Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking. Login or Take a Tour!
- Which brings us to the news. The trade war between the world’s two biggest economies is staggering into its third week and both sides are sizing up the costs. On Tuesday, the Trump administration outlined tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese products, adding to the $34 billion worth of import tariffs that went into effect on July 6th. China promises to retaliate in kind. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin acknowledged that trade talks between the two countries have broken down.” China blasted the U.S. for “acting erratically” and “blatantly abandoning” the established consensus on trade. And, for good measure, the Commerce Department said China’s monthly trade surplus with the U.S. widened in June to $29 billion, an all-time high. (The spike likely reflects exporters rushing to beat the July tariffs.)
China is playing chess and Trump and the Republicans at large are kicking over the pieces and shitting on the board, pretending they won. The weaknesses of democracy are being exploited by authoritarian states, China and Russia specifically, and the chief weakness is selfish politicians who are willing to trade short term electoral victory in exchange for long term global influence.