On Tuesday, President Trump announced 10% tariffs on $200B of Chinese goods , further escalating a trade war with China. Naturally, China is expected to retaliate with tariffs on American goods like Soybeans, Automobiles etc. However, is ratcheting tariffs against China really going to be effective in "bringing back American steel jobs" and reining in the the PRC's Made in China 2025 strategy? Are we headed towards mutually assured destruction? In the past, China completely fucked over one of South Korea's largest grocery chains, Lotte Mart, as retaliation for South Korea agreeing to host American missile defense systems, causing them to shutter 75% of their locations in China. This demonstrates that China is willing to win at all costs; they could put 50% tariffs on American cars or they could put 800% tariffs on them if they want. Not to mention the numerous possible negative ramifications for American foreign policy and North Korea. Anyways, what exactly does the United States stand to gain from a trade war with China? I highly doubt slapping on tariffs on Chinese goods will actually help create manufacturing jobs in the United States or prevent China from eating Silicon Valley's lunch a decade or two from now. I get where Trump is coming from, but a trade war just seems like a loss for America, China, the market, and especially consumers. Is the economy SCREWED?
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We’ve been at war with China regarding trade for a decade now. Trump is finally making a point to fight back.
Liberal economic and social policy has gutted manufacturing to increase profits. We’ve failed to think about stakeholders and only focused on shareholders. Not to mention the billions in stole IP.
Might hurt, but time is now to strike back at these countries that cry about free trade while protecting their industry at the cost of ours.
It won't bring back any jobs. The jobs created in steel/aluminum will not outweigh those lost in automobile or farming. Trade tarifs are a net loss for the economy, domestic and international. Econ 101
The goal isn’t a white flag. The goal is concessions that make trade more fair.
Tarrifs are a tax. Correct. But if the goal is to use tarrifs to gain a long term more fair situation, it’s a worthwhile temporary pain.
And you know what’s a more costly tax? Losing a high paying job to artificially cheap labor overseas. How people can’t do the simple math is beyond me.
I mean what else could we do? Bomb the spratly islands? We are doing freedom of movement missions. We've basically put human rights on the back burner to keep allies. Japan is increasing military spending.
Reality is most business leaders have soured on China. The Chinese government routinely hacks both government and industry computers, steals our technology, blocks our goods from entering or being sold in China, etc.
I get why they do it, but you can't talk about free trade with partners that don't reciprocate. And the reality is our citizens have lost good paying jobs and in return saved a couple grand on consumer goods. Most of what people spend money on is locally controlled (housing, food, energy, etc).
From what I have read and how I think China will act makes me think they will open their markets some, play a little more fairly and we will be able to bring back incremental manufacturing jobs.
Will this fix things? No. But it is a small step forward and a huge political victory.
NAFTA is the bigger fish and I think you will see real concessions there.
It is sad that this is being left on Trump's plate, but someone had to do it. If Obama did this earlier on, we wouldn't have Trump. But when you hollow out the middle class, you open them up to populism. And when you have rich, highly educated and city concentrated liberals showing outright disdain for the "fly over states" you provide a ripe situation for Trump and people like Trump.
What exactly have Democrats done to make the results any different in 2020?
If anything, they’ve moved even more left, become more detached from moderates and basically lost their minds.
Tax cuts are working, economy hasn’t collapsed, no wars, no meat to the clown Russian claims, hopefully two SCOTUS picks and a possible NK peace.
Add to that a Trump steeled and improved by 4 years in office, Dems having to bite back for their nomination and the incumbent advantage.
We really could have 8 years of Trump.
Trump has 2 more years to solidify his position. All economic factors lag, because it isn't until companies are reviewing the PAST three months that they reset their figures for the next year. If the economy was expected to be booming all throughout 2018 and midway through 2019 after the last 6 months of 2017, but Trump started the trade war and cut taxes 6 months into 2018, plans might not start changing for 2019 until the end of this year.
When companies said they would pass the tax cut to workers and cut bonuses or started raising some wages, they did what they said. If manufacturers and other employers are saying that this trade war will lead to them shuttering operations in the country, then that's another thing they might actually do.
And, Trump has been taking a bad turn with the cages, the way NK has given him the run around, and with his trade talk. I am becoming bearish, if only because future patterns can really hurt republicans in the primaries and the country will probably bear the brunt of more aggressive extremisms in the near future.
The investigation into the investigators of Trump are proving Putin as being the long-term visionary in all of this election meddling stuff. With dems calling for impeachment, that's only going to add to the flames. The country looks to be on shaky ground, but one notable thing I saw is that the importance of "immigration" has jumped as a topic for dems, and is now closer to on par with republicans. I think Trump has strongly divided the country for some time. But, eventually, if we can preserve a modicum of the fabric of what it is to be American, we'll find we have a lot more in common than different.
Short-term: slightly bullish. Medium-term: very bearish. Long-term: slightly bullish.
Opinions from Trump boot-lickers like @TNA" cannot be taken seriously, as they dare not criticize their Dear Leader even when it's obvious he's in way over his head. (How's that Nobel Peace Prize coming TNA? Pompeio and the boys have gotten the run-around from NK ever since the grand mission accomplished summit).
The truth is tariffs are ultimately a tax on the end user, and a massive interference into free trade - two things the Republican party were previously adamantly against until, oh, 2016. China has no voters to answer to, so they will hold out as long as necessary and escalate the trade war until the U.S. succumbs. In the meantime, I'll pop popcorn and laugh at all the farmers and steelworkers who voted for their own demise.