Did we just witness the economic trigger event that will cause the dramatic stock market crash that we were just warned about?  On Friday, U.S. stock prices absolutely plummeted once President Trump announced that China's new rare earth export restrictions would be countered by "a massive increase" in tariffs on Chinese imports into the United States.  If tariff rates go above 100 percent, many Chinese-made goods that are currently filling our stores will no longer travel across the Pacific at all.  In addition, whatever does come over from China will cost a lot more.  For example, you may have noticed that many things that were priced at $1.25 at Dollar Tree are now priced at $1.50 or $1.75.  Of course this is just the beginning.  Once the new tariff rates on Chinese-made goods go into effect, we will see price shocks like we have never seen before.

The reason why President Trump feels compelled to hit China with "a massive increase" in tariff rates is because China has decided to implement extremely strict restrictions on rare earth exports.

Some of those restrictions have already taken effect, some will take effect on November 8th, but the most comprehensive restrictions will take effect on December 1st.

It is being reported that companies will have to get approval from the Chinese government "to export items containing even small traces of Chinese rare earths"…

The rules require foreign companies to obtain special approval to export items containing even small traces of Chinese rare earths.

The same applies if using Chinese processing, smelting, recycling, or magnet-making technology. Exports for military purposes are expected to be denied.

The Chinese had to know that President Trump would be absolutely livid over this, and that is precisely what has happened.

On Friday, Trump posted an extremely long message about this crisis on his Truth Social account…

Some very strange things are happening in China! They are becoming very hostile, and sending letters to Countries throughout the World, that they want to impose Export Controls on each and every element of production having to do with Rare Earths, and virtually anything else they can think of, even if it's not manufactured in China. Nobody has ever seen anything like this but, essentially, it would "clog" the Markets, and make life difficult for virtually every Country in the World, especially for China.