CNN: America's factories are getting crushed by Trump's trade war, not the Fed

[erpowers]

The trade war is doing real damage to the American economy, and it's showing up in manufacturing. Factories in a wide range of businesses, from clothing to machinery are suffering declines in exports.

The slowdown in manufacturing — often an early indicator of problems in the wider economy — showed up starkly in a dreadful report released on Tuesday. Factory activity contracted in September for the second straight month; by some measures it was the worst month in a decade. The bad news spooked investors and the Dow fell nearly 350 points, or 1.3%.

President Donald Trump wasted little time finding someone to blame for the gloomy factory activity.

Snip

The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing report did not mention Fed policy. Nor did it cite borrowing costs, Powell or the strong US dollar. None of the business executives who were quoted in the survey blamed those issues.


https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/02/business/manufacturing-trade-war-trump-fed/index.html

[Hoyt]

1. Hope anti-traders, American Firsters, xenophobes, etc., learn their lesson. But, I doubt it.

[Newest Reality]

2. I wonder though...

if the bottom dwelling, low-information ones even look at or pay attention to any economic details or facts? They may have more time, effort invested in maintaining their opinions and looking for confirmation of their biases.

They probably miss out on the details of their lubricant-free, royal screwing until something hits them in the underpants.

[Hoyt]

3. There are some high information people -- even on our side -- who are America Firsters, we'll be

better off trading among ourselves and shunning the rest of the world even if that requires us to beef up our military to fight the global poor. It's amazing to me.

[GulfCoast66]

8. Spot on. Although we see way less of the Americans Firsters now since we see what it looks like.

For a while they would throw out the whole ‘good idea, wrong technique’ bullshit. But they don’t even try that anymore. This is what protectionism looks like. No other way around it.

So many people love the saying “a rising tide lifts all boats” but only if the boat is not captained by America.

The big thing China just celebrated yesterday is pulling 700 million people out of poverty. I’ve been there and they have. Without the US opening up trade that would not have happened. Not saying we have a perfect trade relationship with them. They cheat like hell. But after seeing China I’m am glad 700 million less of them are living in poverty.

And I see a prosperous world where everyone depends on everyone as a more peaceful world.

But what do I know. I’m just a globalist.

[Hoyt]

10. Exactly. Your firsthand China experience is what I hope continues, but it's

too easy to blame everything on products from poorer countries. Another example, if we want to solve immigration from the South, reneging on trade agreements is not the way to do it.

Bluntly, treating foreign workers in poor countries like scabs ain’t the way forward.

[GulfCoast66]

11. On this subject, Hoyt, we agree. I refuse to see people solely based on where they are born.

Or what they look like.

The more people we help to lift from poverty the better the world will be.

The more prosperous a people the less kids they have.

[TheRealNorth]

4. The deplorables will believe Trump

For those of you out there with advanced degrees in economics out there, if the Fed weakens the dollar like Trump wants to make American goods "cheaper" on the international market, wouldn't it also drive up inflation? Foreign-made consumer goods would become more expensive, as would imported raw materials.

My understanding is inflation is already a little high, especially considering the lack of growth.

[GulfCoast66]

9. That on steroids!

The main reason we can have a 20 trillion dollar debt with no one blinking an eye is the dollar is still the currency of choice. Our policy, no matter what party in control has been to keep it that way.

We start devaluation of the dollar we are screwed.

If trump really starts trying to devalue the dollar the money will turn against him. But since the US is not his main concern who knows.

[Raftergirl]

5. Winning!

[soryang]

6. there are initial signs of deflation in South Korea and Japan

This is linked to export declines caused by the US China trade dispute and the South Korea- Japan trade dispute.

[real Cannabis calm]

7. K&R