4d ago

Victory for Trump as EU backs down on digital taxes in next budget

www.politico.eu

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Real talk: why does everyone care so much about trade with the US?
Can the EU, plus AUS / CAN / NZ / UK, plus non-China South-East Asia, really not replace the US and it's great output of .... predatory financial institutions?
- The US holds 30.51% of the world’s economy and they produce highly sought after goods.
  
  Its only 9% of global trade though. https://www.wita.org/ustrade/us-trade-trends/
  Significant, but the rest of the world can transition away from that without too much difficulty.
  
  Within an infinitely long timeline, yes. Transitions take time and few are willing to take the immediate financial (and thus political hit) to do so.
  One example is pharmaceutical companies, which represent a significant portion of goods produced in Europe. There is no market similar to the US where prices and consumption are both significantly high, so I would argue they would simply take a significant hit.
  Economics is rarely done in long term thought because political cycles rely on economic performance. It's stupid, but here we are...
  
  It is also about confidence which is a real short term thing. First thing I was taught in Economics lessons was governmental policy and fiscal policy rely on confidence - a no-confidence vote is exactly how most governments fail, the same is true of how a fiscal policy pans out. One bad decision can ruin confidence and bingo we are looking at a crisis
  
  What highly sought after goods?
  I don't doubt that their predatory financial institutions claim to own that much of the economy, but what do they actually produce?
  As far as I can tell all they produce is too big companies that expand globally and send profits back home.
  
  GPUs, Payment Processors and Weapons are the first ones that come to mind.
  We should build alternatives.
  
  Don't forget oil and gas. Europe has pretty much been living of US gas the last 3 years. lazy link
  
  don't forget tight control of the world's currency. countries need dollars to trade.

15 comments