‘America First’ Tariffs? Is He Nuts?

 

The New White House Dinnerware?

 

Yesterday, we were enjoying our coffee when my wife suddenly stopped her cup in mid-air. Mutely, she handed me her tablet.The headline read:

“Trump announces steel and aluminum tariffs Thursday over objections from advisers and Republicans.” [1]

His own aides were stunned, the article revealed.

My wife and I, too, were ‘stunned’ as the article continued:

“It was the moment many of his advisers had long feared would occur when he grew tired of talking points and economic theory and decided to do things his way.” [1]

What about the ramifications! Doesn’t he GET IT??

The stock market plunged. [1] 

IS HE NUTS?

We were so confused, frightened, angry, and flabbergasted that my wife suggested that I postpone writing a post until I was more calm and in the hopes there was a retraction.

Then came today’s The Wall Street Journal:

U.S. Allies Around the World Steel for Trump Tariff Tussle: Stock prices slide for major U.S. military allies and steelmakers [2]

This article also quoted Trump, who champions an “America First” trade policy that turns the U.S. away from globalization. This is what he mindlessly and ignorantly TWEETED early this morning:

 

“When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win.” [2]

Win?

NO ONE ‘wins‘ real trade WARS…they most often lead to KILLING ‘wars.’ Why? Because they destablize economies, cause massive lay-offs, and up-set the delicate balance of “Live and Let Live.“

For instance:

The leading U.S. military allies in East Asia, South Korea and Japan, are both large steelmakers. Germany will also be hit particularly hard. 

Canada is the top foreign steel supplier to the U.S., accounting for roughly 17% of all American steel imports, followed closely by Brazil and South Korea, according to Commerce Department figures. [2]

Our ALLIES? Great. Smooth move.

His lack of knowledge and understanding of world and U.S. history, macro-economics, and simple human behavior has now put US in the so-called crosshairs.

You see, we allowed these “trade” imbalances for a reason – NOT because we are “stupid,” but to help keep these countries stabilized economically [and therefore, politically]. Each is in a part of the world where we need friends – for bases, for spy technology, and for manpower – if it comes to shooting.

Also, the world today IS global. We’re all interconnected economically as well as planet-airily [my word].  

The world’s NOT going back to 1950s-1960s – or even 1980s! That’s crazy! Why would it? Back in those ‘good times‘ Trump likes to imagine, many of those “allies” were countries recovering from massive war damage or struggling to emerge from washing in the river to washing machines.

That’s WHY America was booming economically in those days. We were NOT recovering from ANYTHING – no wars touched American soil. Our industries were fine. They were the reason W.W.II went our way and not the Nazi way. And our citizens were the reason the world had the guns, planes, ammo, and tanks – all in throw-away quantities – in addition to our civilian-soldiers. Then our industries helped so many countries in the aftermath. 

But the world is different now. The globe has changed. Every country has cell-phones. People are interconnected across cultures. Information about anything is just a couple of key-taps away.

Well, HELLO! The globe has SHRUNK. We must NOT go BACKWARDS because the rest of the world is still moving FORWARD.

Do you all realize that IF America goes as Trump envisions – OUR economy will collapse because we have NO MARKETS? WE will become a THIRD WORLD nation wracked by civil wars and vulnerable for foreign take-over for the first time since 1861.

But it didn’t happen in 1861 because we had a better president.

Trump is no Abraham Lincoln.

Food for thought.

Mac

Works Cited

[1] Lynch, David and Paletta, Damian. “Trump announces steel and aluminum tariffs Thursday over objections from advisers and Republicans.” The Washington Post – March 1, 2018. 

[2] Jun, Kwanwoo and Turner, Zeke. “U.S. Allies Around the World Steel for Trump Tariff Tussle: Stock prices slide for major U.S. military allies and steelmakers.” The Wall Street Journal – March 2, 2018.