G. David Felt

Golden showers seem to be popular for some!

Cool Developments in Bio-Batteries: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190604094251.htm Organic, fast charging and no toxic rare earth metals. Then we have this:https://www.pocket-lint.com/gadgets/news/130380-future-batteries-coming-soon-charge-in-seconds-last-months-and-power-over-the-air The list of Battery tech that is in testing is amazing: Sand Batteries that give 3 times more battery life WiFi energy charging Energy Harvesting of wearable devices Gold Nanowire Batteries Solid State Lithium-ion Grabat Graphene Batteries Lazer-made Micro Supercapacitors Foam Batteries Foldable Battery U-Beam over air charging StoreDot 30 second Charges Transparent Solar Chargers Aluminium Air Battery Urine Battery Sound Charging Ryden Dual Carbon Battery Sodium-ion battery Hydrogen fuel cell charger Batteries with built in fire extinguishers Liquid Flow batteries Carbon-ion batteries Zinc-air batteries Smart Clothing Stretchable Batteries Samsung Graphene battery

Valid points, one thing that is also missed here is that as a country becomes more educated the manual labor of jobs is less desired, less wanted. Those jobs tend to move to places with a much less educated workforce also. It would be interesting to compare the % of labors in China to their college educated workforce and compare that to America. Jobs and type of work desired changes over time, this leads to people not wanting to do work in those fields and if you cannot find workers locally, you move the work elsewhere that has a labor pool. The ability to have 0% unemployment will never happen even in a perfect society, there are always lazy people who do not want to work, but are happy to lay around and barely survive off a government hand out.

Current Harmonized Tariff Schedule as of June 2019 https://www.usitc.gov/tata/hts/index.htm

For those that like to read well documented information from our own academia, then this is a great read with excellent sources: https://taxfoundation.org/impact-of-tariffs-free-trade/ I really like this report and the hard facts they have of going back so far. Quote: Academic studies have quantified the costs of tariffs and shown that tariffs often fail to achieve their objectives.[19] A comprehensive study of tariffs in place in 1990 found that the annual consumer costs per American job “saved” range from $100,000 to over $1 million, with an average of $170,000.[20] More recently, a study analyzing the 2002 steel tariffs imposed by the George W. Bush administration found that the first year the tariffs were in effect, more American workers lost their jobs due to higher steel prices (200,000) than the total number employed by the steel industry itself at the time (187,500).[21] These results aren’t unique to the 2002 steel tariffs. A Congressional Budget Office report from 1986 reviewed the effects of protectionist policies covering textiles and apparel, steel, footwear, and automobiles. The policies did effectively increase costs, which resulted in slightly higher profits for the firms. However, the report finds, “In none of the cases studied was protection sufficient to revitalize the affected industry.”[22] The outcomes of past protectionist policies indicate that protectionism simply does not work. Any potential short-term benefits of using protectionist policies to shield domestic industries from foreign competition come at the expense of others in the economy; the consequences are higher prices, less efficient resource allocation, and job losses throughout other sectors, and in the long run, failure to help the intended beneficiaries. Another Quote: For example, according to the Tax Foundation’s Taxes and Growth model, President Trump’s proposal to raise taxes by approximately $37.5 billion annually (by levying a 25 percent tariff on $150 billion worth of Chinese imports) would reduce the long-run level of GDP by 0.1 percent, or about $20 billion.[34] The smaller economy would result in 0.1 percent lower wages and 79,000 fewer full-time equivalent jobs. The tariffs will also make the U.S. tax code less progressive because the increased tax burden would fall hardest on lower- and middle-income households.[35]

Wow, based on what i see and read here, this CUV is gonna need major cash to sell and most will still not buy it I think.

One has to wonder what Germans pay for parts compared to here in the US. Do they pay the same $1,500 for a light housing replacement that we do in America or is it only $500 as the $1,000 covers shipping, export / import, handling? ?

We'll Posted, I would agree that while we need adult cool level head discussions, we seem to give more than we get in return. As one who is college educated in Japan, I can tell you they never say no to your face, but are very business hard negotiators. We need to take the same attitude with Japan, Korea, China, and India. But rather than throw away current trade agreements and this tariff war, we need to take an educated brain approach in pointing out the areas that are unfair and way we view it as unfair and what we feel needs to be done to BALANCE that unfair trade aspect. Communication using our educated knowledge is the great tool to balance our Multicultural society I believe. +1 Zillion! Well said, we need an educated adult with a proper balance of real business knowledge to take our trade agreements and negotiate those aspects that are out of balance with fair proper notification and set dates of when needed tariffs that make products from that place and here equal to each other. Perfect example of wasted billions is our defense spending on guarding the oil tankers from the arab countries that go to other countries with no benefit to us. Our cost of giving protection from pirates and hostile countries but nothing that actually covers that cost. Have them pay us to offer protection or supply it themselves. Thank you,

@GMCman007 Thank you, that is great to see.

Correct, we have always had countries that have added Tariffs to protect their local competitors. Yet a country has dropped Tariffs like India did once we had a signed trade agreement. Then Idiot in Office for no reason other than to complain about H1 visa's as too many workers coming here for jobs and with throwing away a signed agreement opens up a trade war with another country. The bully on the playground has never been a win long term for anyone. Unhappy with certain trade aspects, sit down like adults and discuss it rather than throw a tantrum. This tantrum administration has already destroyed America in the eyes of Billions around the world and not gained us anything.

@ocnblu So then this is fake news to you. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/trump-campaign-cutting-ties-pollsters-after-internal-numbers-leaked-n1017991 Yet incompetence in leading our country and trade has led other countries to now impose tariffs on us. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/06/16/trade-war-india-hits-u-s-more-tariffs/1471140001/ Apple Exports hit with 70% Tariff and now exports will die off on top of many other things we export out of the country. Get ready for Depression 2 coming and this is truly all Trump.

Bad News - Not everyone was happy. Good News - Some one won that had never won before.

Funny blast from the past photo. Me and my two sisters with my dads dad. The one time we met him before he died from alcholism. So 1970's as my middle sister has a green smiley face dress on. All the rage. Lol

Bad News - Some one is going to loose.

@oldshurst442 Please my friend do not take this wrong as I am not asking you or anyone to defend ones love of sports. I have played Basket Ball as I am 6'6" tall and found it boring to play. Played soccer and found it boring running around and kicking a ball to others. I found playing Football boring as is baseball which actually put me to sleep standing in the outfield. My parents were surprised by all this. The only sports I love to play is Bowling which I was part of the PBA for many years and body building. The strive to work out the various muscles and perfect them to a tight cut defined look. I find that most other team members do not put in the same effort and trying to find equal hard working team mates drove me nuts, so I went to an individual sport which was me being responsible for the whole performance and having to accept my failures. Coworkers have invited me to sporting events and I either fall asleep sitting there or go nuts being bored. I honestly have never figured out why watching sports bores me and I have no interest. I get that all sports are a form of chess as you plan and strategize your attacks and defensive positions. I am honestly interested in why some of the members here are so fanatical about loving sports and it seems especially hockey. Is it the blood, the violence as I see most sports seem to have gone from being a team sport to all about me with these huge ego over paid sport people and there is no I in team, so I am just honestly interested in trying to understand what others find so fascinating about them. I hope this helps you understand where I am coming from. Bad news - I wonder if I will aggravate him? ? Good news - I am talking with a respected friend to better understand him.

Remember what the Bene Gesserit's of the sisterhood say. "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." Sadly some get caught up in their fear.

@oldshurst442 What is it about hockey that you find so exciting? I honestly like all the other professional sports I find boring to watch, so what do you find exciting about it to watch?

Usually you have trucks lined up to the freeway to come in for pickup and drop off and the yard is stacked 6 to 8 high everywhere, but the no lines and huge open spaces are a surprise to see.

I am thinking that with lower cost to manufacture, the added cost of shipping from the Asian rim heavy batteries to Germany will still make it more worthwhile to produce them locally. I also think this could be why LG is looking at Battery production sites in the US. Eventually tech economy of scale wins out and price goes down and a heavy item like a battery even with cheap labor will still cost more to ship than build locally I think.

My work in Seattle over looks the port and Wow is freight down big time since the trade war began.

China is the world's largest EV market with sales of electric auto's reaching 2.61 million up 70% in 2018 over 2017. This constitutes 4% of the total Chinese market today. China is requiring 10% of total sales to be EV in 2019 and raised to 12% for 2020. In comparison, the US saw EV sales jump 81% for 2018 to a total of 360,000 EVs sold out of a total of 17.2 million auto's sold. Yet the US has only 1 million EVs on the road and the auto industry is projected to spend a mind blowing $255 billion in R&D and Capital for electric models by 2023. Due to high-system cost and low volumes with intense competition EVs in the short run will be unprofitable as OEM's bring the 207 models offered to market. Automakers have hopefully factored these costs into their EV strategies. The most expensive part of an EV is the battery pack. Current technology held by Tesla has their packs at 250 watts per kilogram and the holy grail is 400 watts per kilogram which reduces the size of the battery by half. How is one to achieve this? To date, EV battery packs such as Tesla, Nissan or Chevrolet have relied on a production system that causes contamination of the battery surface inside due to auxiliary materials or lubricants that is used in manufacturing. Commercial production of high density low cost batteries has been hindered to date by the current wet process of battery production. Franhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS, have created a process for creation of EV battery packs that uses a dry film coating process rather than liquids. The process does not use toxic solvents and is less energy -intensive ending in a cheaper to produce battery pack as much higher density. Quoting Dr. Benjamin Schumm, project manager for IWS, "Our dry transfer coating process aims to noticeably reduce the process costs in electrode coating." Why would this matter one might ask, currently EV battery production is mostly in the asian rim where cheap labor and cheap electricity allows a corner on the market. Trying to manufacture EV batteries in Germany where labor and electricity is some of the highest prices around make EVs expensive. Having a much cheaper, environmentally safer production allows the battery production to be done closer to the assembly line and reduces component costs in transportation also. With so many breakthroughs in battery technology in the last few years, it would make one think that batteries would be cheaper by now and yet it is the most expensive component of all EVs. So how would this tech be any different as the floor is littered with breakthrough after breakthrough that never made it into commercial production. IWS has been teamed up with a Finnish battery company "BroadBit Batteries" where they have a production line setup using this dry electrode material instead of a wet paste to coat electrodes for battery production. Currently IWS with BroadBits has proven they can coat several meters per minute of battery electrode foil at consistent production speed. BroadBit is currently using this technology to create and sell new Sodium Ion batteries. Currently an expensive wet complex and toxic paste is applied to the Lithium Ion foil which then requires expensive high energy costs to dry the foil before it can move to the next stage of battery production. IWS dry electrode coating allows foil creation without the ecologically damaging and expensive drying process steps. The result is a much quicker way to create the 100 micrometer thick film onto the aluminum foil creating the battery electrode in a much denser design. Dr. Benjamin Schumm states that this process allows new battery generations where the classic wet process failed and will allow faster and easier development of solid state batteries which uses ion-conducting solids over flammable liquid electrolytes. This breakthrough in battery production is expected to allow European and Americas manufactures to break the asian strangle hold on battery production for not just EVs but all electronic devices. View full article

Agree that you could if you know the shop well, one could do this themselves to a certain point, yet having a GM backed 3yr / 36,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty on a beast like this is cool. Wish GM would see that they need to do this on a bigger scale and include the Typhoon.

Yup, the cost is a factor. The original Syclone in 1991 was $25,500 which is equal to $47,880.73 according to this inflation calculator. https://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/inflation.php?amount=25500&year=1991 So having a $70K plus new Syclone is pricey, but I bet they will sell everyone they make.

Correct, only on the midsize Canyon. Though the web site does have a special performance package available for the Sierra which has two levels, an 825HP or 1000HP package for the Sierra / Silverado trucks.