Friends, the New York Times gave a backhanded compliment to President Trump today, admitting that his tariffs and America First trade policies are deepening the economic malaise affecting China. Remember when the Left and supposedly every qualified economist predicted that Trump's "trade war" would cause unending misery...for Americans? Well, the robust U.S. economy has put paid to those claims, but as I predicted China is much more vulnerable to a trade war than we are. Exports (especially to the U.S.) drive China's economy. They can ill afford to pick a fight with the United States of America. Will China ultimately blink, accepting many of our demands? I have little doubt that they will. My only worry is that our demands will be too modest, and the trade deficit will continue to fester. The germane political question is: when Trump wins his trade wars, as he surely will, will the New York Times give him any credit? Not much, I would guess, and only on page 22...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/14/business/china-economy-xi-jinping.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Dr. Waddy: Our President's successes are an unbearable affront to leftist sensibilities, which, in the reception of setback, are infantile but in the ruthless imposition of the same upon whomever they may, are deadened.
ReplyDeleteIt always amazes me how leftists really do seem to believe that they live in the "worst of times," and no greater tyranny than Trump's America is imaginable. What a bunch of whiners!
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: I think American leftists are perfectionists and just as that neurosis is destructive in individual lives it is the source of incalculable dysfunction when it guides a mass movement. Most of those dilletantes would be disabused of their America antipathy by the actual experience of life, in all of its banal wretchedness and hopelessness, in a Marxist prison state. There is nothing as stultifying as such an existence; I've seen it first hand in prisons .
ReplyDeleteI imagine you're right, Jack. Life is a good teacher, if only we get out there and live it. A sheltered existence promotes all kinds of wackiness, by contrast. To put it another way, perhaps America is just too rich for its own good!
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: History may eventually arrive at that conclusion and the world may take an ominous lesson from it. I think that around 1950 or so America crossed into previously unknown territory - a state of security and prosperity - life as it should be lived - with blessed freedom from endless labor and extensive enjoyment of health and leisure unimagined by past generations. We may well be a laboratory for perceived benefits to humanity from such a materially favored existence ( and I do not in saying so disparage our very widespread relative wealth - just imagine, we lead better lives than did Emperor Chien Lung, or Louis the 14th or George the 3rd. The alternative, once experienced, leaves permanent scars).
ReplyDeleteI agree with your timeline, Jack. The average American's existential worries came to an end circa 1950. The "good life" became the norm. What clearly didn't follow, however, was happiness and common sense. Neither has prospered in the intervening years.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: Perverse baby boomer perfectionism
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