Tag: Trump trade policy

New data challenges Trump’s economic narrative

The Hill logoPresident Trump has repeatedly said the U.S. economy under his watch has been extraordinary.

His tweeted descriptors have included “BOOMING,” “GREAT,” “stronger than ever” and “perhaps the greatest ECONOMY and most successful first two years of any President in history.”

But a slew of recent data suggests the Trump economy has fared no differently than other expansions at this stage. And those same numbers indicate the president’s economy may be headed toward a downturn.

View the complete August 25 article by Niv Elis on The Hill website here.

Trump again undercuts his administration’s messy tariffs rhetoric

Washington Post logoOne of the problems with evaluating claims made by President Trump’s administration about the tariffs imposed on products from China is that it can be hard to determine how much misdirection is built in.

Consider the crux of the issue: who is paying for the tariffs. It is certainly the case that very, very few American consumers are paying for the tariffs directly; Americans aren’t sending checks to the Treasury to cover increased import costs. Instead, they’re paying for the tariffs indirectly, through higher prices of products that are imported from China or that use components imported from China. A bad-faith representation of the situation could say, with accuracy, that consumers are paying very little, if any, of the tariffs simply based on that distinction.

A broader problem, though, is that the president’s rhetoric on the issue is all over the map and internally inconsistent — and also not the argument his team is making publicly.

View the complete August 19 article by Philip Bump on The Washington Post website here.

Angry Minnesota farmer bashes ‘insulting’ Trump comments that ‘we’re great patriots’ during his trade war

President Donald Trump has insulted at least one Minnesota farmer with his claim that farmers are “great patriots” who want him to continue his trade fight against China.

“This wound is self-inflicted, by our president,” said Gary Wertish, who is the Minnesota Farm Bureau president. “We definitely agreed with it in the beginning. But it doesn’t appear that there’s a plan B. Some of the callous comments come, especially from the president, you know, that farmers are ‘winning,’ we’re ‘great patriots,’ that’s very insulting. That’s coming from someone who never has faced the challenges of a family farmer. I go into the bank and tell the lender I can’t make the payment because we lost our market? The banker is not going to tell me you don’t have to make your payment because you’re a patriot.”

He’s not alone, fellow farmer Cindy VanDerPol admitted that she sometimes can’t sleep at night because she’s worried.

View the complete August 18 article by Sarah K. Burris on the Raw Story website here.

How Trump’s Trade Bailout Greased Fatcats And Screwed Small Farmers

Donald Trump loooooves farmers. We know this because he says so. “Farmers, I LOVE YOU!” he declared in December. And we’ve learned that whenever The Donald says something, it’s true — even when it’s not.

These days, he’s loving farmers to death. Trump has ignored the obvious need to get monopolistic price-fixing bankers, suppliers and commodity buyers off their backs. And he’s ineptly playing tariff games with China and other buyers of U.S. farm products, causing exports and farm prices to tumble. The result is that our ag economy is tumbling into a deep ditch, slamming farm families and rural America with a rising tsunami of bankruptcies.

Adding crude insult to economic injury, Trump’s doofus of an ag secretary, Sonny Perdue, laughed at farmers, branding them “whiners” for opposing his majesty’s disastrous policies.

View the complete August 17 commentary by Jim Hightower on the National Memo website here.

Wall Street Journal torches top Trump adviser for being the architect behind US economic chaos

AlterNet logoIn a blunt and uncharacteristically sarcastic broadside aimed at Donald Trump’s administration, an obviously furious editorial board of the conservative Wall Street Journal trashed adviser Peter Navarro for being the driving force behind policies that appear to be driving the entire world’s economy into recession.

With the market plummeting and the president trying to blame the Fed for the crashing economy, the editors of the Journal said the source of the economic chaos can be found in the White House.

“After we warned last week that U.S. trade policy was courting recession, White House aide Peter Navarro took to Fox Business to denounce us for sounding like The People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist propaganda arm,” the editorial began before snarling, “That was novel as criticisms of these columns go, but perhaps Mr. Navarro would care to comment again after Wednesday’s recession warning from the bond and equity markets? Are they Commies too?”

View the complete August 15 article by Tom Boggioni from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Trump pressured Mnuchin to label China ‘currency manipulator,’ a move he had previously resisted

Washington Post logoPresident Trump personally pressed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to label China as a “currency manipulator” two weeks ago, a move Mnuchin had previously resisted, three people with direct knowledge of the push said.

The pressure from Trump revealed a more forceful West Wing role in the highly controversial decision. Mnuchin had repeatedly refused to designate China as a currency manipulator because China’s currency moves didn’t meet the Treasury Department’s established criteria for that action.

But Trump exerted immense pressure on Mnuchin earlier this month, after the Chinese let their currency, the yuan, cross a symbolic threshold that it had not passed in some time.

View the complete August 15 article by Damian Paletta and Philip Rucker on The Washington Post website here.

Trump’s big farmer grift: He’s giving millions to the rich while starving the poor

AlterNet logoDonald Trump loooooves farmers. We know this because he says so. “Farmers, I LOVE YOU!” he declared in December. And we’ve learned that whenever The Donald says something, it’s true — even when it’s not.

These days, he’s loving farmers to death. Trump has ignored the obvious need to get monopolistic price-fixing bankers, suppliers and commodity buyers off their backs. And he’s ineptly playing tariff games with China and other buyers of U.S. farm products, causing exports and farm prices to tumble. The result is that our ag economy is tumbling into a deep ditch, slamming farm families and rural America with a rising tsunami of bankruptcies.

Adding crude insult to economic injury, Trump’s doofus of an ag secretary, Sonny Perdue, laughed at farmers, branding them “whiners” for opposing his majesty’s disastrous policies.

View the complete August 15 article by Jim Hightower from Creators Syndicate on the AlterNet website here.

‘It’s All Doom and Gloom.’ A Key Indicator of Recession Just Triggered in Both the U.S. and the U.K.

The stream of investors seeking refuge in the safest parts of the market has triggered yet another recession warning, with yield curves inverting from the U.S. to the U.K.

The gap between two- and 10-year yields dropped below zero on both sides of the Atlantic after a wave of soft economic data globally. Weaker-than-forecast Chinese retail sales and industrial output set the mood for the markets, with data later in the day showing Germany’s economy contracted, adding to the gloom.

“The bond market is saying central banks are behind the curve,” said Marc Ostwald, global strategist at ADM Investor Services in London. “It’s all doom and gloom on the global economy.”

View the complete August 14 article by John Ainger and Greg Ritchie from Bloomberg News on the Time website here.

Trump finally acknowledges his tariffs could hit consumers

Washington Post logo‘We are doing this for the Christmas season,’ Trump said as he announced a delay on his latest import taxes

President Trump has repeated the same mantra for months: The Chinese are paying the full price of his tariffs. It’s a line that the overwhelming majority of economists and business owners say is false, but Trump kept saying it — until Aug. 13.

The White House announced Tuesday that the president’s latest tariffs on China would be delayed on many popular items like cellphones, laptops and strollers. The 10 percent tax would not go into effect until Dec. 15, effectively ensuring retailers can import goods for the holidays before the tariffs take effect.

Trump himself told reporters the delay is to ensure consumers don’t face higher costs this Christmas. Here are his full remarks:

View the complete August 13 article by Heather Long on The Washington Post website here.

Recession warnings pose 2020 threat to Trump

The Hill logoFears that a recession could hit the U.S. next year are growing on Wall Street, creating a potential headache for President Trump as he seeks to highlight the economy in his bid for a second term.

Economists at Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Moody’s Analytics in the past few days all raised concerns that a recession between now and next year’s elections is becoming more likely. And they all pointed the finger of blame at Trump’s trade policy.

“I think recession is increasingly likely,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said on Monday. “I’d put the odds at just over even for a recession between now and the end of 2020, assuming the president follows through on his tariff threats.”

View the complete August 13 article by Niv Ellis on The Hill website here.