Report Card for Donald Trump

[Warren Dew]

(12-10-2016, 04:15 PM)Mikebert Wrote:

Quote:He's talked about lots of things that were not promises.  Tariffs were one of them.

He presented himself as opposed to free trade.  That means tariffs.  Otherwise it’s all talk. This country was built on tariffs.  American became great on the strength of those tariffs.  Since they were withdrawn America has become progressively weaker and weaker.

He had said the problem is not that the trade deals exist; it's that they are bad deals.  He wants to renegotiate them, not get rid of them.  Reducing China's tariffs on us to the level of our tariffs on China, for example, would substantially expand a huge market for US exports.

The country was virtually destroyed by tariffs in the Great Depression.  The global economic advantage of the U.S. is our position on both of the world's big ocean systems, giving us a huge advantage in global commerce.  The higher the levels of international trade, the better it is for the US.

Quote:

Quote:Trump is not the first choice of us Austrian Tea Party folks; for most of us, Cruz was.  We don't necessarily expect Trump to follow our policies in every respect.  Certainly the "do nothing" response worked great in 1920 and that's what we would hope for, but I certainly don't view it as a promise.

I never said it was a promise.  But with the Tea Party caucus it will be hard to get a Republican majority for any action, unless Trump goes all out to sell it.  All I am asking is that he not make the effort.  Hold rallies instead.

With a former Goldman person at Treasury, I think it's likely that any risk to the big banks will be met with bailouts.  The Tea Party folks are not yet numerous enough to dictate Republican legislative policy.  But we can always hope, I suppose.