Donald Trump advocated for US import tariffs before he ran for public office. I would like to post a fresh link to the interview but now it is buried in search noise on YouTube. An old PC post of mine has a link for the genuinely curious.

IMO trade tariffs have utility. They can nudge nations to use their resources efficiently before they go shopping outside for more.

The Chinese have outsmarted the West which initially underestimated them.

In about three decades a massive transfer of Science and Technology from the West has taken place. The West especially US apparently did not expect that and was surprised by the rapidity of the transfer.

Now the Chinese are building infrastructures all over the world to facilitate trade favorable to them. It is called One Belt, One Road (OBOR).

They are using the Chinese diaspora in this project. Said diaspora is sometimes used to disguise somewhat the source of Chinese goods. The Chinese have been on a buying spree of and investment in important Western companies.

Additionally they have invested heavily in STEM education both at home and abroad.

We awoke late to the broad scope of Chinese trade moves.

Trump tariffs are symbols to give his base something. But the Chinese are too far ahead in the game they can placate us with some moves. e.g buying more of our semi conductors.

One Belt, One Road Initiative.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Be...oad_Initiative

Two reasons as to way IMO.
First, the US only thinks one to two years ahead at best. In reality a six month in general words only approach. Only caring about the next election cycle. Unless it has to do with Tax cuts for the top earners. Where China plays the long game thinking a hundred years into the future.
Second, seeing just how much we rely on the Chinese to finance our lavish governments spending, a blind eye is best used on others practices. One does not argue with the bank over it's business practices when you have an outstretched hand now does one?




Barney

I can't help it if the "nobel winning economist" guy was wrong. LOL!

Love your faux response. :rolleyes: Did you even read, or even glance at, the article I posted? Doesn't look like it.

Looks like another day, and another faux crisis fades further.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/27/us-s...he-agenda.html

International markets received a boost Tuesday after a strong day on Wall Street, with both Asian and European indexes posting gains during their respective trading sessions. Markets have bounced back over the past day, with investors attributing this to an alleviation of concerns over potential trade tariffs.

Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive memorandum that would inflict tariffs on up to $60 billion in Chinese imports prompting China to retaliate, however news has emerged that the nations are open to discussions that could allay a trade war.

As others have observed, the threat of tariffs is apparently being used as an inducement to accelerate discussion and facilitate agreements on trade.

It seems you believe that the Dotard carefully strategized this whole tariff brouhaha, as opposed to it being a frustrated reaction to all the shit blowing up around him in the White House as reported in the OP's link. It seems to me that he lashed out and his staff was forced to again clean up the mess he created with his impulsive and infantile behavior. If you believe he has a thorough understanding of trade policy that manifested itself in new tariff policy via tweet (and without any internal review by government lawyers or his own staff), you're even more gullible than I thought you were.

We can always count on Whell for a good laugh in the morning.

Sorry to disappoint you but why should I? It was widely known what flipped the market trend and in fact some GOP'ers were gloating over how Trump's tariff's are already working.

Yeah, I do. There's no question about that. In order to believe that its anything other than that, you have to discount months and months of statements that were made about trade before the November 2016 election.

That said, I think Trump is less about carefully strategizing than he is about making instinctive, sometimes impulsive, decisions. But I'll leave it to you to put credence in a sloppily sourced report that suggests that the decision to move forward with tariffs was nothing more than the result of a temper tantrum.