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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas A Watson who wrote (1075227)	6/25/2018 6:27:08 PM
From: Land Shark	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1574636

Not so fast skippy, tRump is falling back to the shithole where the POS belongs: Trump’s approval plummets way, way down .?.?. to where it’s been for a while washingtonpost.com Even Americans can see a dipshit POS tyrant for what he is.... pure evil.

To: Thomas A Watson who wrote (1075227)	6/26/2018 4:38:33 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574636

Trump Turns His Destructive Ire on an American Icon (Why Aren’t ALL Conservatives Concerned?) Harley Davidson shows how America is losing because of the Trade War President. JUNE 26, 2018 BY SUSAN WRIGHT Whose side are you on? President Trump isn’t nearly as in tune with the “common American” as he would like us to believe. How could he be? He was born into privilege, afforded things on his daddy’s dime that most of us have to struggle and scrape for, while getting nowhere near what he had, and has lived a penthouse existence, separated from much of the world outside. Just because he’s got his hands in the pockets of average American citizens, by selling those overpriced ball caps at his rallies and on his website, that doesn’t give him understanding. One for instance would be his attack on Harley-Davidson, an American icon. On Monday, the beloved American motorcycle manufacturer announced that they would be moving some of their operations out of the United States and into Europe, in response to the trade war President Trump has felt necessary to begin with our allies abroad. It’s not that Harley-Davidson weren’t having some issues with sales, to begin with. They’re in demand, and a status symbol for many motorcycle enthusiasts, but they’re a bit pricey and a luxury item. The ones who love them most have to do some major juggling to afford the sleek hog of their dreams. Europe has the second highest market for Harley-Davidson motorcycles, selling nearly 40,000 of their bikes across the European Union in 2017. With Trump’s trade war, the European tariffs on exported HD motorcycles increased somewhere from 6 percent to 31 percent. From the Associated Press on Monday: The impact on U.S. workers because of Harley-Davidson’s decision was not immediately clear. Harley-Davidson declined interview requests Monday but said in prepared remarks that the company “maintains a strong commitment to U.S.-based manufacturing which is valued by riders globally.” And to be clear, this isn’t a total move. It’s a partial move, in an effort to streamline their business and avoid the tariffs, so as to preserve their European market. It’s smart business, but what it means is that a uniquely American product has ceased to be so, because of Donald Trump’s blind desire to crush our allies and embrace our foes. On Tuesday, the president took to Twitter and went after Harley-Davidson, threatening them with language that not only showcased his lack of business acumen, but displayed his more despotic side. And yes, I know all about his time at Wharton Business School. I’m just wondering if it’s too late for the estate of Fred Trump to be reimbursed for the tuition that was wasted. In Tuesday morning tweets, Trump said: “We are getting other countries to reduce and eliminate tariffs and trade barriers that have been unfairly used for years against our farmers, workers and companies. We are opening up closed markets and expanding our footprint. They must play fair or they will pay tariffs!” “When I had Harley-Davidson officials over to the White House, I chided them about tariffs in other countries, like India, being too high. Companies are now coming back to America. Harley must know that they won’t be able to sell back into U.S. without paying a big tax!” All of these areas are areas of American workers that are being hurt by the trade war, interestingly enough. He’s not even finished with threatening to tank our nation’s economy. He’s also proposed a 20 percent tariff on all European cars entering the U.S. He got in one last dig at Harley-Davidson, and if anyone is seeing this behavior and still believes he’s looking out for our best interest, just consider that in South Carolina Monday night, he attacked BMW, just a few miles away from the state’s largest employer, BMW. Donald J. Trump ?@realDonaldTrump A Harley-Davidson should never be built in another country-never! Their employees and customers are already very angry at them. If they move, watch, it will be the beginning of the end - they surrendered, they quit! The Aura will be gone and they will be taxed like never before! 7:17 AM - Jun 26, 2018 He obviously doesn’t understand it’s not a total move, but it’s still disturbing that he would so openly threaten a well-known, well-loved American brand. patheos.com

To: Thomas A Watson who wrote (1075227)	6/26/2018 5:14:31 PM
From: Brumar89	1 Recommendation Recommended By chronicle Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574636

Looking Backward and Losing President Trump is attempting to tilt trade in our favor at the expense of our trading partners. His focus, using national security as the justification as well as the assertion that our trading partners are taking advantage of us, is based on discredited economics and policy. Other nations are focusing on the fast growing sectors that reflect advances in technology, which is what his predecessors did because new industries contribute to being the world’s leader. The President is looking backward and focusing on once iconic industries that are shrinking as a share of our economy. The President wants to increase exports at the expense of imports. What he ignores is that increased exports come from increased production. In a global economy we get those increases by being a more efficient producer than our competitors. As economists have repeatedly pointed out, we need the market and not government to generate winners. The president thinks that because we are the world’s largest economy, we can bully our way to achieving his export objective. He’s wrong, just as nation states of prior centuries were wrong in pursuing mercantilism which is based on the belief that maximizing net exports is the best approach to national prosperity. To make mercantilism work, nations engaged in protectionism which is what the President’s tariff policy is trying to do. Mercantilism was a flawed and failed policy in the 18thcentury and it just as flawed today. Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations demonstrated that trade could be mutually beneficial and that exports should be driven by a nation’s comparative advantage, which is based on productivity. In 1978, Milton Friedman pointed out that if the Japanese flood us with steel, it will reduce employment in the steel industry but increase employment in industries that use that steel. The dollars that the Japanese got from selling us subsidized steel eventually found their way back here as demand for US goods and services. In his concluding remarks, he asked, “ why should we object to their giving us foreign aid.” In an interconnected global economy, it is a fool’s errand to attempt to protect declining industries. Attempting to shield them from global competition simply makes them more dependent of government and stimulates crony capitalism. President Trump and his economic Svengali, Peter Navarro, claim that the tariff policy is being pursued for national security reasons. But that has been widely shown to be totally bogus. Further, A review of industrial policy initiatives decades ago in the journal Science, ended this way. “Here the historical record seems, for a change, unequivocal. Unequivocally negative.” Nothing has changed since then. The President’s policy is producing bads; not goods and the bads will just get worse. realitybasedpolicy.com