I wanted to take note of a single sentence in Walter Russell Mead’s latest Wall Street Journal column:
The alleged Russian sabotage attempt on Germany’s Leipzig/Halle airport failed to trigger a rush of Euro-patriotism.
because it reflects a widespread misconception.
There has never been “Euro-patriotism”. There have been France, Germany, Italy, etc. pursuing their own parochial interests. France has pursued subsidies for French farmers. Germany has pursued the profits of German banks and manufacturers. Other less developed economies e.g. Greece have pursued the increased consumption that unlimited borrowing enabled. And so on.
There has never been “Euro-patriotism” and I see little reason to expect it to emerge now that establishment political parties are fighting for their political lives against “far right-wing” upstarts. Don’t infer European solidarity from coincident national interests. European unity exists when countries continue acting together after their national interests diverge and doing so becomes costly.
“France has pursued subsidies for French farmers. Germany has pursued the profits of German banks and manufacturers. ”
And mercantilists like those mentioned, and Canada, Mexico and China etc do the same. Begger thy neighbor.
But Trump is a bad guy for calling bullshit on the gutting of America’s strategic materials, strategic capabilities, and manufacturing base. Screw the American worker for a few bucks off on your TV or grandkids toys.
TDS
He is a bad guy for the way he is going about it. He has essentially made himself king and is unilaterally deciding policy, bypassing Congress entirely, and not just on trade issues. Even if tariffs had a history of being effective, they dont, maybe this time could be different but they have been so erratic and tied up with personal grievances its hard for trading partners and our own businesses to plan.
It also doesnt help that his explanations make him sound economically illiterate. When we trade with another country buying something from that other country is not a subsidy as he claims, we are getting something for our money. Something cheaper, or unavailable, than it would be in our own country.
Add in his poorly thought out war and his economic plans, again decided by Trump alone, dont appear especially sound. OTOH, he is going to give me $5000 which will just add on to our debt, that he promised to eliminate. Instead, $10.8 trillion of our $40 trillion has been added during his time in office and this maneuver adds another $1.3 trillion by itself. Since I will probably die before the debt gets addressed and since I already have my house paid off so I dont need to worry about mortgage rates back over 7% maybe I should support this.
Steve