Trump’s big “trade war” is going to result in unexpected windfalls for some people, as prices go up and new trade hot-points emerge. To say that the trade war is stupid is an understatement.
One set of winners will be the transshipment ports that are willing to peel off a shipping label that says “China, goods” and replace it with a label that says, “Malaysia, goods.” Of course that’s all done with computers, now. And it’s going to waste a tremendous amount of additional fuel shipping stuff an extra 2,000 miles through another port. But capitalism and tax-dodging will prevail! Trump ought to know; it’s exactly the sort of con he’d be running if he was able to keep a business afloat long enough.
The NYT (capitalist tool-rag) reports: [nyt]
SHANGHAI – Want to avoid American tariffs? In China, a company called Settle Logistics says it knows a way.
Specifically, that way goes through Malaysia – a 4,600-mile diversion compared with sending a shipping container from China straight across the Pacific to the United States. But when those Chinese products arrive at an American port, they will look as if they had come from Malaysia, according to the company, and will be spared tariffs aimed at Chinese goods.
“For those unfair trade barriers targeting our industries from certain countries,” Settle Logistics says on its website, “we can adopt other approaches to bypass those trade tariffs in order to expand markets.”
Such zigzagging routes are called transshipments, and President Trump has used them to justify the trade fight he has picked with a number of countries. They could also take on new relevance should the United States and China carry out their threats to levy a total of more than $200 billion in tariffs against each other.
This is nothing new. Back when the United States didn’t exist, and was just a squabbling imperial outpost, the US served as a transshipment point in what was later called the “triangle trade.” Many of the leaders of what came to be a successful rebellion were: smugglers. It seems that being president has changed Trump a little bit: he’s feeding on his own kind, now. Not that predatory capitalists don’t always do that.
Transshipment is one of those things that has been gamed and dodged around for years. All of those “assembled in USA” logos? Those are products that came over from ${wherever it can be made cheapest} and were assembled in a plant somewhere in an “industry friendly” tax-reduced zone, thereby officially being “American made.” In other words, you’re allowed to scam the system but only if you’re willing to pony up a billion dollars worth of scam. Small-time players are not allowed at the table.
I’m always amazed at how there are rules, and there are sometimes meta-rules that regulate cheating. For example, in whist (a card game I grew up playing) there are techniques called “inkels” (as in “giving someone an inkling”) for indicating your strong suit. These are considered to be accepted practice, but what they are is a regulated version of a common cheat, invented early in the development of the game.
The Chinese have been very judicious about their return-fire sanctions: they have localized them to impact on “Trump Country” – the districts of Trump’s key congressional supporters and voting-base. That’s not an accident. Unlike Trump, Xi is not a blockhead.
If you’re at all interested in Trump’s stupid trade war, you should read up on the Smoot-Hawley Act. Basically, Trump is trying Smoot-Hawley 2.0. With predictable results. Fortunately, all the “trade war” is mostly at the posturing stage.
I am generally contemptuous of the way Europeans and Americans often act surprised that China can do something competent. It’s not just racism, it’s stupid racism. After the horrible way that the European imperialists destroyed the remnants of the Manchu Dynasty, the Europeans and Americans seem to have concluded that the Chinese are inferior – at least that’s how they act. Well, that was cultural – the Chinese, after all, wrote the book on The Art of War and have forgotten (literally!) more about being civilized than the Americans have learned, yet.
Story about Chinese history: my dad has a colleague in the American History department, whose best graduate student was Chinese. At one point, Professor F. made a comment to the effect that it was great to see an interest in cross-cultural history, at which point the Chinese graduate student said, rather embarrassedly, “I’m lazy.” He want on to explain that there really is not much American History.
Unlike Trump, Xi is not a blockhead.
From what I have read the Communist Party of China is a rather meritorious organization. The CPC has roughly 90 million members so competition may be tough.
Even with influence and Xi had some (in between the times his father was being purged or exiled, anyway) he needed to be very competent as a manager/administrator/ party cadre/political in-fighter to get anywhere near the top job. And the rest of his cabinet and advisors climbed the same steep and slippery ladder.
Trump and his merry band of hooligans, grifters and general idiots are so outclassed…. Trump & Company are one of the best examples of Dunning–Kruger effect that one could ask for.
jrkrideau@#1:
Trump & Company are one of the best examples of Dunning–Kruger effect that one could ask for.
Yes – capitalists’ idea of promoting people as talented and interesting just because they are rich has spectacularly blown up this time.
Yes – capitalists’ idea of promoting people as talented and interesting just because they are rich has spectacularly blown up this time.
Or because they are tall – When I worked at Dome Petroleum (which was at the time the largest or second largest upstream oil company), I made presentations to senior management (up to one level below the trio who were looting the company they had driven off cliff with debt financed acquisitions). I was struck by how tall they were expect Little Ed (our manager) and how stupid they were except Little Ed.
I heard an review of a biography of a former CEO of the Royal Bank of Canada. The reviewer mentioned that the subject of the biography was the son of a factory worker and would not have made it into senior management because of this if someone had not championed him. They also mentioned that at that men could not become managers unless they were at least 6 feet tall.
“American History” is shelved next to “A Guide to Arab Democracies”, “The Engineer’s Guide to Fashion” and “Lucrative Career Opportunities for History Majors”.
militantagnostic @#3
Sounds like there could be a market for height increasing shoes for men among people who work for these companies. They could also recruit workers from several European countries where people, on average, are significantly taller than on the other side of the Atlantic ocean. For example, in the Netherlands the average male height is over 6 feet. Or maybe they could just hire some basketball players. Probably that would be simpler. Among basketball players they could probably also find some potential female employees who are over 6 feet tall. /sarcasm
I wouldn’t qualify though. I’m only 5 feet, 9 inches. Damn. I wish I was taller. It sucks being born with the wrong body.
Ieva Skrebele@#5:
Sounds like there could be a market for height increasing shoes for men among people who work for these companies.
I would expect them to just have a servant lie down so they could pick up an extra 8 inches by standing on their back.
Oh, I don’t think that most people in the “west” have a low opinion of China’s capabilities these days. If anything, I wonder if the reverse is true, that people overestimate China’s future power and underestimate the problems that it has, kind of like how people did with Japan in the 80s. Then again, China’s sheer size means that it can go a lot further than Japan.
I LOVE the cartoon Invader Zim. The evil aliens were ruled by The Tallest, who were exactly what the name suggests. :)
Nah, that wouldn’t be enough. They would need multiple servants forming a carpet for them. One servant is enough to step on while they are standing in a single spot. But when they are moving around, they would need MOAR!
Ieva Skrebele@#9:
They would need multiple servants forming a carpet for them.
A carpet of Playboy bunnies!
bmiller@#8:
The evil aliens were ruled by The Tallest, who were exactly what the name suggests.
I have long suspected that hats are a hack to make the self-important look importanter.
Sure, what else can they be for? Protection from bad weather and cold? Of course, in some regions you need a hat for that, but throughout history the important people have been wearing hats also when there was no real need for them.
They used to teach snipers “shoot the hats”
The premise was that losing officers was bad for the enemy but sometimes it must have been cause for celebration.
My rule is that it doesn’t count as history if it isn’t older than my house. My house was built in 1700, so as far as I’m concerned the USA doesn’t have any history AT ALL.
@3 militantagnostic
The reviewer mentioned that the subject of the biography was the son of a factory worker and would not have made it into senior management because of this if someone had not championed him.
Even most Upper Canada grads need a mentor. It would be more important for the subject but it would be very rare not to have some pull in the bank.
They also mentioned that at that men could not become managers unless they were at least 6 feet tall.
Vladimir Putin would be a Uber driver in the West.
http://capelino.com/vladimir-putin-helped-maria-zakharova-to-gain-credibility-daughters/
Louis Quatorze was short and wore platform shoes, if I recall correctly.
cartomancer@#14:
My rule is that it doesn’t count as history if it isn’t older than my house. My house was built in 1700, so as far as I’m concerned the USA doesn’t have any history AT ALL.
Someone needs to write an alternate history in which the colonies never break away and England rules the entire planet (as it would, had those pesky Americans simply submitted)
jrkrideau@#15:
Louis Quatorze was short and wore platform shoes, if I recall correctly.
Yup! And he wasn’t really much taller than Napoleon Bonaparte, who wasn’t that short.
Where is Procrustes when we need him? He’d cut some of these puffed-up popinjays down to size.
I expect Procrustes tried his old trick on Trump, but when he came in with the saw found that there were two Scythian prostitutes pissing on his bed and backed away in disgust.
Hats are good.
If you are working outside for a long time, wear a hat.
If you think your appearance is more important than your health, have universal health care.
as for the “colonies successfully breaking away”, this was an amusing screed that posits that the reason the colonists won the war is because Britain ran out of money-and wanted to save what they had for a more important colony, India:
https://snarkypenguin.wordpress.com/2018/04/19/and-yet-more-nonsense-about-the-battle-of-lexington-and-concord/