Comments by "" (@TheDavidlloydjones) on "Former Chinese central bank governor Zhou: Trade war impact on China economy is not significant" video.

I hope he's right, and there's a good chance he may be. In any event that's exactly the right attitude to take and emotion to express. I wish the brave sombitch well. One interesting sidelight on this is that China's main challenge of the current period is making the transition to a strong domestically-centred economy, from being weak at the mercy of the outside world and struggling, pulling themselves up by selling to that outside. We've seen this before: they are in the situation of Japan in the late 1960s, when they joined the OECD and took their place as the most junior of the mature economies. As the largest economy in the world, at least PPP, China's juniority is a little odd, but on maturity of form, the shoe still fits. The loud thundering of Trump's empty barrel out there is fine for China domestically: it gives the authorities cover for any of the discomforts they have to cause as they push the transition forward.
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Of course people are getting hurt, Howard. American consumers of steel and aluminum are being hurt immediately. In the longer term, protectionism always brings about the misallocation of investment. Trump is trading a few cheap cheers right now for the long-term sabotage of the American economy. Baby Donnie is a wastrel and a fool in his private life, a danger to everything he touches in his public.
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