If tariffs make US manufacturing more competitive, that will encourage more investment in US manufacturing both by US companies and foreign companies, I have received some very encouraging anecdotal reports on this, and it is verified by the surge in manufacturing employment.
AND, might I add, that, the status quo that you are so supportive of, is not sustainable, because, someday, those loans will grow beyond our ability to service them.
Then the House of Cards, come tumbling down in flames and ruin.
The sooner we change that shit, the better.
In markets not controlled by the goverment, companies become more competitive by producing a better product for the price. This is the kind of success that brings in investment capital and opens up new markets.
Steel and Aluminum companies don't have worry about producing better products at better prices. They just have to lobby congress and the administration to keep those tariffs coming to force Americans to buy their products.
And that House of Cards is far more likely to come tumbling down when Americans are paying more and getting less.
1. The world market is controlled by governments and government policies. See the EU support of Airbus, as
a small symbolic example, or the Chinese government's refusal to crack down on movie pirating.
2. If the American manufacturers cant' compete with foreign manufacturers, and the massive and ever growing trade deficit shows they, in large, they cannot, regardless of what the reason is, then we need to consider how American interests are served by constantly losing.
If you do little checking you'll
3. This country is not going to fall apart because of a small dialing back of the consumer economy. 17% more for washers and dryers? I just bought a washer and dryer for my rental unit, if the prices were inflated, it did not slow me down, or place undue hardship on me.
1. No government intervention in international trade is at an all time low. 47% of American goods are traded without tariffs, at least they were till Trump started his trade war.
Yeah, that sounds like bullshit. Perhaps 47% don't have a FORMAL OR OBVIOUS tariff, but the assholes that wanted to make Boeing bleed and scream, aren't the type of people to hesitate to hide a tariff or lie about it.
The WTO, ruled against the EU on subsidies and they began rectifying the situation within days. Still pending is the EU complaint of US support of Boeing in violation of WTO rules.
No, they didn't. The EU appealed. The article I read, the people involved, did not really expect any real impact any time soon.
The WTO has dozens of complaints against the US as it does most all major economic powers. When we look at most complaints, the intent was not to give a company or industry unfair advantage. For example, the State of Washington gave Boeing substantial tax breaks to make the state more attractive to the air frame business. France has also done the same.
If such breaks were that significant, I don't think that we would have had decades of trade deficits in the hundreds of billions a year.
Sounds like, at best, a false equivalence and at worse, just a bad actor trying to muddle the waters to fool the gullible.
The EU claims the US government has awarded huge military contracts to Boeing and profits were moved to finance the expansion of it's commercial air frame division.
Takes some serious gall to complain about money spent on military equipment that is used to protect them.
The US and other countries are protesting the price cuts in Chinese steel in 2018. The reason for the price cuts is China overproduced steel in 2017 in order to have sufficient supply to satisfy demand in 2018 because of mandated mill closures to revamp the mills due to environmental problems. The price cuts seem a clear violation of WTO rules but again it seems the intent was not to force competition out of the market.
I'm sure that that is a great comfort to steel workers around the world that lose jobs.
I want to be clear about something. I'm past caring about reasons or excuses for why this trade is not beneficial to US.
Time to balance it or stop it. Either way works for me.
Not long ago, China was an oasis for pirated music and videos. CDs and DVDs were easily copied and sold cheaply at roadside markets. That is changing rapidly with technological changes primarily streaming video and greater enforcement of copyright laws which protects both Chinese and foreign media companies. DVD and CD sales have dropped 28% drop last year and will continue to drop as the nation turns to streaming.
So, we just forget about the hundreds of billions of intellectual property that was stolen and continue to be stolen, because the rate of theft is dropping?
Yeah, that's not the way I roll.
2. That's not true. US exports have increased 60% since 2010. Most American business sectors compete quite well in foreign markets. Most of the industries that don't complete well in foreign markets are those that are very labor insensitive or the completion has a distinct advantage due demographics or geography.
The mistake most people make in looking at US trade is assuming the trade deficit is due to the inability of US industries to compete which is not so.
The fact is our trade deficit is due to the fact that Americans consume much more than they produce thus we import to make up the difference. Trying to blame this on cheating by other countries is absurd. The US has not had trade surplus since 1975. To generate a surplus we are going to have to consume less or produce more both of which has consequence. It's that simple.
I vote for both actually.