Promoting Economic Growth

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President Donald Trump says the U.S. is being treated unfairly on trade and he named the European Union, Russia and China as foes to the United States.  Trump said that unfair Chinese trade practices are responsible for the yawning U.S. trade deficit with China and then he imposed tariffs on Chinese goods and limited China’s ability to invest in the U.S. technology industry, saying the moves were a response to Beijing’s history of forcing U.S. companies to surrender their trade secrets to do business in China.  Trump recently ordered the U.S. Trade Representative to come up with a list of $200 billion more on Chinese goods.  Many people do not welcome Trump’s abominable tariffs, as they think that they will wind up costing the U.S. jobs while slowing economic growth.

Trump said that European countries were taking advantage of the US and not paying their NATO bills.  Yesterday, the EU hit Google with a $5 billion fine, alleging the company had violated antitrust laws by bundling its apps like Chrome and Google Play with its Android operating system.  Google has 90 days to end the practice, or else face more fines.  The President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker confirmed that he will be traveling to Washington on 25 July 2018 where he will meet with Trump to discuss cooperation between the European Union and the United States government and institutions across a wide range of priorities, including foreign and security policy, counterterrorism, energy security, and economic growth.  They will focus on improving transatlantic trade and a forging stronger economic partnership.  This visit comes amid increasing strained relations as the two sides are looking to find a solution to escalating trade war tensions.  Relations have deteriorated after the US imposed 20 percent tariffs on European Union steel and aluminum at the start of June.  The EU quickly retaliated and imposed 25 percent import duties on a variety of US products, including steel and aluminum products, farm produce such as sweet corn and peanuts, bourbon, jeans and motorbikes.

President Trump has taken the US into a global trade war, which he thinks he can win, but the best we can hope for is that he figures this out quickly, limiting the economic damage.  The escalating trade battle between the U.S. and the rest of the world is raising the risk of a meaningful slowing in an otherwise vibrant American economy.  Trump touts how much he has done for the American economy, stating the low unemployment rate, steady job growth, and record stock market peaks that have occurred during his presidency.  The basic truth is that while the economy displayed steady growth over the past 12 months, the same was true of the 72 months or so that came before that and the big change hasn’t been in the economy, but in people’s hearts relating to the Republican Party loyalists, in particular, they weren’t ready to admit the economy had recovered until they had a co-partisan in the White House.

The Dow experienced its worst point decline in history this February as it plunged 1,175 points and it ended up at 23,860 on February 8th and then it went up again only to drop down to 23,533 on March 23rd and as of today it is up to 25,199 which makes investing in stocks a time prospered event.  If you are willing to invest the time and effort by doing the necessary reading, you start by getting a home study kit before you start trading.  A whisper stock is shares in a company that is rumored to be the target of a takeover offer.  The reason for the whisper has nothing to do with it being sussurous (emitting whispering or rustling sounds), it is that any such talk must be kept quiet.

Written for Daily Addictions prompt – Vibrant, for FOWC with Fandango – Steady, for July Writing Prompts – Time prospered, for Sheryl’s A New Daily Post Word Prompt – Abominable, for Ragtag Community – Welcome, for Scotts Daily Prompt – Kit, for Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Tale Weaver #180 – Growth, for Weekly Prompts – Advantage and for Word of the Day Challenge Prompt – Sussurous.

17 thoughts on “Promoting Economic Growth”

  2. You did an amazing job using the prompts, though I don’t know an awful lot about Trump and tariffs. I know he has hit us with one, but the US has been hitting Canada with tariffs ever since we signed the Free Trade Agreement forty years ago. Uncle Sam looks after Uncle Sam — the rest of the world knows it by now. When the US declared war in 1942 the first thing they did was confiscate all German-owned industries and Japanese property — totally without recompense.

    Be history what it is, I believe we here in North America all have the same problem and it’s killing us economically. We don’t buy our own stuff. We don’t want to pay our own prices. We LIKE the cheap stuff from overseas, where fair wages, quality control and anti-pollution regulations don’t factor in.

    Trump and American economists may lament about the enormous US trade deficit to China, but the only thing that will finally turn this situation around — in my uneducated opinion — is if consumers become willing to pay North American prices for North American-made goods. We all wail about loss of jobs and what the government should do, but economic prosperity is not in the government’s hands; it’s in the hands of the everyday consumers. And we’ve chosen to hand it (mainly) to SE Asia. Sam Walton had a great idea in that respect when he started out. They’ve trashed their “Buy American” slogans in favor of “The lowest price is the Law.” We all have— and now the jobs are gone.

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