QOTD -- Flunking Trump

 

"... Trade is cooperation. A farmer gets a customer. A factory gets a component. A family gets a product. An American business gets a buyer abroad.

The trade war threw sand in all of it. It disrupted export markets. It disrupted supply chains. It disrupted investment. It disrupted relationships with allies. Then it added uncertainty and stirred.

A stronger America has more customers, more suppliers, more trusted partners, and more capacity to make the things it needs. This trade war has delivered fewer of every one of them..."-- economics professor Justin Wolfers, on his "Platypus Economics" Substack, summarizing his answer to the question "Did Trump’s Tariffs Achieve Trump’s Goals?"  Wolfers provided flunking grades to the Malignant Fascist based on the MF's own promises, i.e., that tariffs would 1) give America leverage for getting better trade deals;  2) that they would reduce the trade deficit;  3) that they would spark an industrial revival;  4) that they would strengthen national security; and 5) that they would raise revenue.  

The sub- literate MF's lack of understanding of basic economics, coupled with his self-interested, craven "advisors," have given us the tragic results that were predicted from the outset of his mad tariff dominance-display exercise.  What's left of his mind is fixed in the mercantilism of the 19th Century, while the rest of the world advances in the 21st.