The Facts, Ma’am, Just The Facts

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” So said Founding Father, lawyer, and President John Adams when successfully defending British soldiers who were charged with murder for firing on a crowd of Americans during a […]

The Great Decoupling – Don’t Call It a Trade War

What’s happening between the United States and China is far bigger than a mere trade dispute. It’s the first step in the long march to a new world order. To talk of a trade war between the United States and China is to misunderstand the magnitude of what the world economic order is confronting. Think […]

Into Bretton Woods with Keynes and Out With Nixon and Trump

The architecture was devised by John Maynard Keynes and Harry Dexter White in 1944, embodied in durable institutions (now the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank) by 737 delegates from 44 Allied nations led by the United States, demolished in 1971 by Richard Nixon, whose replacement is in its turn being consigned to the […]

The Battle for Control of the World Trading Order: Cold War On

The trade skirmish is over. The Chinese-American cold war is on. Even if a deal is confected, it will not resolve the confrontation between America, the current world hegemon, and China, the wannabe. China’s president, Xi Jinping, insists the Communist Party must retain control of China, and be free to use subsidies, trade discrimination against […]

From Victim to Participant: The Trade War With China

“U.S. Renews Trade War Against China,” headlines the New York Times. “U.S. Continues Response To China’s Trade War Against America” would have been more accurate. Those who accuse President Trump of starting a trade war with China had better think again. For decades China has been waging a trade war against the United States, repeatedly […]

Trump Girds for War with the EU

Until now, American Presidents have been content to operate within the existing rules-based trade order. In 2006 the U.S. complained to the World Trade Organization that Airbus, the European airplane manufacturer, had received $22 billion in illegal subsidies. Successive rulings and rejections of EU appeals resulted in a finding in favor of the U.S. A […]

Trump Gets Xi’s Attention

Mock Donald Trump not. He has emerged the winner in preliminary, warm-up bouts with South Korea, Mexico and Japan. And in the main event, with Donald Trump in the red, white and blue trunks vs. Xi Jinping in the red trunks, the American president again looks very much the winner. A must for the self-styled […]

Trump and the New Cold War

He didn’t start it, but he’s joining it. There are times when the purpose to which money is to be put is more revealing than the sum. This is such a time. And there are times when a trip to Moscow is more about China than it is about Russia. This is such a time. […]

Globalization 2.0

The USMCA is more than just a rebranded NAFTA. It’s the shape of things to come. Globalization 2.0. That will be the result of the acceptance of Donald Trump’s conversion of the 1994 NAFTA agreement he found so objectionable into a framework for a tripartite deal between the same parties-the United States, Mexico, and a […]

Tariffs Forever!

The politics of protectionism mean it’s here to stay. If you missed the latest threat from President Trump as he continues to huff and puff in his effort to blow down the protectionist wall Xi Jinping has erected in his effort to make China great again, here it is: A 25 percent duty on $50 […]