The best tariff threat is one you do not have to use

Following up on an earlier post, Reciprocal tariffs as a tit-for-tat strategy in a repeated prisoners' dilemma 

From NY Times:

Trump imposed, quickly withdrew and then threatened to bring back huge tariffs on dozens of countries. Immediately, they began calling and asking what they could do to stop him. “More than 100 countries have already come to the table looking to offer more favorable terms for America and our people,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said at a briefing with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday. “There has never been a president who has created his own leverage like this president.”

What can Trump get? For starters, some countries are offering to lower their own tariffs on American exports and cut red tape that keeps U.S. businesses out. India said it might lower its tariffs on U.S. farm goods, while Europeans may drop them on cars and machinery if Washington agrees to do the same.

BOTTOM LINE: It looks as though President Trump's Tariff threats are working.

The price of "free" healthcare is the wait

 

While healthcare in Canada's single-payer health care system is technically free, its real price is measured in wait times.  In 2023, the median wait time from a general practitioner's referral to treatment reached 27.7 weeks—the longest ever and nearly triple the 9.3 weeks reported in 1993. (MuskegonPundit)

To see this, think of "free" as a price ceiling of zero.  

• In the short run (Chapter 8), quantity demanded exceeds quantity supplied.  So who gets this care?  Those willing to wait.  In other words, wait times act as prices to ration available supply (AIER). 
•  Even patients whose mortality depends on prompt care--and don't want to pay for care in the US--wait before receiving essential treatments . (Fraser Institute).
• This inefficiency could be lessened by allowing patients to sell their place in line to others.

• In the long run (Chapter 9), fewer providers (physicians, nurses, hospitals, clinics) are drawn into the industry, leading to decreases in supply and even longer wait times, or "prices."  

HT, ZeroHedge: The Wait Is The Price: Quiet Rationing Plagues Canadian Health Care (AIER).