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If you got time, this is IMO a very good critique of the recent events by senior Americans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=594yN8rxIJo


Tarrifs can be useful in protecting your players in an new industry. In specific situations not using it like carpet bombing.

Thomas Sowell who is 94 has some wisdom to share: https://x.com/HooverInst/status/1907630250135273527?ref_src=...


Timur Kuran writes about this idea (preference falsification) in "Private Truths, Public Lies".

He explains that its this idea that had kept the Soviet Union (this bad idea/system) from dying sooner. People thought it was the system of oppression but in reality it was people who hated the system showed approval. https://youtu.be/xzjqjU2FOwA?si=aTG0GnJKVDoK_-qb&t=819

"Accordingly, for all the hardships of life under communism, they remained politically submissive for years on end." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preference_falsification


I think the outcomes achieved for domestic vs foreign is another interesting angle. The degradation of purchasing power of working and middle class is have been consistently getting worse.


The political class and plutocrats always wins regardless of the election outcome. The two party system guarantees they come out unscathed regardless of their jousting.


https://x.com/_PeterRyan/status/1907879785151475801 Protectionism is like child rearing. You're trying to protect the young (industry) so they survive to adulthood. The tarrifs are too broad. How the hell are you going to sell goods from HCOL area to the rest of the less affluent world? Even if some countries could afford it, how are you going to get goods across burned bridges?


It's the elite wealth pump. Capital is a non-state entity but through corporations was granted person hood by states without a social contract. Trickle down economics was a complete scam and Richard Cantillon has the receipts for it.


The US has a very high standard of living as a whole. In order for it to compete with others, it must become "as poor" as others. You simply can't undermine your trading partners and not disrupt your privilege as the global reserve status.


Why is “global reserve status” more important than building stuff?


Instead of barter, everyone in the world buys and holds YOUR money so that they can trade with others. Everyone else's trade = trade deficit = free money (because you are basically selling your dollars, not a product) that you can spend on stuff.

You are too smart to actually not get this. You call it fake as if money isn't just made up 100% fake 'value units' we all agree to pretend (thus making it real) is real.


It's only one of the key levers of power of the USA. No biggie. You give people money represented by paper but mostly bits/bytes in exchange for other peoples materials and labor. Can you unpack what kind of stuff you're talking about? Are we talking about nascent industries? This stuff, who are you going to sell it to ?


Doesn’t that seem fake to you? To me it sounds like a scam that’s destined to collapse in spectacular fashion.


Fake, no not at all. Look around your where live. Think about who, where, and how those things were made. Scam? From whose perspective? There is only one global reserve currency. For all intents and purposes, that is the crown and heavy is the head that wears it. Sure it feels like a scam for anyone outside of the 1% or the political class or the plutocracy.

The world followed the lead and it just wanted reciprocity (exclude the enemies of course). What seems fake to you and who is getting scammed by who?


I’m saying it seems like a scam when we consume more than we make by giving other countries pieces of paper. Why doesn’t the EU make the world’s reserve currency if that’s so great? Why doesn’t China try to make the Yuan the world’s reserve currency?Why did Angela Merkel cry when Obama tried to get Germany to engage in deficit spending? https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1084075/EU-news-Angela-...

And why do other countries keep doing it if we are the ones getting the better end of the deal?


Read up on 1900s world history and what path dependency is. The dollar is the reserve currency because the USA won the title of world power near the end of the first of half of the 1900s. It was formalized in the Bretton Woods agreement in 1944. The US helped win the war and gained enormous trust and goodwill around the world which it has slowly been squandering since then. POTUS hit the turbo button just a few months ago.

The PRC has strict controls of their money because that is how they can became the factory of the world. They played the hand that were dealt with and battled adversity and they are reaping the rewards.

The president said today that the US trade partners and allies/friends have been taking advantage. You can easily verify if that is true or false. US capitalists moved production overseas to make more money at the expense of the local workers. That's the scam.


The PRC were subsistence farmers when they pegged their money.

Ths USA was the number one economy when Trump pegged us.


Wait until you learn about how money works.


Does that matter as much as citizens united?


Assuming citizens united isn't going anywhere (it's not, with the current SC), then yes.


God damn you nailed it. All the stupid wars for nothing. Rarely do I see anyone talk about these shenanigans as the mechanism to end the reserve status of the $ and the end for influence and affluence. It will breed a lot of resentment from some Americans thinking the world is against them. They could be used for war.


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