Category: Protectionism
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Thursday, November 02, 2017
More Trade Barriers Are Coming—Make Sure You’re On The Right Side / Economics / Protectionism
BY PATRICK WATSON : If you think economics is boring, bring up “free trade” and see what happens. I guarantee sparks will fly.
Some people preach free trade’s many blessings. Others curse the very idea, insisting free trade hurts honest working people.
Lately, this has become more than a theoretical argument.
President Trump came into office pledging to renegotiate or cancel trade agreements he thought unfair to the US. Meanwhile, the UK seems headed toward a “hard Brexit” from the European Union.
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Friday, September 15, 2017
Trump’s Path to IP Wars / Politics / Protectionism
As the White House is about to escalate trade friction in intellectual property, it has opted for a flawed, partisan approach.In mid-August, President Trump asked U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, a veteran Reagan administration trade hawk, to open an investigation into China's intellectual property (IP) practices.
The first public hearing about Chinese trade conduct is scheduled for October 10 in Washington.
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Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Trump’s Path to Trade Wars / Politics / Protectionism
As the White House is about to escalate trade frictions along with nuclear risks, global economic prospects will turn more clouded and markets more volatile.
Last Friday, President Trump spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping and told him that he is preparing to order an investigation into Chinese trade practices.
On Monday, he called for an investigation into China over U.S. intellectual property (IP) practices and technology transfers. As a result, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, a veteran Reagan administration trade hawk, opened an investigation against China under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. The ordering of the investigation will not immediately impose sanctions but it could lead to steep tariffs on Chinese goods.
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Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Trump Fails To Understand One Critical Thing—Our Trade Partners Have Options, Too / Economics / Protectionism
Despite heavy opposition, Trump is more insistent than ever on imposing quotas or tariffs on steel imports.
However, it makes a big difference whether the administration decides to go with quotas on current steel imports or initiate a tariff. Quotas would be harmful, but a tariff would be far worse.
Let’s look at the numbers to see who exactly would actually be damaged.
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Thursday, July 20, 2017
Trump Has Found A Loophole To Rewrite Trade Agreements Without Anyone’s Permission / Politics / Protectionism
BY PATRICK WATSON : Last summer at the Camp Kotok economics retreat, I met a man who has done business with The Trump Organization and with Trump himself.
He said Trump scrupulously followed the law in all their deals. He also added Trump would often insert innocent-looking contract clauses that later harmed the other side.
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Wednesday, July 19, 2017
How Steel Became US Security Concern – and Global Trade War Threat / Politics / Protectionism
As the White House seeks to turn steel overcapacity into a national security matter, the issue is alienating not only China but America’s NATO allies.'They're dumping steel and destroying our steel industry, they've been doing it for decades, and I'm stopping it. It'll stop,' US President Donald Trump declared during a recent flight from the US to France. “There are two ways: quotas and tariffs. Maybe I'll do both,” he added at the eve of his administration’s first Sino-US Comprehensive Economic Dialogue (CED), also known as Diplomatic and Security Dialogue (D&SD).
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Monday, January 23, 2017
Trumping World Trade / Economics / Protectionism
After the inauguration, President Trump has begun to reset the White House trade policies. But the consequences of “America First” stance in world trade are wrought with threats.
Recently, President Xi Jinping gave a strong speech about the need for more inclusive globalization at Davos. World trade is a case in point.
Monday, January 23, 2017
Protection Will Lead to Great Prosperity / Economics / Protectionism
After being mostly off the grid on Friday, I listened to the Trump inauguration speech on Saturday morning. While I have lots of thoughts and opinions, I want to focus on an item where I am qualified; namely my former area of expertise as someone who was in essence told by the media over and over again "you don't exist", while the consumerist, financialized and globalized economy flourished. By "you" I of course mean me, an owner of a small American manufacturing business. My area of focus from the speech...
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Thursday, December 22, 2016
Trump Protectionism, Trade Chief Peter Navarro – and The Quest To Demonize China / Economics / Protectionism
While most Americans view China as friendly though not as an ally, those who favor demonizing China seek to change both perceptions and realities. Starting in January, these trade protectionists will lead US policies in the White House.
Recently, President-elect Trump chose Harvard-trained economist Peter Navarro to head the newly-created National Trade Council (NTC) in the White House to oversee industrial policy. Targeting the trade deficit is expected to pave way to Trump’s “First America” trade protectionism.
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Thursday, December 08, 2016
Protectionist Trump Policies To Crash Dollar, Gold and Bitcoin to Soar / Stock-Markets / Protectionism
Many people seem to think Trump is going to “fix” the US by invoking the isolationist, nationalist, and oft failed economic policy of protectionism. But, as Ludwig von Mises put it in Nation, State and Economy, “From the purely economic point of view nothing speaks against free trade and everything against protectionism.” In other words, there is no economic argument in favor of protectionism. It is not a viable economic policy.
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Monday, November 21, 2016
The Trump Trade War Already Started / Politics / Protectionism
BY PATRICK WATSON : After the initial shock-and-awe reaction to the surprise Trump victory, the markets rejoiced last week… a lot.
“The Dow closed at an all-time high on Thursday, while the S&P and the Nasdaq were flirting with their record highs entering Friday,” reported CNBC.
Others were less thrilled with the election result. Some experts claimed Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on China, withdraw from NAFTA, and otherwise stop globalization in its tracks would surely set off a trade war and hurt the markets.
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Thursday, August 25, 2016
Protectionism in 21st Century Is More Dangerous Than Most People Think / Economics / Protectionism
A monster debate has been going on in economic circles on the reasons for Brexit/Trump/Sanders and the developed world’s rejection of the status quo.
There are many explanations, but it all goes back to my thesis that the benefits of globalization have been unevenly handed out. Those who have been on the short end of the distribution curve are pushing back.
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Thursday, June 12, 2014
How Smugglers Made America / Politics / Protectionism
Whenever I receive a book to review that is written by some hotshot ivy leaguer, I brace myself for all the deception and tomfoolery that I will have to endure. Peter Andreas’s Smuggler Nation, however, turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. Indeed, I can recommend this book to anyone interested in a true history.
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Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Chinese Takeover with Free Trade Zones / Politics / Protectionism
The long-term goal of Communist Red Chinese is to take over the wealth creation resources of the planet. The quasi merger between the authoritarian Maoists and the global capitalists plays out as a sorry act in the Beijing Red Theater. The performance designed to distract and confuse really has the destruction of Western economies as the climax. The sell out of the West, under the skilled dirty hands of Herr Heinz Henry A. Kissinger, is entering the final stages of a planned implosion. Now that the de-industrialization of America as described in the article, Free Trade Created the Chinese Model, has taken placed, the theft of our natural assets is the next to go. The Chinese exploits the use of U.S. Foreign-Trade Zones. A depiction of the function and working of such Foreign-Trade Zones follows:
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Monday, December 03, 2012
Obama's New Climate Goals Signal New Trade Tariffs / Politics / Protectionism
Obama's special climate change envoy to the present Doha climate change talks, Todd Stern, told delegates to the June 2012 Rio + 20 conference that president Obama and state secretary Clinton elevated sustainable development to one of the three pillars of U.S. national security policy, along with diplomacy and defense. Incorporating climate change action, it is a key issue.
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Tuesday, November 27, 2012
What “Free Trade” Actually Means, The Trans-Pacific Partnership / Politics / Protectionism
To discuss “free trade agreements” or the “free market,” we must first identify the theoretical versus the functional definitions of these terms – because theoretical definitions look at what those terms should mean, whereas functional definitions look at what the terms mean actually.
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Wednesday, November 21, 2012
The Fiscal Cliff and the U.S. Trade Deficit / Politics / Protectionism
First, let’s get the definitions straight, as confusion about definitions is the single biggest avoidable cause of economic nonsense.
The trade deficit measures how much America’s imports exceed its exports.
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Friday, June 22, 2012
Trade Tariffs as Welfare State Economics / Politics / Protectionism
I have found over the years that when I debate with people who promote tariffs, meaning sales taxes on imported goods that are enforced by people with badges and guns, they always adopt arguments that apply only to America's side of the border. They refuse to adopt those very same arguments for people on the other side of the border.
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Wednesday, June 06, 2012
Advantages of Chinese Trade Policy / Politics / Protectionism
"The Chinese may take risks far more than average Americans do, thanks to advice from traditional proverbs."
Read full article... Read full article...The saying "At a good bargain, think twice" is pretty risk-averse. On the other hand, a typical Chinese proverb such as "Seize an opportunity and make good use of it" shows how risk-taking is ingrained in Chinese culture.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Rational U.S. Tariffs Lower Irrational Trade Deficits / Politics / Protectionism
As historical memory diminishes and the lessons of past centuries are forgotten, the practice of systematically destroying economic independence grows. Forget about real prosperity, the concept of interdependence, coined in popular parlances by the Trilateral Commission, has made the United States economy a post industrial dependency and a bankrupt debtor. The global corporatists despise protective tariffs because these excise taxes must be paid by foreign manufacturing enterprises. Since the rush to escape American shores, the transnational ventures seek not just cheap labor, but scheme to evade any effective regulations for the paradise of third world exploitation.
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