G7 minus 1

bone said:
If a political party wants to win working class votes in the United States - especially in the Rust Belt, they are going to have to be seen as being very aggressive towards trade deficits with countries that are seen in the eyes of that working class as taking away American jobs.

And I know that it seems racist to some folks, but enforcing existing laws on illegal immigration is also a key working class issue.

Trump has been very consistent about leveling import/export trade balances with other other nations. Just my own personal observation: everything Trump says and does is directed towards working class voters. And Trump knows full well that a Honda assembly worker in Marysville, Ohio has no fucks given for the elite politicos and their punditry. They don't stay up and watch Stephen Colbert and they could truly care less about the NYT opinion page.

US Census Bureau, April 2018 YTD Trade balances: Germany (21.9B), Japan (23.8B), Italy (9.8B), France (5.7B), United Kingdom + 3.2B. 2017 Canada (18B) 2017 Germany (64B)

And other than cynically playing to their own political constituencies, what actual leverage does France have? Or Canada or Germany for that matter...

And oh by the way, where is Canada and Germany at with their NATO commitments to increase defense spending from 1 to 2 percent of GDP?

I actually think Macron is being a bit wreckless in feeding the troll. Trump is one tweet away from smoking the CAC 40.
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One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven..

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Twelve, Thirteen (90% of the Trumpers here are still thinking why this switch has a no setting), Fourteen...

Great arguments there bone. I'd tend to agree with the part about voters making their decisions on emotion rather than fact anyway.
 
Tsing Tao said:
Let's see how successful a G6 is without the United States. While we're at it we should rescind all military support, bases and defense spending we do on Europe's behalf. We should also withdraw all economic treaties that are advantageous to European trade, and respond with equal tariffs on any industry of ours the EU taxes.
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Isn't it that America has been the trade bitch for Europe and Asia? When Trump correctly calls this out as "unfair to America... we need to fix it", our trade "partners" get their panties in a bunch and whine about their gravy train being cut back?
 
Scataphagos said:
Isn't it that America has been the trade bitch for Europe and Asia? When Trump correctly calls this out as "unfair to America... we need to fix it", our trade "partners" get their panties in a bunch and whine about their gravy train being cut back?
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Putting Europe in the mix with Asia isn’t the right way to look at it. Not all trade deficits are bad and not all trade partners are bad actors, like China.
 
bone said:
That is truly a trippy idea - Russia has nothing to offer the world other than hydrocarbons and military gear. And Kaspersky. And Stolichnaya.

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I have his book "A face in the rock", not likely to find time to read it regrettably.

I have often pondered similar when working in African nations and when considering the rise of creationism and Trump in the US.

That most peoples have innovation however it also takes the right balance of factors to sustain technology.

Nice clip.
 
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