Just days after Trump backed away from a trade war with China, the Trump administration launched a National-Security Probe on Steel Imports.
For good measure, Trump blasted Canada over its dairy product policy.
The Trump administration has opened a wide-ranging probe into whether to curb steel imports in the name of national security, ramping up its campaign to give a more economic nationalist tinge to American trade policy.
“Steel is critical to both our economy and our military,” President Donald Trump said at a White House ceremony Thursday with steel industry and labor leaders to highlight the new investigation. “This is not an area where we can afford to become dependent on foreign countries.”
“Over the last 30 years, there has been a very narrow view as to what would constitute a threat to national security,” said Terence P. Stewart, a Washington trade lawyer who represents U.S. manufacturers and has long advocated the more expansive approach to national security Mr. Trump is now exploring.
In the past, Mr. Stewart said, administrations concluded that if key products were available from allies—like Canada, South Korea and Mexico, three of the largest steel providers to the U.S.—then losing manufacturing capability wasn’t considered a threat. The new administration, he said, has a view “contrary to that, believing we need a strong manufacturing base for adequate national security.”
Foreign steelmakers were quick to criticize the move. The U.S. investigation “will be very bad for the U.S. economy, very bad for steel-consuming industries—such as construction and manufacturing, which depend on a reliable supply of steel imports—and bad for foreign steel producers such as the Japanese industry,” said Tadaaki Yamaguchi, chairman of the Japan Steel Information Center, the U.S. voice of the Japanese industry.
Mr. Trump struck a particularly harsh tone Thursday, going beyond the steel measure to take several swipes at Canada, calling its dairy policy “a disgrace” and reiterating his desire to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he branded “a disaster.”
Mr. Trump’s strategy involves significant risks of retaliation. Any unilateral declaration of import restrictions for national security “could have severe economic repercussions,” the White & Case law firm wrote in a recent memo posted on the firm’s website assessing possible measures the Trump administration could invoke to toughen U.S. trade policy. “A target country would likely retaliate with equivalent measures on U.S. goods,” it said.
Self-Imposed Disaster
I side with those who say steel tariffs would be a self-imposed disaster.
Lewis Leibowitz, a Washington attorney who has worked on cases involving the trade act in the past said “For every steelworker, there are 60 workers in steel-using industries. You need competitive steel prices for those industries to be competitive and to export.”
The idea that there is a net gain from overpaying for products is ludicrous. Leibowitz provides the steel math: 60-1.
If Trump follows through, and who can possibly predict what he might or will do, China is sure to retaliate. A cancellation of Boeing aircraft orders just might knock some sense into Trump’s head, or not.
But why bother? Trump is as likely to change his mind on this tomorrow as he is to act on his threat. He has already backed off labeling China a currency manipulator after promising that multiple times during the campaign. He has reversed course on Syria and Russia.
How about the wall? I have heard little of making Mexico pay for it in recent weeks.
The message here is simple: If you don’t like Trump’s foreign policy, then wait a day or so. It’s likely to be more to your liking. If you do like it, you likely soon won’t.
Related Articles
- Navarro Nonsense and the Folly of Trump’s Proposed Tariffs
- “Death by China”: Beijing Fires “Trade Cooperation Warning” at Trump
- Will Globalization Survive Trump?
- Reflections and Reader Comments on Free Trade: “China Doesn’t Play Fair!”
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
“The message here is simple: If you don’t like Trump’s foreign policy, then wait a day or so. It’s likely to be more to your liking. If you do like it, you likely soon won’t.”
===========
An even simpler message – Can Trump voters got snookered!
The Trump administration is like a dog running in circles chasing its tail.
Quite possibly what you say is true. Perhaps he has come under the power of the Deep State that is too powerful for his merry bunch of men.
BUT
there could be a more sinister motive to his crazy dog moves. Keep everyone guessing and create confusion among the Neocons – example, aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson said to be heading towards N. Korea, moves in the opposite direction. That way, they don’t know his motives and his next moves and cannot bring him down easily. Zig when he is expected to zag. Zag when he is expected to zig.
I guess this could be considered a survival technique that buys him time to get back at the Deep State who has committed several crimes in trying to bring down a legitimately elected President whether you like him or not.
The clock is ticking and when the world economy crashes within the next couple of years, he will come in as the Knight on the White Horse and the populace will rally behind him as the savior.
“An even simpler message – Can Trump voters got snookered!”
I’m sure that is what you would like to believe. I’ll take Trump over Hillary any day of the week.
…Sure. But I’d take Tim McVeigh over either of them.
Congrats, that now puts you in the lead for stupidest fucking comment of the week.
Stupid my rear!
For one, the guy is dead. Putting some much needed limits on at least the nonsense he could drag the rest of the country into.
And, despite all the self serving drivel emanating from self proclaimed “small government” and “conservative” candidates, poor Timmy remains the only one that, for at least the past 150 years, have managed to shrink the size of the Federal government. By, literally, several thousand square feet, in one fell swoop…..
“poor Timmy”
Are you a fucking moron. (no question mark – rhetorical)
He blew up a fucking day care center!!! Murdered 170 innocent people, half were civilians and 20 were children.
I should correct myself, it was the stupidest comment I have read anywhere in years.
-sure, now defend stupidity and tell me how President X bombed Y killing more…
It takes one heck of a lot more than a few dead kids, to even remotely approach the sheer magnitude of outright self serving evil that is Hillary Clinton. And, since he’s obviously doing nothing Hillary wouldn’t also have done in his position, ditto Trump.
I’m not saying you should excuse blowing up kids. Just keep things in perspective. The wealth confiscation by inflation alone, that Hillary and Trump champion, has rendered millions upon millions of parents less able to properly look after their children. Then throw in the bombing. Heath care laws and regulations. The support for parasitic ambulance chasers…. Wrt death of children, those are all part of Bastiat’s unseen. The horrors may not excite indoctrinated simpletons on TV like an explosion and some flying bodyparts. But the net result in terms of lives and livelihoods, are orders of magnitude more destructive. It’s not even remotely close.
I don’t get it. Dairy? Dairy is the beneficiary of so many subsidies that I can’t even fathom Trump’s claim that its being hurt. And as far as Steel is concerned I haven’t read a head-line in years suggesting unfair competition so this is like out of left field, but if some company or country wants to sell steel at a loss to us we should buy as much o it up as possible, that’s just common sense and good business and ultimately the one selling at a loss is hurt not the companies who gain access to a below cost product. Guess Trump isn’t putting up any buildings soon.
I think it is clear, the power behind the thrown is in charge.
Looks like the western empire is going to the crash and burn stage this time for sure.
Beware the massive disinformation campaign being waged by Media Matters/Soros. Obama had the MSM in his back pocket and the message was controlled and highly coordinated. Quite the opposite with Trump. A full throated effort to discredit Trump’s voting base is underway and this will only intensify as the mid term elections approach. Billions are being pledged to this effort as I write.
Mish I am not accusing you of being in this camp – quite the opposite – I, like your other readers, look to you for factual and objective information.
As an example of the lengths to which the MSM will try to twist the narrative, consider:
“The BBC wants to change the news, not report it” By John Redwood
“Yesterday I was phoned to be asked onto the BBC Radio 4 Today program this morning. They said they wanted me to answer questions about how the election would change the UK’s ability to negotiate a new, good relationship with the EU. I was happy to do so, and said I could make any time at their studio. It seemed like a good topic, and central to what the PM said about her reason for calling the election.
They then proceeded to ask me a series of questions all designed to get me to disagree with the UK negotiating position and Prime Minister. I explained that I supported the PM, agreed with her Brexit White Paper and stated aims, and suggested if all they wanted to do was to criticize her, they should approach the opposition parties. They continued to try to get me to disagree. They did not seem to have read the White Paper or the PM’s speech on the topic, so I had to tell them what was in them and why I agreed with them.
I explained again that their thesis that the leave supporting MPs were in disagreement with the PM and were “rebels” was simply untrue. We are not in disagreement with the PM and we have been strongly supporting the government’s statements and legislation on Brexit. She said she would get back to me about the invitation to go on, with the details.”
(source: johnredwoodsdiary.com)
Please don’t fall for these tricks. The worms are crawling out of the woodwork.
The Donald likes people to clap for him and to seem important. He will take any stand that will cause that to happen. Once you understand his motivations, the rest becomes obvious.
If he ever decides to actually build a wall, I’m investing in the Mexican ladder industry.
I’ve got this original Mexican idea Jon
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/474x/06/ae/d9/06aed9ae2dbea5b08a0f50fb50df7972.jpg
Brilliant!
In just the last few days a growing number of articles have surfaced on the subject of Trumps “flip flops.” If voters who supported Trump become convinced he is playing them for fools it is likely they will loudly voice their discontent leaving him without a base. While some of this can be explained as a strategy change or that he is evolving it has and should raise concern.
With Trump detractors eagerly awaiting the day when he fails and receives his comeuppance Trump best remember who his friends are and that in Washington he has very few of them. The article below delves into the ramifications for Trump of alienating his base.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2017/04/trump-comes-across-bit-too-clever-for.html
The only factor that got Trump in as President was Hillary was his opponent so what can we expect. If Americans had a better choice they would have taken it but then this is the way the cookie crumbles. The country is really in need of another Thomas Jefferson (IMO, among the very best)
Verdict is out at the moment I think, most everything is returned to the pot for processing , edge off domestic confrontation . Change can be slow but fluid, or absent, foreign policy made of statements that draw boundaries , but for now I read stability first, with demonstration of position as conversation piece and the result undetermined. We get to judge with hindsight…so far no obvious change and a ? over Syria, but if you can’t sense the wheel turning you aren’t paying attention, Trump being a passenger as the rest of us.
So if Hillary got him in as president who got him in as the republican nominee over 16 contenders. I guess that must have been the Russians.
What got him the nomination was the clown car full of even worst candidates that the Republican establishment thought they could foist on the public .
The man was a national embarrassment before, now he’s an international embarrassment.
“What got him the nomination was the clown car full of even worst candidates that the Republican establishment thought they could foist on the public.”
The Republican establishment figured to foist one candidate, JEB, on the public. Goldman Sachs said that JEB or Hillary were acceptable to them.
Little known fact: after Jeb! left the governorship of Florida, he was hired on by Lehman Brothers to lobby the state to invest the state’s pension fund with them. Even the sleezeballs in Tallahassee weren’t that sleezy.
So who do you think our last decent, not great, president since world WWII.
The GOP’s fatal flaw and what gave the nomination to Trump was simply allowing too many candidates to run in the primaries. Trump was a populist voice that only needed to get 30-35% of the primary votes to win states. If the GOP would have started with 6-8 candidates, Trump would have never have made it to Super Tuesday.
Prez Trump has consistently made extreme statements and gradually comes back to centre, only our lack of understanding his pre-sausion factors, makes it difficult to predict policy. I have found that every time I hear an extreme comment, that one can predict that it will gradually soften to fit a more realistic outcome. Only the media seems to not understand this or doesn’t want to because it doesn’t sell clicks.
China controls the rare earth metals industry to which our defence industry is totally dependant on. This issue popped up in the news back around 2013. The Obama Administration refused to discuss the problem with any news agency then and since. Rare earth metals are used in guidance systems, tracking, ect to the point that all high tech advantages that our systems use become impossible to build without them. I wonder if Donald has gotten a tap on the shoulder yet?
More than the defense industry. They’re required for superconducting magnets, which are used in everything from power windmills to MRI machines.
I don’t recall any president arriving at the White house with all the answers. Trump is talking to business, labor, and his staff to try to get to the best policy. What did Obama do but give us a failed stimulus, the healthcare act from Hell, and the Middle East going up in flames.
What has Trump given us?
A promise of failed infrastructure stimulus but he even fails at failing.
Replacing Obamacare with Obamacare lite and he can’t even get that done.
Adding to the Middle East in flames with more US involvement.
So much for the Messiah that was going to save us all. Those steel mill workers waiting at the gates of their plants to reopen are going to wait a long time. Suckers!
Alternatively, what would Hillary give us?
Whenever anyone criticizes Trump the only response is, well Hillary was worse. I seem to recall that we had a lot more choices than that. Both in the primaries and in the general election.
Bingo.
Sometimes I wonder if too many individuals confuse policy with mission statements and values statements. When one looks at all the possible questions of involvement or non involvement in the world one is hard pressed to squeeze them into a one size fits all box. Yes, it may be a little upsetting not to know what our “Official” foreign policy or policies are but on the other hand being forced into actions that are of little value to us as a country is not a good thing. Once a policy is set in stone it takes a lot of force to change and is usually smashed out of recognition.
So you think Trump should be more like Bush who was such an ideologue that he went on with the war when it became obvious we made a mistake. Stupidity is doing the same thing when it does not work. Heaven forbid we have a president that changes as the situation changes. Please give us back Obama who refused to do anything or bush who stuck his nose in everywhere. The last thing we need is a president who responds without ideology.
In my house, if we’re talking about a flaky person, we say their decision is based on “whoever they talked to last”
la la la la….”Oh what a fool believes…..” la la la la the Wall Street Journal.
They are discredited!
Oh please Mish,
Trump has kept more promises in his first 100 days than ANY president in modern times.
In fact – the left hates him for it. They thought he said those things just to get elected.
Picked a conservative for the SCOTUS – and had the senate get rid of the filibuster to do it
Wall building going full stream ahead
Illegals being deported at record rates
No more insane free trade deals (pulled out of Trans-Pacific Partnership)
Is renegotiating NAFTA
Greatly reducing the H1B Visa program
Reigning in EPA – giving life back to the coal industry
Pipelines being built
Repealing fake “climate warming” regulations
Stopping the importation of muslim terrorists
Calling islamic terrorism what it is
Easing the rules of engagement for out troops in combat
Actually appointing qualified folks to cabinet position instead of who they sleep with
Strengthening our military instead of using it as a left wing social experiment laboratory
Punishing sanctuary cities who fail to follow the law
Actually REDUCING budgets in the federal government
Etc.
China. Trump had a choice. Go after China or use them to stop the recent North Korea crisis. Another obama mess Trump has to clean up. Anyone remember Clinton giving North Korea $5 Billion and two nuclear reactors when they promised to stop their nuclear program? And then obama doing nothing when North Korea detonated their first nuke? The can was kicked down to the road until there is no more road.
And China to “retaliate” for a tariff? Go ahead. China has a massive trade imbalance with the United States. Who is going to lose that trade war? And China needs to very much worry about social unrest if their economy ever stops growing.
Having Mexico pay for the wall? I expect congress to pass a 2% or 3% fee on money transfers to Mexico. And take all the federal funds that get withheld from sanctuary cities.
Mish – you can’t remember a president that puts American interests first or who negotiates from a position of strength because it has been a generation of weak “blame America first” folks in the White House.
I am looking forward to the next 100 days.
“China. Trump had a choice. Go after China or use them to stop the recent North Korea crisis. Another obama mess Trump has to clean up. Anyone remember Clinton giving North Korea $5 Billion and two nuclear reactors when they promised to stop their nuclear program? And then obama doing nothing when North Korea detonated their first nuke? The can was kicked down to the road until there is no more road.”
Don’t forget Bush Jr. He called North Korea part of the Axis of Evil, after which North Korea started developing nuclear weapons, on his watch.
“A generation weak folks in the White House…”
2Banana, you got it all right, you’ve got it going on.
RE: “Trump has kept more promises in his first 100 days than ANY president in modern times. In fact – the left hates him for it. They thought he said those things just to get elected.”
“Recording of Secretary Kerry Admitting
President Obama Armed Extremists in Syria
– And Now Secretary Tillerson and President Trump
are Dealing With Consequences…..”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/04/10/recording-of-secretary-kerry-admitting-president-obama-armed-extremists-in-syria-and-now-secretary-tillerson-and-president-trump-are-dealing-with-consequences/
North Korea was out of the nuclear weapons business under Clinton, as the reactor capable of making weapons grade material was shutdown. North Korea received oil for power generation as compensation for losing the shutdown source of nuclear electricity. Then along came Bush II, who called the oil too expensive and was into shutting down everything Clinton. Only after Bush II ended the treaty negotiated by Clinton did North Korea restart (took several years) the closed nuclear reactor and begin making nuclear weapons materials. Typical USA, negotiating treaties and then reneging on the treaties (Trump and NAFTA, same thing). Not just internationally, almost every treaty negotiated with Native Americans was broken. Agreements made with USA are worthless, as Putin is learning. To blame North Korea at this point is just more “Manifest Destiny”, “54-40 or Fight” jingoism (War Talk). Media, rather than being a source of Truth, is just a Giant War Propaganda Megaphone.
Got rid of TPP
” Anyone remember Clinton giving North Korea $5 Billion and two nuclear reactors when they promised to stop their nuclear program? And then obama doing nothing when North Korea detonated their first nuke?”
…
What was Obama supposed to do? … He was only in the Senate.
First test came in 2006.
Furthermore, James Baker admitted the US guessed NK had a rudimentary nuke bomb during Bush Sr’s Administration.
Around the 3:00 minute mark
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/m63kkd/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-james-baker-pt–1
North Korea went from a crude underground nuke test to being able to deliver nukes on ICBMs.
All under obama.
He owns it.
One of the many messes he left for Trump to clean up.
Bush II is the responsible party. Bill Clinton stopped North Korea’s weapons program by negotiation, albeit at an economic cost to USA that Bush II deemed too high. Obama was in office when Bush II actions came to fruition, so inherited the Bush II mess. Historical fact, Bush II enabled North Korea.
Your whole list is a bunch of Trump campaign promises of which only a few have actually happened. You think bulldozers are working on the wall down here in South Texas? Come on down and look – ain’t happening! You think H1B visas have been reduced? NOT! Trump is having a group study the issue and it would require congressional action to actually reduce the numbers. Renegotiating NAFTA? No, in fact he’s backtracked on that and the Trans Pacific Partnership.
You need to keep up with your man. He’s busy flip flopping and only the hard core Kool-aid drinkers still think he is keeping his promises. Are you one of the guys waiting outside the old steel mill’s gates? Keep waiting, sucker!
I fear the window of opportunity for reform is rapidly closing for us. Obama was a reform president and the establishment crushed him. Trump is also a reform president and ditto.
Washington needs to reform. It’s headed off a cliff.
Obama was a far left tyrant.
And he delivered.
Obama had a filibuster proof Senate and a super majority in the House.
Numbers in far excess of anything Trump has.
He could have done anything with a single republican vote.
And he gave us obamacare.
A “far left tyrant” would have created a single-payer healthcare system, not just handed cash to insurance companies and hospitals. A far left tyrant would have recreated WPA and CCC to provide millions of jobs to unemployed Americans during the Great Recession. A far left tyrant would have immediately pulled American troops out of the Middle East.
Obama was a right of center kleptocrat who will cash in on future books and speaking fees.
It’s funny how the left won’t even claim their messiah anymore.
Obama was right of center???
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
God Bless President Trump.
Obama was left? Dream on – only old Republicans who lost the culture wars think he was left. He did nothing for the left and just continued W’s legacy. When we elect someone like Bernie, now THAT will be left and you won’t recognize this country afterwards.
Ya mean like this…. how he immediately left the White House to go help poor people…
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/barack-obama-michelle-photo-ipad-yacht-holiday-us-president-a7687986.html
Precisely. To claim that Obama was some FDR or Bernie Sanders is ridiculous. He did absolutely nothing to help the working class. He was always first and foremost about giving money to wealthy businessmen knowing it would be returned in kind.
You are learning grasshopper.
The left is not about helping people.
The leaders of the left could care less about helping people.
The left is about power. And helping themselves.
Take a look at the latest example in Venezuela, a place Bernie until recently held up as a shining example.
Leftist policies destroyed the people.
Guess who has iron clad power?
Guess who refuses to give it peacefully?
Guess who became billionaires?
Trump is meeting my expectations. He has been delivering on his promises despite the concerted efforts of the Demopublicans. Trump is pragmatic and is not an ideologue.
Mish is not happy with any leader’s foreign or domestic policy unless it matches his vision. It is his blog, however, so he can take any position he wants. It does generate a lot of comments which I enjoy immensely.
Thank you Mish for all your work.
I am still trying to make out what I make of Trump, and from outside the US I don’t note he has actually turned or gone off track much. Most of his ideas are returned from the swamp altered, or delayed but are left as a weight over it. Foreign policy – well I think it is false to say it is taking priority over domestic policy, as both will be taking place simultaneously no matter what. I don’t agree with the Syria strike, in the wider picture it seems like stating ‘we remain present so don’t go off with your own ideas’…without at all addressing any kind of realistic solution, which would mean resolving regional issues first…an endless task, ‘let’s sort out all our differences using Syria ‘ is unlikely to give a wider peace either.
“This is not an area where we can afford to become dependent on foreign countries.”
In every cycle there is an inflection point. Globalists refuse to see cycles. Protectionism is part of a cycle.
Glass Steagall was not permanent. When the cycle returned to the 1920’s era, Glass Steagall was dismantled.
Someone coined the term fourth turning. Along with that there is something called a fourth turning war. The turning cycle is some 80 years. 80 years ago was WW2. 80 years before that, the American Civil War and 80 years before that, the American Revolutionary War.
What war awaits in this turning and what affect will it have on global supply lines?
The hallmark of this age is debt repudiation. Zero interest rate is a form of debt repudiation in that interest owed is not paid. Debasing the currency is another form of debt repudiation. The war is between governments that owe and tax versus the people who work and need a secure repository for value earned. The people must invest in real property or income producing stocks rather than government debt. The people must elect Trumps and LePens who represent sound currency, secure citizenship, less tax, less debt.
“If you don’t like Trump’s foreign policy, then wait a day or so.”
And aside from the 2:00AM tweets and the bellicose bluster it looks more like business as usual every day. Feeling betrayed yet all you Trump supporters?
Trump supporters are the lowest of the low and the dumbest of the dumb. Trump could wipe his own feces in their mouths and they would ask for seconds.
Cum on Phil. Get off him.
They are even worse than that. Their Messiah could rape and kill an entire Girl Scout troop and the Kool-Aid drinkers would be yelling that those little girls had it coming!
Cute…all this blame for Trump, little for Congress.
The Leftists OWN congress, the DEM and REP sides. While I would much prefer Trump to be more clear and bold in his comments and actions, he has certainly done better than Hillary would have.
So Mish, to subsidize the “60” steel manufacturing jobs is OK? Because that is what you aren’t advocating by not correcting the unfair trade practices. Would not the market be more stable in a market where the true value of products and resources are realized without subsidies and manipulations?
According to your source, we have falsely propped up steel using jobs, in favor of real market forces dictating what jobs are necessary. How is this any different than false demand for alternative energies (solar and wind, or ethanol) due to subsidies?
Real market forces (corrected if necessary, due to manipulations) for real market jobs. Jobs based on subsidies are merely “bubbles” waiting to be burst.
According to your source, we have falsely propped up steel using jobs, in favor of real market forces dictating what jobs are necessary. How is this any different than false demand for alternative energies (solar and wind, or ethanol) due to subsidies?
I would kill all subsidies.
Ultimately, if it’s good for the consumer it’s good for the economy. If China wanted to produce cars and air conditioners give them away for free to all takers, we should let them. Of, course, China cannot do that. But if they did, standards of livings would rise. Everyone would have a car and air conditioners.
Solar panels are an interesting example. For all the bullsh*t about clean energy, Europe put huge tariffs on solar panels. So stupid!!
Stopping steel imports from China on national security ground, and dairy imports from Canada is hardly comparable, and mentioning it on the same day (or tweet) is hardly mature foreign policy. Eventually, the world will get tired of this shooting from the hip.
It will stop meaning anything when he never backs it up with action.
Before there was China there was South Korea and before that Japan. If China wants to sell steel for less than its cost we should help them and buy as much of it as possible, which benefits car companies, ship builders and the construction industry.
Does Trump think these things through? Raising the price of Steel ultimately shows up in higher costs elsewhere and impacts other industries that utilize steel.
There’s another issue. After World War II Germany was able to produce steel more efficiently than the u.s. simply because their steel mills were new and based on new technology while the u.s. mills were turn of the century designs. Same thing occurred in each successive country and China’s mills are even newer. Nobody will ever produce a brand new large scale steel factory in the u.s. there’s too much world capacity and the ROI simply would not justify it so we’re stuck with China being able to produce Steel more efficiently than the U.S
Excellent points
It is a brilliant strategy really. No one has a clue what he will do. Compare this strategy to that under the Obama administration. Everyone knew what Obama would do, nothing…….
Do you realize how lame that sounds to everybody on earth except for a handful of redneck hillbillies?
Come on, Phil, to the ignorant, ignorance always sounds like a strategy.
“He has already backed off labeling China a currency manipulator after promising that multiple times during the campaign. He has reversed course on Syria and Russia.”
…
Kushner and the Goldman Sachs in the Administration are running the show.
Wasn’t positive of what we were getting when Hope & Change elected … but when he announced Geithner and Summers in the cabinet … Wall Street won.
And the prize goes to the Deep State yet again for their terrific performance in the charade known as American Democracy.
“Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.” – H. L. Mencken
That said, the reason for the whipsaw effect is, no one knows until after the auction who the high bidder is.
Can’t wait for Trumpkins to start the ol’ “What would Kissinger do?” explanation for his haphazard foreign policy.
IsKissingerDeadYet.com
I couldn’t agree more with Mish. Trump will change his policy positions so often, that you will never be able to predict (guess?) what he will do next. As he himself said, he wants to be “unpredictable”.
This might have some small advantage in some situations, but in most situations, it has significant disadvantages. In particular, it makes it impossible for people to plan for the future.
Whether it is managing a company, a pension fund, a household, or any organization, you make plans for the future based on the best information available to you. One role of government is to make sure they communicate clearly what their policies will be, so people can make appropriate plans for the future. This is becoming impossible in America today. And since the US is so important globally, it also makes it difficult for people around the world to plan for the future as well.
As humans, we rely on being able to predict things in order to survive. For example, when you are driving, you are constantly predicting what will happen all around you in order to drive safely. If someone does something unpredictable on the road, an accident is highly likely. This applies in all aspects of our lives.
My fear is that Trumps unpredictability will make it more difficult for everyone to plan for the future. That means slower growth in America and the world.
And if Trump actually does follow through with his protectionist rhetoric, that will reduce economic growth further.
From what I’ve seen of his first hundred days, I am not very optimistic for the next four years. And I am normally an optimist.
I wonder how many critics on this blog even bothered to vote.
Not me. I’m not American.
Someone once told Trump that he was a Champion. Freddie Mercury sang it. Trump believes that being Mercurial is a good thing.