Yeah, if there's anything almost everyone here can agree on, it's that I'm a raving lunatic free trader. Even I see the wisdom in manufacturing masks, drugs and the like in the USA.We can get there in time.
So finally we had a president who "gets it." He has the power under existing laws to protect protect national security by imposing tariffs. He uses that power. And what's the result? Some of the manufacture of cheap plastic toys, clothing and the like has moved from China to Vietnam, Bangladesh, etc.
Trump isn't primarily to blame for our shortage of masks, tests, drugs and the like. Europe is struggling with the same problems. But he didn't help. Perhaps someone like a George H. W. Bush would have had the foresight, and through his experience as director of the CIA and Vice President, the trust in our intelligence agencies and medical experts that would have resulted in a different outcome, like what's happening in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore right now. Who knows.
In any event we had an economy running at full steam, in part because of Trump's corporate tax cuts and deregulation, and full employment. We didn't have the people to manufacture toys and clothes in the USA. We did have the resources, if guided by government, to manufacture goods that are essential in the time of a national emergency. That didn't happen, at least as far as pandemics are concerned. Originally Posted by Tiny
It is difficult to unwind these supply chains.