“The Smart People” have been oh-so-wrong about oh-so-many things regarding Candidate cum President Donald Trump.
It is particularly interesting to examine just how wrong The Smart People have been about President Trump’s trade policies. Because it is via his trade policies – that oh-so-many of the Smart People’s dumbnesses have come to further light.
Trump campaigned on how dumb The Smart People’s trade polices have for decades been. How damaging they have been to nigh every aspect of our economy.
Bad trade deals – begat bad jobs and wages outcomes. For decades.
The Smart People – operating upon their assumptions that their trade deals were great and Trump is stupid – made fun of Trump for all sorts of things Trump promised to improve.
(President Barack) Obama: Some Jobs ‘Are Just Not Going to Come Back’
Obama to Trump: ‘What Magic Wand Do You Have?’:
“During a PBS town hall that aired Wednesday, Obama referenced Trump’s promise to bring back jobs to the United States when talking about manufacturing.
“‘Well, how exactly are you going to do that? What exactly are you going to do? There’s no answer to it,’ Obama said.
“’He just says, “Well, I’m going to negotiate a better deal.” Well, what, how exactly are you going to negotiate that? What magic wand do you have? And usually the answer is, he doesn’t have an answer.’”
As it turns out, Trump’s “magic wand” – is negotiating better deals. Just as he said. Which balance the favoritisms nigh every other nation on the planet had over us in The Smart People’s trade deals.
Trump’s New Trade Deal Is Better for Workers than NAFTA Was
Trump and EU Officials Agree to Work Toward ‘Zero Tariff’ Deal
And what about Obama’s mockery of Trump on manufacturing jobs specifically? The ones Obama asserted were gone – and “just not going to come back?”
Manufacturing Jobs Growth is Best Since 1995
Obama, of course, couldn’t be more ensconced in The Smart People set.
Included in Trump’s new trade approach? Countries that mass-government-subsidize their countries’ products and then dump them in the US – receive tariffs <GASP>.
There is absolutely nothing free market about foreign governments mass-subsidizing their countries’ products and then dumping them in the US.
There is everything US-jobs-killing about it. We don’t subsidize most products – and the ones we do, we do infinitesimally compared to other nations.
So the flooding of our market with their mass government subsidies – has killed millions of US jobs.
The Smart People found Trump’s tariffs – to be GASP-inducing.
Study Shows Tariffs on China Would Hurt US Jobs, Economy
Trump Has Promised to Bring Jobs Back. His Tariffs Threaten to Send Them Away
Six Reasons Trump’s Proposed Auto Tariffs Are A Bad Idea
Trump’s Steel Tariffs: Bad Economics, Bad Policy
Except the Smart People – are again left looking very, very stupid.
How’d the US economy do in 2018?
U.S. Second-Quarter Growth Revised Up to 4.2%
US Economy Keeps Growing Strong at 3.5% in the Third Quarter
Economists ‘Wowed’ by October Jobs Report as Wage Growth Picks Up
Strong U.S. Job and Wage Growth Provides Assurance on Economy
U.S. Unemployment Rate Falls to Lowest Level Since 1969
Black and Hispanic Unemployment Hits All-Time Record Lows
Manufacturing Continues to Boom in America, Defying Gloomy Tariff Predictions
More US Regions See Job Openings Outnumbering the Number of People Seeking Jobs
All of this across-the-board amazing economic news – flying directly in the face of the predictions of The Smart People.
Of course, Trump also used tariffs as a cudgel – to get other nations to the negotiating table. Which as we’ve already very much seen – has worked like a charm.
And if we’d stop and think about it for but a second, we’d realize we could cut taxes on US companies and citizens in all sorts of other places – to be replaced by tariffs on foreign companies and countries. Just as it used to be.
Tariffs and Growth in 19th Century:
“The late 19th century was a period of high tariffs and economic growth for many countries.”
Of the very many, very important takeaways from all of this Trump-trade-rewriting success – the one with which I’d like to leave you is:
While we in the US have a mostly government-subsidy-free economy – the governments of countries the world over subsidize the daylight out of their products.
When these countries bring their subsidized products to global market – the global market ceases to be a free market.
It is no longer “May the best product win” – it is “The most subsidized product wins, no matter how awful that product is.”
And it ain’t just products – it’s commodities. To wit:
Brazil’s Domination of the World Sugar Market
“Brazil currently dominates the world sugar market in almost all aspects. It is the world’s largest producer of sugar cane (and) the world’s largest exporter of sugar cane….
“The Brazilian government is also highly involved in its sugar-cane market….This action affects Brazilian producer prices for sugar cane, consumer prices for sugar and alcohol, and quantities both produced and consumed in Brazil.
“Further, it affects world prices for refined sugar….”
Indeed it does. There are more than 100 countries that export sugar. Brazil all by itself – controls half that market.
And Brazil does that – by mass subsidizing its sugar. To the tune of $4 billion per year.
Which means when they arrive on the global market – they can charge $4 billion per year less than everyone else.
Shocker – they control half the global market.
You can call this a whole lot of things. None of those things – is a free market.
This market mass manipulation – is exactly the type of awful trade deal to which The Smart People have for decades been subjecting us.
This market mass manipulation – is exactly the type of awful trade deal The Smart People have defended – while ridiculing Trump for wanting to change them.
In The Smart People v Trump – one side wants an actual, actually free market.
And it ain’t The Smart People.
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