Watching Howard Lutnick's rant on stage at Davos, as he insisted with great certainty and righteous indignation that globalization has failed, Mad Dog wondered--is this really the Secretary of Commerce?
Lutnick the Nutnick
He does not appear to believe in Commerce.
Of course, the Department of Commerce, as Michael Lewis has pointed out, actually does way more than think about trade: It runs the Weather Service, which is vital to all commerce, the military and average citizens; it runs the National Oceanographic and Atmosphere Administration which does all kinds of cool things, like be sure nobody is beating baby seals to death (as part of its charismatic mammals division); it runs the Census Bureau which is used to figure out how many Representatives each state gets in Congress and those are just a few of it's functions.
But, when it comes to trade, Lutnick is outraged that manufacturers have left the USA to make their stuff in China and places where labor is cheaper, or factories are more automated, or workers better trained. Here we have the Republicans, champions of private enterprise, efficiency and ruthless capitalism, saying that American shirt makers ought to make their shirts in the USA because that would provide jobs for American workers, but no manufacturer in his right mind would establish a factory in the USA for a whole variety of reasons beyond workers' salaries and, in fact, Trump has never brought manufacturing back to the Rust Belt or any place else in the USA.
What factories have been built--a few Volkswagen, Mercedes and other auto makers--are not providing Americans with many jobs. The factories provide a lot of robots with jobs, but for human beings...not so much.
Oh, those robots are just as bad as globalization! In fact, one reason that foreign companies are beating the pants off American companies is robots. Destroy all the robots!
(In America, in Mad Dog's experience the only robots he encounters are trolls on his blog.)
In fact, as Paul Krugman has noted, the supply chains are now so complex and interwoven that figuring out whether an automobile is made in America is nearly impossible, as parts from Mexico and Canada are so interwoven, because that's the most cost effect way of doing business.
Of course, Lutnick betrayed a little slip when he used electric cars as an example of how distorted the world market is: China doesn't have any oil, so of course they make the best electric cars and far more inexpensive cars than the US, which has plenty of oil so why should the US bother with electric cars? The fact is, the BYD runs about $10-15K and is way better than any Tesla, and you can buy one in Canada now, so that might tell you something about Lutnick the Luddite, crying out that something way better than what America makes should be banned from our shores because America isn't smart enough to make them.
The fact is, America may have plenty of oil, but Mad Dog would love to buy a $15,000 BYD if only Lutnick and Trump would allow him.
Once upon a time, American politicians tried to keep Toyota and Honda out of American markets because Americans were sick of those unreliable, expensive, gas guzzling GM cars, and you see how that worked out.
The Seawall North Beach Hampton: Keep out the Ocean
Not to mention windmills. Well, Donald Trump mentioned windmills at Davos, saying they make lots of windmills in China but none of them are working, which must come as a great surprise to the Chinese, and, of course, if you travel the American West, drive through California out to Joshua Tree, you see prairies of windmills pumping out electricity. So not only are there working windmills in China--we got 'em right here in the US of A. Just a lot fewer because Trump keeps blocking their installation off the East Coast because windmills blocked his view from his golf course in Scotland and nobody who makes a windmill ever gave him a Nobel Peace Prize, and he has stopped 8 wars, so many wars, in fact hundreds of wars you never even heard about in places Trump cannot even pronounce, but even Putin told him he was a great peace maker and Putin should know.
Lutnick scolded the Europeans for wanting electric cars but not making a single battery. Where he got that, Mad Dog does not know, but Mad Dog has bought batteries all over Europe.
We have to be self sufficient in batteries and all the fundamental things a nation needs to make for itself--manufacturing self sufficiency! But, of course, solar and wind, which could provide Americans with jobs, are an anathema to Lutnick and Trump. They are made more cheaply and better in China. They must be unAmerican!
Bring Back Those Good Factory Jobs!
Oh, well, at least we can grow soybeans and beef in America. Ooops!
Ask American farmers what Trump has done to them with tariffs.
