re: BMW "not budging" on Mexican plant

If he continues this after Friday he will be out of the presidency real quick.

quote:

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It's a negotiation tactic.

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Help me out here. What's his end game?

He isn't slapping a 35% tariff on Mexican imports or making a dent in NAFTA. Not without Congress, and they aren't going to go along with it. Furthermore, the Mexican leadership knows that as well; are they going to play his kabuki dance for a wall?

He knows that a revanchist protectionism is bad for American companies and the American economy in the long run. Like real, real bad. What happens when Mexico turns around and slaps a 35% tariff on American imports (of which there are a lot, especially in auto manufacturing)?

Have you ever seen a chart of American manufacturing workers as a share of the economy since the 1960's? You can't even tell where NAFTA, TTIP, et al started because technology is 20 times more responsible for the decline in American manufacturing labor (not output, where we now manufacture more than we ever have) than globalization ever was. Why pursue this vainglorious and futile attempt at getting some halcyon days of manufacturing back?

I think it's hilarious how Trump ruffles a lot of feathers, but his economic protectionism fricking baffles me. TPP is a great example: that treaty was/is so heavily slanted towards the United States and our economic interests that the Chinese flat couldn't figure out what the hell happened and why we are rejecting it. Auto manufacturing is also a great example of why we need to move to a value-added system in calculating trade deficits; the current system is completely antiquated and is not an accurate picture of economic activity whatsoever.

So, you're a smart guy. Why do this?