Donald Gump's Trade Strategy

[pjclarke]

Gosh - Who Knew?

You may have heard about Dishonest Don's failing casino being bailed out by father Fred illegally purchasing gambling chips with no intent to gamble (what kind of businessman loses money on a casino? This turns out to be the tip of the iceberg ; the NY Times has conducted a major investigation into the various ways the daily liar's version of how he got rich, as the master dealmaker who broke free from his father’s “tiny” Brooklyn and Queens real estate operation and built a $10 billion empire to be just more self serving BS.

In fact

By age 3, he was earning $200,000 a year in today’s dollars from his father’s empire. He was a millionaire by age 8. In his 40s and 50s, he was receiving more than $5 million a year.

In Mr. Trump’s books and TV shows and on the campaign trail, a central trope of his self-mythology has been that, as he began building his own empire, the only financial help he got from his father was a $1 million loan. Not only that: “I had to pay him back with interest.”
In fact, The Times found, Fred Trump lent his son at least $60.7 million, or $140 million in today’s dollars. Much of it was never repaid, records show. [...] All told, The Times documented 295 distinct streams of revenue Fred Trump created over five decades to channel wealth to his son.

Many of these wealth transfers were legally dubious at best. It looks very much like the US has bought in wholesale to a myth created by a liar and a fraud.

11 Takeaways From The Times’s Investigation Into Trump’s Wealth - The New York Times

Of course, the Donald could silence some of this criticism by publishing his tax returns, as every other modern president did. Equally obviously, he won't. The scary thing is that this is the new 'normal' - most of the comments to the NYT Editorial start ....'Is anyone surprised?'

Strange Times.

[BlasterBates]

The UK is heading in the same direction.

[BlasterBates]

Trump succeeds in changing "worst deal ever" NAFTA

Congratulations to Trump for getting those incredibly important minor cosmetic changes agreed.

[DoctorStrangelove]

JP Morgan recommends selling US stocks and buying emerging markets

America First going well, as Putin's plan to dismantle the US economy begins to work.

FTFY.

[BlasterBates]

JP Morgan recommends selling US stocks and buying emerging markets

America First going well, as Trump's plan to dismantle the US economy begins to work.

[pjclarke]

The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.

Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright.

In addition to his mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the “enemy of the people,” President Trump’s impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic.

-Anonymous Senior White House aide.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/o...esistance.html

[BlasterBates]

US-China trade deficit widens after imposition of tariffs

The harder Trump bashes China, the wider trade gap will become, any economist will tell you that.

[sasguru]

EU's offer of zero tariffs, not good enough

He knows that even if tariffs are zero Europeans still won't buy American sh*te.

Seriously they need to send a letter back wishing him well and promising to resume negotiations after he's finished his therapy.

Feck me, he actually came up with line, this is a direct quote:

"Their habits, their consumer habits are to buy their own cars".

No you complete donkey, "their" habits are to buy the best cars they can find and its not American crap.

[BlasterBates]

EU's offer of zero tariffs, not good enough

He knows that even if tariffs are zero Europeans still won't buy American sh*te.

Seriously they need to send a letter back wishing him well and promising to resume negotiations after he's finished his therapy.

[chopper]

And then TrumpCo buys a shed load of Aluminium and Steel company stock. And then the tariff gets dropped. Stock prices go up, TrumpCo sells. Happy days. For him, at least.

He drained the swamp, and then filled it with new alligators.

[BlasterBates]

Steel and "Aluminum" Stocks down more than 10%

Teflon Don does it again.