He’s trying to negotiate from a stronger position than he has. China is something like the third largest US Treasury Bond holder.
He is trying to win at poker with a pair of 2s. All he can do is bluff. China knows they have a royal flush. Trump is loosing and all he can do is yell that it’s his casino, his table. He’s out of cards and his bookie wont set him another spot.
He really doesn’t seem to care or understand just how weak his position is. Using tariffs as a threat and bargaining piece is him telling China that “you need us more than we need you,” and he’s dead wrong about that.
It takes years to build up a supply chain and production facilities for domestic manufacturing. Not to mention, the production costs and consumer price would be much higher because of the difference in wages and labor. What happens in the meantime? It’s not like they simply eschew everything from China and keep trucking along as usual.
For that reason, I don’t think the poker analogy is very accurate. It’s really more like a starving guy refusing to buy $1.99 bread because he thinks he can convince his equally-starving friends to cook a 3 course steak dinner using a trashcan bonfire and a promise that tomorrow he’ll find a live cow somewhere in the middle of Detroit.
He’s trying to negotiate from a stronger position than he has. China is something like the third largest US Treasury Bond holder.
He is trying to win at poker with a pair of 2s. All he can do is bluff. China knows they have a royal flush. Trump is loosing and all he can do is yell that it’s his casino, his table. He’s out of cards and his bookie wont set him another spot.
He really doesn’t seem to care or understand just how weak his position is. Using tariffs as a threat and bargaining piece is him telling China that “you need us more than we need you,” and he’s dead wrong about that.
It takes years to build up a supply chain and production facilities for domestic manufacturing. Not to mention, the production costs and consumer price would be much higher because of the difference in wages and labor. What happens in the meantime? It’s not like they simply eschew everything from China and keep trucking along as usual.
For that reason, I don’t think the poker analogy is very accurate. It’s really more like a starving guy refusing to buy $1.99 bread because he thinks he can convince his equally-starving friends to cook a 3 course steak dinner using a trashcan bonfire and a promise that tomorrow he’ll find a live cow somewhere in the middle of Detroit.