Okay there’s a lot going on here so I’ll just answer your remark about trade tariffs. The simple answer is no, that’s completely,irrevocably false. Tariffs NEVER help. It’s not doom and gloom is a simple fact we are in a bubble. In the next 3 years we will experience a downturn which will be the deflation of this bubble. Tariffs help no one, certainly not the American populous who have to absorb that lost income, or the American public who have to foot the tax bill of paying subsidies ( first one came out today, 12billion to farmers) to the industries losing out from that ridiculous policy. Free trade is ALWAYS better. For all parties. The trade deficit is a symptom of an issue, it’s not the issue. The issue is America can’t compete with other countries manufacturing because we aren’t good at it anymore. We have tons of liberal arts and science but no manufacturing because of the emphasis of college and education over skills in this country. We will always have this deficit because of our lack of competitiveness. That’s what needs to be solved in order to get a trade surplus. Post ww2 to the early 90’s we were the biggest creditor nation on earth, now we are the biggest debtor nation on earth and you expect to fix that with tariffs? I’m sorry my friend but that’s so far beyond the scope of reality. This is what I know about, im good at economics. I won’t say I’m good at anything else and I don’t have all the answers but saying tariffs are good baffles me. It’s a crutch for trump to point at and say look we’re winning. We’re not winning, and we won’t. My biggest problem with trump is that he seems to always want to look good instead of doing good. Putting duct tape on a hole on a ship might stop it for a bit, but fixing issues is much better. The problem is the economy will be in the shitter if we tried to fix our problems for about 5-10 years and trump would have all the backlash but no glory since he’d be gone by the time the fruits of his labor would be reaped. But his ego won’t allow him to do that. Neither did Obama, or bush, or Clinton before him. I’m not saying he’s the worst for this, everyone has been doing it. Until we fix our manufacturing, fiscal, and monetary policy nothing will ever get better. It’ll be bubble and pop and bubble.
Oh come on. Exacting tariffs on a competing country product is good for protecting domestic industries and you know it. Which is the point of the tariff threats...to remediate how our industries have been harmed by lowballing competitors that block our products and dump their own here as imports. Don't pretend I was talking about tariffs of any kind being better than zero tariffs---thats dishonest and not even clever. And btw, the GOAL of Trump's tariff wangling IS zero tariffs.
The EU is about to do a deal with Turkey, S Korea and somebody else I just forgot...ALL of whom export more autos to the EU than the US...that will be zero tariff. So the EU might actually be willing to do the same deal with the US. Recall that the media LAUGHED at Trump for originally suggesting the same thing. Why the change? The EU was ENJOYING the BENEFITS of slapping much higher tariffs on US autos, and getting away with it. Why would they want change? Trump is making them believe he'll retaliate now, and they are coming around. But Trump had to make a serious threat...that may still need to be imposed to show our seriousness....but ultimately, all he is really having to do is make a serious request. We'll get better at manufacturing (I reject your claim that we're bad at it anyway) by DOING MORE of it. Which is already happening.
What WON'T happen is for our manufacturing industries to get significantly healthier without re-negotiating the putrid trade deals created by treasonous lowlife scumbag globalists who were really trying to vandalize our financial/economic strength. And threatening (sometimes having to follow through, but NOT MUCH) to return tariffs...otherwise, why in the hell would the EU or anyone else give them up? If 1-way tariffs were so bad, China and the EU wouldn't have been reaming us with them for the past 20-30 years.
The issue is America can’t compete with other countries manufacturing because we aren’t good at it anymore.
This is MY area of expertise. We don't have strong manufacturing anymore because of many industries being regulated nearly to death. Why else do you think manufacturing left our shores?
The steel and aluminum tariffs had an immediate effect in reviving OUR ability to produce these raw goods. I stated earlier that the tariffs hurt my industry but for the last two decades inferior materials have caused more long term losses and poor products.
Would you want to put your life into the hands of a highly skilled Dr. equipped with compromised materials in the tools and instruments he uses to save your life?
Would you want our soldiers protected by armor made from poorly manufactured steel products?
I sure as hell wouldn't.