Brad Setser: "Larry Summers on Trump and trade:: 'From tweet to tweet, official to official, nobody can tell what his priorities are.' Certainly rings true to me. I have almost stopped trying to guess. Even for China:"
Lawrence Summers: Donald Trump’s trade policy violates every rule of strategy: "A first rule of strategy is to have well defined objectives...
...A second rule of strategy is to unite your friends and divide your potential adversaries.... A third rule of strategy is to use as leverage threats that are credible in the sense that they do more damage to those you are negotiating with than they do to you. “Stop or I will shoot myself in the foot” is a singularly ineffective threat.... President Trump’s trade policies will raise the prices Americans pay for what they buy. They will reduce the competitiveness of the US economy. They will succeed where our traditional adversaries have failed in uniting much of the rest of the world in opposition to us. They will reduce our legitimacy and power by demonstrating our lack of competence. The sooner they are radically revised the better off the US and the rest of the world will be.
