First Blog

On tariffs.   Commentators recite over and over again how the imposed tariffs are paid by the people, the taxpayer, the consumer.   True, perhaps.   But without the tariffs and with the current horrific trade arrangements between China and the USA, how many US jobs are lost, how many US industries move off-shore, how much is the imbalance of payments increased, and how much less competitive is our economy?   Something must be done to stop the usurious Chinese business practices. Too many critics imply we should negotiate “smarter.” Then tariffs won’t be needed. This is the buzz from people who really don’t know what to do.  Beware of the professors and pundits.   At most, they have negotiated the price of a used car for their kids. The Chinese cheat, and love it.   In fact, the English word “inscrutable” is a word almost exclusively used to describe the Chinese.   This word is cloaked with cloth made from threads of misdirection, misconception, and misrepresentation.   In sho

China cheats.   This is a fundamental fact all have learned.  In the trade talks they are loath to give up all their forms of cheating, from assuming foreign corporate ownership, to hacking for information and innovation, to lying about economic data, to usurious borrowing to corrupt countries.  China not only cheats, but they love to cheat and need to cheat.   They cheat even when they don’t have to. For their leaders, cheating is akin to an addiction. It’s virtually genetic. I believe the power brokers in China, especially Xi Jinping, will be unable to agree to any deal that stops cheating altogether. One approach the US trade negotiations could do is make an agreement with that allows them some cheating, but subtly controls it efficacy.   This is an update to my previous blog at https://used-ideas.blogspot.com/2019/01/pig-latin-and-chinese-checkers.html