The Donald has once again made assertions that are untrue and totally baseless in relation to the escalating “trade war” and the “tit-for-tat” tariff game he is playing with the Chinese.
There are a couple of actual and provable facts that put the lie to his blustering. On May 1, the S&P closed at 2,924; on May 14, it closed at 2,834, a drop of 90 points or a -3%. Similarly, on May 1, the Dow Jones closed at 26,430 and on May 14, it closed at 25,531, a drop of some 890 points or a -3% loss.
By all accounts, these losses were engendered by and attributed to one influence only being that “trade war” with China. I suppose these losses may be considered by many as miniscule; but I suspect that they represent the cumulative loss (at least on paper) of tens of billions of American dollars in investments in the short space of two weeks. Yet, “the president insisted increases on Chinese goods don’t hurt American consumers” (Joe McDonald, the Associated Press, May 14, 2019). Perhaps The Donald, with all of his supposed billions of dollars, doesn’t find a loss of 3% to be important, but I suggest that most Americans who have invested in the markets are feeling the heat. The Donald then doubled down by saying “there is no reason for the U.S. Consumer to pay the Tariffs” (same source, McDonald of the AP). This assertion merely adds to the already known ignorance of The Donald. U.S. importers of Chinese goods pay the tariffs imposed by China. And if anyone would be so naïve as to expect Wal-Mart, for example, to “swallow” those additional costs rather than passing them on to its customers, he or she should go back to third grade.
The Donald’s ignorance is obviously contagious. It ain’t gonna happen, people! Without question, The Donald is the Bull in a China Shop.
But when he breaks it, we have to pay for it!
Daniel Andrews is a resident of the Village of Winifred.
