Posted by:
caffiend
(
)
Date: November 28, 2018 03:25PM
Although "Russian collusion" gets all the attention, Trump's focus is on China: 1) it has the world's 2nd largest economy and 2) is expansionist without apology (e.g. "China Road and Belt"). The US has suffered negative balance of payments for generations, In the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, it was US "petrodollars" siphoned off to the Middle East (or other oil sources).
Now it's the Far East, first Japan and the Pacific rim, then China which ramped up industry based upon cheap labor. The negative balance of payments is now tilted to Asia and, especially, China. An economics maxim is, "Something which can't go on forever, won't," and that applies to the depletion of US capital. Overlooked in this is that, contrary to the Kissinger-Nixon hypothesis, China remained a top-down (party/oligarchic) economy and hostile state, and did not "evolve" into a liberal democracy.
This, I believe, is the Trump agenda. Trump calls himself anti-tariff (long-term), but the US has been shut out of the Chinese market by THEIR protective tariffs. Trump is conducting economic warfare, which will have casualties, and GM just got bloodied ("friendly fire?"). But investing in Chinese production put GM "in harm's way."
Certain industries, companies, and sectors will have painful adjustments to make, but Trump's goal is protecting US production while it ramps up. Tariffs are the (short term) means to that end.
Last: I think a lot of Trump's baffoonery is conscious distraction, like the cat chasing the laser dot. From the non-political oilprice.com, we see what an economics-based (as opposed to political or military) approach has quietly done to a nefarious Iranian/Russian/Syrian oil cabal which supplies Assad with oil and cash for Hezbollah and Hamas. An interesting read:
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Stopping-Syrias-Oil-Smuggling-Scheme.html