Trump-O-Nomics: The Ditzy Spawn of Free Money, Not Free Trade (Part 1)
He can gratuitously claim all the economic “golden ages” he pleases, but when it comes to economic policy the Donald is an unhinged ditz and then some.
In fact, he’s also a statist wolf in sheep’s clothing—pretending to be the savior of the people from the depredations of the Washington Swamp. Yet he now proposes to capriciously monkey-hammer the buying and selling of goods on the free market, and to the tune of hundreds of billions in higher consumer costs or lower exporter output, employment and profits in order to further dubious government policy goals. And all without any legislative debate and approval at that.
We are referring especially to the reasons cited in his announcement that he will slap a 25% tariff on most imports from Canada and Mexico:
“We’ll be announcing the tariffs on Canada and Mexico for a number of reasons,” said Trump, adding “Number one is the people that have poured into our country so horribly and so much. Number two are the drugs fentanyl and everything else that have come into the country. Number three are the massive subsidies that we’re giving to Canada and to Mexico in the form of deficits.”
“We don’t need the products that they have. We have all the oil that you need. We have all the trees you need,” said Trump, referring to major imports from Canada.
Well, no, goddamnit!
It is absolutely not the president’s prerogative to determine what goods the American economy “needs” or doesn’t “need”, and from where they are sourced as between the north or south side of the Rio Grande, Lake Ontario, or any other place on the planet.
Free enterprise is at the heart of capitalist prosperity and the Donald is just plain kicking it in the ass.
In 2023, for example, US businesses large and small exported $676 billion worth of merchandise to Canadian and Mexican buyers, which was distributed among the categories shown below. Self-evidently, tens of thousands of US firms found a way to efficiently produce items ranging from electrical transformers to organic chemicals that consumers and businesses operating in our two neighboring economies found attractive.
Combined 2023 US Exports to Mexico and Canada:
- Electrical and electronic equipment: $81 billion
- Machinery, nuclear reactors, boilers: $97 billion
- Mineral fuels, oils, distillation products: $74 billion
- Vehicles other than railway, tramway: $86 billion
- Plastics: $37 billion
- Optical, photo, technical, medical apparatus: $21 billion
- Commodities not specified according to kind: $25 billion
- Articles of iron or steel: $15 billion
- Cereals: $30 billion
- Organic chemicals: $11 billion
- All other: $199 billion
- Total US Exports To Mexico And Canada: $676 billion
But now these US exporters may find themselves struggling to sustain their sales if, as they surely will, Mexico and Canada respond with retaliatory tariffs or other economic barriers. That is to say, the Donald proposes to take millions of US jobs and billions of investment hostage as grand bargaining chips so he can play “art of the deal” from the Oval Office.
That’s right. For the greater good, allegedly, of stopping the flow of willing immigrant workers or fentanyl to the US the Donald doesn’t mind shit-canning jobs, profits and investment values in any of the industries listed above.
That’s because he totally misunderstands the fundamentals of constitutional government in America and the philosophical underpinnings for sustainable liberty and prosperity across the land. To wit, America does not need a hyper-active bully-boy, playing the role of mega-CEO and dashing about in a frenzy of threats, head-fakes and deal-making.
What ails America is way too much costly and intrusive government—an ill that can only be ameliorated by de-activating, de-energizing and defunding the state, thereby allowing the free enterprise of the people to flourish.
In this framework, of course, the Fifth Amendment needs to reign supreme—the idea that the Federal government absolutely cannot take your property without just compensation. But then again, we don’t see much indication that the Donald has read the Constitution, Adam Smith nor much of anything else.
And yet and yet. There are undoubtedly hundreds, if not thousands, of small businesses producing reconditioned boilers, plastic moldings, medical test equipment, customized delivery trucks, rice and barley, stainless steel wire, hot forgings etc., who have painstakingly built up an export business in Mexico or Canada but will now face a “rug-pull” compliments of the Donald.
And we do mean rug pull. For instance, here is the list of $155 billion of US exports to Canada in 2023 that will be subject to the already announced 25% retaliatory tariff by Canada.
Needless to say, we do not think the Canadian government threw darts at a board to choose the passenger vehicle, household appliance, fruits, dairy, aerospace and plastics categories of US supplied goods listed below, which categories account for about 44% of the $353 billion of US exports to Canada in 2023.
To the contrary, in trade wars you retaliate against items that can be most readily produced at home or procured from alternative foriegn sources at prices only slightly higher than the current prices of items to be subjected to
Article from LewRockwell
LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
