A hybrid plug in car from China’s BYD.
Interventionist Bedfellows"
by Bill Bonner
"A much more interventionist position is very hard to avoid."
- Paul Krugman
Youghal, Ireland - "Paul Krugman says his longstanding faith in free trade and globalization has been shaken. The reason is parked right outside our house - a Chinese-made car.
What we’ve been looking at this week - through a glass darkly! - is the future. Retracing our steps...Now that the politicians have tasted the forbidden fruit - forbidden by the Constitution - they will no more give it up than a gambling addict surrenders a lottery ticket. In many cases, the powers Trump grabbed had also been snatched by previous presidents, but rarely so openly or on such a large scale.
And now, the Democrats are making a list and checking it twice. It includes naughty people on whom they might sic the Department of Justice, nice people who will be fired, or hired...and the vast new programs they might put in place without Congressional authority. And now, from neither side - left or right - can we expect a return to ‘normal,’ politics. The gravity of ‘middle-of-the-road’ has no pull. There’s nothing to keep voters’ feet on the ground.
Modern democracies were built on a fraud - the sweet fantasy that people would be better off as the feds bossed them around and spent more and more of their money. Banning, bombing, subsidizing, taxing, seizing, licensing, regulating - all the black arts practiced by the ruling classes...are put to service. But ‘the People’ are no better off. They are worse off as they have to pay for decades of failed policies.
It was always a mammoth Ponzi scheme, funded by funny money and debt. The early birds feasted. Those who come later find the larder depleted. They want change. Even, apparently, government-run grocery stores. And now, the mainstream political parties struggle to meet new voter demands.
Last year, the Wall Street Journal noted the fracture between red and blue: "America Is Fracturing Into Red and Blue Nations, Redistricting Fight Shows." Less than 20% of Americans live in a state where the minority party has a meaningful voice in governance
But now the WSJ highlights the fracture happening within the two parties: "Midterm splits on the right and left." While the Socialists are splitting away from mainstream Democrats, the schism on the ‘right’ has traditional ‘conservatives’ - such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson - backing away from Trump’s activist agenda. The Hill: "Former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) said she is contemplating creating a new political party following her public split with the Republican Party. “I think there’s a group of us that if we decide to align, we could launch a true America-focused party that doesn’t fall into the traps of Democrats or Republicans, but could align some serious players from the right and the left,” Greene said during a Tuesday interview on “Piers Morgan Uncensored.”
But what comes apart, comes together. Paul Krugman is a former New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist. He’s now joining forces with Trump on an issue that straddles domestic and foreign policies...intervening at home and abroad with a single jackass policy. Tariffs!
Our son-in-law rented a car at the airport in Dublin. The best deal he could find was a Chinese car - a hybrid - made by BYD. The company hadn’t produced a single car until 2005. Now it is the biggest auto manufacturer in China, and the third biggest globally. And last year, it overtook Tesla to be the world’s largest electric carmaker. China’s automakers are so efficient, operating at such large scale, they make it hard for other carmakers to compete. Which is why Krugman, Trump and many others think they shouldn’t be able to. “I don’t think the Europeans can allow their auto industry to be totally hollowed out,” says Krugman in the jargon of central planners everywhere.”
But ‘the Europeans’ don’t have an auto industry. Autos are made by companies...who do so where and how they can make money. As long as they are making money, they add to their owners’ wealth - and consumers’ wealth too. When they stop making money - because, for example, consumers prefer cheaper, better Chinese cars...they become a drain on the whole world’s wealth - using the same resources, but turning out inferior products. To this obvious objection, Krugman comes out with the magic words: ‘national security.’ But can a nation become more secure by forcing its consumers to pay more for an inferior set of wheels? “It’s a great car,” says our son-in-law."
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