Friday, June 29, 2018

The "Military Allies" Crock and Follow the Money!!

One of the better economic observers addresses economic stupidities, like the one from Samuelson which decries Trump's tariff moves because such moves will 'weaken US allies and alliances.'

Harf...harf...

...This argument conveniently overlooks several big trade and security fundamentals. First, globalist pre-Trump American leaders themselves have insisted that they’ve long tried to create multilateral pressure on China’s rogue economic behavior for years before Mr. Trump became president – though it’s unclear how serious these efforts were. For example, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal largely touted by the Obama administration for its potential to curb China’s influence contained a back door for numerous imports with major levels of Chinese content

Second, it’s anything but obvious that U.S. alliances strengthen American security on net. As I’ve pointed out frequently (including this past week), they continue to expose the American homeland to the risk of nuclear attack even though the Soviet-style kinds of global threats their nuclear guarantees were intended to counter have been (literally) gone for nearly three decades. Moreover, as has been widely reported, the militaries of many of these allies have deteriorated so markedly that their potential as force multipliers for the United States is open to serious doubt....

A very-well informed commenter over at Owen's place summed it up:  since WWII, US trade and tariff policy has been another way to deliver foreign aid.  Wouldn't surprise me if that "foreign aid" happened to follow major investments in those foreign countries--made by certain very influential industrialists and/or banks.  IOW, Follow the Money.

Just sayin'......

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