Posted on 03/07/2018 7:54:36 AM PST by Oklahoma
President Donald Trump has had a splendid first year in office. He has the economy moving again and at a healthy pace, some 2.6 percent in the most recent quarter. Unemployment is down, the stock market is up and the economic signs are mostly healthy. Well, for the stock market that was until last week. That was the week in which the President announced his intention to slap a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum. The market tanked, and more problems are said to be coming internationally. It appears the world does not favor President Trump’s threat of high tariffs.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Tyrell writes:
>> They leap from irony to pasquinade, saying “now we are imposing sanctions on our own country by punishing with tariffs in order to make Americans more prosperous.” <<
Pasquinade? Wow! I just learned a great new word!
Thanks for the link!
A more true summary of the situation has not been made in this forum. Excellent statement.
>> A free man should have the right to decide the details in the economic transactions he will engage in, not the government <<
But only as long as he doesn’t want to buy anything from another country — in which case his freedom must be severly curtailed.
(Or so we are told by assorted nostrum hawkers.)
Agreed, Sir.
Now, let me state the present rules.
The lawyer then went on,
These very simple guidelines
You can rely upon:
You're gouging on your prices if
You charge more than the rest.
But it's unfair competition
If you think you can charge less.
A second point that we would make
To help avoid confusion:
Don't try to charge the same amount:
That would be collusion!
You must compete. But not too much,
For if you do, you see,
Then the market would be yours
And that's monopoly!"
Price too high? Or price too low?
Now, which charge did they make?
Well, they weren't loath to charging both
With Public Good at stake!
>> explain how we are going to pay all debt and how the USA is not done <<
(1) The USG has an excellent credit rating. There’s no realistic chance of a default. Foreigners love our Treasury bonds, and they should continue to do so if we can keep inflation and government spending restrained.
(2) On top of that, the U.S. dollar is THE preferred currency for international transactions, meaning that foreign governments, banks, firms and individuals usually must hold large USD balances for transactional purposes.
(3) Then, we have a great market for corporate equities, which foreigners love to buy both as stores of value and as sources of dividends. Ditto for a lot of commercial real estate.
Therefore, based on those three factors, we have a huge capital surplus inflow from abroad.
As long as that capital inflow continues, we can continue to pile up debt, both in the private sector and in the government sector. It’s really that simple.
(Moreover, because of the normal conventions of double-entry bookkeeping that are used in National Income Accounting, our international capital surplus inflow is the mirror image of the so-called “trade deficit.” Therefore, the latter is not necessarily bad or necessarily good.)
Many industries are subsidized in the US for national interest. Look at the boat loads of money that is given to the food producers. I think there is a strong history and logical case to be made to keep certain industries strong, like food. Countries are competitors to one another, there is no reason to be taken advantage of by our competitors. Steel is a good industry to have on our home turf, like oil and food, if times get tough its best to have the infrastructure here to take care of our own. My two cents.
Thank you for a succinct and truthful post! Keep talking. We will defeat the Globalists and their minions yet#
“A free man should have the right to decide the details in the economic transactions he will engage in, not the government.”
The problem is that our leaders have allowed cheap good produced by slave labor to destroy the manufacturing jobs free men here had. That is not free trade, it’s cost us, a lot. See post 27.
Yeah - the market “tanked”....just as when the tax cuts started to take effect, this throws a new set of variables into the mix and investors want to leverage the situation w/o getting caught with their pants down....but, if stopping the international welfare that benefits everyone but us is a problems, then maybe someone is living in the wrong country to complain so loudly.
“Just because you make widgets doesn’t mean you should have the power to force me to purchase your widgets or tax me to punish me for buying someone else’s widget.”
True. But should the domestic free man who manufactures the widget be put out of business because a foreign government helps your competitors sell their widgets cheaper?
We’re all both consumers and producers. As consumers we want the best price as producers we want to keep our jobs.
And before we can be consumers, we must be producers. Free trade is great, but it must be fair.
About 70+ percent favor free trade.
There will obviously be another media cycle decrying crisis at the White House with the announcement that National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn is departing.
However, for those who follow the administration closely, this was a foregone conclusion; the MAGAnomic “America First” policy has a specifically timed exit ramp for just this purpose.
We have previously outlined the relationship between President Trump and Gary Cohn HERE – Along with what each of them brings to the perspectives of the other. In addition, the larger Trump economic policy always held two distinct aspects:
- The financial aspects – taxes and monetary policy stability; or perhaps more succinctly the Wall Street aspect.
- The trade, jobs and manufacturing aspects – trade policy; or perhaps more succinctly the Main Street aspect.
The implementation of Trump’s economic policy involves those two elements: Taxes and Trade. Inside the Trump administration there are economic policy advocates who agree on the tax element, but disagree on the trade element. Economic adviser Gary Cohn is an example.
The Wall Street crowd align with Trump on taxes, but fundamentally split from him on trade. The combined Trump policy is part of the larger America-First initiative, but some within the economic team only agree with half of the aggregate policy. This is why there is a split.
As previously noted, with the tax reform proposals in place (the basis for domestic economic investment), the focus of Trump’s economic platform turns specifically to Main Street. This policy split is what makes President Trump so stunningly unique amid politicians. POTUS Trump splits from the traditional republican economic outlook on matters surrounding Main Street’s best interests.
Inside this dynamic, and the goal to restore a ‘balanced’ U.S. economy, is where the importance of Gary Cohn diminishes and the role of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross elevates. Secretary Ross is the person creating the fulcrum in the balanced economy reset.
POTUS Trump and Secretary Ross always knew they would need to jettison part of the administrations’ economic team once they accomplished, and moved past, tax reform.
Their focus now is laser targeted policy toward Main Street. Consider this ‘Phase-2’
We are now inside phase-2 of the total policy execution. Secretary Ross outlined how the ‘America First’ economic policy and phase-2 platform engages with the global community during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January.
The corporate media, even the financial media, never highlighted the severity expressed by Wilbur Ross at Davos – because the Main Street policy he was explaining is directly against their interests. During the Davos World Economic Forum, Ross conveyed to the larger multinational interests an explanation of the high-level shift in U.S. trade policy, and reinforced the Trump Doctrine of economic nationalism.
Secretary Ross told the panel: “The Chinese for quite a little while have been superb at free-trade rhetoric and even more superb at highly protectionist behavior. Every time the U.S. does anything to deal with a problem, we are called protectionist.”
“Protectionists” the opposition was predicted to shout by Ross in January. Well, cue the audio visual demonstrations over the past few days surrounding Steel and Aluminum tariffs.
Also at Davos in January, after three decades of President Trump outlining his trade views, secretary Ross accurately said President Donald Trump has a forceful leadership style that some people don’t like. “We don’t intend to abrogate leadership, but leadership is different from being a sucker and being a patsy. We would like to be the leader in making the world trade system more fair and more equitable to all participants” Ross said.
Secretary Ross also challenged the panelists, including World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevedo and Cargill Inc. CEO David MacLennan, to name a nation that’s less protectionist than the U.S. – – – He got no responses.
Not taking any guff, Secretary Ross then cited a study of more than 20 products that showed China had higher tariffs on all but two items on the list, and Europe all but four. The panel sat jaw-agape at Ross’s delivery of irrefutable facts to the audience. “Before we get into sticks and stones about free trade we ought to first talk about, is there really free trade or is it a unicorn in the garden,” said Ross. Again, no response from the panel.
Despite the tariffs Trump imposed in January on solar panels and washing machines; and despite the proposition of Steel and Aluminum tariffs, China is planning for a “bumper year” for new trade deals, according to China’s own Commerce Ministry.
For the past 30+ years, DC politicians have been selling out the U.S. economy to corporate interests, Wall Street and multinationals. President Trump is simply saying “no more”, and finally putting a stop to it. They hate him. He doesn’t care.
Also here:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/mar/6/why-america-will-not-become-more-prosperous-with-a/
So much BS here. The world hates free trade that is why they all have tariffs rates that average 10 times higher than ours. So Trump proposed doing what the world has been doing for decades to us and some how they have the high moral ground?
The stock market tanked because the Conservative pundits threw a childish hissy fit that needlessly scared everybody.
Well now that is both funny and ignorant. The US Constitution explicitly gives the federal government the right to collect import tariffs to fund the US government. Have you ever read the US Constitution?
Again your ignorance is showing, export tariffs are not Constitutional.
So, you expose your government controll, industrial policy, socialist face
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