7/25/18 MarketWatch:
Trump and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker agreed to hold off on retaliation as long as discussions are taking place between the U.S. and the EU. Trump has threatened tariffs on European vehicles, in addition to levies already imposed on imports of steel and aluminum. But at an unscheduled news conference following their meeting, Trump said they agreed to work toward “zero tariffs” and “zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods.”
He also said the EU would buy more U.S. soybeans and that he and Juncker would work to resolve the steel and aluminum tariffs. U.S. stocks DJIA, -0.30% climbed on news of a deal between Trump and Juncker.
I confess to supporting free trade and Trump's rhetoric is often worrisome. But now it looks like a negotiating position that is working.
We have been systematically disadvantaging US trade since the end of World War 2. At first it was to rebuild Japan and Europe, and to check Soviet expansion, then it became a paternalist liberal meme. Even when we had Europe neglecting defense and instituting lavish pensions at our expense, and China "grin-f***ing" us on IP and trade, we did not wake up.
ReplyDeleteTrump simply looked at from a businessman's cash flow point of view, and is fixing it. His goal is to make foreign markets just as open to us and our markets are to them, and there is a long way to go to accomplish that. The best end game would be no tariffs, but failing that we can at least climb out of the massive hole we dug for ourselves over the years.
For most goods and services, the US market is the most attractive world wide, and if we do a good job of negotiating, we should have the power to open things up dramatically. A few screams of alarm along the way should not deter us.
The same logic applies to poorly administered subsidy programs and massive debt, especially for lavish government pensions and non-research social programs. A growing and efficient open market world economy, unhindered by political stupidity and graft, will accomplish much more than any government can.
Clayton,
ReplyDeleteI really hope you were being tongue-in-cheek with your "Trump's rhetoric is often worrisome" comment.
His "rhetoric" is quite familiar, and not foreign or off-putting to men who have worked in fields dominated by masculine culture. As a point of reference, I am speaking of a culture that was overt and extant until the late 70's when it became increasingly effeminized, and now is systematically penalized.
That masculine culture still exists, but it is now kept more obscure lest one be cast out of the synagogue.
Some may call it rude, coarse or insensitive. They call it that until they need strong men to pull their fat out of the fryer.
It is a type of "violence" in speech; those who abjure violence can only do so because others are committing violence on their behalf. Comfortable civilians in easy chairs send rough men out to serve their interests, and then, when circumstances change and in the exquisite safety and fastidiousness of their living rooms they suddenly find these rough men’s actions repugnant, and then disown them.
As George Orwell pointed out, people sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
Rough men are not offended by pointed speech. They are offended by the two-faced double-tongued.
Nations do not have friends; they have interests that either align or collide. Sometimes they align as allies, and sometimes as co-belligerents. When they position in collision they need unmistakable directness. I have zero problem, and instead I applaud a POTUS and CinC that tells other countries exactly what and where the cat performed in the buckwheat.
I appreciate his candor. His occasional vulgarity ("grab them by...." used to be called "locker-room talk," which I think of as juvenile, not masculine. He is certainly getting positive results.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I do not participate nor encourage the "locker room" as you put it, if it is "juvenile" (as opposed to masculine) then you have just consigned an entire, very broad cross-section of men to a category that would then disqualify them from ever being called on to assist "adults".
ReplyDeleteEvery fire house, police station, military unit, construction site, ad infinitum, is permeated with that jargon and vernacular. It may temporarily evaporate when outsiders "occur", but it is not only NOT occasional, it is de riguer. It is not "candor"; it is an integral micro-culture affect.
So, just in time to emphasize my point, my wife pointed out that people will have problems with this (in addition to the deceitful race claims used to defend criminal behavior) because the officer failed his etiquette course.
ReplyDeletehttp://video.foxnews.com/v/5815670641001/?#sp=show-clips
This, Clayton, right here, is a class of people who are not, and never will be offended by President Trump. They inhabit a world foreign to many. I remember, living in a large metro area on the east coast in the 60's, the "hard hats" beating the crap out of the anti-war (they were not anti-war, they were communist anti-U.S. victory) idiots, calling them "pinko communist hippy f@ggot&".
That it offends anyone is a testimony to how far removed one is from a specific sub-culture.