President Trump is not a man to be trifled with. He has declared a trade war on America’s two important trading partners, signatories to the trade agreement he negotiated to replace Nafta. It seems that when they responded to his threats by doing more to close their borders, they did not satisfy him enough, unless […]
Donald Trump inherits an economy that is somewhere between healthy and booming, although nevertheless with some looming problems. It is growing at what seems to be a three per cent annual rate, available jobs equal the number of unemployed, unemployment is low, real wages are rising, CEOs are optimistic that replacing the Biden team with […]
Donald Trump has long planned to impose a 10 per cent tariff on all imports, and a 60 per cent levy on imports from China to protect American producers and workers. Now, he has grander plans for their use. A Weapon In The War On Drugs Exports to the US account for 31 per cent […]
It’s come to this, a competition of conferences. In Washington, the capital of the world’s largest capitalist nation, representatives of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund were in a celebratory mood last week. It is 80 years since 730 delegates from 44 nations gathered in a rehabilitated hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, and […]
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence,” observed John Adams, the Founding Father who served as the second President of the United States. That was in 1770. We live in a different time, one in […]
Trade is war by other means. No shots fired, no body bags, with the winner selling more cars and t-shirts in its domestic and global markets. Traditional weapons are deployed – tariffs, subsidies, subtle and not-so-subtle barriers to trade such as prolonged inspections of imports of perishable products. This Trade War Is Different The current […]
Should Bill Clinton choose to make a run in 2024, he would be the youngest, most experienced, candidate on the ballot, and would probably win in a landslide, although it might not match his 65 per cent approval rating when he left office. (I know: no third terms, but the thought was too delicious to […]
Economic policy is the continuation of war with other means. In the last great confrontation between the world’s dictatorships and democracies, economic circumstances favored the democracies. Japan and Germany possessed neither the resources nor the manpower to power them to victory: they were forced to spend blood and treasure to conquer nations and populations to […]
America’s all-out effort to “de-risk” our trade with China, or “stabilize” our relations with the People’s Republic are polite ways of saying we aren’t serious about our contest with the communist regime for power and influence. Yellen Receives A Smiling Welcome Our efforts so far took an economic turn when President Biden sent treasury secretary […]
America is losing and China is winning. To be fashionable, call that “the bottom line”, or the “take-away” from reports about the battle between the world’s democracies and the founders of a New World Order. The public statements emitting from last weekend’s meeting of the G7 industrialized democracies do not reflect what four-star General Jack […]