Posted on 01/07/2016 5:05:15 PM PST by conservativejoy
So the average Joe gets to pay way, way more at the store and gets to worry about losing his job after China inevitably retaliates with tariffs of its own, shrinking foreign demand for U.S. goods? That sounds like a plan.
Four years ago, when Trump flirted with running for president, he suggested a 25 percent tariff on Chinese goods. Now it’s 45 percent. Is that based on an economic calculation or is it just Trump getting a little crazier with the protectionist cheez whiz to prove he's more populist now than ever?
"The only power that we have with China," Mr. Trump said, "is massive trade."...
"I would do a tax. and the tax, let me tell you what the tax should be ...the tax should be 45 percent," Mr. Trump said.
China is on a path this year to surpass Canada as the biggest single trading partner of the United States, and its factories provide American consumers with lower-cost products ranging from clothing to computers, so such steep tariffs could hurt the pocketbooks of many Americans.
This CNN Money piece from 2011 concisely addresses the weak points in the tariff idea. If Trump is eyeing it as a bluff, to scare China into ending its currency manipulation, that's one high-stakes bluff. Would China's leadership bow to an overt economic threat from a new U.S. president upon his taking office, knowing what kind of signal that would send about Chinese resolve towards America? If they call President Alpha Male's bluff, then he has no choice but to implement the tariff and the trade war is on. And as the CNN piece explains, a U.S. market that's effectively closed to Chinese imports wouldn't necessarily turn to U.S. manufacturers and U.S. workers to fill the void. More likely it’d turn to other developing economies with lower labor costs to supply those cheap goods. Result: Tension with China, pain for American manufacturers who'd suddenly find the Chinese market closed to them, and less than what was promised by Trump about a revival in American manufacturing. (China could also challenge the tariff in the WTO, but I assume Caesar Trump would pull the U.S. out of that if the ruling didn't go his way.) As for whether this represents good, old-fashioned "conservative" economics, let's not even bother analyzing it. We're well past that point of Trumpmania now.
Here's something else to raise an eyebrow from Trump's meeting with the NYT editorial board today:
In addressing the Oregon standoff, Mr. Trump also spoke about the "great anger out there" that appears to be fueling the situation in Burns, Ore.
"I think what I'd do, as president, is I would make a phone call to whoever, to the group," he said, adding later, "I'd talk to the leader. I would talk to him and I would say, 'You gotta get out - come see me, but you gotta get out.'"
"You cannot let people take over federal property," Mr. Trump said. "You can't, because once you do that, you don't have a government anymore. I think, frankly, they've been there too long."
President Trump would directly negotiate with people who are illegally occupying federal property? That's an incentive for every radical across the spectrum to create hostage situations, knowing that the president's direct involvement in resolving it would be a huge media spotlight for their cause. If Black Lives Matter seized a federal office somewhere tomorrow and Obama decided to speak with them directly, we'd be killing him today for legitimizing the takeover by granting them a presidential audience. Trump's smart enough to understand that, but his ego's too big to let him absorb the lesson. Because he's convinced of his own supreme competence in all situations, he thinks that him talking directly to Ammon Bundy would obviously be the easiest way to end the standoff expeditiously. As for what he means by "they've been there too long," he told the Times that he wasn't necessarily calling for military action but that "at a certain point you have to do something." Er, like what? Obama and his deputies have played the Oregon standoff smartly by waiting Bundy and his crew out; a new Ruby Ridge would be a disaster for all sides. As it is, by being patient, the feds have put Bundy in a position where he’s already talking about leaving voluntarily at some point. Trump, forever impelled to "show strength," might choose the Ruby Ridge option simply because he couldn't tolerate the perception of weakness in strategic patience.
Via Andrew Stiles, here's Trump floating the tariff idea back in 2011. If you're at work, be advised that there's an F-bomb (actually, an MF-bomb) to come. Here again you see the core of Trumpism at work: The tariff might not work if a guy with a high-pitched feminine voice is pushing it, but if President Alpha Male pushes it, those puppies in Beijing will roll over and let him scratch their bellies. There are no tough guys in China's brutal authoritarian top tier, after all.
As for Trump being POTUS, I would prefer Cruz. He would most likely do much the same as reordering our trade agreements is a mandatory occurrence for a return to a sound economy in the homeland.
They have been disastrous to the working and middle classes in this country. Simply disastrous.
Lack of jobs sucks even more.
FYI I forgot the sarc tag.
I am the 'so' police.
I demand for the first and last time, stamping it upon this thread for all eternity, that people stop starting their writing and speaking with the word 'so'.
Corollarilly, it is a fine of 250K$, equal the to my-gender-is misidentification offense fine in NY, to begin the answer to a question with 'so.' As in "What is 2 + 2?" ... "So if you add the numbers 2 + 2, you get this sort of 4." 'Sort of' and 'This' are also outlawed in such a context.
I first started hearing it in Cambridge MA about 15 years ago, presumably it bled from or into NPR, and now it's everywhere in every sentence all the time, mostly fake intellectual liberals, but sometimes conservatives. It must stop, and if it doesn't, I will be very angry, and I will post this post stating that I am very angry.
For those who use it constantly, it has the effect that when one hears it one immediately identifies the transgressor as 'this' 'sort of' follower / repeater / relayer (most often fake intellectual liberal) rather than original thinker or leader. Kills me that the good guys are starting to do it.
STOP IT!!!!!!
Am I preaching to the choir?
I know know where stuff comes from, my question is how is adding 45% a benefit to Americans.
I loath the term slave labor.
In China the average worker makes $2 per hour.
Low by our standards but you can rent a 2 bedroom , 1.5 bathroom apart,net for $28 a month.
Comparing our wages to others wages makes zero sense unless you take into consideration their cost of living.
Personally, I don’t want to pay $700 for my next iPhone.
How much would these products cost?
Will you buy the !
In China a BMW X5 made in South Carolina costs $330,000. If it were made in China and sold here it would sell for like $33,000.
We export steam to China?
Not for long. Raw materials yes but China is already manufacturing all those on a ever larger scale.
Jobs for Americans in the USA not jobs for Chinese in China.
Well, Ted is such an economic genius, what’s his plan? Oh I forgot, Ted has only worked for a grand total of 1 year in the private sector, and at a law firm. Well maybe he could ask his donors what to do? I’m sure some of them have deep ties to China and would be willing to tell him what to do, in our best interests of course. I’ll stick with Trump. He’s actually done relevant things like run an international business and deal with foreign officials and put his own money on the line to be successful and meet a payroll. Ted can stick to speeches and theory and asking for donations.
The way to force a fair currency is tariffs. They manipulate their currency to make their goods the cheapest. Say the devalue 15% then we add 15 + 10. But we need to go back 15-25 years to calculate what it should be, Just because the free traders have sold our jobs and future to them over 30 years we don’t start the penalty clock tomorrow.
We used to make lots of steel & iron here. The integrated mill become uncompetitive when China started first dumping steel in the 80’s. Then they actually became MVNS Most Favored Nation Status so they didn't even have to hide the dumping, they did it with the blessing of the Clinton administration.
Greedy unions and job killing bureaucrats, particularly EPA types, helped to nail the coffin lid shut on Americas steel industry.
Well,Bushido did put tariffs on imported steel for a while,and a few of them
upgraded their operations,ie cotinous cast. Lot of old mills at the time, screwed me,I didn’t have a president protecting my business.
I have no idea what business you are in, but primary industries like steel manufacturing are not only important for an economy. They are incredibly important from a military consideration.
Four letters: C R U Z!
Parts,it’s really important to be able to take that steel and make stuff.
I’ll wager $1000.00 to Freerepublic that no other member has a richer history of supplying the military than my company.
OK. Parts are very important.
Helmets ,bomb fins,rear axl housings,cable reels, 20 rd Thompson ,50 rd drum Thompson,patented 30rd Thompson and gifted patent to gov so other
mfgs could produce,clips for 50cal,plus much much more.
Had a seat on the War Board, awarded 3 Army A’s and 2 Navy E’s,etc.
Today,parts for the Hellfire and Paveway.
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