As Stocks (and Cryptocurrencies) Drop After Tariffs, France Considers Retaliating Against US Big Tech (politico.eu)
- Reference: 0176948641
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/04/07/018218/as-stocks-and-cryptocurrencies-drop-after-tariffs-france-considers-retaliating-against-us-big-tech
- Source link: https://www.politico.eu/article/france-suggest-to-regulate-data-in-response-to-trump-tariffs/
The EU will vote on $28 billion in retaliatory tariffs Wednesday, [4]Reuters reports . (And those tariffs will be approved unless "a qualified majority of 15 EU members representing 65% of the EU's population oppose it. They would enter force in two stages, a smaller part on April 15 and the rest a month later.")
But France's Economy and Finance Minister has an idea: more strictly regulating how data is used by America's Big Tech companies. [5]Politico EU reports/A>:
> "We may strengthen certain administrative requirements or regulate the use of data," Lombard said in an interview with Le Journal Du Dimanche. He added that another option could be to "tax certain activities," without being more specific.
>
> A French government spokesperson already [6]said last week that the EU's retaliation against U.S. tariffs could include "digital services that are currently not taxed." That suggestion was fiercely [7]rejected by Ireland, which hosts the European headquarters of several U.S. Big Tech firms...
>
> Technology is seen as a possible area for Europe to retaliate. The European Union has a €157 billion trade surplus in goods, which means it exports more than it imports, but it runs a deficit of €109 billion in services, including digital services. Big Tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta dominate many parts of the market in Europe.
Amid the market turmoil, what about cryptocurrencies, often seen as a "proxy" for the level of risk felt by investors? In the 10 weeks after October 6, the price of Bitcoin skyrocketed 67% to $106,490 by December 10th. But by January 30th it had started dropping again, and now sits at $77,831 — still up 22% for the last six months, but down nearly 27% over the last 10 weeks. Yet even after all that volatility, Bitcoin suddenly fell again more than 6% on Sunday, [8]reports Reuters , "as markets plunged amid tariff tensions. Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency, fell more than 10% on Sunday."
[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/live/stock-market-today-dow-sp-500-nasdaq-futures-plunge-as-tariff-turmoil-continues-roiling-wall-street-220537939.html
[2] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/live/trump-tariffs-live-updates-trump-digs-in-says-markets-may-have-to-take-medicine-as-stock-futures-plunge-191201959.html
[3] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-announces-sweeping-range-of-reciprocal-tariffs-10-worldwide-tariff-in-liberation-day-proclamation-203505547.html
[4] https://www.reuters.com/markets/eu-seeks-unity-first-strike-back-trump-tariffs-2025-04-06/
[5] https://www.politico.eu/article/france-suggest-to-regulate-data-in-response-to-trump-tariffs/
[6] https://video.lefigaro.fr/figaro/video/droits-de-douane-les-services-numeriques-et-les-gafam-pourraient-etre-taxes-annonce-sophie-primas/
[7] https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/retaliating-against-us-digital-services-not-eu-position-ireland-says-2025-04-03/
[8] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-last-down-5-78-191053188.html
For those who are confused (Score:3)
Trump is not that hard to understand.
There are only a few things he really cares about, but most prominent among those when he "decides" what action to take is how it will play out in the media for the next news cycle. That's the way it has been with him for over 8 years now but if you accept that you understand the mechanism by which he takes action.
Right now, he thinks slamming down tariffs left and right makes him look "strong" and "decisive." Not like those wimpy ass liberals who try to use diplomacy for things. His PR organ Fox News is crowing about all the nations obsequiously lining up to negotiate (i.e. sue for terms of surrender). The rubes are buying it so he will keep doing it. Economic expertise, much less sound policy, has nothing to do with it and never has.
Just a short while ago the Trump team was confidently forcing a plan for SSA office closures. They had a list and they published it. Guess what it did NOT play well in the media. Trump was getting trashed and he couldn't blame it all on Musk. None of them have enough education to know what the "third rail of American politics is." Then guess what. They are now pretending they never said they were going to close offices. That was just a figment of your imagination and you do not question the Ministry of Truth.
So it will be the same with the tariff project. It will play out that way. Right now they are trying to spin the chaos in the equities markets as just a necessary but temporary thing, then we will all get rich. The rubes are buying it for now, but when the news cycle sours on them and they lose control of the media narrative the tariffs will melt away like the spring snow. They will claim the outcome was always what they intended -- to show the world who is boss. They will pretend they will got what we wanted. The idiots in red hats will buy it.
It will be completely lost on them what the real consequences are. They will just blame it on Biden if they are forced to notice.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, trump is very easy to understand.
He's an ignorant idiot, who has been shielded from responsibility from the wealth that his father left him.
He doesn't "decide", he grifts.
Because he's stupid, he hires made-up "experts", who are just as dumb and fake as he is, to tell him how to grift better.
"Experts" like the Ron Vara guy. [1]https://www.nytimes.com/2019/1... [nytimes.com]
Because he is really stupid, he destroys a billion of value for every dollar that he actually gets, .
70+ million US citizens are as dumb as him and h
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/16/us/politics/peter-navarro-ron-vara.html
Re: (Score:2)
> Trump is not that hard to understand.
i've been reading/watching a lot of political/economic discussion lately from academics, researchers, brilliant and experienced offcials, diplomats from very different origins and extractions, from the us and abroad. a few of them have said that trump is not hard to understand at some point. all who did have had to eat their own words at some later point.
Re: (Score:1)
MAGA-Thinking: "everybody and their dog and their dog's lawyer are out to get us". Bigly martyr-complex.
US had among the very top GDP, low unemployment, and cheap plentiful consumer goods relative to the rest of the world.
Don's gambling with a top economy. It would be like changing the Beatles' lineup because they made one bad song.
This is a highly fascinating (Score:2)
...economic experiment unfolding. Too bad I have to be part of it.
Does Proxima Centauri-b take illegal aliens?
As a non-American... (Score:2)
As a non-American, I hope every country in the world sticks it to US companies and inflicts maximum economic pain on the United States.
For a bunch of redneck hicks in seven "battleground" states to have the power to wreck the global economy and the world order is simply insane, and the USA deserves every bit of economic pain, loss of prestige, and diplomatic shunning that is going to come its way.
Good. (Score:2)
The US is reliably anti-consumer and guaranteed to remain so.
The EU are free to act and shoul seek to move data far away from US companies now the US is a de-facto enemy.
Get ready for the new copium (Score:2)
Conservatives who bitched non stop about Biden's economy now suddenly say it's a market correction and losing money is a good thing.
It's a security threat (Score:2)
Don't just tariff US tech... replace it and ban the original.
If your businesses run on Windows, you're one Trump emergency order away from having your systems compromised for industrial espionage or an economic attack. If your consumer economy is depending on Amazon delivery networks, you can have sand thrown in it at any time. If you allow Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter/X freely within your borders, you are already under American and Russian agitprop assaults.
Everyone needs to cut the US loose (Score:2)
Honestly, you can't trust US tech. All the major tech CEOs famously met with Trump in private to discuss God's knows what.
We believe we have seen the establishment of an oligarchy that commits war-like acts against its closest allies. That means that none of your data is safe in the cloud if it lands in an American jurisdiction. Because clearly Trump can call any of these CEOs for a favor now. US tech companies can and will let government spooks into data centers and gain physical access to equipment. Or si
The entire world is gearing up (Score:2, Insightful)
For a world where America no longer leads.
Is really frustrating how little people understand how the American empire functions. Simply put we leverage our national debt in order to keep the US dollar overly strong allowing us to bring in huge amounts of cheap imports worth much much much more than the interest on the debt.
That system is the only thing that's let you keep ahead of the rapacious oligarchs who have been using productivity gains in automation to devour your wages and your quality of lif
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
Ok, but Trump will exact retribution for every slight he's ever perceived. That's far more important than maintaining the nation's prosperity.
Re: America has got to smartten up to the (Score:2)
You're quite an optimist. From what I understand about Project 2025 and comments from the supreme court on the Comstock laws, it's not just gay rights. America will make Ireland in the 80's look progressive: not just abortion, but condoms, pornography, divorce and anything not church approved will be outlawed. And the church in America is much more conservative than the Roman Catholic that ruled Ireland.
Science has slowly been outlawed in America, but that is accelorating like a bobsled as witnessed by
Re: (Score:2)
> Ok, but Trump will exact retribution for every slight he's ever perceived. That's far more important than maintaining the nation's prosperity.
Sure. But at some point it breaks down, literally. Trump can say "I'll keep raising my tariffs to match your retaliation" but it can't really happen. At some point everyone will be assessing a hundred-trillion-percent tariff on everything, and a thousand-dollar car part will cross a border and the combined wealth of the planet will be owed.
The only way this works is if everyone caves in and just lets America - which has way, way more than its fair share of global wealth - take more of the overall pot.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Trump won that election very comfortably, complaining about voter suppression just undermines anything else you have to say.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
> Trump won that election very comfortably, complaining about voter suppression just undermines anything else you have to say.
Is that like when Biden won the election comfortably and all we heard for 4 years was Trump complaining about a "rigged" election, meaning it undermines anything else he had to say?
Re: (Score:2)
Yes it's exactly like that. I'm guessing OP doesn't want to be exactly like Trump by the way he's complaining about him.
Every accusation is a confession (Score:2)
That's one of the core principles of the Republican party. Just like how they won't shut up about drag queens grooming children and then every other week a top Republican operative gets caught-diddling kids They claim election interference while openly interfering with elections themselves.
I mean for fuck sakes Missouri has 40% black population. Have you ever stopped to ask yourself how in the name of hell it can manage to be a red state? Now just take those same tactics and use them nationally thanks t
Re: (Score:2)
Trump got a plurality of votes, the last time we had that instead of a majority was when Ross Perot split the vote. There was no big national third party this time though to split the vote like that.
I don't think any rational person would say he won "comfortably".
I'm reluctant to believe voter suppression because of the lack of evidence, but if such evidence was found, I'd hardly be surprised, especially given the the difference in candidates, with Trump barely campaigning and apparently mentally breaking
Re: (Score:2)
He keeps blaming immigrants and Democrats for everything. And a good third or so of Americans not only buy it, but they readily defend Trump's policies as necessary.
Re: The entire world is gearing up (Score:2)
What do you mean, evidence? The Republican Party doesn't try to hide its voter suppression efforts; they just don't call them that. Instead, they use terms like "voter ID" and "closing low-traffic precincts" and "no voting after 8pm," etc. But it's all intended to make a small percentage of leaning-Democrat votes not happen.
1.7% isn't very comfortably (Score:2)
Not when we have credible evidence that 3.5 million Americans were denied the right to vote by illegal challenges to signatures and voter registrations alone. And that's before we talk about the 7-hour wait times to vote in Democrat leading districts in Pennsylvania and other swing states.
The only part that confuses me is that the journal is too broke all this had sat down with Kamala Harris years ago and told her this was going to happen and she just did nothing.
It speaks to a profound incompetence
Re: (Score:2)
> For a world where America no longer leads.
america has brought some great stuff to the world but tbh in general has been more of a bully than a leader.
with that out of the way, america's decline is not very different from that of most empires: overextension, greed and self indulgence. corporations moving abroad for greater profits, forgoing quality for profits, unchecked elites steadily rising inequality, making a banal talk show of political discussion, feeding on forever wars and political and monetary manipulation and coercion ... the best way to
Re: (Score:2)
Both sides are NOT the same.
Re: (Score:2)
indeed, you can clearly tell them apart from their very unsame collars :-)