Dear Donald Trump: China, Japan and Mexico are not ‘killing us’
Sept 17th
"Donald Trump’s presidential bid is centered on the promise of his personal talents. He
says he’s the “most successful person ever to run for the presidency, by far.” (George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower, sit down!) But if there is an idea animating his candidacy, it is that the United States is being badly beaten by its economic competitors. In his
speech on foreign policy this week, Trump explained that America is being bested by countries such as China, Japan and Mexico because their leaders are “smarter, more cunning and sharper than our leaders.” “They’re killing us,” he often
says.
This is an odd moment to make these charges because the reality is almost entirely the opposite. The United States is more dominant on the global economic landscape than at any point since the heyday of Bill Clinton’s presidency — perhaps even more so.
Last quarter, the U.S. economy
grew at a 3.7 percent clip. Annual growth now is almost
twice that of Europe and four times that of Japan.
Unemployment is at 5.1 percent, the lowest in seven years. The deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product (
2.8 percent in 2014) is at its lowest
since 2007.
“The U.S. has come out of the 2008 crisis better than all the others,” says Ruchir Sharma, head of global macro investing at Morgan Stanley."
