Deadly stuff
Trump’s dead economy jibe says a lot about him
World’s most powerful man telling the biggest countries by population and landmass to “take their dead economies down together” deserves “bigly covfefe” – Trump-speak for big coverage. Why say such a silly thing – Trump was being a churl. How an economy dies is a riddle, though. If it’s dead, who takes it down? An economy isn’t dead while its last two humans are in touch. One swaps a tea bag for biscuits with the other, and you have a trade. The ECG of economics registers a beat. India has over 1.4bn humans, raising the possibility of some 980-million-billion unique barter trades. Hardly a “dead” economy.
And if India is a dead economy, why is Trump itching to sell soy, maize and butter to it? A dead economy doesn’t produce, or export, so unless you are hallucinating, how do you have a negative balance of trade with it? Why bother to negotiate with it for four months, and then slap 25% tariff in exasperation? If “deadness” is about slow growth, India’s actually the fastest growing major economy. Besides, an economy with slow or no GDP growth is no more dead than a full-grown tree. Just look at Japan. But with Trump, “dead” can also be a tribute. Like he told steelworker Scott Sauritch in 2018: “Your father Herman is looking down…proud of you.” When Scott said his father was alive, Trump said, “Well then, he’s even more proud of you.”
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