China states that it is to cut off supply for military applications. More likely it was a tit-for-tat response to the CHIPS act. Cut China off from the most advanced chips, they cut the US off from the raw materials to make chips.

If it is actually about military applications that’s more worrisome. US generals have predicted war with China in the near future as a foregone conclusion.

Trade war is one thing. Military conflict between the two global superpowers would be disastrous.

Putin is openly anti-communist.

He was smoking the reefer, too! He sold that film for drug money.

Tariffs can be paid by the export country, indirectly. They usually have to lower the price of the commodity to make it competitive under tariffs.

Under Fordist economics the domestic industrial boost would lead to increased wages and buying power.

Under neoliberalism the domestic industrial capitalists gain a larger market share and then don’t pay their workers more. Then they are faced with the problem of what to do with products that are unaffordable.

Friendly reminder that VOA, aka Voice of America, is a subsidiary of the US Agency for Global Media. It was established to convince people in the Soviet sphere that the US was better in every way. It continues that mission with America’s allies and enemies today.

The process of opening up a country’s media space is integral to getting those State department messages in there.