim,
You and I don’t see eye to eye on the subject of tariffs. A serious question though…were you concerned when the jobs left towns such as Detroit, Pittsburgh, or Cleveland for cheaper global labor turning these once iconic cities into crack houses? Are we as a nation, content that 90% of our medications are made in China and India? Is it acceptable that this country only has two steelmakers left that would even be able to produce the metal needed for US auto manufacturing?
The lack of manufacturing is not only a security risk, but it has dissolved into a nation with very little pride and far less skills. Even the American software engineers are being replaced with H1B visas. When do we put our foot down or we just accept this is the new future? I am sure some Americans wish for the day when they no longer have to deal with the daily grind of getting up and going to work to make a paycheck and they sit at home collecting UBI. Need not fear we can make Idiocracy a reality!
100 percent agreed. I get sick of people who seem to think that there is a free lunch somewhere. I despise Trump as a person and hate his antics, but I support his implementing across the board tariffs and sticking to it. The current situation of $1.3 trillion trade deficits and 120,000 factories closed since 1972, meaning the loss of 10 million manufacturing jobs, is unacceptable.
I am sick of the Democrats for the little people rap where people complain about income inequality and whatnot but refuse to do something that we know will increase employment. The Great Depression began before the smoot Hawley tariff was enacted. It was lowered and the great depression continued. People elected Roosevelt 4 times because Democrats good, Republicans bad. Globalists good, internationalists bad.
I fear we reached idiocracy before I was even born (in the middle 60s).
Hi swamp,
I agree with everyone you have written. Apparently, we are supposed to keep quiet on how many nations impose tariffs on US goods. It was alright that this country has had a trade deficit for a generation, but now that we want to level the playing field, “big bully bad”. Some Americans yell about the costs of goods, but where were they when other costs such as job loss, foreclosures, and drug addictions skyrocketed.
I don’t care if someone in Vietnam or Chile has a job. I care that my neighbor does.
I agree with you both, actually –
Free trade is great when it is practiced by both parties. But that is not the case. That said, a tariff is still a tax and we end up paying it. I’d much rather see the regulatory apparat dismantled.
Hi Eric,
I am a little surprised that Trump has not established a free trade agreement with countries such as Argentina. Maybe they buy our steel and we buy their wine…or something along those lines. There is never going to be a 100% match of equal vs unequal trades. One nation is going to import more from one than the other, but we can at least open new trade negotiations and maybe save Americans (and the other country’s citizens) a little bit of money. This also gets us away from the dependency of other countries goods who refuse to accept our imports or tax them into oblivion.
When American goods are manufactured in foreign lands they arrive here as imports. Most of the trade deficit is from American businesses producing overseas.
I remember years ago when the off shoring began. Walmart had signs up “Buy American”. People had baskets full of Chinese trinkets. Very little in the way of American produced goods. Today that very same bunch of assholes are screaming America first or Make America Great Again. And still I see them purchasing foreign made goods by the tons because finding American produced goods is a real pain.
Does anyone really think government gives two shits about repatriating American production in light of the fact they will lose their tariff income,,, especially if they miraculously eliminate the income tax. How about the individual states eliminating their income tax? Sheeeit!
This is why I dislike Trump in office. People always think his 3D methods will be positive for the nation but never consider the bad points. If Biden was to attempt the same thing there would be hollering heard round the world.
V8s returning? Let’s see the costs in dollars and bureaucracy before celebrating. I seriously doubt Trump will piss off his new friend Elon or the group he really represents too much. These people have a hell of a lot of money invested in him. Stand By….
Hi Ken,
I have no idea what the Trump Administration is planning on doing, so I can only opine (which I do a lot). I think the point is to increase tariffs to subside the dissolution of the personal income tax. Business income taxes will not go away and neither will federal fees (e.g. passports, application fees, patents, equipment approvals, etc.). The tariffs will continue until the American companies that are manufacturing overseas decide to transfer back. At that time, the tariffs become federal income taxes and the employee wages increase tax revenue to the states and local jurisdictions.
I believe Trump is breaking down the federal bureaucracy to transfer ownership to the state bureaucracy (education, FEMA, etc.). Let the state pay for its resources. The state then goes to their constituents “Hey, we need more tax money from you, because Uncle Sam won’t write a check.” We aren’t really getting rid of the tax burden…just transferring it. But, if manufacturing moves back to the US not only does one have more disposable income, but so do the states and countries because they are now charging for personal property, real estate, sales tax, business licenses, etc.
“I think the point is to increase tariffs to subside the dissolution of the personal income tax.” Ugh!
https://www.schiffsovereign.com/trends/can-tariffs-replace-the-income-tax-we-did-the-math-152190/
Hi James,
To cut the “personal” federal income tax they would increase taxes on business and cut government spending (drastically). Right now, they are going for low hanging fruit. If they are serious they would have to eradicate roughly $2 trillion a year from the budget…that means serious cuts to defense, SSA, and Medicare. I don’t think any representative in the House or Senate would swallow a pill that big.
Correct, it’s never going to happen.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/when-corruption-path
Maybe not, but I would still grab a seat and a bag of popcorn, because we are in for a hell of a ride.
Democrats and little people? A new analysis from the Employment Policies Institute of quarterly data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that California has lost as many as 16,000 jobs since the state’s $20 fast food minimum wage law was signed in September 2023. They hate their little hired help people while stuffing their own pockets and looting what is left BLM hoax style.
Unfortunately we get to witness the riots and death throes of socialism world wide for a very good reason: Per Zerohedge 3/12/25 –
The bad news: at the rate it is going, DOGE will need a few hundred years to make a tangible impact, because as the Treasury just reported, in February the US government spent a staggering $603 billion, a 6% increase from the $567 billion a year ago…… while it collected just $296 billion in tax revenues. which resulted in a $307 billion budget deficit for the month, which means that all tax revenues collected by the US government in February were less than the deficit! Said otherwise, the US spent more than twice what it collected in February. As the Iron Lady said, when other peoples money runs out…
The US steel industry started getting special treatment in 1952, when the little martinet Harry Truman briefly nationalized it, until the Supreme Court shot him down in the Youngstown Sheet & Tube case. Costly union labor was at the root of that crisis. US steel already was uncompetitive, way back then.
Seventy-three years of off-and-on tariff protection for the U.S. steel industry accomplished nothing. Neither did Trump’s previous steel tariffs in 2018.
Steel in the US is a brain-dead stub of what it used to be. As the NYT article notes, US automakers favor Nippon Steel’s proposed takeover of US Steel because it would make US Steel more competitive. But know-nothing nationalists of the Uniparty — ‘Biden’ and Trump — both blocked it.
Full disclosure: I used to be a US-based sales agent for Nippon Steel, importing products that aren’t even made here because of the backward technology of the failed, rent-seeking US steel industry.
psssttt … wanna buy some Rearden metal? Bitcoin accepted!
Both Cleveland Cliffs and US Steel are subsidiaries of Vanguard/Blackrock/State Street, who would like to combine the two and shut down the US Steel mills, reducing capacity in this country:
God forbid the Japanese buy US Steel and … gasp! … make some steel.
Describe how UBI will allow such a person to afford basic housing period. Right now that equals about $3000 a month for women and $4000 for men. Uh yes it does. Denial is futile.
If gubco the scam prints $50k a year hush money, housing will then require about $51k income to “qualify”.
Those who presently fancy themselves secure and above the fray are praying for UBI to keep down the competition.
IOW BAU.
As we say in industry, “steel is cheap”. If you’re building a factory system with a ton of steel in it, and that costs $2000, worth a 25% tariff applied now you’re paying another $500 as you roll out your million dollar system.
By contrast, what happens to you and your country when you’re stupid enough to piss away the legacy of hard won esoteric knowledge of how to economically produce iron and steel by allowing foreign communists to buy out and monopolize the market.
Keep it in perspective. And Trump is at least talking about getting rid of the income tax and the IRS. I’ll gladly pay tariffs on my imported stuff for that freedom being won back.
RE: “And Trump is at least talking about getting rid of the income tax and the IRS. I’ll gladly pay tariffs on my imported stuff for that freedom being won back.”
How many months or years are you willing to see roll by – while you pay both – before you throw in the towel & say, “He’s not gonna do it.”?
RG seems to have an open time frame of however long it takes to get it right. If it doesn’t happen for another 10 yrs, are you good with that?
Just asking.
You can avoid the income tax by taking a vow of poverty (limit your earnings) and by having a business with no profit (run all profits back into the business as expenses). Or just be an off book black marketeer. About the only way to be forced into it is to be a wage employee, or when you go to sell that business you pumped the profits into. So I can put up with it for quite a while, though if we get a tariff and the income tax stays with all its political chicanery and control (audits, self reporting requirements in defiance of 4th and 5th amendment), then it will be time to raise hell with trump. Or the whole herd of RINOs ad commies blocking this and advocating for the slave tax.
Seems accurate.
I see then, “quite a while” it is.
Thanks for your well thought out reply.
Its like Harly trying to put a 300hp supercharged I4 in their bike. Sure, its got way more power and better fuel economy than an unbalanced slice out of an aircraft radial, but almost no one would buy it.
A V8 is aspirational- you get the unique sound and torque to show off. Even if it has low horsepower from the 80s, it doesn’t feel slow, though it may be. I felt like I made it when I got my first V8 after having driven only sixes.