Amazon CEO Jassy Says Tariffs Have Started To 'Creep' Into Prices (cnbc.com)
- Reference: 0180619714
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/01/20/1411250/amazon-ceo-jassy-says-tariffs-have-started-to-creep-into-prices
- Source link: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/20/amazon-jassy-trump-tariffs-prices-shoppers.html
> Amazon and many of its third-party merchants pre-purchased inventory to try to get ahead of the tariffs and keep prices low for customers, but most of that supply ran out last fall, Jassy said in a Tuesday interview with CNBC's Becky Quick at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
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> "So you start to see some of the tariffs creep into some of the prices, some of the items, and you see some sellers are deciding that they're passing on those higher costs to consumers in the form of higher prices, some are deciding that they'll absorb it to drive demand and some are doing something in between," Jassy said. "I think you're starting to see more of that impact." The comments are a notable shift from last year, when Jassy said Amazon hadn't seen "prices appreciably go up" a few months after Trump announced wide-ranging tariffs.
Further reading : [2]Americans Are the Ones Paying for Tariffs, Study Finds :
> Americans, not foreigners, are bearing almost the entire cost of U.S. tariffs, according to new research that contradicts a key claim by President Trump and suggests he might have a weaker hand in a reemerging trade war with Europe.
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> [...] The new research, published Monday by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a well-regarded German think tank, suggests that the impact of tariffs is likely to show up over time in the form of higher U.S. consumer prices. [...] By analyzing $4 trillion of shipments between January 2024 and November 2025, the Kiel Institute researchers found that foreign exporters absorbed only about 4% of the burden of last year's U.S. tariff increases by lowering their prices, while American consumers and importers absorbed 96%.
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/20/amazon-jassy-trump-tariffs-prices-shoppers.html
[2] https://www.wsj.com/economy/trade/americans-are-the-ones-paying-for-tariffs-study-finds-e254ed2e
Want to get fired? This will help (Score:2)
So high interest rates are designed to cause layoffs. That's because companies don't keep any cash on hand unless they are very very profitable and companies like that ear mark that cash for stock buy backs.
This means every company in America is perpetually on the verge of collapse due to a cash crunch and the first thing they do when they run into problems is try to borrow some money. If interest rates are too high the borrow they start firing people. That's you.
Right now interest rates are set hi
Re: (Score:2)
"the real threat is deregulation" The real threat is deregulation period. The alleged administration have been kneecapping the financial regulators (firing them, defunding them, removing regs., etc.) This is how we got the Great Recession. Clinton deregged some, and Bush more. Then the Bush Admin decided they didn't need no stinking regulation. Now el Bunko is doing the same thing, it will end similarly poorly. And the proles will pay, they always do.
And deregulating environmental regs will similarly end po
Re: (Score:3)
> Tariffs are designed to raise prices. That's just what they do. The goal of the tariff is to increase prices on imported goods so you buy local goods. The problem is nobody is going to make locally in America because other countries have little or no environmental regulations and borderline slave labor.
That's simply wrong. Switzerland would be a counter example. Germany would be a counter example. Canada would be a counter example - all countries Donald Trump has tried to punish with high tariffs because they export more to the U.S. than vice versa (and he totally ignored services, which are not counted as "exported").
You may restate your argument as soon as the environmental protection and the average wage in the U.S. actually exceeds that of Switzerland.
Should just do what they wanted to before (Score:3)
...and that's to show how much of the final price is actually tariffs.
Suck it up Bezos/Jassy, grow a spine and tell people the truth that they're getting fleeced by Trump & his "administration".
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They can't because it's a tiny fraction of the Prime tariff. Amazon increased prices across the board once they hit a critical mass of Prime subs.
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You would have a point if Amazon set the prices. They don't.
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We're also pretty sure that Amazon does "dynamic" pricing now based on your location and demographics, so giving that kind of price transparency would probably backfire on them.
But, tariffs are paid by the other countries... (Score:2)
Hold on, Hold on. Hold on. The tariffs are paid by the other countries. (oh lord) My president said so.
Re: (Score:2)
Just like other countries pay for border walls!
Re: I am buying less, and I am pretty happy about (Score:2)
I'm glad the circumstances have helped with your obvious shopping addiction. Not sure that makes it a good thing for all the folks without one.
Re: (Score:1)
An alcoholic is looking for a cheaper bar. I guess there's an app for that.
Tariffs only bad when U.S. do them? (Score:2)
The U.S. still has a very low tariff rate. What makes it bad for the U.S., but sound economic theory when other countries do it?
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Who pays the tariffs? What was wrong with the economy before all this stupidity?
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The orange shitgibbon says that the US tariffs are very low, but he hasn't uttered a single true word in his whole life. Who would be so brainless to trust his word on anything?
No shit (Score:2)
I learned what a tariff was in middle school. MAGA was too fucking dumb and believed that somehow the other country paid the tariffs.
Republicans, Donald Trump raised all our taxes. What are your thoughts on Hillary’s emails?
Well of course the research is (Score:1)
...strongly rigged, everyone says so.
> Americans, not foreigners, are bearing almost the entire cost of U.S. tariffs, according to new research that contradicts a key claim by President Trump
Does Jassy like his job? (Score:2)
Tariffs are always and everywhere good. No one has better tariffs. There are no price increases. Prices have come down. Got it?
If Jassy doesn’t get on-script by the end of the day, he is toast.
No deviations from this world-view are allowed.
I’m shocked he could make such a juvenile error, actually. It definitely calls his judgement into question.
Analogy (without cars) (Score:5, Insightful)
The best analogy, I've seen for tariffs is: "I buy a lot from the local pizza place, they don't buy anything from me. Now I'll start paying 10% more until they learn".
Re:Analogy (without cars) (Score:4, Insightful)
Moreover, not all tariffs are created the same.
If the tariff fees are spent developing business in your country, i.e. subsidies for industries which are underrepresented, then they might do long-term good.
If the tariff fees go into the pockets of the wealthy because they are instituted in order to pay for a massive tax break for the rich, and those wealthy people do not spend them creating jobs in those industries, they certainly will not improve the economic system in your country.
For anyone out there still confused, we're on the latter plan here. Tariffs aren't automatically bad, even though they usually are, but these tariffs are provably not improving anything for The People.
Re: (Score:2)
There's another issue with tax cuts for the rich, this isn't 1964 when Kennedy tried it with sky high taxes. The increase in wealth of the rich isn't as great in percentage to what they already own or make. Plus, there's no guarantee the rich are going to spend whatever windfall in the country instituting the tax cuts. Markets are now so globalized there a good chance the money will get invested elsewhere. The rich that are greedy will always chase the highest returns.
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The first part of your analysis is true.
But Tariffs ARE automatically bad.
Tariffs always:
1) Tax the poor people not the wealthy. The wealthy save their earnings and travel outside the country (where they can buy things without those tariffs) while the poor spend all their earnings and rarely travel.
2) Make things more expensive in your country compared to outside of it. Hurts both the consumer and the industries buying raw materials.
3) Encourage you to buy expensive local products instead of cheaper foreig
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Bingo, the truth about tariffs is they are tool but the honest answer is they are economically damaging but the case to make is to accept that damage for matters of economic or national security, the damage is worth it.
Like the tariffs against Chinese EV's, the honest answer is it is straight up protectionism for the US automakers. That is actually OK if we are honest with ourselves and understood that we value the industry and the tariffs are taking a short term hurt to allow the industry time to build up
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Well, except for the fact that Trump is very anti-EV in the first place... he wants American EVs to die. So the tariffs against Chinese EVs aren't implemented with the goal of actually protecting anything domestic, they're just capriciously punitive.
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That is true, I was thinking more about the reason they were kept in place while Biden was in office.
There's also the fact that implementing tariffs is way easier then rescinding them as now other countries may have countered and it all has to be negotiated.
It's like starting and quitting smoking, one of them is easier. One of them is way easier.
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History has proven tariffs are bad. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot%E2%80%93Hawley_Tariff_Act
Re: Analogy (without cars) (Score:2)
Sometimes it's better to spend more on a local product when it keeps a defense-critical industry alive, and/or when it keeps jobs in your country that are critical to your national prosperity. What you said about them being anti-capitalism is also not a real objection. Allowing capital to control the means of production is EXACTLY how we wound up exporting so many jobs to China that it has harmed our country economically. Worshipping capitalism is empty headed celebration of the destruction of everything we
Re: (Score:2)
> The best analogy, I've seen for tariffs is:
> "I buy a lot from the local pizza place, they don't buy anything from me. Now I'll start paying 10% more until they learn".
The intent was, "A pizza place just opened close to me that locally sources its ingredients, my kid works there now, and I can buy their pizza for less than it costs me to buy pizza from the place across town." Putting this into practice takes time, is risky, and the actual results are still unknown.
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Regardless of intent, Trump won't be in power for much longer and when he's gone, most businesses feel that saner heads will prevail and this whole tariff nonsense will disappear. If SCOTUS or Congress grows a backbone, maybe sooner.
The boards of companies may say things to placate Trump in the meantime, but they aren't going to do anything serious as long as they are of the opinion that they can ride out the short term effects. They are responsible to their shareholders to act in the best company interest
And then... (Score:2)
> most businesses feel that saner heads will prevail
And then people look at Vance, Hegseth, and Miller amongst others. Trump may go away, but that doesn't mean that MAGA and Project 2025 will.
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The hope is that MAGA's will see those people as 'lightweights", and reject them. It seems like a cult of personality around one person, and not a 'movement' at all.
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I suspect that Vance will be tarnished with Trump's choices in much the same way that Harris was tarnished with Biden's choices. It's far too early to tell for sure, but the independents which helped Trump eek out an electoral victory seem to be pretty solidly against the Republican party at the moment. It's not just saner heads among the politicians, but among the voters. Maybe I'm too hopeful...
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At what point does the country's interest become the company's interest? If el Bunko drives the U.S. into the ditch, and he's working on it, those companies go down with the ox cart. And the Americans they employ go down with the cart.
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> Trump won't be in power for much longer and when he's gone,
yeah buddy. I have news for you. This was only year one.
And the way it's going, I seriously wonder if there are going to be elections because Mein Trumpfer declares a war and a national emergency to extend it, and so his patsies will keep doing it.
Democracy is about over in the US.
You think people in '33 thought: Oh he's going to be here forever? Nope, they thought it was temporary, at worst. And it would soon pass...
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It won't be saner heads unless someone more electable is presented.
Its still too early in the cycle for anyone to put their head up. Anyone doing so becomes a target for a bully and the bully's (forced) friends.
Scenario 1 - MAGA nuts romp it in in the midterms: Everyone jockeys to be more important #2 banana. Unless the opposition can come up with a galvanising, charismatic alternative ... crickets.
Scenario 2 - A few seats change hands in the midterms, but not a wholesale rejection - anyone with the resourc
Re: (Score:2)
Another feature is that to keep those local sources profitable, you must keep the tariffs on.
Pizza is not a good example. There are myriad small businesses who built their products on cheap-in-price stuff from China. Now they must raise their prices because, being small businesses, they cannot absorb those extra fees. A lot of those small business are exiting. You can see this in the labor stats. Small business hire much more than large businesses across the economy. And hiring has actually decreased for sm
Re: (Score:3)
My company has some products build in China and sold in the US. At the beginning we were eating most of the costs but with the situation evolving frequently, we switched to a policy that we'll only produce if the customer agrees to pay the tariffs, whatever they may be, when the product arrives.
We have specialized production facilities all over the world.. so what is produced in China is a unique product and sold globally, the same for the products we produce in the US and sell globally. I understand t
Re: (Score:2)
Elasticity of supply and demand. Tax cigarettes and the consumer pays the tax because they're addicted. Tax apples and people will buy oranges instead, so the producer pays the tax. Everything else is somewhere in between.
So if you raise your prices and people keep buying, then your prices were too low.