Tea at Trianon: The Mexico Deal

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

The Mexico Deal

From American Thinker:

President Trump is following through on his promise to restructure the framework of U.S. foreign trade, and his strategy looks brilliant. The deal he just negotiated with Mexico, leaving Canada on the sidelines, is described as a win-win pact, benefiting both countries. The key to benefit both sides is that China is the big loser. With the deal tightening local (U.S. and Mexico) content requirements to 75%, up from 62.5%, and imposing a requirement that workers be paid at least $16 an hour on 40 to 45% of the content, Chinese auto parts and other supplies will be squeezed out. The exports China gives up will be replaced by content produced by Mexican and U.S. workers.

It is becoming clear to me that President Trump is mobilizing the principal trade partners of the U.S. to unite to pressure China. That nation's gigantic ongoing theft of intellectual property, its currency manipulation, and its trade restrictions have led to chronic huge trade surpluses with the United States most notably, but every manufacturing country on Earth has felt the impact of Chinese manufacturing exports powered by those unfair practices. So, by using bilateral deals rather than the multilateral approach favored for the last three decades or so, President Trump is putting together a global alliance that will stand up to China and force it to stop its takeover of the world's manufacturing sector and compete like a normal country. (Read more.)