foregoneconclusion

Thatguy2 said:

USA wins yet another trade deal, and this one where everyone said china would never cave. Now 90 days to make it permanent and help our farmers with more china purchases like last time. Impressive 

Last time? Are you talking about Trump's 1st term? Farmers needed $28 billion in taxpayer funded bailouts during Trump's first term.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2020/01/21/trump-tariff-aid-to-farmers-cost-more-than-us-nuclear-forces/

shrave10 said: Meanwhile US manufactured cars gain market share, gain advantages of scaling up volumes, drop in costs > positive feedback loop.  

That isn't what is happening. Trump wants to put 25% tariffs on auto parts and the result will be disastrous for U.S. auto makers. 

"Most auto suppliers are not capitalized for an abrupt tariff-induced disruption. Many are already in distress and will face production stoppages, layoffs and bankruptcy," the letter added, noting "it only takes the failure of one supplier to lead to a shutdown of an automaker’s production line."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/auto-industry-tells-trump-tariffs-221108768.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHRWOggzxw43tDKDrgTiV9DgDLelb-mgOTETqE-RXcyP_oKPgGUhrZ7ZzFItWUWaGddCUUPgA5rfPS6utB9_9OmNmeRX52uPHBGs7b-dcxnYyJdnYJqv6tK5eQwYQwEPzeqVOXCc-9WJTRK1fysik69Ugyk82sZY13CXkH7A6U_r

And remember, back in the Great Recession it was the Republican party that wanted to allow the U.S. auto industry to go bankrupt and be liquidated.

This is additional proof that Trump's claim of an "economic emergency" that gives him the power to levy tariffs through the IEEPA has no basis in reality. Add to that the fact that the IEEPA was intended by Congress to give the executive branch the power to do sanctions on foreign governments (freeze assets/seize property) and not to control domestic economics through tariffs and the whole things is a complete farce. 

DAalseth said:

mike_galloway said:

When china hold a huge proportion of US debt it's a stupid man that provokes the dragon especially when the US need mountains of new debt continually. 

The bond markets are the real king here and will determine the outcome of this farce.

I’ve thought for at least 20 years that all China has to do is call in even a good fraction of the US debt they own and it would be all over for the US. 

China currently hold about $700-$800 billion in U.S. debt. The GOP did a $2 trillion tax cut in 2017 that was not offset. And they want to make that cut permanent while adding another $2-4 trillion in cuts on top of it that won't be offset either. So China dumping all of their bonds is a drop in the bucket for debt relative to GOP tax cuts.