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When push comes to shove, who has most to lose in a US-China trade war?
Open conflict between China and the United States is a growing possibility, according to Peter Pham, managing director of Cayman Islands-based Phoenix Capital, and author of "The Big Trade: Simple Strategies for Maximum Market Returns".
Writing in Forbes magazine, which half-jokingly calls itself the "capitalist conspiracy", Mr Pham writes: "Military spending is always high, but despite the possibility of armed conflict, countries strive to avoid it. But China has another capable weapon - capital and debt."
Continuing on in this way Mr Pham warns that few appreciate how vulnerable America is, and how its own behaviour has brought national debt to Himalayan levels.
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US trade deficits fears appear overblown as long as there is peace in the world
AS US President Donald Trump has promised his political base of long-ignored working class men and their families to eliminate the job-robbing trade deficit, then something must be done whether it need be done or not.
Or so it seems. What is missed here is that Mr Trump's rebellious political base does not care about fixing the trade deficit if it is discovered by sources they trust that it does not matter after all.
But such sources cannot be those in the MAB, the media, academic, bureaucratic complex whose esoteric concerns have been gender inequality, income disparity, global warming and transgender washrooms, about which Trump's supporters do not care at all.
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Mexico verges from panic to optimism contemplating life after NAFTA
Whether Mexico leaves the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and opens its doors and economy to Russia and China in the face of US protectionism is a matter upon which we must wait upon events.
Of course, realities must be faced. Mexico sends 80 per cent of its exports to the US and China exports 14 times more goods to Mexico than Mexico sends back. As for Russia, there is a lot of potential for growth, as they say when there is little else to be said.
Mexico sent its first blueberries to China last summer, as trade between the two countries continues to grow. But experts doubt the Chinese market can solve Mexico's trade issues should NAFTA fail to deliver.
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NAFTA: Chameleon Canada's evolving role in trade with the US and Mexico
As part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Canada is the only G7 nation other than the United States in the pact as well being its biggest trading partner.
Culturally Canada is so much like the United States that it takes on the colouring and style of its southern neigbours like a chameleon. Thus it is difficult to isolate NAFTA as a Canadian variable in the dominion's economic growth and other than with key metrics due to the interwoven nature of the two economies.
Opinions differ on the impact of NAFTA on Canada. New York Times pundit-economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman has said NAFTA has had a near zero effect on the Canadian economy, whereas Republican economist Martin Anderson disagrees. NAFTA was the creation of American Republicans and Canadian Conservatives, thus not favoured by the left on either side of the border for that reason alone.
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