Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal.
Editor:
Two chief promises of a Trump victory in last November’s election were reduced U.S. trade deficits, and salvation from socialism. Yet as the new U.S.-Japanese trade agreement makes clear, these promises – the first, admittedly economically asinine, but the second economically all-important – are dashed (“U.S. and Japan Reach Trade Deal,” July 23). Under this agreement, as the president boasted on Truth Social, “Japan will invest, at my direction, $550 Billion Dollars into the United States, which will receive 90% of the Profits.”
Not only will this increased investment by Japan in the U.S. swell the U.S trade deficit, with the president personally directing this investment – and with the government laying claim to ninety percent of whatever profits emerge – the Trump administration moves the U.S. closer to genuine socialism. It now appears that the real winner last November was Bernie Sanders.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
