“Just because Donald Trump says it doesn’t mean it isn’t true.”
LOL!
A lot of people are going to be in a lot of hurt in the coming years of the Trump administration.
The three things missing from the list: American jobs, American technology, American wages.
Saying this is a matter for "diplomacy" means the businesses shafting American workers and driving American wages down get to lobby to make sure it's business as usual.
There was a piece yesterday in the WaPo I think mocking Trump for wanting to return America to 19th century trade policies.
You know, the same policies that made the US the world's greatest economy.
Gee, how much of an academic do you need to be to figure this:
They produce using slave labor. Duh, of course they can sell more cheaply than anyone else! I’ve argued for free trade in the past, but it seems reasonable to say we should examine all the effects, total the costs and benefits, then decide just what our relationship with China should be. I’m not automatically buying anyone’s argument any more until you “show me the money!”
The important point being that you solve world trade issues differently, rather than concentrating specifically on tariffs with only one country. A tariff on one country would likely just be reciprocated.
The entire Chinese manufacturing "miracle" was a contrived economic plan executed via massive government collusion and interference. China going from a basket case resembling a huge North Korea to what appears to be a modern country almost overnight happened via US government intervention in collusion with the Chinese Communist government in order to rig the international manufacturing markets. The whole thing is fake and phony from the fake Chinese stock market, ghost cities, a currency that is pegged to the dollar, to the technology WE GAVE THEM.
The reason for this collusion was to forward the concept of a "New World Order" but in reality it was done to make China a real player on our side of the Cold War and to make the USSR face a real threat from an industrialized China. Well as it turned out the USSR collapsed under its own weight and what was a seemingly endless cold war did in fact end and all of the China industrial transfer policy became unnecessary but we were stuck with it and it sucks.
Part of the Trump "Nationalist" appeal is that the current trade situation we find ourselves in is very humiliating to the patriot. Seeing jobs and wealth bleed off to a Communist country and watching the GOPer's, that call themselves Conservative who are in reality just Establishment gloBULList Corporate hacks and paid off Free Traders, do absolutely nothing is nothing short of depressing. GOP sees nothing wrong with the status quo, that is not Conservative and its a big problem.
The crony capitalists and their financial backers want first-world profits at third-world labor rates. The well being of the US is far down the list of their concerns. They have the government to placate the masses with welfare and unemployment benefits, and get the stupid taxpayers to foot the bill.
Life is good if you’re a free trader globalist.
Once again, Donald is pointing out things that no one else wanted to raise as issues. He’s ahead of the curve and causing minds and hearts to follow. We can be assured these academics would not be surfacing with unorthodox views on trade if it were not for Donald making them visible today. It’s ‘Ok now’ to talk about such things.
Economics is not static but its policies never lead, they always follow and are frequently stuck in the past.
At one time, opening American markets to foreign producers made a lot of sense and was right for the time from which it emerged. Reagan’s trade policy was right for his era and for the Reagan Revolution that followed. But it’s now in the past and things in the meantime have changed, greatly so.
Today, a policy of America First makes a lot of sense and is vitally necessary. Making things is more than just manufacturing. It is a mindset, a culture of ‘what is done and why it is done’. It brings localness, provincialness and a sense of belonging back to communities.
Not everyone is going to be an engineer or technologist that designs an improved product and then hands it off to others to have it manufactured in Asia. People that are not engineers or scientists are not finding dignity in what’s left for them. Although many Americans are extremely productive and crafty, especially outside regions of dependence, they are a minority built often on early retirements. Not everyone is so fortunate.
One Freeper pointed out in Kentucky there is a large HIV problem. At first glance it doesn’t make sense. The reason is dirty needles, not risky perverted sex. The needle problem grew as people turned to drugs to escape their reality. It’s quite simple to understand. Manufacturing had left that state and the drug lords moved in to prey on the stranded population.
Part of Kasich’s popularity is his leadership in education, from turning it away from high school and college to vocational skills training. Trades people are much more stable within the general population. However, Trump was right to point out that Kasich is benefitting from an influx of revenue related to the emergence of fracking. Because without that revenue, educational programs get cut.
I have often commented that we need to put a ‘floor’ of about $35 to $38 on oil imports but not on domestic production. Because it costs on average about $32 to extract a barrel of oil in the USA whereas it costs only about $7 per barrel in Saudi Arabia, and the Saudis are hellbent on destroying the emerging domestic oil industry of the USA because they perceive it as a vital threat to them. We have well over ten times the reserves of Saudi Arabia.
Trump and his people understand all of the above. He knows that if our natural resources are managed well and are directed to benefit our communities as well as our exports, then our standards of living will improve accordingly.
The key takeaway is that it’s time for our country to focus on itself and getting our economy back into our control. Decades in the future, it may be appropriate to open our markets again, but not now.