DECOUPLING: Trump tariffs promise chaos, but China’s Xi Jinping may be the biggest threat to the global economy, former Treasury official warns.

Imports of manufactured goods into China have grown by an average of just $15 billion annually over the last six years, essentially unchanged after accounting for inflation. But exports from China have shot up by more than $150 billion.

“When it comes to manufactured goods, trade with China is virtually a one-way street,” Setser said.

That massive disparity is hurting other economies, especially other export-oriented ones like Germany and Japan, he added.

The problem can be traced back to China’s refusal to rebalance its economy after the global financial crash away from its heavy dependence on investment and trade. Rather than shift the economy toward the consumer sector, Beijing fueled a real estate and infrastructure bonanza. But fearing a bubble, Xi clamped down on the boom, setting off a slump that China still hasn’t recovered from.

At the same time, Xi avoided directing massive stimulus to consumers during the pandemic, unlike many other countries that fueled demand for Chinese products. Instead of consumers, China offered support to its manufacturers, resulting in overproduction that only overseas demand couldn’t match.

Now, China alone has the capacity to produce two-thirds of the world’s demand for cars, Setser said. Similarly, China makes more than half the world’s supply of steel, aluminum, and ships. China’s volume of exports is expanding three times faster than global trade, meaning its gains are coming at the expense of others.

“This points to a world economy in which China has no need for the industrial inputs of other countries while leaving those countries dependent on Chinese-made goods—and vulnerable to Beijing’s political and economic pressure,” he predicted.

The West needs to deregulate, hard and fast.

HARSH, BUT FAIR:

IS CHINA WARNING TRUMP: Three events, beginning with Trump’s decisive November 2024 election triumph, followed by the latest Yale LISTEN study, and the revelation of another Wuhan virus in the making, make sense in such a context. Check out my latest Substack column.

AND IT”S GLORIOUS: Matt Taibbi: Trump is Trolling the AP. “People are claiming the White House is bullying the AP, repeating the saw that Trump is telling them ‘what words to use.’ If you don’t see the irony, you’ve never used the AP stylebook.”

PERHAPS NONE OF THIS CAN BE PROVEN, BUT DOES ANYONE DOUBT IT WAS GOING ON? PEOPLE WHO WERE AWAKE IN 2020 AND 2021? OF COURSE THE BUREAUCRACY IS FIGHTING BACK. THE CORRUPTOCRATS FIGHT FOR THEIR LIVELIHOOD:  Article 94.

I OBJECT IN TERMS OF WORDING. JEFFERSONIAN IS NOT THAT. THE WOKE ARE MOSTLY THE GREAT GRANDCHILDREN OF ROUSSEAU, GRANDCHILDREN OF MARX, CHILDREN OF GRAMSCI:  Wilsonians are the Clinton wing of the Democratic party. They are also all through the State Department and to a great extent the the ‘permanent bureaucracy’ in DC. (Though they’ve lately been overtaken by Jeffersonians in that.)

For the xless.

Other than that, he’s absolutely and completely correct.

And he wrote a follow up today: The State sees the Jacksonian Revolution as what it is in some ways: A coup. The entire term is ‘Coup de Etat.’ Blow to the State.

FOR THE XLESS: Go read anyway.

NOT JUST DISABILITY BENEFITS BUT US PASSPORTS:  BREAKING: Whistleblower reveals she was encouraged to approve long-term disability for illegals, essentially securing lifetime Social Security benefits for each approval.

For those without x.

I don’t want to hear one word about how mean DOGE is. Not a single word about how you wanted a scalpel, not a chainsaw. Not a mutter about how many good people are getting hurt. Yes, good people are getting hurt because the state had swallowed the economy and was sucking our livelihood dry to grow itself and multiply while doing incredibly immoral and evil things in the name of replacing us with fresh victims.

Not one word. We should all be grateful the chainsaw is running before the tumbrils did and  Madame Guillotine got started.  Once she starts eating, she never stops. Not until civilization lies in tatters.

HOW’S IT GOING?

TELL THE THEATER KIDS WHO SEEM TO RUN THE BUREAUCRACY TO SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP: An upside-down American flag flew over Yosemite National Park yesterday, as the park plummets into ruin because of Orange Hitler’s fascist plan to make the federal government somewhat smaller. “So the number of employees who run the park and serve visitors has PLUMMETED from about 1,151 to about 1,140, with NPS staffing falling from about 451 to about 440. It’s like we don’t even have a national park there anymore, Hitler Hitler Hitler. Eleven actual employees have been laid off, in a savage Nazi assault on the very concept of public parks. These numbers show that Yosemite National Park has been ruined, and everything has gone straight to hell, and the park is under attack.”