Trade War Game On!
Presently, it’s unclear if we’re in the early stages of a global trade contraction. The trend in expanding global trade appears to have slowed over the last decade, following the 2008 financial crisis. The budding trade war between the United States and China just might be the geopolitical shock that closes out the ‘second age of globalization.’
It wasn’t all that long ago, when they were still the best of friends… [PT]
This week Trump and Xi likely pushed the trade war past the point of no return. They called each other’s bluffs and raised the stakes as the week progressed. By Thursday things had hit a fever pitch.
Our friends at Zero Hedge have been closely monitoring the situation. Here are several choice quotes they alerted us to from an editorial published in the Global Times, China’s state-owned party mouthpiece: