Comments by "Alan Friesen" (@alanfriesen9837) on "China Trade War - Layman's Guide" video.

  1.  @sunnyinsanya2  I don't think you're being fair. His explanation was good within the confines of his point but it did miss a lot of other aspects such as the advantage finished product manufacturers in the west get from the purchase of components tariff-free which benefits both the workers in those western factories and the consumers that purchase those products anywhere. Western food manufacturers (farmers) also benefit from low-tariff exports to China. It is imbalanced, which was the central point of his video, and at some point that imbalance needs to be addressed, but the current method of addressing the imbalance through large tariff hikes slows both economies down and costs manufacturing jobs in both locations and farming jobs in America while simultaneously raising costs, on food in China and on finished goods in the United States. In the medium run, China can probably force its banks to lend to factories so that jobs are preserved and, with a glut of durable goods, prices on finished products will probably go down which would tangentially increase demand. That particular solution doesn't work as well in the United States because the government would have to have the cooperation of the Federal Reserve to pump money into factories through banks as well as some radical alteration of bank regulation requiring the cooperation of Congress. And even if it did work, experience with supply side stimulus is that instead of money pumped into private firms going towards increasing labor-intensive production it usually goes into labor-saving capital investment or straight into the dividends of private firm owners. What does benefit the United States in this conflict is the short-term outcome. The sheer difference in trade quantity (read: the trade deficit) means that the black eye that China has to weather in the short term is a lot more painful than the one the United States has to sport. However, the last time China blinked, even when they were clearly in a losing fight, was back in the Opium Wars. I'm not sure I have any confidence that they are going to stop the trade war by acquiescing to Trump any time in the foreseeable future.
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  2. American companies, especially manufacturers and retailers, wanted cheap components. That trade impediment is going to be what hurts American companies and workers the most.
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  3.  White Noise  Thank you for leaving my party. You're not wanted.
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