[parcifal]

Krugman over de Trump Admin. Death Spiral :

https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/20...ody#more-40078

So far, at least, the Trump trade agenda, such as it is, has involved tweeting at companies, telling them to keep jobs here, then claiming credit for any seemingly job-creating actions they take. And that got him a couple of favorable news cycles. In practice, however, it means little or nothing. And even tweet-and-photo-op policy seems to be fading out: companies that might have wanted to help Trump puff himself up a couple of months ago are likely to be a lot less accommodating to Mr. Can’t-Pass-A-Health-Billl, with his 36 percent approval rating.

All of this suggests that on trade, as on everything else substantive, Trumpism is going to be all huffing and puffing with very little to show for it. But there is one observation that gives me pause — namely, Trump’s growing need to find some way to change the subject away from his administration’s death spiral. Domestic policy is stalled; the Russia story is getting closer by the day; even Republicans are starting to lose their fear of standing up to the man they not-so-secretly despise. What’s he going to do?

Well, the classic answer of collapsing juntas is the Malvinas solution: rally the nation by creating a foreign confrontation of some kind. Usually this involves a shooting war; but maybe a trade war would serve the same purpose.