The big sit down between Trump and Xi is proceeding at Trump's summer cabin in Florida. One hopes that some sort of entente cordiale could result. TrUMP should have learned from yesterday that backing off some of his truly stupid ideas can actually gain him political capital. Certainly today he is getting more positive response across the board than from any thing he has previously done.
As far as foreign military affairs, and particularly North Korea, is concerned we can expect a lot of tiptoeing around the issues, sort of like boxers circling around the ring in the first round and throwing a few jabs. Trump is in a better position than he was early yesterday but he still has no discernible Far Eastern policy .
Turning to trade issues, even if Trump remains obsessed with the dumb advice he gets from Peter Navarro about trade deficits, he ought to consider that trade deficits can be reduced in two ways. The US can either buy less from China or sell more. We don't need to adopt the border strategy that is fraught with the potential for unexpected adverse consequences. The goods we buy from China in large part are either supply chain items or the sort of things sold in Walmart stores at low prices for the people trump claims to want to help. So, how about attempting to convince China to to buy more US produced products. China still has a lot of dollars. One thing that's suggests itself it is to sell China food, grains and meats. At present our agricultural industry is down with prices of foodstuffs as well as the price of farmland diminished. Meanwhile, China has more people moving from the country to the cities and has way over 1 billion people to feed. All of the States with large agricultural segments to their economies should press through their senators for this sort of result. It is time to get rid of these supply-side/ tax cut economic miracle fantasies and try something simple that might actually work.
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