To listen to my analysis of the latest developments of the Trump trade war with China,
GO TO:
http://prn.fm/alternative-visions-trumps-dejavu-china-trade-war-04-06-18/
Or go to:
http://alternativevisions.podbean.com
SHOW ANNOUNCEMENT
Dr. Rasmus assesses the past week’s Trump trade offensive, showing its ‘dual track’ focus: go soft on trade and tariffs for US allies (example the recent Korean trade deal and exemptions on steel-aluminum tariffs) while playing ‘hardball’ with China trade. The steel and Korean deals are summarized. Rasmus argues this phony trade ‘track’ is for domestic political consumption for Trump’s base as November elections in the US approach and as Trump prepares to fire investigator Mueller. Trump is using trade to agitate and mobilize his domestic base on nationalist appeals once again. Rasmus argues the second, ‘hard’ track of China trade is about stemming US technology transfer to China that is militarily sensitive, especially AI, G5, and cyber security tech. That’s Trump’s No. 1 objective, for which he’ll trade tariffs on other China imports to the US. The Trump trade offensive is then discussed in historical perspective, comparing it to Nixon’s 1971-73 attack on Europe corporate competitors and Reagan’s 1985 attack on Japan. Why the US periodically engages in rewriting the trade ‘rules of the game’ to ensure US business interests are protected. The Trump trade offensive in relation to recent Trump taxes, deficits, and central bank interest rate hiking underway. Trade as the third policy initiative of Trump’s effort to re-establish a neoliberalism 2.0 policy regime.
In one of your posts about Trump, you described him as a sociopath and not mentally ill. The distinction is significant because if you label him as mentally ill, as have many, then you can dismiss him as an aberration. However, your description of Trump as a sociopath is not only more accurate but has a distinguished writer in support: specifically the English playwright Harold Pinter. In 2005, Pinter was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature and his acceptance speech is a difficult, angry description of the US foreign policy since World War II. However, because Pinter is a gifted writer he was able to personify the pathological foreign-policy of the US with the following character description:
“I put to you that the United States is without doubt the greatest show on the road. Brutal, indifferent, scornful and ruthless it may be but it is also very clever. As a salesman it is out on its own and its most saleable commodity is self love. It’s a winner. Listen to all American presidents on television say the words, ‘the American people’, as in the sentence, ‘I say to the American people it is time to pray and to defend the rights of the American people and I ask the American people to trust their president in the action he is about to take on behalf of the American people.’”
That description of 2005 is an eerie personification of Trump and quite a repudiation of the claim that Trump is mentally ill.