The Big Game

Here is the Boston Globe story: New Balance accuses Pentagon of reneging on sneaker deal

“We make a lot fewer shoes in the US than we do overseas, but the point is we’re trying to make more here, not less,” LeBretton said. “When agreements like this go into place, what that says to us is that our president and our trade negotiators, they don’t want us to make more products here.”

A question not asked anywhere in the article is this: “How much did Vietnam pay to get in in on the TPP trade deal?” And to who or whom?

The way trade works now for the US is that the US runs a trade deficit and to keep things in balance banks and investment firms recycle the money. People are starting to notice that the bankers are getting richer and American workers are getting poorer.

Now all this trade would be a good thing if trade was balanced. Vietnam makes shoes, the US makes software. Both gain. Instead what is happening is that America is being sold off bit by bit and the bankers are collecting their fees on the sale.

Trade of course is never perfectly balanced. So when America runs a surplus with Vietnam can the US buy bits of that country to keep the balance? I think that is what Trump is getting at when he says he will negotiate better deals. Trade that is reciprocal. Not in favor of Goldman Sachs. They can’t Heidi any more.