https://amgreatness.com/2019/01/11/trump-deserves-credit-for-chinas-changing-stance-on-trade/
Trump Deserves Credit for China’s Changing Stance on Trade
By Tony Shaffer
FTA:
Trump was right: Beijing doesn’t have the fortitude or economic resilience to weather additional U.S. tariffs on its goods. After all, China’s economy relies heavily on exports, making it particularly vulnerable to policies that restrict its access to the world’s largest consumer market.
The president also understood that China’s economic might has rarely been tested, and accurately predicted that Beijing would be unwilling to risk its long-term growth prospects by engaging in a trade war against a far more stable market economy.
Despite hysterical warnings from Democrats, President Trump’s strategy began showing signs of success way back in early August, when China’s leaders reportedly became unsettled over U.S. tariffs—a clear sign that decision-makers in Beijing had no confidence in the resilience of their economy.
As it turns out, their concerns were well-founded.
According to a recent New York Times business report, China’s economy has experienced a major slowdown in both retail spending and industrial production in recent months, putting Xi Jinping and his party under significant political pressure.
China is suffering from declining business and consumer confidence, car sales have plunged, the housing market is stumbling, and some factories are reportedly letting workers off for the Lunar New Year holiday two months early.
As a result of those domestic economic pressures, the Times notes that Xi “has been forced to make concessions to the United States as President Trump’s trade war intensifies.”
Fact is, Trump is gaining on China—and a triumph on his trade strategy is approaching faster than anyone anticipated.
https://amgreatness.com/2019/01/11/ryan-redux-romney-assumes-the-missionary-position/
Bill Thomas
FTA:
Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton are both sore losers, who each hate Trump for winning the prize they think should have been theirs. To get even, Clinton opted for revenge; Romney chose virtue signaling.
His much talked about Washington Post op-ed, accusing the president of failing to “inspire us to follow ‘our better angels,’” could have come straight from Ryan’s office. But for Romney what better way to let Trump know it’s game on, at least as one of them sees it.
What Romney had to say might seem presumptuous, yet he does have a certain earned authority on the subject of Donald Trump.
He gladly accepted Trump’s money for his 2012 campaign. Then during the primaries two years ago dismissed him as a “phony” and a “fraud.” For payback, Trump interviewed Romney twice for the job of secretary of state before giving it to Rex Tillerson. The two men have a complicated past, as Romney might say, like Moses and Pharaoh.
Clearly Romney wants to replace the departed trio of former Senators Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and the late John McCain (R-Ariz.) as the media’s lead anti-Trumper. The problem is he’s still the same self-righteous wuss who got played by Barack Obama in their decisive second debate.
Here is an ongoing survey at their site:
Is building The Wall the best way to stop separating families at the border?
Yes 79%
No 21%
Votes 6,961
https://amgreatness.com/2019/01/11/trump-deserves-credit-for-chinas-changing-stance-on-trade/
Thanks so much for that excerpt.