For all of his gloating, the USA itself is highly dependent on China in its manufacturing of weapons for the Airforce, Navy and ground based weapons like rockets and defensive missiles. Fancy trying to force China to sell it more rare earth elements to make weapons to target China later on. Trump thinks the Chinese are stupid and can be easily conned just like the Hillbillies. China controls 60% of the rare earth elements, and 85% of the refining facilities, while the USA controls the gloating, boasting and propagandization of its capabilities.
Who has the upper hand is a no brainer. Without the rare earth elements, nothing is going to be manufactured for the USA defense industry. The irony is weapons cannot be made out of thin air, like printing banana notes.
Anonymous
Off topic but I was amused that Scott Bessant found the question of 'who is paying the tariffs' to be a very complicated question to answer when cornered by a congressman. That he even said that to a congressman is a no brainer. As someone who is supposed to be a highly touted hedge fund manager, this is nothing more than a bald face liar trying to lie through his teeth, knowing he cannot tell the congressman that USA consumers are actually paying those tariffs, not manufacturers in China or elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteNow, when a buyer enters a shop to buy something, who pays for the things he bought when you asked him? How complicated is it to answer the question. Scott Bessant's facial expression when confronted with this question is always clownish and finding difficulty dealing with it. He smiled uncomfortably, stammers when unable to answer the question directly and truthfully and tried to wriggle his way out with nonsensical noises like an animal caught in a trap. How he lied his way through is fun to watch. One congressman even told him straight in the face that he is not just brought in sitting there to lie.
Scott Bessent is nearing the end of his tethers. The tariff con that exporters from other countries have to eat those tariffs have been put to rest with USA consumers now finding out the escalating prices at retail outlets. Not only that, but other sectors like agriculture are caught in the tailspin of those tariff war and farmers regretting throwing their support behind Trump to get him elected. But it is too late to regret for that.
Now we are seeing that retaliation is even affecting the chips sector, with China telling its industry players to avoid using USA made chips. Slowly, Trump is killing what he was supposed to protect and still thinking he has cards left to play. No Donnie, the game is over, and the cards are not in your hands to deal.
China is slowly seeking out all the weak spots in the USA armor to attack when the time is ripe and when it is in a position to launch those attacks. Time is on China's side. After all China goes for long term planning and is well known for that. After clearing the hurdles to overcome the chips alliance with its own self-made chips, China is ready for the next stage of its retaliation in the technology war.
While China seeks out weak points to counter where it hurts, all USA does is just blind pot shots hoping to hit China and caused China to collapse. So far, all attempts seem to have missed the target. While China prioritized subsidies to promote innovation in rising sectors like semiconductors, aviation, renewables and EVs, USA prioritize its subsidies for chipmakers with the mindset of making China collapse.
ReplyDeleteThe subsidies thrown at the Chips Alliance is not doing well in countering China. Silence in recent years hides a faltering agenda that is falling apart. It is a disaster in the making. One day the USA may have to try to sneak chip shipments into China using another country as its source, just like soya beans, if China continues to deny entry to USA made chips.
The tariff war is not doing that well either against those who are sturdy enough to retaliate like China, Canada and Mexico. Now we are seeing who have backbones and who are just pretenders and lap dogs obeying its master and groveling at the feet of Trump hoping for a bone or two to be thrown for them.
How is it logically sensible that even countries with trade deficits with USA, like Singapore, are also targeted. It makes no sense. The penguins and seals will be shaking their heads at the stupidity of the USA, probably having more brains that those inside the White House.
Dotard Trump's main aim in these Tarrifs are to extort from the Americunts Hillibies into his pockets and banks.
ReplyDeleteJust a four years changkol harvests.
Strike whilst the irons are HOT.