China Trade Talks And The Cuban Missile Crisis

We find it interesting that many accuse us of being China apologists because we have concluded from our analysis long ago that President Trump is taking the wrong approach in dealing with the Middle Kingdom.   No argument here we have issues with China that need to be addressed.  China has outgrown its developing country status and its special treatment within the WTO should be removed.   We also are realistic that trying to get China to change its economic model because the U.S. demands it is a nonstarter.

Moreover, going it alone, leaving the TPP, negotiating out of ignorance, impulse, and through tweets, and using tariffs so cavalierly have been, are, and will be a disaster.  We believe the deterioration in global trade is the major factor that is tanking the global economy.  Go no further than Germany to confirm this.

Cuban Missile Crisis  

Compare the current U.S.-China negotiations with how President Kennedy ended the Cuban Missile Crisis.  There were many different paths JFK could have taken.  Some of his hawkish advisers wanted to bomb Cuba immediately, some wanted regime change in Cuba, as many in Trump’s inner circle want an economic regime change in China.

Nobody disagreed the Soviet missiles in Cuba had to be removed.

President Kennedy had to weigh different advice, including starting a nuclear exchange and, you know, things like the end of the world issues.   He knew what was doable and what was not.

JFK had a fluid and strategic plan and executed it.

He was cool, calm, and collected.  Grace under pressure.

Furthermore, President Kennedy didn’t have the psychological need to be the apparent winner in the conflict.  He gave the Soviets an out by pulling missiles from Greece and Turkey, which Kruschev could sell to the Moscow hardliners as an American concession.  The President took a lot of heat from Congressional hawks for removing the missiles.

Oscar Shindler Jumping Ship

Today, we are finally getting a sense that many of what we call Trump’s Oscar Shindler supporters, those who don’t like him but profit from his tax cuts and economic policies, are starting to wake up to the fact that Trump is an economic nationalist, bad for the country, and is FUBARing the global economy.

Stay tuned.

P.S. Just heard a Freudian slip by a talking head on Bubblevision,  “President Chump said…”  It begins.