Kathianne
03-06-2018, 08:15 PM
I've alluded to this over the past few days, the problems with steel, auto, factories in general, began with the boom of the 50's and 60's when there was little to no competition.
In fact, over the past 15 years or so, most industries have been retooling and looking for ways to increase productivity and hold down costs. It's beginning to work, the idea of tariffs may play well for the 'retaliation' so many seek for different reasons, against different groups, but if the predicted course of economic events play out, they won't be happy for long.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-03-05/steel-history-shows-how-america-lost-ground-to-europe
How the U.S. Squandered Its Steel SuperioritySpoiler alert: Unfair trade practices of foreign nations had nothing to do with it.
By Stephen Mihn
March 5, 2018, 11:15 AM MST
Donald Trump wants to help the steel industry in this country, and he’s announced plans for protective tariffs, claiming that “trade wars are good, and easy to win.” By way of explanation, Trump claims that steel -- and many other industries -- has been “decimated by decades of unfair trade and bad policy.”
He’s correct about one thing: This has been a problem many decades in the making. But it’s a problem rooted in disastrous decisions made by the steel companies themselves when Trump was still in elementary school.
At the end of World War II, American steel had no real challengers. It produced nearly three quarters of the world’s steel, and the factories of its biggest competition -- Japan and Germany -- lay in ruins. Giants like U.S. Steel looked poised to dominate the world for the foreseeable future.
...
In fact, over the past 15 years or so, most industries have been retooling and looking for ways to increase productivity and hold down costs. It's beginning to work, the idea of tariffs may play well for the 'retaliation' so many seek for different reasons, against different groups, but if the predicted course of economic events play out, they won't be happy for long.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-03-05/steel-history-shows-how-america-lost-ground-to-europe
How the U.S. Squandered Its Steel SuperioritySpoiler alert: Unfair trade practices of foreign nations had nothing to do with it.
By Stephen Mihn
March 5, 2018, 11:15 AM MST
Donald Trump wants to help the steel industry in this country, and he’s announced plans for protective tariffs, claiming that “trade wars are good, and easy to win.” By way of explanation, Trump claims that steel -- and many other industries -- has been “decimated by decades of unfair trade and bad policy.”
He’s correct about one thing: This has been a problem many decades in the making. But it’s a problem rooted in disastrous decisions made by the steel companies themselves when Trump was still in elementary school.
At the end of World War II, American steel had no real challengers. It produced nearly three quarters of the world’s steel, and the factories of its biggest competition -- Japan and Germany -- lay in ruins. Giants like U.S. Steel looked poised to dominate the world for the foreseeable future.
...