Sunday, April 8, 2018

Kudlow’s Trade Coalition of the Willing

Who knew when I posted this:
We could go back to 2002 and how the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 was sold to people like Senator John Kerry and Senator Hillary Clinton. The Bush-Cheney White House sold this as a means to encourage Iraq to comply with certain UN resolutions and not necessarily a prelude to war. Of course the White House was lying as we knew by March 2003. Of course Bush-Cheney lied about a lot of things with respect to Iraq back then including its forecast that an invasion would be quick, low cost, and very effective in establishing a Western democracy in Iraq. How did that work out exactly? Kudlow helped the White House cheerlead for this invasion arguing it would lead to so much Iraqi oil production that oil prices would fall to $12 a day. How did that work out again?
I was reacting to Kudlow claiming we are not in a trade war. Just as I thought Kudlow had reached all heights of stupidity, he exceeds expectations:
White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Sunday he couldn't name members of his promised "Trade Coalition of the Willing," or other countries who were also open to impose tariffs in response to China's alleged intellectual property rights infringements.,"I can't answer that, I don't even want to answer that," Kudlow told "Fox News Sunday." "All I'm saying is my 'Trade Coalition of the Willing' will put the whole world behind the United States' actions against China and this is going to have a big effect on China.
Could someone please tell Mr. Kudlow that our 2003 invasion of Iraq was a monumental blunder?

8 comments:

JDM said...

Isn't it just possible China would figure out who these mysterious members are when those members impose tariffs? So these members are afraid to be mentioned because China will announce they will impose tariffs if the CotW impose theirs, but they're not afraid to actually impose them. Just afraid to talk about them.

This "logic" might pass muster at Fox, and with the crazier parts of Trump's base, but I haven't seen any sign that China's bigwigs are dumb enough to buy it.

Anonymous said...

https://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/13/opinion/stocks-and-bombs.html

September 13, 2002

Stocks and Bombs
By PAUL KRUGMAN

''This stock-market situation -- what are the military options?'' That was the caption of a New Yorker cartoon last month. But these days reality has a way of outrunning satire; way back in June the CNBC pundit Larry Kudlow published a column in The Washington Times with the headline ''Taking Back the Market -- by Force.'' In it he argued for an invasion of Iraq to boost the Dow....

Anne

Anonymous said...

Contextualizing what Larry Kudlow is all about has been important though frightening.

Anne

Anonymous said...

White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Sunday he couldn't name members of his promised "Trade Coalition of the Willing," or other countries who were also open to impose tariffs in response to China's alleged intellectual property rights infringements.,"I can't answer that, I don't even want to answer that," Kudlow told "Fox News Sunday." "All I'm saying is my 'Trade Coalition of the Willing' will put the whole world behind the United States' actions against China and this is going to have a big effect on China.

[ Directly threatening China, as a member of the administration? I am beyond shocked.

Anne ]

Anonymous said...

Write this all up carefully when there is time. This is especially important, however frightening. I am grateful for these posts.

Anonymous said...


China is not Uganda, Rwanda or Tanzania:

http://www.africanews.com/2018/03/30/trump-fights-rwanda-over-second-hand-clothing-ban//

March 30, 2018

Trump fights Rwanda over second-hand clothing ban
By Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban - REUTERS

ProGrowthLiberal said...

"Trump fights Rwanda over second-hand clothing ban
By Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban - REUTERS"

The US exports used clothing to Africa? I did not know that. We cannot make clothes ourselves so we import them from Asia and then when an article of clothing is no longer in fashion, we sell it to someone in Africa. Who knew!

rosserjb@jmu.edu said...

It was widely reported when he was appointed how Kudlow has one of the worst forecasting records out there of any public figure talking about economic matters, much less anything else. The irony here is that as of right up until he was appointed he had been publicly spouting a mostly free trade line and mocking to some degree the protectionist rhetoric of those in the Trump administration.

So here he is floundering about attempting to justify something he clearly does not believe in. It is quite a spectacle as a result, and that he is coming up with these whoppers is not surprising. I heard on the radio that supposedly a bunch of US allies were joining us in a formal complaint to the WTO about Chinese conduct, some of which has been worthy of complaining about, but no names of countries were mentioned.

As it is, I have also heard that China has formally complained about US conduct in this half-baked trade war, with them looking to have grounds for doing so given the US having started things. And while maybe some nations are supporting the US in this, many have openly urged the US to move with them to make a formal complaint in the past, the current administration has badly alienated most of these would-be allies by either pulling out of the (flawed) TPP, or otherwise attacking them on trade issues (see Canada and Mexico especially) or otherwise outright insulting their leaders or nations (see UK and Germany). I almost feel sorry for Kudlow in this situation, but not very.