Guest Post by Patrick J. Buchanan
Since China devalued its currency 3 percent, global markets have gone into a tailspin. Why should this be?
After all, 3 percent devaluation in China could be countered by a U.S. tariff of 3 percent on all goods made in China, and the tariff revenue used to cut U.S. corporate taxes.
The crisis in world markets seems related not only to a sinking Chinese economy, but also to what Beijing is saying to the world; i.e., China will save herself first even if it means throwing others out of the life boat.
Disbelievers in New World Order mythology have long recognized that this new China is fiercely nationalistic. Indeed, with Marxism-Leninism dead, nationalism is the Communist Party’s fallback faith.
China has thus kept her currency cheap to hold down imports and keep exports surging. She has run $300 billion trade surpluses at the expense of the Americans. She has demanded technology transfers from firms investing in China and engaged in technology theft.
Disillusioned U.S. executives have been pulling out.
And the stronger China has grown economically, the more bellicose she has become with her neighbors from Japan to Vietnam to the Philippines. Lately, China has laid claim to virtually the entire South China Sea and all its islands and reefs as national territory.
In short, China is becoming a mortal threat to the rules-based global economy Americans have been erecting since the end of the Cold War, even as the U.S. system of alliances erected by Cold War and post-Cold War presidents seems to be unraveling.
Germany, the economic powerhouse of the European Union, was divided until recently on whether Greece should be thrown out of the eurozone. German nationalists have had enough of Club Med.
On issues from mass migrations from the Third World, to deeper political integration of Europe, to the EU’s paltry contributions to a U.S.-led NATO that defends the continent, nationalistic resistance is rising.
Enter the Donald. If there is a single theme behind his message, it would seem to be a call for a New Nationalism or New Patriotism.
He is going to “make America great again.” He is going to build a wall on the border that will make us proud, and Mexico will pay for it.
He will send all illegal aliens home and restore the traditional value of U.S. citizenship by putting an end to the scandal of “anchor babies.”
One never hears Trump discuss the architecture of our rules-based global economy.
Rather, he speaks of Mexico, China and Japan as tough rivals, not “trade partners,” smart antagonists who need to face tough American negotiators who will kick their butts.
They took our jobs and factories; now we are going to take them back. And if that Ford plant stays in Mexico, then Ford will have to climb a 35-percent tariff wall to get its trucks and cars back into the USA.
Trump to Ford: Bring that factory back to Michigan!
To Trump, the world is not Davos; it is the NFL. He is appalled at those mammoth container ships in West Coat ports bringing in Hondas and Toyotas. Those ships should be carrying American cars to Asia.
Asked by adviser Dick Allen for a summation of U.S. policy toward the Soviets, Ronald Reagan said: “We win; they lose.”
That it is not an unfair summation of what Trump is saying about Mexico, Japan and China.
While the economic nationalism here is transparent, Trump also seems to be saying that foreign regimes are freeloading off the U.S. defense budget and U.S. military.
He asks why rich Germans aren’t in the vanguard in the Ukraine crisis. Why do South Koreans, with an economy 40 times that of the North and a population twice as large, need U.S. troops on the DMZ?
“What’s in it for us?” he seems ever to be asking.
He has called Vladimir Putin a Russian patriot and nationalist with whom he can talk. He has not joined the Republican herd that says it will cancel the Iran nuclear deal the day they take office, re-impose U.S. sanctions and renegotiate the deal.
Trump says he would insure that Iran lives up to the terms.
While his foreign policy positions seem unformed, his natural reflex appears nonideological and almost wholly results-oriented. He looks on foreign trade much as did 19th-century Republicans.
They saw America as the emerging world power and Britain as the nation to beat, as China sees us today. Those Americans used tariffs, both to force foreigners to pay to build our country, and to keep British imports at a price disadvantage in the USA.
Then they exploited British free trade policy to ship as much as they could to the British Isles to take down their factories and capture their jobs for U.S. workers, as the Chinese do to us today.
Whatever becomes of Trump the candidate, Trumpism, i.e., economic and foreign policy nationalism, appears ascendant.
So that’s the good news. And the bad news is…?
“In short, China is becoming a mortal threat to the rules-based global economy Americans have been erecting since the end of the Cold War, …..” ———— article
It’s called the Golden Rule: he who owns the gold, makes the rules. We had our turn, now it belongs to others.
“Enter the Donald. If there is a single theme behind his message, it would seem to be a call for a New Nationalism or New Patriotism.” ————— article
If THAT doesn’t scare the bejeebus out of you ….. you haven’t been paying attention!
[img[/img]
Be vewy vewy careful of those who wrap themselves in a flag.
[img[/img]
Ok Donald ,I think a little nationalism is a good thing. What else do you have?
“After all, 3 percent devaluation in China could be countered by a U.S. tariff of 3 percent on all goods made in China, and the tariff revenue used to cut U.S. corporate taxes.”
I believe there are several treaties that would forbid that, at least without consent of the WTO and maybe some other trade organizations which is unlikely.
“Free Trade” signed away most of our sovereign rights in this arena.
Overthecliff, a little nationalism is crucial. Trade and immigration have torn us to shreds. Fix those two, and we can bicker about the rest.
Stuck- If you are against Nationalism and Patriotism are you in line with Globalism? Are you a lover of World Government?
Stuck, so you want us to be free-trade globalists while our adversaries are nationalists?
“Are you a lover of World Government?” ————– Bea Lever
Are you a fucking moran? I believe you are.
Iska
If our enemies are fascists, should we become fascist?
Bea, comes out strong. We might end up on the same side. Bea makes a good point there, stucky. Don’t fall for the globalist propaganda. Buchanan is the north star.
” … a little nationalism is crucial.” ———– starfcker
A little arsenic in the diet is good … helps build up the immune system.
Goose steppers, stucky? Please. I bet you grew up playing soccer in a league that didn’t keep score. Show us your participation trophies
starfcker / Bea
You two nitwits think its either globalism or nationalism …… that there are no other choices??
Stucky- Please clarify where you stand, I am hearing doublespeak. What is wrong with patriotism?
Don’t buy into the propaganda, the flushing sound is already deafening.
Stucky: “If our enemies are fascists, should we become fascist?”
So what do you think we should become?
“The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop.”
George Washington Farewell Address
“peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none…”
Thomas Jefferson
“So what do you think we should become?” ————- Anonymous
SERIOUSLY??????
.
.
.
ADMIN! How soon until the TBP IQ Test is implemented?
I think he just implemented it, stuck. Study up next time.
Here’s what I think about patriotism.
[img?w=300&h=190[/img]
Stucky- Are you saying you are Anti-American?
Nope.
Once again you reduce things to black&white … TWO choices ONLY!!! …… either one is a patriot, or one is Anti-American.
Either you’re with us, or against us. I bet you loved George Bush.
Sieg Heil!
Trump’s Trade Snake Oil
How exactly will high import taxes help “make America great” again?
Sheldon Richman | August 23, 2015
One need only think about the questions Trump is not asked to see what I mean. Take Trump’s position on trade. He’s given a forum to spout the hoariest fallacies without even a raised eyebrow from Anderson Cooper, Chris Cuomo, et al. Maybe they don’t know any better, or maybe they think that challenging Trump’s crackpot economics is not their department. Either way, they do their audience a disservice.
How great would it be if some reporter asked, “Mr. Trump, didn’t Adam Smith refute all this in 1776?”
Or: “Mr. Trump, show me where Henry George erred when he said, ‘What protection teaches us is to do to ourselves in time of peace what enemies seek to do to us in time of war'”?
If that is too highbrow, they might ask: “Mr. Trump, if your import taxes force Americans to pay more for cars and other foreign-made products, won’t they have less money to spend on other things or to invest? How would that help make America great?”
Trump says American presidents have been played for chumps by foreign countries in trade (and all other) matters. His proof? Americans send the Japanese corn and wheat, and the Japanese send Americans cars in return. To him this is—on its face—an outrage. Strangely, he adds that the Japanese don’t want the corn or wheat. No one bothers to ask him why, then, they accept those commodities. I thought Americans were the ones being taken advantage of.
Before we get to the core of the matter, let’s point out that Trump’s story is rather oversimplified. No American pays for a foreign car with corn or wheat. Americans use dollars. Car dealers also use dollars. So do wholesalers, etc. True, at some point, Japanese handlers of cars are paid in yen, or if paid in dollars, they convert them to yen (if they do not invest the dollars in American stocks, bonds, or real estate). Eventually, someone in Japan buys American wheat or corn (or something else), but those commodities are not bartered for automobiles. At any rate, what would be wrong if they were? In fact, what would be wrong if the Japanese refused to accept the commodities and sent the cars to us for free? Would greatness lie in rejecting free cars? Would free cars free up resources and labor for things we can’t afford today because we have to pay for cars? Trump needs to read Bastiat.
Let’s ignore, at least for now, that “the vast majority of the cars and trucks made in North America are still produced in the U.S. for domestic consumption and export to other countries” and that many foreign cars have American parts. Let’s also ignore the rather key fact that foreign automakers long ago built factories in the United States. From the way Trump talks, you’d think it was 1980, but you don’t hear reporters mentioning that to him.
Those are relevant facts, but they are not critical to exposing Trump’s protectionist snake oil. So let’s assume that Americans import all their cars from Mexico, Japan, Germany, Sweden, and South Korea. So what?
As long as the government does not subsidize or penalize consumer choice either directly or indirectly, we have no reason for concern about Americans’ auto-buying. (If the government were distorting the market—which of course it does—the proper response would be to eliminate the interventions, not to micromanage us, as Trump would do.)
The purpose of production is not job-creation; it’s consumption. If Americans find foreign-made cars a better value than American cars, so be it. To the extent they save money, they have more discretionary income with which to buy other things or to save and invest. For those who (needlessly) worry about jobs, this new ability to buy and save ought to be comforting. If Americans’ direct auto-making talents aren’t valued in the marketplace, Americans will make other things that consumers (here and abroad) will want. That’s the law of comparative advantage in action. (Again, this assumes no government distortions, such as those created by subsidies, taxes, occupational licensing, zoning, central banking, intellectual property, and other special-interest political mischief.)
Under these circumstances and contrary to Trump, it would be wrong to say, “Americans don’t make cars.” Of course they do. What does it mean to “make cars”? It surely does not mean to produce cars out of thin air, like magic. No one does that, not even Detroit in its heyday. Rather, it means to use labor and the forces of nature to transform raw and semi-finished materials into cars, converting a pile of matter from a less-useful form to a more-useful form from the consumers’ perspective.
In economics we have the fable of the mysterious factory that turned wheat into cars. Farmers would deliver the wheat to the door on the left, and a few days later cars would roll out from the door on the right. How could this be? It turned out that the factory was located at a harbor. Foreign ships docked at the factory, where they unloaded cars and loaded wheat. Voila! Cars from wheat. This is not a verbal trick. The process of production consists in a variety activities, and trade is one of them.
So an American who grows wheat and trades it to an automaker for a car (as if it happened that way) has indeed produced a car—indirectly to be sure, but he produced it nonetheless. From the consumer’s perspective, it doesn’t matter if the car seller made the car or acquired it through trade, as long as he sees a net benefit in the transaction.
But this is old news. It was spelled out centuries ago by David Hume, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Frederic Bastiat, John Stuart Mill, and others. No doubt the late Spanish Scholastics had figured it out before them. Most economists today accept it, including Paul Krugman. I guess Trump never got the memo.
We don’t need a deal-maker in the White House. We need the freedom to trade with anyone we please, anywhere in the world, on any terms we find agreeable. Government should butt out. Hear that, Mr. Trump?
Trump traffics in the stalest of stale trade fallacies, just as he traffics in the stalest of stale immigration fallacies. It’s what demagogues do. When will a reporter call him on it?
Should we just call America ( Sector 9) so we don’t step on your toes? Are we to remain a sovereign country ? Still don’t understand what you are saying Stucky.
Sheldon richman is a globalist swine. Here’s how, dumbfuck. A car won’t cost a dime more if we tariff japan. A japanese car might cost more. Which is why we would do it. A car company making cars in america, employing americans, who can then buy a home and raise a family, strengthens us as a country.. fuck japan, and sheldon the swine richman
If sheldon weren’t a swine, and if his dribble had any merit, we would be doing swell here in the good old USA, wouldn’t we.
Sheldon ‘swine’ richman. Senior fellow, center for a stateless society. Traitor, in other words
Admin
Very nice article by Sheldon. The more one digs into The Donald’s true beliefs, the more one realizes what an idiot he is ….. not to mention some of his adoring public.
Sounds like some people are in favor of Americans remaining on assistance from .gov so China, Mexico and the Pacific Rim can keep full employment. The Fed will eventually have to stop printing, where does that leave us?
I think everyone knows I am no fan of Donny Chump, but this globalist crap is just that.
Stucky, bea has you pinned here. Ignoring that fact won’t make it go away. Do you believe in nations, or are you, like your new hero, sheldon the swine, in favor of a stateless world? Inquiring minds want to know
Whats the matter with being for your own country? NAFTA and now TPP, I can only imagine that these deals screw over Americans. Admin. Your thinking is messed up. The idea that we can compete with countries that have really cheap labor costs and few regulations is wrong. If companies want to make factories in some backwater country,Let them sell the products there. Obama wants to knock the U.S. down a few pegs by sending jobs off to third world countries.We go down and other countries go up. It’s a fucked up way of doing things.
Obama and Admin. selling out America to the lowest bidder.
Immigration,Either close off the border and stop illegal aliens from over running the country. Or eliminate the border altogether. We have enough uneducated people here as it is.
Trump is right about the anchor baby thing also.
I’m not that crazy about Trump,But we need a pro American president who has run a company and worked for a living. We would still have all the dead looking old white guys in the senate to keep the country from ever doing anything that would help us.
My economic collapse thinking seems to be running it’s course right now.
Jim, give him the test, quick. For everybodies sake.
….and the winners are Star and Bea.
What are our prospects here in America if we have no future for the 93million citizens who are without work……………where will they be when the safety net fails. Fed phony money is all that is keeping us going now even for those who are still employed. Something has to give soon.
Admin and Stucky need to school me on these other choices we have available.
When the money runs out we’ll be living in Kunstler’s World Made By Hand
Work the fields or die
Overthecliff
Do you have a clue what they are advocating here? Stucky and Admin have been hitting the sauce early today.
Nothing wrong with that. I do it every day.
Admin is stating that we should settle for ultra third world life here in America?
Looks like we need to stand up and say HELL NO !
starfcker,
But it’s a terrifying idea to those who don’t.
Especially those who never have.
“Trump says he would insure that Iran lives up to the terms.”
—————————
From the scant information published about “the terms” (too many secret side deals with this agreement), it seems there are not many that Iran is bound to live up to in the first place.
So is Trump OK with this Iran deal? If so, that’s not good for any of us.
Stucky says: The more one digs into The Donald’s true beliefs, the more one realizes what an idiot he is.
Don’t you find it a rather daunting task making the argument a self made billionaire is an idiot? He’s basically paying for his own campaign and is not beholden to special interests groups, career politicians are afraid of him. What’s not to like?
Sensetti thinks Trump is self made.
His daddy left him $200 million.
Geez. The stupid, it burns.
Trump is under such high stress that he had plenty of time to be a dumbass reality TV goofball for the last ten years.
Beuhler………….Beuhler…………..anyone ………………anyone.
Rise Up,
Trump is a master negotiator, he wouldn’t have negotiated that abomination (from the little that has been exposed) in the first place.
You see, there is an underlying principle to negotiating that Trump understands but Obama doesn’t: Never enter a negotiation you’re unwilling to walk away from.
That’s why Obama gave Iran everything they wanted and got us nothing, he wanted some kind of deal -any kind of deal- so badly that he just gave in instead of walking away when it was obviously something Iran got everything from and we got nothing from.
Sensetti is now a comedian…..
Trump IS beholden as you put it to more banks than you can wrap your mind around, to be blunt he is owned by the banksters. His personal wealth is grossly overestimated and his huge mountain of debt is grossly under reported.
I watched an interview with Trump many years ago and the interviewer asked the Don “what one thing would you attribute to your success if you could only pick one”? Trump said my ability to work 20 hour days for weeks at a time, I’m working while my competition is a sleep!
The man is driven, if he puts his mind to a task he’s going balls deep to make it happen. Hey, I want someone who knows how to fucking win. Fuck all this bleeding heart shit, let’s save the world crowd. I want to see our welfare state dismantled, you don’t work, you don’t eat. Where I differ with Trump, I would keep anyone with a job, career welfare recipients, would be relocated to Liberia, yes, against their will. What’s says you?
Bra Leaver post some fucking numbers.
I know Real Estate Developers they “ALL” operate on borrowed money. They make their money during the construction of a project. They spend less on the project than they borrow on the construction loan. If the project goes bankrupt within the first year they don’t give a shit, they already walked with their cash. Sir, I speak of what I know here, I’ve got a buddy that’s a Millionaire with a good size ranch close to my house, he’s told me many times, I’ll take on any project a bank will loan me the money to build, if it doesn’t fly I skate, I don’t give a damn.
These guys have this shit down to a science. It’s high stress, Very High Stress. The are ruthless individuals, but they understand how to win and win big.
Yahsure, thanks for explaining why the US had only one year of trade deficit between 1900 and 1970, must have been those sweatshop wages over here…
Admin- That’s 11 years, Trump started his tv acting career in 2004 if I am not mistaken. Why would a ultra-busy billionaire tycoon type spend 11 years doing scripted faux reality tv?
One more thing, the dude I speak of above, he’s been Bankrupt one year and two years later clears a million dollars. He’s a deal maker and when you learn that World one can reproduce it over and over, as long as, interest rates are low and people are chasing yield. He found a piece of Very Prime commercial real estate in Dallas an 85 year old man refused to sell for sentimental reasons. My buddy sets up a meeting with this man sells him a line of shit gets an option to buy the property with a clause that he can reassign the option, the old man signed it, two days later he sold the option for 1.5 million dollars and walked away. Not bad for a couple weeks work. What’s my point? My buddy here is just like ole Trump, as long as the have air in their lungs they are going to win more than the lose.
But it’s a whole lot less about Balls as it is being ruthless and….well…. Lying To make a deal work. They are used car salesmen on steroids, but hey, we need a game changer and a ruthless deal maker may be what it takes
Does self made mean you start with zero? Trumps worth 4 Billion dollars, do the maff, that’s self made by definition. Damn this shit easy!
Sensetti actually believes Trump is worth what he says he’s worth. That’s precious. But I guess if you actually believe he works 20 hour days, you’ll believe anything.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-07/guest-post-donald-trump-broke