Trump’s Now Fired Economist, Gary Cohn, says we lost!
Years ago, when Gorbachev was the head of the USSR, I listened to an interview where he explained why the USSR had no choice but to abandon its empire in Eastern Europe.
Gorbachev pointed out that the competition launched by his predecessors was built on an idea that was now absurd. In the nuclear era no world power could rule with armies and navies. The occupation of Europe was bankrupting Russia, Mr. Gorbachev said, while the competitors .. the US, Western Europe, Japan and Korea were building TV sets, cars, and merchant fleets.
Deng Tzau Ping realized the same things in China and rebuilt the ruins of Mao’s revolution into what has become the #1 commercial power in the world.
Trump took on that challenge in a tarrif war. Now we have “Phase One” an agreement where the US commits to selling oil and cheap soybeans to China while China builds everything a great power should build .. from electric cars to space stations. Trump’s former chief economic adviser Gary Cohn said on “Face the Nation” that he thinks the president’s tariffs “totally” hurt the United States, and that he doesn’t believe they have helped achieve a different “outcome” with China.
The exchange:
BRENNAN: Can the president say, ‘Look, people may not like my tactics, but I got this done?’ Was he ultimately right? Were you wrong?
COHN: They can say that. I don’t think we would have gotten to a different outcome. I don’t think the tariffs helped us get to any different outcome.
BRENNAN: Did it hurt the U.S.?
COHN: I think it has hurt the U.S. I think it’s totally hurt the United States