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What "suffering" has the rest of the world done to brazil ?
The new dealers ( FDR, Truman ) gave organized labor tremendous power because without it the USA would probably have had a big communist party.
They also knew the deflationary period of the 1930s lead to the rise of fascism and nationalism in Europe. So the petty greed of capital was scarified at the altar to maintain peace. They were also willing to sacrifice growth to maintain peace.
We are going through a similar period of deflationary shock, so it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out and ends.
Most likely the source of unrest may not be US but China.
Github is flush with cash ( relatively speaking ).
Makes sense why they would go after them ( Microsoft ) , not that it will stick.
The US is the largest source for this type of engineering, other countries are simply not doing any of it.
The cost of buying a Ferrari is prolly lower than getting a Phd from Stanford on any of those topics.
The fact is companies are not willing to pay for the training etc for it.
There simply is not enough demand at the economic price point for it, or else companies would be spending billions in retraining.
Even I want to own a Rolls Royce and date Katey Perry.
China can't do any of that because it would harm their own economy far more (what remains of their industrial / trade trust would vaporize further) and it wouldn't likely kill the company they target (unless it was a small hyper dependent company). The US move against Huawei works particularly well because of the US partners willing to go along with it as a group; the same is true of US sanctions. China has very few allies and few global levers.
Plus, the US would respond very harshly and China knows that. China isn't a gentle flower, it isn't avoiding hammering strategic US companies out of the goodness of its heart; it isn't attempting that maneuver because it knows the cost is too high for itself.
The US is one of the least trade dependent nations:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_trade-to-...
And: https://i.imgur.com/7JIIX8Q.jpg
On imports + exports as a share of GDP, the US ranks #6 in the world as least dependent, with those two items making up 27% of the US GDP. China is at 40%. Germany is 87%, France is 63% and the UK is 62% by comparison.
The US is also, essentially, entirely energy self-sufficient, with Canada's help. Something China is nowhere near being. The US could shut off China's access to foreign oil and a lot of coal supply very easily and it would grind up their economy.
Let's run the hypothetical though. Ok, do it to Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Oracle. Those are three of the five largest US companies and four of the largest tech companies.
Might as well also hit Netflix, Adobe, Intuit, Salesforce, Workday, ServiceNow, Uber, Lyft, Twitter, Snap, Pinterest, Slack, Dropbox, etc.
Also Exxon, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Occidental, Phillips 66, Valero, Marathon, EOG.
Run it against JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, NY Mellon, Fidelity, Vanguard, etc.
Next up do Visa, PayPal, Mastercard, Discover, Amex, Square, Stripe.
Then do it to Pfizer, Amgen, Merck, AbbVie, Gilead, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Biogen, Eli Lilly.
Maybe Lockheed, Raytheon, Northrup and General Dynamics.
How about Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile / Sprint.
Also McDonald's, Yum Brands, Kraft, Mondelez, Coca Cola, Pepsi.
Total result: barely a scratch overall, if that.
Few of these companies, many of which are among the largest corporations on the planet, have a critical (threat-of-death type) exposure to China. A few would lose 5-10% of their businesses and life would continue just fine.
This is the fundamental mistake China made by keeping its economy so restricted and locked down to foreign companies. Most of the US economy doesn't have a critical dependency on China. That's also why the large China tariffs are having near zero inflationary effect and that will continue to be the case. The only serious effect it's having is that it's pushing manufacturing out of China, which was one of the goals.
Also fortunately Taiwan != China
China can import as much energy as it wants from Central Asia and Russia, it chooses not to because Saudi oil is cheaper.
China also is not as dependent on fossil fuels, due to extensive rail links between their major cities. Its just convenient to use jet planes, also the CCP actively wants to create a Boeing alternative.
If we do end up in a situation that becomes an existential threat to CCP:
- China would aggressively dump US treasuries.
- China stops exporting rare earths that even the US military depends on.
- China starts importing Iranian crude ( providing navy escort ).
- Chinese nationals are forced to sell their holdings in the US.
All of these things would cause a major financial crisis in the US, the Baby Boomers do not have the stomach for it and would vote Trump right out.
Anyway, you are right, the US doesn't depend on trade.
But 44% of US corporate sales happens overseas. A shutdown of global trade would be quite bad for the Chinese, but it would be worse for the "richest nation on earth".
> This is the fundamental mistake China made by keeping its economy so restricted and locked down to foreign companies. Most of the US economy doesn't have a critical dependency on China.
Why should the Chinese open their economy to US companies without getting something big in return ? US firms are not entitled to free access to anything outside their borders.
We know what Facebook, Google can do to a country, it's better for humanity if US companies are not given completely access to every market.
Most people in those countries do not consume large amount of meat, massively reducing their need for large amount of agricultural land.
Soil fertility is just part of the equation, does not explain Egypt, Pakistan and a multitude of other countries.
US based coin exchanges like Coinbase do
If the fed buys every USD bond in existence ( aka monetize the debt ) - it would lead to a good amount of inflation.