nostr:nevent1qqs8tdrcs4pkqqkyfqg5zrwq4070ws4edrukuyqns42k53dvvddj2mcpzamhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgtczypmvwx4w8fy378v7a3ruhgt7y2wd5sgn5zamde4wzamdwep798905qcyqqqqqqger2pdm

Uruguay and New Zealand markets are insignificant.

They have no chance of coercing manufacturers to invest preferentially in factories there, so free trade is optimal for the consumers, workers and bureaucratic tax-spenders alike.

The United States is not Uruguay, and China is not New Zealand.

They can (and in China's case, do) coerce manufacturers to invest preferentially in their economies, by using tariffs, or the threat of tariffs, to redirect investment flows.

The USA has been #2 largest economy behind China at #1 since 2014, so Trump has no real hope of extorting capital from Chinese investors.

But he can, and is, sucking capital out of smaller European nations with this gambit.

Athens and Thebes played this game against smaller polities (and usually won) in the 3rd c. BC. Tariff extortion works much better today with our much more alienable capital and labour.

Tariffs are a negative sum game, but it is pure copium to pretend it doesn't have winners.

And the "threat" of drugs can and will be used to contain and extort personal-use imports from Mexico and Canada. How naive are people? That's not a problem for LE, its a golden opportunity.