Currency is the Perfect and Easy Weapon Against Trade Wars
November 23, 2024In 2018, as part of their trade war, the U.S. imposed an average tariff of 12.5% on imports from China. The direct consequence? The yuan gradually declined by a similar proportion. Now, consider the U.S. imposing tariffs on imports from the Eurozone. For the European Union, the best defense would be inaction. Why? Because…
Germany in an Existential Crisis
November 20, 2024“We Germans look towards Moscow and Warsaw. Paris and London are cities of the past,” a German acquaintance confided to me only three years ago. It was still the golden age for a country convinced that globalization, so beneficial to its industry, would last forever. Angela Merkel, hailed as the “indispensable European” by The…
Europe: How Many Divisions?
November 17, 2024The China-centred map really changes the way you think about the world: The Pacific and US-China relations are at the centre of the world, and Europe becomes a minor peninsula of the Eurasian continent. In 1971, Kissinger asked Zhou Enlai whether he thought the French Revolution of 1789 was good. Zhou replied, “It is…
US Trade Deficit: A Need for Nuance
November 11, 2024On the surface, the shocking $1 trillion annual trade deficit in the U.S. suggests that foreign companies completely dominate trade. However, a significant part of this deficit actually comes from American companies manufacturing abroad to re-sell in the U.S. market. Therefore, a trade war would be far less painful—and partly won—if American workers enjoyed a…
Unemployment weakens a government; inflation kills it
November 8, 2024How many charts had we – economists and analysts, myself included – presented to show that the American economy’s health outpaced that of Europe? And how many official inflation indicators had we copied and pasted, proving, quarter after quarter, that price pressures were slowly but surely easing? Why, then, did American media, which prides…
«It’s the economy stupid !»
November 6, 2024Graph of Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction with the U.S. Economy, and Explanation of Trump’s Victory
Europe: A Mere Union of Interests
November 2, 2024A telling graphic shows the extensive trade between many European nations and Russia, routed through Kyrgyzstan. Europe has chosen to prioritize trade relations with Russia over fully committing to help Ukraine confront Putin’s aggression. This choice has further tarnished our reputation and jeopardized our credibility. It reveals a truth I have denounced for…