Comments by "Doncarlo" (@doujinflip) on "This ‘Loophole’ Let $54B of Products Into the U.S. Tariff-Free | WSJ Center Point" video.

  1. If you're talking about the Plaza Accords, remember the target wasn't Japan but America and its policies pushing up the USD relative to the rest of the G5 currencies. Japan was just in the wrong place at the right time to make the same inflationary mistakes over the next decade, and suffered from an economy was too rigid and protectionist to recover when the JPY crashed.
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  2. No, the Reagan administration was more interested in curbing price inflation and showing global confidence in the American economy following its early-80s recession, and so resisted international intervention right up until there was industry pressure to institute more protectionist policies against then-inexpensive imports. The Yen bubble that followed was all Japan's work considering similar issues didn't arise with the Pound, Franc, or Mark.
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  3. And now that Trump realizes he can't affect prices all that much (especially for Made in USA stuff like many grocery items), he's been trying to make us think his platform and popular mandate had been about foreigners all along.
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  4. It's all these carve-outs and exceptions that make our tax laws more complicated -- and thus profitable for the big guys who can afford dedicated legal teams -- than they need to be. And then pro-business Republicans gaslight the government about being ineffective, saying there's a for-profit substitute (which they conveniently own) who can do better.
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