RE: Oompa Loompa Now: The coming Apocalypse
Forcing China to stop manipulating their currency is critical. They have kept it artificially low to make their goods look very attractive on the global markets while making import goods very expensive for the Chinese people. This one action alone would help rebalance a significant amount of trade in the US (and I'm sure other countries too).
Really feel that the tariffs on Steal and Aluminum were targeted at China as they won't bend on the currency manipulation. They were warned, they ignored, and now they are going to pay a hefty price.
A tariff war with China has 1 winner, the US. China would be decimated if the US made their goods more expensive via tariffs across the board. All Trump wants is an equal playing field for US companies to compete with, China wants to keep the deck stacked in their favor. I'll gladly pay a minor surcharge short term on products to put China in their place and I think most Americans would agree.
I think Trump was exactly right in talking about this.
China is a sorry example of what happens when the state meddles with the economy too much. The large imbalances created by force (such as the real estate bubble artificially inflated by the government - there is no independent central bank or independent anything in China for that matter) have caused Chinese capital to want to flee the country. Hence the Bitcoin enthusiasm of the Chinese and the subsequent government crackdown. For example, the Vancouver, BC, housing bubble has been created largely by Chinese money. My relatives in their fifties who live there own ordinary houses that are now valued at over 1.5 million CAD. Their children are incapable of buying anything there.
This is happening in more then just Vancouver. Trump is actually looking to limit investment from China into the US. They are buying up companies, real estate, and bonds. These investments drive up costs to US residents causing bubbles. Once the bubble is large enough they can pull out creating a vacuum and the end of the bubble. This leaves US residents, banks, investors, and the government on the hook as prices collapse.