Comment by jjgreen
16 days ago
Spot on with EU following China's lead; so now the rest of the world is seeing China as a leader ... not quite what was intended?
16 days ago
Spot on with EU following China's lead; so now the rest of the world is seeing China as a leader ... not quite what was intended?
Vietnam and Cambodia moving even more into China's influence is one outcome, undermining the China containment strategy that many conservatives say they want.
What was even the goal here? Does anyone in the US want to work in a sweatshop making Nikes?
Trump repeatedly says that a trade deficit is a subsidy that America is paying the country.
No one really understands why he'd say that. And no one has succeeded in talking him out of it. So we're now seeing global trade policy collapse based on this weird invention of his.
> What was even the goal here?
Like many of us*, Trump has one tool in his chest. For Trump, that tool is extortion. Extortion has worked for him a lot, so why not apply that to all facets of his life?
I don't like the fact that I'm glibly summarizing someone like that, but I think it's pretty close to the truth.
When your one tool is a hammer (extortion), you think everyone else is a nail.
See, for example ...
- Columbia University, etc.
- Law firms that investigated him
- every single country that just got hit with tariffs.
* I think many of us have our own "one tool" that we like. Extortion, however, is a malevolent tool.
The EU is likely to be more measured, and start with tariffs aimed at Trump-supporting regions. It would be slightly surprising if it jumps straight to blanket tariffs (though it may if it's believed that the shock-and-awe approach will cause Trump to back down).