Bill Poulos is a published author and experienced financial educator. He earned his engineering degree from GMI. Bill then obtained his MBA (with a degree in finance) from the University of Michigan. He grew up in Detroit, Michigan with his parents and brother. He still resides in Michigan with his wife of over 48 years. Together they have three children, now grown. Bill regularly offers his opinion and insight into world events and financial topics.
On the G7 meeting, President Trump acted in a very un-presidential, non-traditional way—according to the pundits in the media—when he took the other G7 countries to task on two key points. One is the fact that Russia, being one of the major powers in the world and absent from the G7 meeting, was something that had to be remedied. That despite any sanctions to the contrary, Russia needs to be at the G7 meeting. Of course, everyone scoffed at that.
The second point is the United States—being the world’s largest economy—needs to be treated fairly when it comes to trade. All that the attendees of the G7 meeting focused on were the newly imposed tariffs (or planned tariffs) that the United States will impose as being very, very bad and disruptive for international trade—indeed triggering a trade war.
But what they completely ignored are the tariffs that the other G7 countries already have on imports into their countries and have had in place for years—not to mention the manipulation of currency that is like a stealth tariff and not to mention other trade barriers that have been in place for years to the disadvantage of the United States. Everyone acts like none of that’s there.
And that’s the very point Trump is trying to make—you can’t have it your way and not expect us to do something about that because we’re not going to take it anymore. We’re not going to be the patsy for the world economy anymore.
President Trump is not talking about doing something unfair, he’s talking about leveling the field, so that it is fair. These politicians (leaders from the G7 countries), in league with the media, just can’t stop slobbering over how terrible this is.
What are G7 leaders and the media trying to do? They are trying to convince their own constituencies back home, as well as world opinion and people in the United States, that Trump is absolutely wrong and that they are right.
They are hoping that the people are naïve enough to accept that. They are hoping the people don’t understand that the G7 countries, who are protesting so loudly, are the very countries that have embedded unfair trade practices for years. These G7 countries are hoping no one notices this or is smart enough to even ask the question.
I think they’ll fail. I think Trump will prevail.
I don’t think we’ll have a trade war and, in the end, the tariffs will be nothing but a negotiating chip to get back to fair trade practices—fair trade practices that will benefit everybody and reduce the US trade deficit in the process. Amen.