Trump Wants Mutual Satisfaction in US Relations with Others
Posted: February 1, 2017 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: China, currency manipulation, EU, Japan, Mexico, NAFTA, US 5 CommentsThose who do not understand that Trump is a shrewd businessman believe that Trump will take aim at China to prevent it from becoming a rival to the US for world leadership. They are even worrying that Trump’s candidate for secretary of state Rex Tillerson’s remarks on blocking China’s access to its artificial islands will trigger a large-scale war between the US and China.
I pointed out Trump’s wisdom in avoiding the war in my post “Trump’s Wisdom in Avoiding Military Conflict with China” yesterday.
I really do not know what kind a leader Trump will be; therefore, I have to judge him by what he is saying and doing one by one.
I get the conclusion by Trump’s spokesman’s response to Tillerson’s remarks that Trump does not want to block China’s access to its islands in the South China Sea but will do so if China builds an island on a reef that is international territory.
Now, SCMP’s report today “Trump slams China and Japan over currencies” again proves my guess that Trump’s priority is America first for America’s interests instead of containing China. Trump seems to choose only China as the “culprit of currency manipulation”, but it turns out now he is accusing not only China but also Japan and even EU for that.
For US interests, Trump wants concessions from not only China but also Japan and EU and most of all from Mexico. Japan’s Abe knows that so that he is now pursuing better relations with China. EU knows well as proved by Reuters’ report “EU chair labels Trump a ‘threat’ as Europeans debate U.S. ties” that I have reblogged here.
Moreover, Trump knows that he has to give something in return while getting something from others.
He will build a wall along US border with Mexico and make Mexico pay for the cost of construction. He will scrap NAFTA and thus harm Mexico’s interests, but in his interview with Washington Post’s David Muir on January 26, he says, “And you have to understand what I’m doing is good for the United States. It’s also going to be good for Mexico. We wanna have a very stable, very solid Mexico. Even more solid than it is right now. And they need it also. Lots of things are coming across Mexico that they don’t want. I think it’s going to be a good thing for both countries. And I think the relationship will be better than ever before.”
From what he said, we know that he wants get concessions from others but not to make US relations with others deteriorate, i.e. he wants win-win results. I have pointed out in my posts before that win-win cooperation is the only way out for him to improve US economy.
Whether US relations with Mexico will be better after the construction of the wall and scrapping of NAFTA, I don’t know, but I am optimistic that there will be improvement in US-China relations as better access to Chinese market is indispensable for Trump in improving US economy.
Comments by Chan Kai Yee on SCMP’s and Washington Post’s reports, full text of which can be found respectively at http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/2066960/trump-slams-china-and-japan-over-currencies and https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/26/donald-trumps-brazen-first-interview-as-president-annotated/?utm_term=.42c80ae5572d&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1.
Tiananmen's Tremendous Achievements 
Ms Yellen of the Federal Reserve “Bank” can no longer raise interest rates to continue strenghtening the U S dollar thus allowing a joker like Trump to accuse other countries of devaluing their currencies.
Peter Schiff is right. The U.S. is in such a conundrum it cannot raise its interest rates to get back to normal. It has 2 choices : Either let the stock market crash and create another great depression to enable a fresh start or, keep printing more money while raising interest rates but postphoning the inevitable crash crunch a la 2008.
Which why now a 3rd alternative is being touted : demonetize or declare the USD no longer legal tender but holders allowed to exchange for a new currency. Existing debts will be held jn a trust body that will slowly pay off the debtors as the new currency is allowed to be managed in a new normality. Will it work? Most likely there will be a run on the Amerikan bank now by debtors.
Such acts would tantamount to manipulations and rigging which the shameless Trump would deny. It does not remove the equation that the value of a currency is inversely proportional to its debt and trade balances.
Better if Mr Trump sack Navarro and appoint Schiff. At least Peter Schiff knows reality and what he is talking about. He is most likely to have a solution with the least worst consequences but which nevertheless could still be horrendous due to such huge cumulative effects of irresponsible career policians kicking the can down the road for so many decades.
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The U.S.A. Inc. should be taken over by a Board of Trustees representing if we play by American rules. The President becomes a powerless, lameduck, crisis management CEO, taking directions from other countries.
The American century? More like a future-sold-out-by-politicians now come to roodt in the present generation. A hobbled, crippled, bankrupted America.
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Oh, Mr Trump is an expert on this. He makes money out of the existing business/accounting/economic/legal principles : The U.S.A. Inc. is just a separate entity. It can go bankrupt but the shareholders or at least some favored shareholders, can remain rich. Mr Trump has remained a billionaire notwithstanding bankrupt companies in his business stable.
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Old Trumpy can no longer call China a currency manipulator because the Yuan has risen against the US$$$ in January, 2017. Trumpy is now gagged.
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What President Trump and his economic advisers are presenting is nothing new. The US is declining and most of America’s problems are self inflicted due to it’s hegemonic status of pursuing world leadership. With protectionism, Trump’s intention is to limit trade by increasing tariffs on imported goods with a view of protecting local businesses. Any country’s intent on trade protectionism is to win the competition by exporting more than imports. Trump wants to limit ‘unfair’ trade competition from foreign countries. The problem is that the US cannot have it both ways by limiting free trade practices especially with China and yet increase tariffs of Chinese goods. The economic law of demand and supply cannot be stopped if people wants to buy more and businesses want to sell more, including imported goods.
In 2016, the Eurozone GDP grew faster than America and jobless rate fell, which is very good news for 2017. If EU predicts that the US is moving into a protectionism trade policy, it will eventually separate from the US because the EU belongs to a grouping of countries of over 500 million people intertwined to be fully ‘independent.’
China should just power ahead with it’s highly successful guiding principle of Chinese foreign policy of over 35 years – keep a cool head and reach for the sky. China has successfully weaved it’s ‘silk worm web’ around the world – commercially, economically, diplomatically and militarily.
It is the US with it’s self inflicted problems trying to contain itself with a protectionism trade policy seeking mutual benefits. This year of the Rooster belongs to China’s continued rise on the offensive and US on the retreat.
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