No. of Recommendations: 3
They're reporting on the tariffs because the tariffs are extraordinary and new. Trump has chosen to address longstanding U.S. complaints about other countries not through "normal" mechanisms, but by completely upending the entire global trade system.I'll give you this - America taking action is new. America putting up with bad behavior is sadly not new. It does seem to be the expectation, though.
Let me ask you this -
Is the "entire global trade system" sustainable for us or Europe? If so, why do you believe that it is?
This is a completely different order of magnitude. Is it? In the (admittedly very small) saner elements of the democrat party, you don't think they don't look at the hollowing out of the American manufacturing base and think that this isn't a good thing? I remember a day when democrats said stuff like this
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Democrat Joe Lieberman (search), warning that America is "hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs," promises to reverse the trend as president with tax incentives and tougher trade policies.https://www.foxnews.com/story/lieberman-vows-to-sa...He pointed specifically to America's $100 billion trade debt with China, accusing the nation of manipulating Chinese currency to give its exports to the U.S. unfair advantage over American goods.
"There is an economic attack occurring against us that the administration simply is not defending against," the Connecticut senator said in an interview previewing the address.The US trade deficit with China is now 3x the $100B, by the way.
You can't blame this on the media or the Democrats. Their public stances are insane, so yes I can.
Even if the media were singing his praises, the same thing would happen: the stores would start going bare in May, prices would rise throughout the summer, and Trump would be getting hammered in the polls as we headed into X-mas.Hmm. You're the one using polls as evidence. The media influences public opinion, which makes them a player in this whether you want to admit it or not.
Now that goods can't be sent to the U.S., China's got a lot of excess manufacturing capacity relative to existing demand ex-U.S. That means prices will fall. The economic equilibrium between the EU and China (and indeed every country in the world and China) is going to change.Heh. And I'll go back to my question about European goods here...
What on earth are you talking about? China exported about 1 million cars to Europe in 2024 - in fact, China is literally the biggest import country for cars going to Europe. The EU gets about 1/3 of all of their semiconductors from China - they're one of China's biggest export markets.Ah! Didn't know the Chinese send that many cars to Europe; I don't see them on the roads in the UK or France. My point is that the Europeans aren't suddenly going to allow the Chinese to take over more of the EU economy.
Again, this is the system we wanted. We built it. We wanted all the countries around the world to adopt our preferred frameworks for finance and capital markets, intellectual property and patent recognition, capital flows and investment protections, the U.S. dollar as the international reserve currency, all of the global frameworks on postage and shipping and aviation, and our preferences for free trade. This is NOT the 'system we wanted'. You're making yet another assumption that the rest of the world uses our frameworks for IP and patent recognition, capital flows and investment protections. They don't.
Free trade requires fair trade as a prerequisite. That's the point.
All because Donald Trump doesn't understand what trade surpluses and deficits actually mean.You're both correct and incorrect here on your macro point.
You're correct in that trade deficits
aren't inherently bad.
You're
incorrect in your description of the 'system' and the implications on the US economy.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/248004/percent...Manufacturing is 10% of the US GDP. Normally I'd say, "I'd rather have 10% of a trillion dollars than 100% of a thousand". However, what's missed here is that we absolutely don't want some of the dependencies that we have on China and other places. The current system is building financial services and government spending as the top sources of national income. Are we a nation of building stuff any longer? The stats say no.
For the dozenth time, I wouldn't have done this the way Trump has. But something has to be done.
