Trump is bringing in import tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum.
"Labor unions and liberal Democrats are applauding Trump's approach. "Republicans and an array of business groups are warning of dire economic and political consequences if Trump goes ahead with the tariffs."
Chinese exports to the US amount to a mere 0.2 per cent of Chinese production.
The top source of American steel imports is Canada, followed by the EU.
Import tariffs on steel means that, in the USA, the cost of new appliances, cars and buildings will rise.
The introduction of steel tariffs could erode Trump's base of support with rural America and blue-collar workers.
'There is always retaliation, and typically a lot of these countries single out agriculture when they do that. So, we're very concerned,' said Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, has asked the administration to reconsider its stance.
He said American companies, that use steel, could move their operations abroad and not face retaliatory tariffs.
'This scenario would lead to the exact opposite outcome of the administration's stated objective, which is to protect American jobs,' Walker said.
Tim Phillips noted that Trump narrowly won in Iowa and Wisconsin, two heavily rural states that could suffer if countries impose retaliatory tariffs on American agricultural goods.
'It hurts the administration politically because trade wars, protectionism, they lead to higher prices for individual Americans,' Phillips said. 'It's basically a tax increase.'
There was then a 30% plunge in the S&P 500 stock market index, and a slump in the dollar.
Bush was forced to withdraw the tariffs.
"The two scariest words in economics are not (yet) Donald Trump.
"They are Smoot-Hawley.
"I'm referring to the imposition by President Herbert Hoover of destructive tariffs on more than 20,000 imported goods in 1930, an act of madness that helped turn what should have been a short US recession into a worldwide, epoch-defining depression.
"Trade fell by more than half as other countries retaliated with their own tariffs on American goods. Millions of jobs were annihilated.
"The tariffs, named after Senator Reed Smoot and Representative Willis C Hawley, were the single greatest economic blunder of all time and accelerated the march towards the Second World War."
2. Donald Trump promises to force Apple Inc. to manufacture in the United States.
If Apple makes its stuff in the USA, then either it pays wages as low as those in China, or it finds it cannot compete with Samsung and other rivals.
If US firms are going to pay lower wages, that does not help the retail industry.
An Apple video iPod assembled in China sells for roughly $300 in the United States.
Very little of that $300 goes to the Chinese firms. "The Chinese get only about six bucksworth of value from the item’s assembly and shipment. Meanwhile, the U.S.-based Apple and its affiliates get hundreds of dollars from an iPhone’s final U.S. sale (for things like design, marketing, and even some manufacturing)."
3. Modern manufactured goods, such as Boeing 787s, are usually made from components from different parts of the world.
Boeing's 787, has a fuselage made in Italy, engines made in the United Kingdom, passenger doors made in France, cargo doors made in Sweden, landing gear doors made in Canada and wing tips made in South Korea.
Trump could force Boeing to have all the parts made in the USA.
4. But such a policy of 'Protectionism' has its risks.
In 1930, the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act raised U.S. tariffs on imported goods to record levels.[2]
Most economists see the Act, and the retaliatory tariffs by America's trading partners, as responsible for reducing American exports and imports by more than half.[4]
So, Trump has to be careful that he does not bring about a Great Depression.
5. Yes, too many jobs have been offshored, but Trump may not realise how complicated matters are.
There are good reasons why Coca Cola has bottling plants all around the world.
170 top economists have endorsed Bernie Sanders' platform regarding Wall Street, signing a letter stating:
"The Senator is correct that the biggest banks must be broken up and that a new 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act, separating investment from commercial banking, must be enacted."
3. "Thomas Piketty, perhaps the most influential economic thinker of the left in the Western world, is impressed by the rise of Sen. Bernie Sanders...
"Piketty ... sees Sanders ....leading the United States toward a possible return to the nation's pioneering 20th century experiments with extremely progressive taxation and social spending...
"Piketty points to the fact that, prior to Reagan, 20th century fiscal policy in the U.S. was aggressive in taxing the wealthy - much more so than the European counterparts...
"From 1930 to 1980 ... the rate for the highest U.S. income (over $1 million per year) was on average 82%...
"Those rates ... played a tremendous role in creating social equality and helped provide crucial government revenue for robust social programs..."
"Reagan ... lowered the rate for the highest incomes to 28%...
"'Sanders' success today shows that much of America is tired of rising inequality and these so-called political changes, and intends to revive both a progressive agenda and the American tradition of egalitarianism,' Piketty wrote.
"In the USA, the majority of those who receive some form of public assistance (medicaid or foodstamps) have jobs ... but they earn so little that they cannot make ends meet."
Donald Trump wants to keep wages down, while reducing taxes on the rich, and spending more on the military.
Trump has a home in in Manhattan "designed to evoke the Palace of Versailles ...
"It boasts a cavernous hall of mirrors, acres of marble set off by ‘24-carat gold and diamond accents’, and ceilings hand-painted with cherubs and scenes from Greek myths."
Jesus loves rich guys?
"Trump also owns Seven Springs, a huge mansion outside New York in the upmarket hamlet of Bedford, which boasts 60 rooms, two servants’ wings, 15 bedrooms, three swimming pools and 230 acres of land.
"There’s another mansion in rural Virginia, a huge house on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and a vast waterside pile at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida."
"Numerous reports released during the first two months of 2016 document the staggering dimensions of the social crisis facing working people in the United States.
"A majority of Americans have too little savings to pay for an emergency expense of $1,000. One in four US adults is burdened by debts caused by medical expenses.
Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are wealthy members of The Establishment.
Donald trump is "like every other corporate tyrant in that his solution to most things follows the logic of Stalin: no person, no problem. You're fired!
"Except as president he'd have other people-removing options, all of which he likes: torture, mass deportations, the banning of 23 percent of the Earth's population from entering the United States, etc.
"Donald Trump is no ordinary con man. He's way above average."
St. George alleged that some casino resorts have been run by mobsters who have assisted the CIA and Mossad in laundering drug and gambling profits which are then channeled into covert operations.
"Resorts International evolved from a CIA front company set up in the early 1950s by Allen Dulles and his close associate New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, of the 'Rockefeller' wing of the Republican Party.
"Investors in Resorts International included Meyer Lansky, David Rockefeller, Tibor Rosenbaum (linked to Mossad), and Baron Edmond de Rothschild."
In 1987, upon the death of longtime CIA front man James Crosby, the nominal head of Resorts International, Donald Trump bought Crosby's interest in the gambling empire.
Trump himself had first come to prominence with his 1987 purchase of the Resorts International gambling empire.
"The real 'movers and shakers' behind Resorts International were suspected of remaining hidden from public view."
New Jersey magazine called Resorts International, in print, 'mob-tainted company.'
"At the time of Trump's purchase, Resorts International was widely reported to have deep ties to the CIA.
" Its previous owner, James Crosby, founded Intertel, an internationally-known security company often described as a private Central Intelligence Agency, which listed among its clients billionaire recluse Howard Hughes, the Shah of Iran and Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza."
In 1980, Fortune business magazine reported, "The Lansky organization ... begins to move forward at Resorts International."
