As Trump bets on tariffs to jumpstart a U.S. manufacturing comeback, the question looms: can America reindustrialize without reinventing the global economy and capping trade imbalances?
It's so important not to fall into the binary either/or trap but to stay critical of all media. I do try to keep track of who is more right than wrong and spend my time listening to them.
Thanks for the excellent article. You mention that certain errors were by design or planning, but not who the designers or planners were. In my book The Predators versus The People I explain who the designers of a 500-year war against humanity are (a Global Mafia), and that we are now at the end of their fourth (USA) hegemonic cycle (after Spain, Holland, Britain) with China taking the baton over as their fifth hegemon.
As a salient detail, after WW2 the USA could make its soaring career because - by design - its main competitors China and Russia had been put in the "communist fridge" and competitor Europe lay in ruins - again by design: the World Wars were also staged, by UK/USA/Zionnist proxies of the Global Mafia, see the article The Big Picture of History and how Trump fits in.
If these idiots who are protesting would even do their research on how tariffs work, they would get an education and not protest when we're giving these countries a deal compared to what they've imposed on us when we bring in their cheap shit they've ridden a sweet deal on for years.
America was built on tariffs. But we lost our way in the 70's and a large part of that was the power of the dollar. Since then wealth has concentrated towards Wall Street and normal America has been hollowed out--gorging ourselves on cheap Chinese trinkets.
Worse still, running trade deficits hollows out American geopolitical potential, while China is gaining. The current trends lead in only one direction, towards American decline and Chinese ascendency. So the US either changes now voluntarily or changes later after an economic/military defeat to China. The choice is ours.
I can go one better Kevin and tell you it was the unions who ruined the rust belt and all of the steel industry and manufacturing industry when workers got too comfortable with being scammed by the company and the union who never worked for them in the first place. I'm not living in Texas because the union pushed my family out of the area, I'm living here because a corporation moved us here from Ohio who was known as Shell who now has zero presence here other than the gas station and a smaller corporate office in Katy TX because the previous two administrations have tried to kill Houston's oil economy to where big pharma is the new Shell oil company here who has reaped people of their health by sticking a huge Pfizer facility five minutes from my house and guess who won't be hurt by tariffs, but will be hurt by their own evil hands? Big pharma who is closing drug stores left and right because the heat is on them from you and I who said no to begin with!
As an enforcement mechanism, Keynes envisioned an International Clearing Union (ICU) that would penalize both surpluses and deficits to enforce balance. Nations running persistent surpluses—like China today—would face interest charges on excess Bancor credits, while deficit countries—like the U.S.—would pay penalties on overdrafts, with the ICU able to mandate currency devaluation or revaluation in extreme cases.
It’s akin to a salary cap in sports: teams can exceed it, but escalating fines force compliance. The ICU’s authority would rest on transparent rules, not coercion, making imbalances financially unsustainable—surplus nations lose wealth by hoarding, deficit nations drown in debt costs.
The deeper enforcement lies in the self-interest of leading powers, namely the U.S. and China, to lock in their dominance and thwart rising challengers. Historically, geopolitical ascent—like Britain’s in the 19th century, America’s in the 20th, or China’s now—relied on massive trade surpluses to amass capital and influence, while chronic deficits signal weakness, as the U.S.’s borrowing spiral toward oblivion demonstrates.
Bancor freezes this ladder by capping surpluses and deficits, effectively ossifying the current pecking order--which is exactly why Keynes proposed it! It would have frozen the US and UK as twin hegemons. Today, emerging powers can’t replicate China’s export-driven rise without triggering penalties, and the system reins in nations like the U.S., curbing the reckless deficits that erode their foundations.
Enforcement isn’t just the ICU’s rulebook—it’s the will of today’s titans to keep the table static, with Bancor acting as a geopolitical straitjacket disguised as fair trade. This stasis is the system’s vulnerability: critics can assail it as a tool to perpetuate entrenched power.
China has been imposing an almost seventy percent tariff charge fee on us for the last several years and what do we get for our trouble of giving our product to them? Cheap crap which cops out in less than a year. The fact Trump is forcing China to eat a 104 percent tariff fee will force these corporations to come back into this country to produce goods here because they won't like having their piece of the pie taken away from them
Yesterday Trump pivoted to a general tariff of 10% on the world which is the proper policy to force industry back to the US. The higher tariff on China helps but corporations could just go to India or Vietnam so you need a general tariff wall around the US. Another aspect of this is that we shouldn't be waiting for corporations to make these moves, these tariffs could give space to small producers to start entering the market. I was very angry about the notion that Americans are too weak or pampered to make their own stuff. China even made a meme of Americans working in a sweatshop. But that is their system, in the US there may be space for artisanal producers. Much like the craft beer movement, why not craft shoes or clothing? My mom used to make my sister's clothes back in the Seventies and it was a fun process. Also this tariff war makes Americans think about this stuff, how it might be better to even spend more on local, high-quality products, that saving money buying junk that soon falls apart. Once there is a vibrant small business market blossoming, then the corporations will dive in and try to monopolize it.
As a small business owner myself, I really understand how hard my industry has been decimated over the last five years by a president and administration who openly said they didn't want me to exist because I think too much and can't be controlled like the rest of the robots of society. Corporations and businesses want people who don't think and don't question what could be done a simpler way or a better way and they don't like to be called out or walked away from when I'm making a point I'm not a robot and I'm not losing my life for a toxic jab I've watched kill people I know.
In other words, I'm like the cat costume mom made for me to wear when I was kid at Halloween which I still have in my closet because I believe in traditional values and beliefs I've implemented in my business and the way I run my own life that these rotten politicians and leftie idiots cannot stand.
A very insightful analysis, which is lacking in the dominant and the alt media.
Thank you! The alt media has a really bad habit of simply negating the dominant media and not adding anything original.
Alt media, AFAICT, largely lives in a fantasy world.
Note that I wrote not a syllable in praise of legacy media.
It's so important not to fall into the binary either/or trap but to stay critical of all media. I do try to keep track of who is more right than wrong and spend my time listening to them.
BRICS++ is the 21st Century "Bancor" shaped and fitting for current geopolitical trade and economics.
Thanks for the excellent article. You mention that certain errors were by design or planning, but not who the designers or planners were. In my book The Predators versus The People I explain who the designers of a 500-year war against humanity are (a Global Mafia), and that we are now at the end of their fourth (USA) hegemonic cycle (after Spain, Holland, Britain) with China taking the baton over as their fifth hegemon.
On my site you can read several articles for free, like https://thepredatorsversusthepeople.substack.com/p/the-united-states-of-america-from.
As a salient detail, after WW2 the USA could make its soaring career because - by design - its main competitors China and Russia had been put in the "communist fridge" and competitor Europe lay in ruins - again by design: the World Wars were also staged, by UK/USA/Zionnist proxies of the Global Mafia, see the article The Big Picture of History and how Trump fits in.
This is a tremendously insightful and very useful piece, thank you.
Thank you!
If these idiots who are protesting would even do their research on how tariffs work, they would get an education and not protest when we're giving these countries a deal compared to what they've imposed on us when we bring in their cheap shit they've ridden a sweet deal on for years.
America was built on tariffs. But we lost our way in the 70's and a large part of that was the power of the dollar. Since then wealth has concentrated towards Wall Street and normal America has been hollowed out--gorging ourselves on cheap Chinese trinkets.
Worse still, running trade deficits hollows out American geopolitical potential, while China is gaining. The current trends lead in only one direction, towards American decline and Chinese ascendency. So the US either changes now voluntarily or changes later after an economic/military defeat to China. The choice is ours.
I can go one better Kevin and tell you it was the unions who ruined the rust belt and all of the steel industry and manufacturing industry when workers got too comfortable with being scammed by the company and the union who never worked for them in the first place. I'm not living in Texas because the union pushed my family out of the area, I'm living here because a corporation moved us here from Ohio who was known as Shell who now has zero presence here other than the gas station and a smaller corporate office in Katy TX because the previous two administrations have tried to kill Houston's oil economy to where big pharma is the new Shell oil company here who has reaped people of their health by sticking a huge Pfizer facility five minutes from my house and guess who won't be hurt by tariffs, but will be hurt by their own evil hands? Big pharma who is closing drug stores left and right because the heat is on them from you and I who said no to begin with!
Excellent piece, and helpful for me in anticipating what may come next.
Thanks Jim!
@Kevin Masterful analysis but I am afraid it went awry in the proposal phase for what would be the enforcement mechanism of Bancor?
Thanks Oliver!
As an enforcement mechanism, Keynes envisioned an International Clearing Union (ICU) that would penalize both surpluses and deficits to enforce balance. Nations running persistent surpluses—like China today—would face interest charges on excess Bancor credits, while deficit countries—like the U.S.—would pay penalties on overdrafts, with the ICU able to mandate currency devaluation or revaluation in extreme cases.
It’s akin to a salary cap in sports: teams can exceed it, but escalating fines force compliance. The ICU’s authority would rest on transparent rules, not coercion, making imbalances financially unsustainable—surplus nations lose wealth by hoarding, deficit nations drown in debt costs.
The deeper enforcement lies in the self-interest of leading powers, namely the U.S. and China, to lock in their dominance and thwart rising challengers. Historically, geopolitical ascent—like Britain’s in the 19th century, America’s in the 20th, or China’s now—relied on massive trade surpluses to amass capital and influence, while chronic deficits signal weakness, as the U.S.’s borrowing spiral toward oblivion demonstrates.
Bancor freezes this ladder by capping surpluses and deficits, effectively ossifying the current pecking order--which is exactly why Keynes proposed it! It would have frozen the US and UK as twin hegemons. Today, emerging powers can’t replicate China’s export-driven rise without triggering penalties, and the system reins in nations like the U.S., curbing the reckless deficits that erode their foundations.
Enforcement isn’t just the ICU’s rulebook—it’s the will of today’s titans to keep the table static, with Bancor acting as a geopolitical straitjacket disguised as fair trade. This stasis is the system’s vulnerability: critics can assail it as a tool to perpetuate entrenched power.
Kevin,
China has been imposing an almost seventy percent tariff charge fee on us for the last several years and what do we get for our trouble of giving our product to them? Cheap crap which cops out in less than a year. The fact Trump is forcing China to eat a 104 percent tariff fee will force these corporations to come back into this country to produce goods here because they won't like having their piece of the pie taken away from them
Yesterday Trump pivoted to a general tariff of 10% on the world which is the proper policy to force industry back to the US. The higher tariff on China helps but corporations could just go to India or Vietnam so you need a general tariff wall around the US. Another aspect of this is that we shouldn't be waiting for corporations to make these moves, these tariffs could give space to small producers to start entering the market. I was very angry about the notion that Americans are too weak or pampered to make their own stuff. China even made a meme of Americans working in a sweatshop. But that is their system, in the US there may be space for artisanal producers. Much like the craft beer movement, why not craft shoes or clothing? My mom used to make my sister's clothes back in the Seventies and it was a fun process. Also this tariff war makes Americans think about this stuff, how it might be better to even spend more on local, high-quality products, that saving money buying junk that soon falls apart. Once there is a vibrant small business market blossoming, then the corporations will dive in and try to monopolize it.
As a small business owner myself, I really understand how hard my industry has been decimated over the last five years by a president and administration who openly said they didn't want me to exist because I think too much and can't be controlled like the rest of the robots of society. Corporations and businesses want people who don't think and don't question what could be done a simpler way or a better way and they don't like to be called out or walked away from when I'm making a point I'm not a robot and I'm not losing my life for a toxic jab I've watched kill people I know.
In other words, I'm like the cat costume mom made for me to wear when I was kid at Halloween which I still have in my closet because I believe in traditional values and beliefs I've implemented in my business and the way I run my own life that these rotten politicians and leftie idiots cannot stand.
Great food for thoughts. Thank you