Trump’s Magic Wand

If you are looking for a great example of how Obama was destroying industry and Trump is rebuilding it we’ve got another one. Many fiscal conservatives have been hearing the repeated chant by liberals that coal is not coming back in this country but today in the WSJ there was a piece of indisputable evidence that America’s coal industry is back.

Peabody Energy Corporation, the nation’s largest coal producer, was pushed into bankruptcy in 2016 by the prices for their product the Obama war on coal created. Peabody emerged from bankruptcy in the Trump era which has created higher coal prices. Just how much healthier are they now?

Peabody is buying controlling interest in Drummond which is Colombia’s top exporter of coal for somewhere over $4 billion. Amazing how well that wand is working!

Are The Globalist Our Friends?

More proof why you need to consider whether the globalists are really your friends.

Well my friends, who have been buying the globalist’s “don’t put any tariffs on foreign goods” line, how do you continue to defend NOT tariffing China when the latest abuse by the Chinese military has now become public. In case you might have missed this news, it turns out that a Chinese server manufacturer planted microchips in cooperation with the Chinese military in servers used by major companies in the US. This is just the latest example of Chinese espionage. Readers should go to yesterday’s WSJ for a long and very well researched article on IP theft by the Chinese hacking other countries businesses for an idea of how wide spread this issue really is.

What is really sad is the multi-national companies and their dark money groups have actually been guilty of trying to sabotage our country. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever find Charles Koch and George Soros on the same side of an issue and both be wrong. Soros, who I despise, and Koch, who I think the world of personally, have both been funding 'think' tanks that decry Trump's stance on international trade even as the Chinese and to lesser degrees other countries have engaged in widespread theft of IP and other proprietary technology. The WTO has NEVER been a venue that corrects these issues and China would ignore them if they did try so let’s stop living an illusion about the global order. There is NO global order but there has been global capitulation to China.

What We Got With USMCA

What we got with USMCA and what it does for the US: Overview: 

Most of the changes are not big deals with the exception

Automobiles coming from Mexico or Canada must have 75 percent of their components manufactured in Mexico, the US, or Canada to qualify for zero tariffs. Why was that important? It keeps companies like Chinese firm Geely from contracting to produce significant amounts of a car’s components and in effect using our market to finance their tariff protected operations which build cars in China. This is also a back door for firms like Geely to steal technology. I encourage anyone who wants to understand how Chinese firm’s work to steal core technology through part production please read how Schwinn bike was replaced by Giant Bike as the largest manufacturer of bikes in the world. Many would argue the ‘playbook’ for Chinese IP theft was born in that deal.

USMCA Is A Win-Win-Win

Count me as one of those not surprised by Trump’s and Wilbur Ross’s success on the USMCA trade agreement. Anyone who has ever been around business understands Trump’s art of the deal well. A weak position at the start can only become weaker. I have never seen a deal start with the sort of conciliatory language the Obama administration seemed to go into every deal from nuclear to trade with. Apologizing for prior administrations was odd if not for the strange sense one got that Obama was always looking to be ‘liked’. Heaven knows Trump doesn’t carry that weight with him.

Standing firm and acting like he would go it alone with Mexico left Canada with a “my way or the highway” option. The fact that Ross made this what is essentially a pro-North American deal should play well going forward with finishing the EU free trade agreement when they see Trump is sincere about an deal needing to be a win-win. Most business people understand why one sided deals are not a good strategy for any contractual obligation that is not a one-time deal. If one side or the other realizes at some point in time they have been taken advantage of they typically arbitrarily break the deal with that line that is as old as the legal profession—“so just sue me”. Put together a deal where both parties think they are making out well and you have an incentive to never reach that point. So take it with a pillar of salt when those pseudo trade geniuses from the MSM start to pick apart the USMCA as they begin to see the details.