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| Economy |
| Trump's Secret Identity |
| 2018-07-29 |
| [Townhall] ...Trump himself insists that his agenda isn’t ramped-up protectionism. Amidst all his ballyhoo about the greatness of ‐ the sheer wonderfulness of ‐ tariffs, we have occasionally received hints at a very different agenda. Beneath Trump’s pompous, know-nothing protectionist stance ‐ which we have all heared in his decades-long talk-show blather as well as his campaign’s talking points and bizarre Twitter contributions ‐ there has been this dog-whistle to the economists: that what he really wants is free trade. And this week President Trump lowered the frequency of his transmission for anyone to hear, from ultrasonic whistle to clear clarion call. As Sasse was decrying the China tariffs and the proposed compensatory subsidies to agriculture, Trump stated that he was pushing the EU to drop all trade barriers and subsidies. And then, on Wednesday, he and the EU’s appointed top banana, Jean-Claude Juncker, publicly declared just that. ...We free traders expect free trade to be promoted honestly and coherently. It’s our style. It’s not Trump’s. ...The "irony" here is this: because multilateral free trade is better for everyone in all countries ‐ well, everyone but politicians and the rent-seeking special interest groups that push for special advantages (which somehow also benefit politicians and the political class rather than consumers and producers at large) ‐ Trump’s nationalism is in truth a mere Trojan Horse. America could get by just fine with unilateral free trade . . . but the whole world would benefit from multilateral free trade. Not just America. For all I know, Trump’s status as a secret free trader could even be a secret from himself. It certainly was a secret kept from me. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #13 Tariffs are his tools. If they want to play hardball, he is willing to inflict (and endure) some pain in order to get them to take him seriously. The ivory tower types haven't figured it out that their cocktail party effete mannerisms aren't effective, and sometimes you need a brawler. |
| Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 2018-07-29 23:36 |
| #12 Old tapes and interviews with Trump indicate he has not changed all that much from the 1980-90s except for his change in thought regarding running for office. Hillary and her handlers wanted Trump to run because they thought he would be easiest to beat. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2018-07-29 15:22 |
| #11 I think this is right. Trump is using tariffs to negotiate better trade deals. They are not his end goal. The idea of tariffs as economic policy was outdated a century ago. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2018-07-29 13:00 |
| #10 This morning Instapundit linked to an interesting piece in the Financial Times: The Chinese are wary of Donald Trump’s creative destruction: The president is the first US leader in decades to challenge China on multiple fronts He posted a long excerpt, because the article is behind the FT paywall. But dropping the title into the Google search app accesses the thing, for those of us lacking subscriptions. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2018-07-29 11:28 |
| #9 Used car salesmen? Where is Joe Iszuzu when you need him? |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2018-07-29 09:47 |
| #8 try buying health care across State lines |
| Posted by: Frank G 2018-07-29 09:42 |
| #7 Free Trade is like Workers Paradise. All good talk that ignores basic human behavior. In theory, America is a free trade zone. In practice not very pure. Tax incentives, special interest closed markets (from milk to booze), contract rigging to favor local providers, all factor into the game. My tribe favored over your tribe. Everyone plays the game. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2018-07-29 09:15 |
| #6 Capital can move freely. Workers can't. That's why we need protection from predation. Free traders would happily put us all out of work so they can make a mint importing toxic, easily broken products from slave labor countries. |
| Posted by: Herb McCoy 2018-07-29 09:01 |
| #5 Beneath Trump’s pompous, know-nothing protectionist stance ‐ which we have all heared in his decades-long talk-show blather Before you accuse someone else of being a know-nothing, you ought to avoid stoopid language mistakes |
| Posted by: Frank G 2018-07-29 07:21 |
| #4 |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2018-07-29 07:19 |
| #3 I've always had the position that we throw out the pin-striped ivy league foggy bottom types and gather America's best used car salesmen for treaty and trade negotiations. I think I'm seeing the concept in practice. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2018-07-29 07:15 |
| #2 >multilateral free trade is better for everyone in all countries ‐ well, everyone but politicians and the rent-seeking special interest groups Er nope. Differences in rents make the trades purely just export low wage jobs from the higher rent country. It's certainly not as simple as they claim. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2018-07-29 06:59 |
#1  |
| Posted by: Jack Chaiter7913 2018-07-29 06:48 |