‘Straight up stupid,' 'incompetent' and 'misguided’: Economist Adam Posen rips Trump's tariffs

Even Trump's chief economic adviser is against these new tariffs

 

Economist are generally. Who cares? They see low wages as a good thing. Most Americans don't including me. Nor do we see the soaring income disparity caused by free trade to be useful or moral.

 

Tariffs will have the opposite effect on wage growth that you expect they will.

 

We shall see. We know what impact getting rid of them the last 40 years has had - one of the worse periods in US history for US workers and an awesome period for economic elites. After 40 years of economic failure, I will try a change.

Have you ever looked at median wage gains and income disparity change in that period?

 

"I will try a change."

That thinking is what has lead us to be saddled with an incompetent buffoon.

https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/24571/trade/impact-of-us-tariffs/

 

Listening to the best and brightest has destroyed much of US industry, caused massive wage stagnation, and led to the greatest growth in income disparity in US history. If you think that is good thing you do. I don't.

For what its worth, and its not much, I am not quite uneducated. I have a doctorate and three master's. I analyze data for a living and have followed the free trade debate for decades. I might be a buffoon of course...People inflexibly support free trade without paying any attention to what it leads to. The theory sounds awesome, the reality has not been.

 

Lol... Oh you guys .... when the lefty media and the EU start going berserk you know Trump is on the right path ...

 

It is quite unfortunate that any tax saving middle class folk may have seen will be spent in higher consumer prices. Added to this is the damage to relations with allies and the likely bankruptcy of one of Americas most reputable and famous companies, all because Lil' Donny needed a distraction and a way to vent after losing his beloved secretary.

Rest in Peace Harley.

 

Our economy was already supposed to crumble, women were supposed to be in the kitchens, black and gay people were supposed to be out of their jobs and WWIII was already supposed be happening as we speak, according to GUYS LIKE THIS!

Liberals have short memories of their predictions back last NOV. oh yeah. And Trump had no chance of winning according to ALL OF THEM!!!

 

The OP is a a crock of poop.

Adam Posen is a member of the Working Group of the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism. He has been the recipient of major research grants from the Centre for International Governance Innovation, the European Commission, the Sloan Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Geeze - will you look at that - Adam Posen gets his paycheck from foreign government supported lobbying groups. What a surprise!

 

Aww, you Hillary bots are gonna have a stroke .

 

As with most debates here no one will change their mind. The bottom line is simple. Free trade has benefited fewer than it has helped. Corporations and economic elites have done very well, most Americans have not. You can look at median wage gains or GINI coefficients and see this, although no one who supports free trade will of course.

In the long run voters will put people into office like Trump for basic economic reasons. They will earn more if they do. There is 4 decades of evidence to show this. And voters know this even if economists can't grasp basic data.

 

You first.

And one good reason I can think of for believing "globalist nobelists", (whatever that might be) is that at least one of them (me) at least tries to avoid the Philadelphia Lawyer's dastardly trick of answering a civil question with a completely irrelevant another question.

 

While I'm not in favor of imposing tariffs, the article offers only criticism. This continues to be the only thing that Trump haters have to offer.

Where are the solutions to unfair trade practices? Denying the problem is not a solution.

 

I will answer the question. I don't believe in globalism because

1) It leads to wage stagnation
2) It has devastated whole regions of the country (the rust belt)
3) It has shifted income and power significantly to elites and business harming the rest of the country.
4) Its is associated with the view that investment and the action of entrepreneurial capitalist single handedly drive economic gains. Much of the bad policy in the last 4 decades is tied to this mistake including failing to invest in teaching and training.
4) 1-4 is leading to the collapse of the US political and social system and fostered growing conflict among individuals and section. Unless income for average workers starts growing again and the narrow elitism generated by globalism comes to an end, we will have civil conflict in the US that will be really bad.

 

No voters don't know this, mainly because voters know how to pick up the occasional history textbook rather than "The Art of the Schliemiel". And there they can look up the "Smoot Hawley" Act, also known as the "Hawley Smoot" debacle.

To use one of the conservative's favorite phrases of recent yesteryear. "How's that little execise in idiocy working out fer ya?"

 

I didn't ask you why you didn't believe in globalism. I asked you how globalism does all the terrible things you say it does. Do you know? or are you just believing it because Trump told you?

 

They know they are not getting pay raises why corporate profits soar. That is more important to them, and me, than economic theory. I know all the economic history you refer to. What you ignore entirely is what happened to wages and disparity since Reagan launched globalism (and the rise of the WTO).

 

I am not a Trump supporter. Given that no one knows anything in economics, the basic causal mechanisms are unclear, I have spent 4 decades of my life studying globalism and what resulted when it was put into place. I believe it causes the above 4 and if you read supporters of globalism the narrow elitism they espouse is hard to miss. The identify nearly entirely with the view that economic progress is driven fro the top of society not the work force as a whole.

I would point out again that I have 4 graduate degrees including a doctorate and analyze data for a living. I am not quite the uneducated ignoramous that supporters of free trade try to paint their opponents with

Well maybe I am close.

 

Incorrect.

 

It has benefitted the rest of the world; at our expense. Which is, of course, the plan.

 

If you bothered to read the thread you would know what I told others. It is BASIC economics. David Ricardo is best info for that, but that's just to get you on the right track first.

Steve

 

Did this guy say the same things when Obama did the same thing to other Chinese industries?

 

Exactly. Trump has made the distinction between "free trade" and "fair trade" which he is correct about.

But I believe that trade hasn't actually been free. International trade is still basically operating in "mercantilism." And any country that thinks they are operating freely in a mercantilism environment will get slaughtered economically.

Steve

 

Dude China has been engaging in trade war against the US almost since Nixon. It's about time we got president decides to fight back.