If you have somehow managed to stay awake and interested in the infantile tariff wars news, you may or may not have noticed something. A completely useless multilevel and totally negative situation, which never needed to happen, has arisen with China trade and particularly rare earths.
The US has a unique history of truly staggering incomprehension when it comes to China.
In the 19th century, they passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. The transcontinental railway was then built by Chinese workers.
In World War 2 the US supported the extremely corrupt and almost utterly militarily useless Nationalists in preference to the Communists. This was despite continuous, unanimous advice to the contrary from US ground agents. The Nationalists then lost China, and a lot of the WW2 aid to the Nationalists was ultimately invested in California real estate and other wholesome hobbies.
During the rise of China, the US made huge money from outsourcing manufacturing to China. This set the pattern for globalization. Then the US decided it didn’t like globalization and ignored thousands of years of global trade to make a non-existent political point.
Now we have another example of the ultra-hick level of US politics sabotaging itself by starting a trade war with China.
Let’s start this merry escapade into the incredibly obvious with some basic points:
Trade isn’t about politics with rare exceptions.
It’s almost entirely about making money and nothing else.
It’s about sourcing what you need from wherever you can get it.
It’s very much a two-way street. There has to be something in it for both parties.
US trade with China hasn’t been a problem. Issues arise, sure, but the trade is extremely lucrative for both sides.
Of course, all that profitability couldn’t be allowed to continue. Golly gee gosh no. There simply had to be a trade war between the US and China.
So there!
In one of the most truly bizarre and utterly imbecilic trade debacles in history, America has been spending months talking, bullying, and badgering its way out of its highly advantageous global trade position.
The sheer absurdity of this mess is fascinating. The US is officially running around like a junkie trying to score rare earths while deeply antagonizing the world’s main supplier.
It’s even trying to extort rare earths from Ukraine to manage its own failed strategies. This is after the miserable and total failure of its futile “negotiations”. The US tech, military, and AI sectors have been blindsided by the new supply issues and are both likely to be left stranded and begging for rare earth deals.
As a kindergarten pantomime, this ridiculous hustling would be embarrassing. The baffling level of ignorance is beyond superlatives. Obviously, somebody doesn’t know much if anything, about the realities of rare earth sources or the technical issues.
You can’t do foreign trade by innuendo. This point will eventually become clear to the headless chicken factory in Washington. That’s “Made in the USA” and that market is very limited, too.
Since the administration seems to think it can play poker, let’s explain:
You do not run around on global media screaming “I wish I had three more aces!” in the middle of a game.
You do not spend months making it clear that you have no real cards to play to expert professional players.
You do not bet the farm on such a self-inflicted bad hand.
You do not promise tax cuts and big payouts on revenue winnings you don’t and probably never will have.
This IS as dumb as it can be. They’ll make it worse.
___________________________________________________________
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
