Trade wars are not so easy to win after all. The president’s much-touted tariffs haven’t helped furious steelworkers hang on to their jobs.
Despite massive
tariffs imposed by President
Donald Trump, the U.S. just chalked up its biggest trade deficit in 14 years.
The gap between the value of goods and services the U.S. buys compared to what it sells abroad
climbed 5.9% in August to $67.1 billion. That’s the largest gap since August 2006.
Imports were up 3.2%, to $239 billion — led by purchases of crude oil, cars and auto parts — compared with exports, which rose just 2.2% to $171.9 billion on shipments mostly of soybeans, reported the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
So far this year, the U.S. has recorded a trade gap of $421.8 billion — up 5.7% from January to August 2019 — even though balancing the trade gap has been a signature promise of Trump’s.
Trade wars are not so easy to win after all. The president's much-touted tariffs haven't helped furious steelworkers hang on to their jobs.
www.huffpost.com
Doesn't look good. What do you think?
Every economic advisor in the world told him it wouldn't work--the tariffs. And guess what; it didn't. What was even more crazy was the school of thought that tried to divorce the trade deals between EU and us from the other moves we made on NATO and immigration.
Anyway, I had some thoughts on another thread and I'll paste them below:
---
We're funding it. Not the government. Us. I'm looking at my desk right now. Only the bag of Goldfish crackers was made in the USA--Norwalk CT.
Computer, printer, scanner, keyboard, mouse, monitor...made over seas. Multi-line phone...overseas. I can't see where the desk itself was made but I'm betting overseas. Tupperware container and flatware. Mexico.
Until consumers stop consuming these products, it won't change.
What to do? Here is an idea just off the top of my head.
Set up accounts like banks have for social security. You log on using your number. It has the day you become eligible, the amount you can expect to get, etc...
On this website, you have another account. Lets call it the MIA--pronounced Mee-Ah-- account...Made in America. Each month during periods specified by Congress, monies are allocated to those accounts. Lets call it $62.50 a month. About $750 a year or so. Make it whatever you want.
During which, at the same time, the Dept of Agriculture along with the Dept of Commerce sets up a program--a partnership whereby both online and in brick and mortar stores feature sections of their website or sections of their store for the MIA goods only. Farmer surpluses, clothing, radios, after-market auto parts, etc... American made goods that are turly Ameican made; not 25% American made, not goods made in Mexico but packaged here, etc.. AMERICAN MADE GOODS. If you want to put a percentage on it, fine...make it 90+ percent though. American firms hiring Americans to produce goods that are made in America...using American made raw materials.
It sets up a sub-economy. The program would be huge but hey, it's a time for bold measures in my mind. Each American getting $750.00 a year (again adjust it any way you want). Its what some people pay in taxes an entire year. LOL. Its a $225 Billion dollar industry ($750 X 300M Americans) that the government could create in a very short amount of time. On the retail end, there would probably not be a large hiring increase. On the manufacturing end, you'd see a pretty good development. I'm sure Hitachi and Toshiba and Mawae or whatever it is called would set up a dummy corp to give them an american presence and take part. Whatever. As long as they hire Americans to make the goods, that's great. As long as they are paying utilities to American providers like ConEd, PG&E, Spectrum, etc.. Thats great. As long as they are using American grown okra, wheat, soybeans, milk, cheese, cotton, hemp, dyes, etc... Thats great. As long as they are using minerals taken out of the mines in Kentucky, Tennessee, or Wyoming. Thats great. As long as they are using Texas beef, Arkansas chickens, or Washington State apples...that's great. That is the difference between the economic activity created by buying a set of plastic ware something in our breakroom that was made in Malaysia.
It will create some jobs in manufacturing although it won't be heavy industry. It will create some jobs on the distribution end. I envision warehouses full of these commodities.
What it will also do, lets be honest, is set up another underground economy where people will find a way to sell what they buy--or sell the credits outright. Perhaps some of the smarter people here--there are hundreds--can find a way to institutionalize that as well. Make it perfectly OK for someone like me who is doing well financially to donate--or trade--my $62.50 to the local food pantry or sell/donate it to Jane Doe who perhaps isn't doing so well. People will be doing this for crack cocaine too of course. But the net effect is that whoever gets the credit either uses them or not...if they use them, it creates economic activity. If they do not...well...there will be a great many who do not.
On the downside, the products available through the program won't be as affordable as the cheap crap made overseas. So you'll still have people going to Wal*Mart and buying the foreign made goods. Nothing is going to stop that in a capitalist society. But what you will have is a segment of the economy that is just set up for American commerce.
