** Mireya Solís, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told The Financial Times that the deal contains “nothing inspiring,” as “both sides made promises that we can’t be sure will be kept” and “there are no guarantees on what the actual level of investments from Japan will be.”**
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The most important thing is that “himself” can claim a “win”, and take another victory lap.
We have seen how important agreements are to the regime. Even if Japan performed every little thing that “himself” claims he “won”, in a year or two, he will be back, demanding more, anyway.
Steve
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I have to assume that Japan has very smart people negotiating any type of national trade pact. These very smart people would surely look into the past history of POTUS, search for any trends in regards to how Trump looks at the sanctity of a signed contract. A fact finding mission like that leads to 1 conclusion: Trump does not honor any contract he signs.
Knowing this going in, why would any of these Countries put any stock in any trade pact signed with the Trump admin ??
Safe to say, they don’t believe a word of anything the Trump admin says, or even puts into a written contract.
In the meantime, last I checked, the US Dollar has fallen 11% in this Trump term. Couple that with American consumers paying the tariffs, and it seems inevitable that the American consumer is gonna feel The Art of The Deal in their wallet.
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Seeing how both of his administrations were built on tariffs, I do not see them going away. Our former allies are building supply chains away from the United States, once these new supply chains are rebuilt it will be very hard to move them again. This is how you destroy a great economy.
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Bwahaha, there are no contracts. There are no signatures. There are only WH press releases and social media posts.
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There was an old adage: a man’s word is his bond.
That ship has sailed, at least as far as POTUS goes.
That ship has sailed on any Nation looking upon the USA as
a reliable trade partner,too.
If he ever does get a trade pact signed by both parties, I wonder what Vegas would put the over/under at on the # of days before POTUS breaks it ??
Navarro quoted as saying “we got a lot of unilateral trade deals made”. Think the American Public knows the difference between unilateral ( only 1 side agrees ) and bilateral ( both sides agree ) ?
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These dudes are pretty good at negotiating with themselves. Some might call them masternegotiators.
The silliness is off the charts.
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Talk to one of his supporters. I asked them how could Canada believe anything Trump does when he is trying to break a treaty that he, himself, negotiated. They looked at me like I was crazy and asked me if I thought treaties were for life? I guess 8 years is a lifetime to them.
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Of course treaties aren’t intended to last. Most understand that you make 'em, then break 'em when a younger, sexier treaty comes along.
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You break treaties when you have more demands you want satisfied.
“himself” is banking on the US being such a lucrative market that trading partners will bend over and take it up the rear, hard, to maintain access.
Steve
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How long before everyone figures out TFG is insatiable? Feels like we’re getting close. At that point, everything breaks.
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I see what you did there.
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Yea, but I thought he would wait till the old treaty actually became of age.
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He’s got a special plot at Bedminster Golf Course for old treaties.
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I have commented before, on the attitude of management at RS. In the late 80s, 88 or 89, management responded to questions about RS prices being 40% higher than the competition with “we do people a favor when we sell them our stuff”, as if people should be happy to pay extra to be allowed to buy RS product. RS didn’t go BK until 2015.
The demands will grow larger and larger, as his nibs wants to take another victory lap, and stuff more money in his pocket. Eventually, at some point, the counterparties will decide that trading with the US isn’t worth the price, but, as with RS, I expect the progressive extortion to take a while to reach that point.
Here’s another story:
I became laundry boss at home when mom bought her first automatic washer and dryer, in 1965. I lugged everything up and down the basement stairs, and ran the machines, while mom sat on her backside.
I lived at home while in college, because it was expedient. I was running laundry, mowing lawn, shoveling snow, and more, as I had been for years.
Then I graduated college, snagged a full time job, and moved out. But I was still in Kazoo, so I continued to bring my laundry over to the house on Saturday afternoon, and run her stuff, along with mine, while she sat on her backside.
One Saturday, after a month or so of my going to the house to run laundry, I had put her stuff in her sewing room, for her to take care of, and I was heading out the door, with my box of laundry.
she said “where do you think you are going?”
“???home to take care of my laundry”
mom: “oh no you don’t. you’re going to vacuum and dust”
“I have my own place to take care of”.
mom, dropped the ultimatum “if you want to bring your laundry over here, you’re going to do as you’re told”.
I walked out. Next time I was at the grocery store, I bought some detergent. Next time I was at the bank, I got a roll of quarters. From then on, I used the laundry room in the apartment building, because the price of running laundry at the house had gotten too high.
Steve
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Over on Seeking Alpha, whenever the subject of Trump comes up there are a lot of messages from people who truly believe he is an economic genius and that he has a dream team of brilliant negotiators. Color me VERY skeptical.
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Even if it were all true, it would do very little to expand the American industrial base.
You can not point to interest rates for growth.
You can not point to the tariffs for growth.
Only higher corporate taxes can fuel growth in the US economy.
He will grab that economic territory. Our guys think wait and see what happens. We are not grabbing the lead. The lead will be taken from us. We are politically correct with nothing to show for it.
They are very foolish people.