Trump's Trade Deals...

[Mountain Man]

(and, again, so much for "I'm done" )

Wrong thread.

[carpedm9587]

Wrong thread.

Ahh.. I see... just pick up the same discussion in a different thread and you can dodge that...

I never thought to try THAT one...

[Mountain Man]

Ahh.. I see... just pick up the same discussion in a different thread and you can dodge that...

I never thought to try THAT one...

What are you talking about? The other thread we were discussing the Obamacare bait-and-switch. This thread is about trade policy. I'm not sure what you think I'm "dodging" by continuing to post in a thread that I never indicated I was retiring from.

[carpedm9587]

What are you talking about? The other thread we were discussing the Obamacare bait-and-switch. This thread is about trade policy. I'm not sure what you think I'm "dodging" by continuing to post in a thread that I never indicated I was retiring from.

Actually - you're right. My apologies. I remembered you saying "I'm done" twice, and thought the second was this thread. It wasn't. My bad.

Carry on...

[Mountain Man]

Here's an in-depth look at Trump's trade strategy and how it's working as intended.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com...n-ticket-trap/

The short version is that Trump has carefully maneuvered China into an economically unsustainable position, and they can either cut a deal with the US, or watch their economy go down the drain.

[carpedm9587]

Here's an in-depth look at Trump's trade strategy and how it's working as intended.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com...n-ticket-trap/

The short version is that Trump has carefully maneuvered China into an economically unsustainable position, and they can either cut a deal with the US, or watch their economy go down the drain.

It's a very nice story. I note it is unbacked by a shred of data-driven analysis - so I don't find it particularly compelling. I would imagine you do because it feeds into your "Trump as the savior of the U.S. economic world" narrative. Somehow, I'm to believe that a man who drove a multitude of businesses into bankruptcy (and then stumbled onto a media-driven model at which he excels), and who surrounds himself with sycophants, is suddenly the economic master of the universe?

I find it highly doubtful.

[Mountain Man]

It challenges your "Trump is a liar/moron!" narrative, so of course you're suspicious.

By the way, did you follow the links in the article (and the links at those links) to get all the background information? The Last Refuge is written for a high-context audience and doesn't tend to hold the reader's hand through each article. If you don't keep up with it, you might have to do some additional homework to understand things that are obvious to a regular reader. This assumes, of course, that one has a genuine desire to be informed.

[carpedm9587]

It challenges your beliefs, so of course you're suspicious.

It is a vacuous argument that doesn't align with observed reality - so of course I'm suspicious.

By the way, did you follow the links in the article (and the links at those links) to get all the background information? The Last Refuge is written for a high-context audience and doesn't tend to hold the reader's hand through each article. If you don't keep up with it, you might have to do some additional homework to understand things that are obvious to a regular reader. This assumes one has a genuine desire to be informed.

Yeah - I followed the links. The vast majority go to equally vacuous opinion pieces from the same source, many of which have a multitude of links that go to equally vacuous opinion pieces from the same source, and so on. As best I can tell, if you were to trace a family tree of links from this website, you'd have the vast majority of them link to other CTH opinion pieces. One link went to the South China Post (an article about the impact of the tariffs on the global economy) and one went to Trump's tweets (not exactly a bastion of intellectual honesty).

All in all, I found it an economic puff piece designed to appeal to the reading audience of the Conservative Treehouse. I'm not surprised that you found it compelling.

[Mountain Man]

As I said, "This assumes one has a genuine desire to be informed."

[Mountain Man]

By the way, you can't have looked very hard because it only took me one or two hops to find links to a number of external sources including the LA Times New York Times, CNN, official US government documents, and so on.

But this is typical for you: find.a quick and easy way to dismiss a source you disagree with so that you can tell yourself that your ideas have never been seriously challenged.

[carpedm9587]

By the way, you can't have looked very hard because it only took me one or two hops to find links to a number of external sources including the LA Times New York Times, CNN, official US government documents, and so on.

But this is typical for you: find.a quick and easy way to dismiss a source you disagree with so that you can tell yourself that your ideas have never been seriously challenged.

I didn't say there weren't links to other sources, MM. I said they were in the significant minority - and I also noted they were generally news articles tangentially related to the subject. The data to support the claims made in the argument was pretty much absent.

If you think otherwise, by all means list the data that supports the claims made in the article. I found next to nothing - and I'm not going to start posting link after link to show "nothing there."

[carpedm9587]

This is the kind of information that backs up the stated opinion with some hard numbers that are directly related to the opinion being stated.

Farmers are taking it on the chin. On one hand, I feel for them and wish things could be better. On the other hand, the kind of pain they are feeling is pain I think a lot of people need to feel before they will realize what kind of ineffective clown we have sitting in the oval office. Then, perhaps, they will consider jumping ship in 2020. If the erosion goes beyond the moderates that pulled the lever in favor of Trump while holding their nose, and actually starts to dig into his base even a little bit...Trump is doomed.

[seer]

The other side...

A tariff may be described as a sales or consumption tax the consumer pays, but tariffs are also a discretionary and an optional tax.

If you choose not to purchase Chinese goods and instead buy comparable goods made in other nations or the USA, then you do not pay the tariff.

China loses the sale. This is why Beijing, which runs $350 billion to $400 billion in annual trade surpluses at our expense is howling loudest. Should Donald Trump impose that 25% tariff on all $500 billion in Chinese exports to the USA, it would cripple China's economy. Factories seeking assured access to the U.S. market would flee in panic from the Middle Kingdom.

Tariffs were the taxes that made America great. They were the taxes relied upon by the first and greatest of our early statesmen, before the coming of the globalists Woodrow Wilson and FDR.

https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/p...-america-great

[seer]

This is the kind of information that backs up the stated opinion with some hard numbers that are directly related to the opinion being stated.

Farmers are taking it on the chin. On one hand, I feel for them and wish things could be better. On the other hand, the kind of pain they are feeling is pain I think a lot of people need to feel before they will realize what kind of ineffective clown we have sitting in the oval office. Then, perhaps, they will consider jumping ship in 2020. If the erosion goes beyond the moderates that pulled the lever in favor of Trump while holding their nose, and actually starts to dig into his base even a little bit...Trump is doomed.

Right so you would do nothing, let China keep eating our lunch and stealing our intellectual properties...

[Mountain Man]

The other side...

Bingo. It's also worth pointing out that there was a time when the US government was funded entirely or almost entirely through tariffs.

Let's put it this way: China needs the US far more than the US needs China. They know it, and Trump knows it.