Latest / Financial Survival Network / America First Strikes Back on China - Kenneth Rapoza #6343

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America First Strikes Back on China - Kenneth Rapoza #6343 · Financial Survival Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you want to have someone in China who's a
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: little bit antagonistic. It really helps the United States. It
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: really helps the America First trade agenda if you don't
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: and if you don't have that, you have somebody who
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: you know who looks like a Western or so to speak.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: And you're listening to Carrie Letz's Financial Survival Network where
• 0:16
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• 0:20
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• 0:23
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• 0:29
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• 0:39
  Speaker 3: And welcome you are listening to and watching the Financial
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Survival Network. I'm your host, Carrie Letz. Well, is the
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: war the trade war with China? Is it winding down
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: or is it gearing up? Well, if you're curious, then
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: you're definitely going to want to hear from my next guest,
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Kenneth Raposa, and you find him at Prosperous America dot org.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: And ken it's great to have you back on the show. So,
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: trade war with China? What's the status now?
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Sure? Well, I like to call Trump the good cop
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: and bad cop all rolled into one. So if you're
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: trying to figure off the trade war, I think the
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: trade war is just hitting up. But if you are
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: a regular Joe who's not watching this all day long,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: you would hear on Monday Trump saying We're going to
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: hit China with one hundred percent taffs. They're withholding rare
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: earth minerals from US and we need them and that's
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: not fair because they broke a promise and that's that.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: And then Tuesday morning comes and Trump says, well, Shishinpeg
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: was just having a bad day all as well. We're
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: all friends. So you just don't know where it's going.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: But from the closer look is that the United States
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: is in an economic battle with China. And don't think
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: of China as just one country. Think of China as
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: the economic leader of a region. And that region is
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: all of Asia. And that is a region that was
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: heavily dominated for many years by the West, by by
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: US multinationals, by some degree, Japanese multinationals, and South Korean multinationals.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: That is going by the wayside. The Chinese companies are
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: no longer making Happy Meal toys and Nike shoes. They
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: are making their own brands, and they are competing directly
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: with big American tech and big American multinational corporations, whether
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: they're you know, the equivalent of Amazon cloud service providers,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: or whether they are the guys who are making cars. Right.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: For example, Europe is worried about EV's coming in from
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: China and the evs it just will absolutely outnumber European
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: evs on price alone. So it's a situation where the
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: United States has to convince their multinationals to invest in
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the United States, and the only way to do that
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: is to close the door as hard as you can
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: and as tight as you can in on China. And
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: that means making China completely unattractive, and not only China,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: but the countries around it, including Southeast Asia where Trump
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: was just visiting those four countries, so Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: and as you notice, despite the talk of trade deals,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: we still have the twenty percent tariff on all those
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: countries at a minimum. So and that is because we
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: cannot have American multinationals just setting up shop in Vietnam,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: where one dollar goes a lot farther there than it
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: does here, and shipping goods into the United States. That's
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: just not that's just going to defeat the purpose. So
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: the battle continues, and they're trying to isolate China to
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: the best of their ability. We'll see if they can succeed.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So also you had the issue of them transshipping
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: through Vietnam and Thailand, all of that, and you know,
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: on the other hand, they're sharing the same hemisphere as China,
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: the same area, So how much can they really go
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: against the China, That's.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Right, it's a good question. Well, yeah, and you know,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: in a lot of these countries like Vietnam and maybe Malaysia,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: I can't remember the top of my head, but some
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: of the Big four, the Old Asian Tigers, their foreign
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: direct investment mostly comes from China. You know, United States,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: of course would be a close second, and in some
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: cases even number one. But China is very important to
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: those to those economies. There's a lot of Chinese entrepreneurs,
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  Speaker 1: including expact Chinese who fled because they're not exactly enamored
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: with the CCP, and they have set up shop in Vietnam,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: and of course Singapore is crawling with Chinese. So you know,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: these are areas that I'm very entwined with China. But
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the deals that came out of Southeast Asia over the
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: last week have basically said that, Okay, we're going to
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: do this with you. You know, US Americans are going to
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: do this deal with with you. Guys are going to
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: you know, buy your rare earths or partner with you
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: on these projects. But we're only going to do it
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: in so far as you'll sign any big deal with
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: with with the Chinese. And how long will that hold.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Trump is only president for three more years, so we
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: will see. It's very difficult for these countries down there
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: to just turn around and say in the US versus
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: them world of the Trump administration to say that we're
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: not you know, we're going to more. We want to
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: work with you to help isolate China. What Trump really
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: has to do is say to our multinationals, look, we
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: know you love Asia and you've loved it for a
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: very long time, and if it was up to you,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: you'd put all your money there, but we need to
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: reverse that and put some of it here, because if
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: you don't, then the future century. Yes, it's absolutely it's
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: absolutely Asia and there's no stopping it, and everybody knows it.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: So you had to put some sort of roadblocks up there,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: and that would be the tariffs and other ways to
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: isolate China. And that's what the Trump administration is doing there.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: They understand that China is the leader of you know,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: in a multi polar polar world. China is the leader
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: of the other of the other group, and the United
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  Speaker 1: States is the leader of the of the Western group.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: And so if it's not going to but and it's
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: going to playcate China and just by all our multinationals
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: just offshore and invest there, you know, then China really
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: becomes a dominant force in Asia and continues to become
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: a dominant force in American supply chains too, to our dismay.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Actually in the years ahead.
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: Well, uh, but China is not doing very well, now
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: are they. Their real estate bust factories closing up left right.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: They've got some seemingly very difficult problems, and those problems,
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: the solutions to those problems and the causes are directly
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: tied into the CCP, and they don't seem very uh
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: intent on solving them, do they.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Well, I will tell you this that the CCP must
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: solve them, because the CCP only rules on the notion
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: that it can provide upward mobility to the people. And
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: there are more non CUCP people who are a political
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Chinese than there are members of the CCP, and when
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: they're mad, they will rise up. We saw, of course
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: in the eighties and Tenement Square, and we saw it
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: recently during COVID with the White Paper protests. When the
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Chinese people are pushed to the wall, they will rise up.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: And they don't rise up often because their lives have
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: been improving for at least the generation. Now, if that changes,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: then I expect China will see more civil unrest. All right,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: But what's happening in China now with real estate is
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: you know, that's a domestic policy issue where a lot
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: of Chinese people are not really allowed to invest overseas. Right.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: The Chinese stock market is really a you know, it's
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: really a gambling den. If you look at if you
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: look at like the Shanghaik seen, you see bunch of
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: old guys there. It looks like you're walking into Foxwood's
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: casino or Alagio or something like that. You know, they're
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: all sitting there at a table, So it's more of
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  Speaker 1: a gambling den for them. They cannot invest in Apple
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: or Nike in the US, which they would see is
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: something more secure, but they're not allowed to take them
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  Speaker 1: money out, so they put them money in real estate.
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  Speaker 1: So that's the reason for One of the reasons for
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: the real estate crisis, of course, is it's a place
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: where most Chinese are investing money buying second and third homes.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: On the other front is that the trade war is
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: really hitting China because again, when you are decoupling from
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: China or de risking from China, as some of them
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: multinationals would prefer to call it, you are taking away
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of manufacturing power from the Chinese. That doesn't
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: mean that Chinese multinationals is not doing well because they
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: have factories in Southeast Asia and Mexico, right, But it
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: does mean that Chinese labor is not doing well because
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: most people are losing their jobs, and so this is
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: a big problem for China. China is in the sense
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: going through what a lot of Middle America went through
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: when outsourcing began in earnest after the Cold War, when
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: American corporate corporation is no longer needed to placate, you know,
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  Speaker 1: labor because they didn't have to, you know, keep labor happy.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Lest labor decide they want to become you know, uh,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: they want they want us to follow the Soviet model. Right,
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  Speaker 1: that model is dead, So now you know, corporations didn't
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: really have to worry about what labor thought anymore. Globalization
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  Speaker 1: the end of history, right, we all know what that
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: led to. So China is dealing with that now. In essentially,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: the trade war is really a one two punch to
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: the labor markets where they're dealing with a lot of outsourcing,
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  Speaker 1: and that's a big headwind for Chinese labor.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: A lot of the what the what's perceived in the
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: West to be dramatic Chinese progress has turned out to
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: really be a lot of smoke and mirrors, hasn't it.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Well, Look, I've been to China, so I've seen some
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: of the smoking mirrors myself. I've seen the ghost cities.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: I've seen the three lane roads with no one in them.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: I've seen you know, small factory office towers with you know,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: no one in them. It was almost like I was
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: on the Truman Show. But on the other hand, even
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: though I saw that when I was in Beijing, when
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: I was in other cities like sheng Dou, which is
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: a big Texas city, as much as it was still
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: very much a developing country, especially in Shengdu. It looked
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: very much like towns and areas I would see in
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Brazil poor, right, but in Beijing rich trains, clean, right,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: high tech, fast, safe, right, you know. Compared to compared
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: to areas in Philly or areas in New York, for example,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: it looked very much like the First World. So, you know,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: there are many things of China that are you know,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: on par with or better than what we have in
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: the United States. But because it's such a huge country,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: it still has a lot of that developing country orio
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: the old Ford world, what we used to say back
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: in the eighties. You know that that still very much
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: exists in China. I know a lot of people in
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: the West I could say, you know, China is not
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: a you know, a developing country anymore. Look at them,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: you know, And it's true, But they're only looking at
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: the Beijing and Shanghai girls with the Michael Korus dilegit
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Michael Korus handbags, and they're not looking at it the
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: guys who live in villages and pick apples for a living,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And most people exist and
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: they exist by the tens of by the hundreds of thousands, right, so,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: you know China and having said that, carry this is
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: why China can't afford to have manufacturing go overseas, meaning
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: to Southeast Asia, because they lose that blue collar labor,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: they lose that social contract that they had with the
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Chinese clubs, and that's a big problem to the CCP,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: probably bigger than a crashing real estate market. Yeah.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: Well, they've kind of breached the agreement with their people,
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: which was, hey, we'll provide you prosperity, economic success, and
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: in exchange, you just ignore everything political, behave yourselves and
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: don't cause any trouble. And we're kind of seeing like
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: the end of that social compact, the erosion and of
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: it be basically the dissolution of it. Right.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Well yeah, if this, yeah, the trade war keeps up
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: and I expect it to then, yeah, that that will
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: continue to happen. I don't see how. I don't see
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: you know what, Look, what is China do to There
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: are whole companies in China that just exist to serve
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: the Western market. Look at companies like Sheen and Timu.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: You think Chinese are buying Sheen and Timu Clothes probably not.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: I mean that that's that's a company that is designed
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: to make goods for the US. And these are people
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: who you know in she and we think of Sheen
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: is a big, a big corporation, a big brand. Now
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: they've got stores in Europe. But again these are there,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: the clothes that they sell on Sheen and the products
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: they sell in Timu, they're made by you know, small
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: businesses that probably have stitch and sew factories in their basement,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: you know. And the fourteen year old girl is you know,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: happily making a baby dress right for for for free
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: because it's her mom's it's her mom's stitch and sew
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: factory with ear and the art right and they're selling
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: it to you. But if that's why they could sell
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: it to you for five dollars, because the little girl
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: making the dresses making zero. And I'm not saying that's
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: all of she and that's all of Timu, but this
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: is this is a lot of Chinese labor that a
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: lot of Chinese labor is geared towards making things for
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: the West and making things for export. And when that
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: market closes up, you know, where do they go? Well,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: we don't know where they're going. We don't have a
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: lot of data on that. On China, A lot of
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: them are still making stuff and they're dumping it in
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Europe and they're dumping it maybe in Brazil, in those
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: or in Mexico, and those countries will eventually have to
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: come to terms with that. But that is a huge
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: problem for China again, as I said, because as you said,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: once that Social Pact erodes, then the CCP has a problem.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Then you could even see shake up. In the worst
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: case scenario poshishin Ping, you could even see a shake
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: up in the hierarchy of CCP and who leads.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's that's the end result, isn't it. Basically,
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: maybe we're not actively going for a regime change, but uh,
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: that is kind of the inevitability, isn't it. Because you know,
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: and one thing I want to address is tofu dreg construction.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: It's rampant and it's demonstrative of the extent of the
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: corruption in China where these new projects, super projects, uh
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: you know, they're basically you know, they're they're like falling
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: apart before the very eyes.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, some of the projects we've seen it, they do
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: they do fall apart. A lot of this is provincial governments,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: right that that you think of China as everything is
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: really about the labor market. China is mostly concerned with
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: the labor force. Again, keeping in mind that that upper
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: mobility that promise that social cardy with the CCP, with
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: the rest of the Chinese, the la laobaijing as they're
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: called right old hundred names, is key to the CCP survival. Okay.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: If they cannot deliver on that, the CCP is in
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: huge trouble and the Chinese will uprise. Okay. Now, if
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: those people are losing jobs, and I think that they are,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: where where do they go? We don't know? This is
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: all This is all kind of kind of new now,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: but you know what will the upper echelons of the
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: CCP say, Well, they say it's time for sheishing Thing
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: to step down? Who would they who would replace him?
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: As he was saying before before the taping, would it
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: be some guy who looks more like a pro Western
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: type guy. And I will say that, and I say
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: this all the time that Chishin Thing is a godsend
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: to the West, especially the United States, because if if
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: you had if you had a pro Western Let's let
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: bygones be bygones. Chinese leader, you think all these restrictions
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: on what kind of tech you can sell China would
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: still exist or would they be lifted? They'll be lifted.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: You think a lot of these high tariffs that China
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: faces versus its neighbors in Southeast Asia, would they be equalized.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying taras would come off like pre twenty
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: seventeen Trump, but maybe they would go to Vietnam levels
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: at twenty percent. That would probably happen. That would be
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: an equalizer for China. And then all of a sudden,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: all the multinationals that are rethinking about maybe moving to
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Mexico or setting up, you know, expanding capacity at their
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: factories in the United States, maybe they decide, hey, you
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: know what, making that Lincoln Continental is a good idea
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: in China after all, Keeping that buick export exports good
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: because that's what That's what was happening. We were making
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: cars four and GM were making cars in Asia and
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: South Korea and China for export to the United States.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: It's bad enough, We've got a neighbor right next door
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: at free trade. We can easily do it there. But
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: over time you would just why would you make anything
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: in the US unless it was literally too big to ship.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: So you know, you want to have someone in China
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: who's a little bit antagonistic. It really helps the United States,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: It really helps the America First trade agenda. If you
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: don't and if you don't don't have that, you have
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: somebody who, you know, who looks like a western Er
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: so to speak, in terms of, you know, very liberal
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: and who knows, maybe they have Pride Month going on
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: in Shanghai. Then it's all over it. You'll just have
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: the multinationals, you know, let by guys be baggines, as
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: I said, and you will go back to a pre
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: twenty seventeen relations with China, which would be I think
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: would be a huge headwind for a lot of industry
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: in the United States, especially industry that has invested here
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: over the last few years.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: Agreed, Agreed, all right, So when we have this conversation
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: in six months, where do you think will be kind
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: of Ah.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: That's a good question. I think that in six months
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: we are in the same situation with China. I think
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: six months there will be we will know more about
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: how tariffs have impacted inflation and cost of living, which
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: is very important on top of mind for the United States,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: and you're going to have mid turns, so that's going
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: to take over a lot of hawk go out of
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: the topic and may supersede the America First agenda. So
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: what Trump needs to do and what we need to
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: see is that the tariff policy, of which China is paramount,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: is increasing manufacturing labor LUKLA labor wages are rising, and
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: even if inflation is going up three percent whatever that
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: the cost of living, even if it's rising, Americans can
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: handle it. If because if your beef is costing twelve
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: dollars a pound right from seven dollars a pound today
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: and I'm getting laid off even if the beef is
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: still duty free from Mexico, the average Joe is not
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: going to think that there gonna They're gonna hear whatever
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: they hear in the New York Times where CNBC or
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: CNN or whatever Facebook telling us it's all because of tariffs,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: it's all Trump's fault, and then that's gonna make that's
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: gonna sour things, and that could sour things on I
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: don't think it will sour things on China. I think China,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: you know, the China. At at best you get a
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: stalemate right with China. But I think it could it
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: could easily sour things on tariffs and Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: So and that that could be a problem because now
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: you don't have a signal that says, okay, I invested
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: ten million dollars in expanding this this factory, right the
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: GM factory, let's say, in Indiana, to make more cars
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: here than I do in Mexico. Why did I do that?
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: You know? What was the point? So those are the
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: guys you have to entice. You have to entice, You
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: have to convince them that Trump's trade policy is working
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: and China is is the is the you know, the main,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: the main narrative there. If you go soft on China,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: then you obviously go soft on on the rest of Asia.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: And then people who are saying, yeah, I'm going to
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: invest in the United States, that's like, why why am I?
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Why am why am I? Why am I doing that?
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Going to bother?
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Why did I bother?
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: All right?
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: All right? Ken, well, really fascinating. And I guess it's
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: we're gonna sit back and see. I don't think Trump.
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: I think Trump bluffs a lot. I think he's a
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: really good poker player, but I think he's holding a
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: lot of good cards here, so I just don't think
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: that's going to happen. But hey, I've been wrong before. Yeah,
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: and it's going to be interesting to find out. Hey,
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: just tell us. So where do we find you? How
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: do we connect with you on the web?
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Sure, so you find me at the Coalition for a
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Prosperous America, which is an advocacy group for American producers,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: whether they beef ranchers or solo manufacturers. You want you
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: guys to be making things in the United States, and
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: we are at Prosperous America dot org. Or you can
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: find me on X at my old Forbes handle, which
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: would be brick Breaker. I'm not for everybody on X.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Don't care, man, Hey.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: You think who do you think you're talking to here?
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: I'm everybody either believe you me. That just ain't the case.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: But hey, appreciate you coming on questions comments for Ken myself,
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: Klatcarrie LUTs dot com. You can also find all of
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: my work. It's on substack now Carrie Lutz dot com.
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: Take you right there. Financial Survival Network dot com, Same deal. Ken,
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: appreciate you coming on and we will talk to you
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: again soon.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: My pleasure.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having a good day, Thanks for listening
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: to Carrie Letz's Financial Survival Network, your solution to today's
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: trying times. For the latest, go to Financial Survivalnetwork dot com.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: Financial Survival Network now more than ever,