The World As I See It: Trade Wars

By Rich Kozlovich

I'm finally glad to see a few who are willing to acknowledge a trade war isn't the disaster the media is declaring, nor are the threats by foreign powers worth toilet paper.  Entirely too many think in terms of the Smoot-Hawley tariff which triggered a trade war that was an important instrument in starting the Great Depression.   But America and the world’s economies were far different then than now. We needed them and they needed us in proportion. Now - We don’t need them - They need us, and the point that we have a major trade deficit with these nations makes us stronger in such a battle is critical. If we stop buying their products they collapse.

We have four criteria that makes us the winner in any trade war.   

• We can feed ourselves
• Fuel ourselves
• Arm ourselves
• Defend ourselves

We don't need them....they....need ...us!  To save our allies after WWII economically and militarily we created the Bretton Woods hegemony, where we opened our markets to our allies and we protected them militarily since they were totally broke even before the war's end.  The only time in world history where a nation created an hegemony that was for the benefit of others.  As a result capitalism became redefined as meaning America would go on forever letting our trading partners impose tariffs and trade protections while not protecting American workers and our industrial base with tariffs.

That day is over!  

If tariffs are so bad, and will destroy the world's economy, why then do they all impose them on America?  Since the end of the cold war we have little need to be pandering to their prancing and moral pontifications, and America finally has a President that tells the media they can go and be hanged.  These distractions merely avoids answer this question  - will tariffs hurt the American economy? 

As for foreign leaders who publicly proclaim their distaste for Trump - that's not only immaterial, it's a game changer.  If they really believe he's an incompetent buffoon - We win!

I think that's public buffoonery on their part.  I think they're scared of him.  In private I think they see a cunning, smart, fearless adversary.  Just as the Soviet Union saw that in Reagan.  Tough and fearless, no matter about their public pontifications.

Do we need allies to win a trade war?  Sure, but it's like the Kevin Costner's "Field of Dreams" movie - "If you build it they will come".  If we start it allies will come!  I disagree with any evaluation that corporate America will not support a trade war because of immigration issues, nor will the Deep State be a problem.  They will have to fall into line or be "Trumped".  If you want to be the big kid on the block you have to smack someone once in a while, and I think that's soon in the offing.

There's talk that a trade war can't be effective without a cohesive plan, but with something this complicated and unpredictable that seems to me to be laughable. If that's true, and I think it is - why bother having one. 

Every military strategy ever devised was perfect.  Until they met the enemy and they had a perfect military strategy also, and it always turns out neither was perfect.  But the one who won was the one who adapted quickly and changed to meet unanticipated challenges.  It's my estimation Trump most likely excels in that better than any world leader in existence, and has the foundational resources to make it happen which are - we can feed ourselves, fuel ourselves, arm ourselves and defend ourselves without support from any nation on Earth.  None of the industrialized world can make that claim.  In one or more of those criteria - they all fail, and those failures makes them highly vulnerable to any economic downturn or change.  They need us and we don't need them.  We win!

As for Canada:  Without America our 'friends' to the North would be a third rate country, and cold to boot.  Even with their unending petty, childlike and envious anti-American resentment they'll fall into line - kicking and screaming - but they'll do it.  Especially since they have a spoiled brat who's an economic incompetent, dumb as dirt far leftist loon as their Prime Minister, who's even flakier than was his father. They'll do it in because they'll have to.

As for forging baby step alliances with foreign powers - that's a waste of time.  They'll just slow down the process of getting things fixed, and I agree a global recession is coming no matter what Trump does.  The fragility of the world's economy is clear, it's real, and the collapse is  inevitable due to the massive debt load the world's nations have accrued.   The world is broke.  And the only nation on the planet that's capable of sustaining a worldwide economic collapse is the United States because America is a natural capital generator with the government holding 150 trillion dollars in assets, and once again - we can feed ourselves, fuel ourselves, arm ourselves and defend ourselves.

Worldwide economic collapse isn't our real problem. We'll take a hit, but we will not only survive, we’ll be stronger when it's over. Our greatest fear is the societal Balkanization being caused by leftist victimization schemes which are a deliberate attempt to destabilize American society. This is what we need to fear!

No force in the world is as destructive to America as is the progressive, leftist, liberal, socialist, communist movement that's been fermenting in this nation for over a hundred years. Which one is worse? Take your pick - they're interchangeable.

Our real war isn't an economic war, it's a cultural war, and I hope traditional values win, because if we win the cultural war the economic war will take care of itself. But the book is still out on that, and I have fears of a civil war between Americans who hate America and American’s who hate them for hating America.

The world is approaching a Seldon Crisis, and there’s no plan, and there's no shared vision. But no matter what anyone thinks about Trump, I can’t imagine anything worse than having Hillary in charge at any time, let alone during a crisis.