‘The Donald’ aka ‘The Trade Trickster’ disparages current trade agreements, ongoing trade negotiations, globalization, US trade policy, U.S foreign policy, and US national security policy. Hope this doesn’t reflect his education at the Wharton School which he constantly reminds us of.

    I’ve written before as to his wildly delusional views on these issues. But here are some additional thoughts:

• Protectionism undermines the future growth of the U.S.
• Much of increased foreign competitiveness is due to innovation in production and smart machines.
• Protectionism is an irrelevant remedy for increased competitiveness of foreign firms.
• The real focus should be on structural upgrades in the political – economic system in the U.S. This ecosystem needs to have both greater public investment and greater private investment and innovation.
• These upgrades includes changes to trade adjustment assistance legislation, skills training, and retraining at all levels. This requires greater cooperation between governments of all levels (federal, state and local) and firms of all sizes.
• Many US multinationals are merely piling up great amounts of dollars in offshore accounts. They are not reinvesting these trillions of dollars into the US economy or workplace.
• To boot these firms don’t pay either US or foreign taxes on these funds. Some of our most highly successful firms, in particular technology and pharmaceutical firms, are guilty of this.
• Chaotic policies enunciated by Trump would call into question the role of US leadership in the global system.
• Trump’s call for renewed waterboarding and killing of families of terrorists would wreak havoc on the US military and US leadership in the world.
• It’s already clear many of our closest allies are mocking The Donald as being out-of-touch with the political and economic global system today.

My conclusion is that while Trump may know something about real estate and hotels, although even that has been called into question for a long time, the world is different from the world of real estate deals in New York or the world he grew up into in Queens in the 1950s and 1960s. Which he doesn’t seem to have transcended and to be stuck in. Not even the Wharton School could get him to understand reality and how it changes.

      For The Donald trade policy, foreign policy and national security policy are fact free zones informed only by his own inner being. This is not good for anyone not even him.

• “A Perilous Revolt Against Trade.” New York Times (March 18, 2016).

• “US Candidates’ Focus on Trade Deals is Misleading.” Financial Times (March 18, 2016).