Posted on 05/07/2018 4:16:05 AM PDT by cba123
The battle lines are drawn in the trade war with China, and President Donald Trump can expect little support from the high tech and financial sectors or the economics profession. They argue the U.S. is doing quite well.
Donald Trump has lifted growth to 2.9% a year but that compares poorly with China, whose superior performance can no longer be written off as that of a developing country playing catch up.
Beneath the modern theory of free trade lurks an assumption that economists are disinclined to discuss the textbook theorem assumes balanced trade accomplished through a reciprocal reduction of trade barriers and market-determined exchange rates. We havent had an overabundance of those with our three biggest competitors Japan, Germany and most of all China.
Consequently, Americas trade deficit will exceed $675 billion in 2018, and about 60% is with China. This situation creates winners and some big losersmostly, Middle Americans whose jobs are displaced by imports but are not re-employed to make exports.
(please see full article, at the link)
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
For so long, EVERY SINGLE PERSON in power in America has been sending ever more of what was United States business, to China.
Nobody stopped. They just kept selling us out. Year after year.
Both parties. Everyone.
Finally, we have a leader. But he is finding the Chinese do not want to negotiate.
It is perhaps time, to play a change-up.
It is time, to close our markets to countries which do not allow us to compete.
Just shut them out.
Completely.
China would offer us... China if we stopped trading with them completely for about 6 months.
The whole place would collapse. They would be eating each other.
Apple is moving/establishing more of its manufacturing in the US. As a small shareholder of Apple in my IRA, I hope Apples CEO Tim Cook is having the vision and foresight to have Taiwans Foxconn plan to move assembly of iPhones moved to countries other than China on SHORT NOTICE.
Trade wise, things will be hitting the fan with China before long. China will be devastated by those events and will not be happy. Be smart, Tim Cook.
I agree with the above but look at the reasoning behind it all.
They have to placate the masses. The elite can appease the cheap labor by allowing cheap products on the market. Very few people can afford quality products and with the brain set of more is better people buy the cheap stuff. Who cares if it will fall apart in a short time? You can have more stuff to trip over in the house.
The problem does show up severely in items like appliances. A wash machine used to last 20 yrs or more. Now if you are lucky you can find a machine that will last 3 yrs.
People blame the high wages on the cost of American goods when the real cost is taxes added. Not just sales tax but think about it. Taxes are high throughout the chain of manufacturing. Gas tax on everyone from grower, to manufacture, to shipping, to the retailer. Property taxes are added into the cost of manufacture, Workmans comp, health insurance, etc. I vaguely remember an article I read a long time ago where it stated the retail cost of an item is actually 90% taxes.
chicom bump for later....
I don’t know how, ultimately, you can trade ‘freely’ with a totalitarian nation. Even if the Chinese government dropped all tariffs and restrictions on US goods entering their markets, we could still not be guaranteed a fair chance at competing in their markets. The totalitarian Chinese government could make it clear that their people are not buy our goods - and they could do so ‘unofficially’. In our nation we “ask” people to buy American. In their totalitarian society they can “demand” that they buy Chinese.
Your post leads right to the front door of the cause of ALL problems...
... government.
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