Posted on 05/09/2016 5:02:24 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
One area in which Trump can be nailed down is his overall view of trade. As I explained at Conservative Review, when it comes to Trump’s own financial dealings, he is an unrepentant globalist, from which he has made a fortune. But these days, as he runs for president, the billionaire is a radical protectionist who has repeatedly declared his intention to impose massive tariffs aimed at the economies of other countries, such as Japan and Mexico, and a forty-five percent tariff on products from China. Such broad tariffs would most certainly result in retaliation by the targeted countries. This is a sure job-killer that would also drive up costs of everyday products to low- and middle-class Americans. The net result: economic misery, not just for those hard-working, tax-paying Americans who work in industries that rely on international commerce and trade, but mostly everyone.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
“It’s just massive pandering, trust me.”
Watching schmucks like this melt down is amusing.
Consider that the (Reagan) administration has done the following:
— Forced Japan to accept restraints on auto exports. The agreement set total Japanese auto exports at 1.68 million vehicles in 1981-82, 8 percent below 1980 exports. Two years later the level was permitted to rise to 1.85 million.(33) Clifford Winston of the Brookings Institution found that the import limits have actually cost jobs in the U.S. auto industry by making it possible for the sheltered American automakers to raise prices and limit production. In 1984, Winston writes in Blind Intersection? Policy and the Automobile Industry, 32,000 jobs were lost, U.S. production fell by 300,000 units, and profits for U.S. firms increased $8.9 billion. The quotas have also made the Japanese firms potentially more formidable rivals because they have begun building assembly plants in the United States.(34) They also shifted production to larger cars, introducing to American firms competition they did not have before the quotas were created. In 1984, it was estimated that higher prices for domestic and imported cars cost consumers $2.2 billion a year.(35) At the height of the dollar’s exchange rate with the yen in 1984-85, the quotas were costing American consumers the equivalent of $11 billion a year.(36)
— Tightened up considerably the quotas on imported sugar. Imports fell from an annual average of 4.85 million tons in 1979-81 to an annual average of 2.86 million tons in 1982-86. Not only did this continued practice force Americans to spend more than other consumers for sugar, but it created hardships for Latin American countries and the Philippines, which depend on sugar exports for economic development. The quota program undermined President Reagan’s Caribbean Basin Initiative and intensified the international debt crisis.(37)
— Negotiated to increase restrictiveness of the Multifiber Arrangement and extended restrictions to previously unrestricted textiles. The administration unilaterally changed the rule of origin in order to restrict textile and apparel imports further and imposed a special ceiling on textiles from the People’s Republic of China.(38) Finally, it pressured Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea, the largest exporters of textiles and apparel to the United States, into highly restrictive bilateral agreements. All told, textile and apparel restrictions cost Americans more than $20 billion a year.(39) The Reagan administration has stated several times that textile and apparel imports should grow no faster than the domestic market.(40)
— Required 18 countries—including Brazil, Spain, South Korea, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Finland, and Australia, as well as the European Community—to accept “voluntary restraint agreements” to reduce steel imports, guaranteeing domestic producers a share of the American market. When 3 countries not included in the 18—Canada, Sweden, and Taiwan— increased steel exports to the United States, the administration demanded talks to check the increase. The administration also imposed tariffs and quotas on specialty steel. These policies, with their resulting shortages, have severely squeezed American steel-using firms, making them less competitive in world markets and eliminating more than 52,000 jobs.(41)
— Imposed a five-year duty, beginning at 45 percent, on Japanese motorcycles for the benefit of Harley Davidson, which admitted that superior Japanese management was the cause of its problems.(42)
— Raised tariffs on Canadian lumber and cedar shingles.
— Forced the Japanese into an agreement to control the price of computer memory-chip exports and increase Japanese purchases of American-made chips. When the agreement was allegedly broken, the administration imposed a 100 percent tariff on $300 million worth of electronics goods. This episode teaches a classic lesson in how protectionism comes back to haunt a country’s producers. The quotas established as a result of the agreement have created a severe shortage of memory chips and higher prices for American computer makers, putting them at a disadvantage with foreign competitors. Only two American firms are still making these chips, accounting for a small percentage of the world market.(43)
— Removed Third World countries from the duty-free import program for developing nations on several occasions.
— Pressed Japan to force its automakers to buy more American-made parts.(44)
— Demanded that Taiwan, West Germany, Japan, and Switzerland restrain their exports of machine tools, with some market shares rolled back to 1981 levels. Other countries were warned not to increase their shares of the U.S. market.
— Accused the Japanese of dumping roller bearings, because the price did not rise to cover a fall in the value of the yen. The U.S. Customs Service was ordered to collect duties equal to the so-called dumping margins.(45)
— Accused the Japanese of dumping forklift trucks and color picture tubes.(46)
— Failed to ask Congress to end the ban on the export of Alaskan oil and of timber cut from federal lands, a measure that could substantially increase U.S. exports to Japan.
— Redefined “dumping” in order “to make it easier to bring charges of unfair trade practices against certain competitors.”(47)
— Beefed up the Export-Import Bank, an institution dedicated to promoting the exports of a handful of large companies at the expense of everyone else.(48)
— Extended quotas on imported clothespins.
It must be that whatever mental disease Beck suffers from is contagious.
Isn’t it our own regulatory Fifth Column that is sending our companies overseas?
That, too. And Trump wants to cut it. And cut corporate taxes.
Apparently mark is selective in his memory of Reagans trade policies
Labor costs are a big deal.
Regulation may be something people cite to avoid doing anything.
Sort of like how libertarians say immigration isn't the problem, it's the welfare state.
Like the country was actually going to do something about the welfare state, or do much about regulation, which in some cases may be necessary.
At this point, he is nothing more than a Hilary stooge. He can deny all he wants, but Trump is the nominee and his over-the-top continued attacks are nothing more than support for Hilary.
IMO you could remove every regulations and corporations would still offshore to get the absolute cheapest labor rates. Actually federal regulations give the corporations political cover and are used and the scapegoat for what is really going in.
Just because he makes money around the globe does not make him a globalist either. A globalist is one who really wants to erase borders. Levin has definitely put way too much stock in Cruz, and his stock is falling rapidly, at least for me.
Levin continues to shoot his feet and insult any Trump listeners, he might have left.
let us say good bye to Mark Levin. He missed the Trump Train and he is standing at the station and train just disappeared over the horizon . He was wrong and he is gone. I feel concerned for him. He will need financial help soon.
he talks about currency manipulation all the time. China devalues their currency its as good as a tariff on our goods
It is impossible for american products to compete and he has been saying this for 30 years!
Trump has exposed the cottage industry of conservative intellectuals and media types making millions off the base by railing against the establishment and selling their books. The base realizes, by supporting Trump, that the time for grandiose speeches are over and it's time to get our hands dirty. Levin and others see the gravy train disappearing, so they're lashing out at Trump. After this election, regardless if Trump wins or not, I see all of these institutions and figures like Levin, Beck, CPAC, etc. completely crash and burn.
...Has Levin gone insane with hatred for Trump?...
It’s Trump derangement syndrome. Like Schizophrenia, sufferers don’t know they are affected.
As a stockrbroker and economist during the Reagan term. I can say Trump is much more like Reagan than any Repblican today. It is quite likely that on the economic Trump will be better. As for foreign policy in the Middle East anyone remember how RR got the hell out of Lebanon? The Middle East has gone to hell under the Bush, Clinton and Obama administrations.
His TDS has driven him into insanity!
I was one of Levin’s biggest fans...until now.
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