Sounds wonderful, I hope you and your family have a great time! I really need to get the family back to the mountains one more time this year. There's nothing like it.
Thank you for putting this up. Written in such a way that people can understand the mechanics of the subject. I do now, a bit more! The problem, however, is that the sole person who doesn't understand a single word of the above resides in the White House. The above writing, while clearly aimed at entry level-knowledge, would make no sense to Trump, if he would be interested in reading it at all. Not that every President need to be a emeritus professor of economics but even a foot-soldier like me got a basic grip on the issue of trade-wars. Alas, not so Trump, who miscounted the crowd at his inauguration. So when Trump tweets new tariffs on China we should remember that he didn't write those tweets and that the United States really is run by a bunch of his near-by advisers who cannot convince him that planes did not exist in 1812... In other words; Trumps cronies run the show, and the country, taking the p*ss out of Trump who swallows their economy-wrecking BS like a monkey goes for a banana. Trump has NO clue what's going on. He just doesn't like Chinese people. We are in dark territory. Or is it yellow?
I guess it is similar, except it is a pull program now instead of a push program. Seems to work good for them because it takes advantage of the cheap labor.
The reason Dems won't be tough on China is because they know what Trump should have realized from the start: we don't have a winning hand. We can't win a trade war. We can cajole and plead, but we don't have the stomach for a lengthy conflict. China knows that. Their political system is also better for things like trade wars. They simply ratchet up the pressure until we cry uncle while ignoring the howls of protest from their own people. I credit Trump for trying. Nobody else is. Here's how I would have done it: 1. Prepare people for some pain. DO NOT SAY TRADE WARS ARE EASY. I like to think that we Americans can at least suffer through a 10% increase in consumer goods, if we know it's for a good cause. We're not that hooked on this cheap Chinese crap, are we? Anyway, I would have told people this is going to hurt. 2. Have some cash on hand to subsidize critical industries for when China retaliates. Either raise taxes on the super-wealthy or have Congress ready to raise the debt ceiling or both. This is a war, right? Do we cut taxes on the rich in times of war? No, we print bonds, stress patriotism, and RAISE taxes. Cutting taxes was stupid. It signaled to the Chinese we weren't taking this seriously. If we were going to go the tax cut route during a trade war, it would have been MUCH better to do something stimulative, like a payroll tax holiday. That's a direct stimulus to the economy. 3. Get your allies on board. Trump treats our allies like ****. In a war, that is really really stupid. Yes, NATO countries don't pay their fair share. Is that a priority when you're in a trade war? No. Cozy up to your allies, help them out, lavish them with lucrative deals, win the war, then administer some tough love. Instead, we've been burning bridges for the last two years. 4. Give China some time to straighten out, but if it looks like they're not trying, start raising tariffs, printing money, and use your allies to put pressure on. Hope for the best.
We ABSOLUTELY 100% have a winning hand against China, if we choose as a people to win. It will hurt in the short term, but long term, they stand ZERO chance as we are the "Customer" in the current equation. We can get what they provide elsewhere in time, they cannot find a customer to replace us. I have to give you big props here as you didn't just throw rocks, but actually offered up a real solution. Well done.
Thanks. Great powers rise, have their moment in the sun, and then fade. We had a good run. It's not just the trade issue. Someone like Trump only gets into power when people are very frightened and/or very angry. The sweeping demographic changes are frightening to a lot of people, and the anger people have at the elites is palpable. You guys laughed at Occupy Wall Street, though. Now Tucker Carlson might as well be reading their talking points.
Rex Tillerson was correct, "Trump is a F****n moron." In his obsession to undo everything Obama did (because Obama made a compete ass out of him during the White House Correspondence Dinner) he blew off all of Asia when he trashed the TPP. Obama had set up a Trans Pacific Partnership to balance China's power. China was delighted to see Trump hand the Pacific Rim to them. Trump is a worse terror to America than al Qaeda. BTW, the stable genius never went to another White House Correspondence Dinner. Trump is just a dirty little child.
Actually Trump made an a$$ of Obama by getting elected after Obama smugly said there was no way he would win. Kind of gave the middle finger to every elitist *****. But that’s besides the point. Why should Trump go to a dinner where everyone is treating him like an idiot? By not going it was just another FU. They all deserve it.
All the progressive liberal socialists that are mad at this he is not the first president to do something like this. Also how is for all those saying how dumb Trump is or stupid lazy among other terms we are arguing over a political forum assumed few if any are worth billions and highly doubt the intelligence of all socialist individuals when it comes to the economy. Trump p could of gone about this way differently but instead of hating trump how about we celebrate the U.S. and try to support our workers over buying chinese. Even Hong Kong doesn't like china.
I always said that OWS had a ton in common with the TEA Party. Both groups were rabid anti-Crony Capitalism. China must be dealt with and soon, or it will be too late.
Cool the president can unilaterally order business to do what he wants? That’s the new death of the free market.
China is far more dependent on the US to buy their exports than we are to them. We need to start having a backbone. I understand why the snowflakes avoid confrontation at any cost.
In fairness we had help from the corporations. But then they discovered there was a Yuge local market as well as the exports to the US and they were off to the races. If it wasn't for China's joint venture requirements we would own China.
Perhaps wrong. They currently loan money and only own about 1/20 of the debt. Also they are loaning less and less and tons of other countries are jumping on board.
Obama really did that repeatedly and had to have the judiciary stomp on his pen and paper crap. Trump is trying to keep attention and rustle your jimmies and he has done both.
Not really. We have a trade deficit because we like cheap ****... and , because they devalue their currency in order to make ours worth more to gain wealth. They trade dirty... and without us they have big problems. Again, leverage
