Using the Force in global political economy?

Today is Patriots Day in Massachusetts, which means it’s a school holiday, which means I’m at home with the Official Blog Children.  Because I don’t have much time to blog in-depth about much, I’d like to address a shallow topic this AM — Donald Trump. 

The current frontrunner for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination has made a few comments hinting at how he would approach foreign economic policy.  Let’s take a look, shall we? 

From the Wall Street Journal: 

As for foreign policy, Mr. Trump said he is "only interested in Libya if we take the oil," and that if he were President, "I would not leave Iraq and let Iran take over the oil." He remains sharply critical of the Chinese, asserting that as President, "I would tell China that you’re either going to shape up, or I’m going to tax you at 25% for all the products you send into this country."

"I’m all for free trade, but it’s got to be fair trade," he said. "China has taken advantage of this country for a long time." Regarding the $300 billion he said China stands to make from trade with the U.S. this year, Mr. Trump said, "What’s protectionism? …I want to be protected if that’s the case." As for pending trade deals with Colombia, Korea and other countries, he said he would only sign them if they were the right deals for the U.S. "If it’s a bad deal, I wouldn’t sign it," he said.

Here’s a fun little project for the commenters:  predict what would happen to the global political economy if, in fact, President Trump seized all of Iraq’s oil reserves and slapped a 25% tariff on Chinese exports.  Hint:  I don’t think it ends well. 

As for the trade deals, given that almost all of Panamanian and Colimbian exports come into the United States duty-free, I’m dying to hear how the Donald is going to improve upon them. 

The stuff from the WSJ is boilerplate economic populism mixed with a healthy dollop of ignorance about the global economy —  but then there’s this exchange with CNN’s Candy Crowley:   

Donald Trump says that the "right messenger" could tell OPEC to lower crude oil prices, insisting that prices "will go down if you say it properly."….

Asked on by CNN host Candy Crowley what his idea would be to get OPEC to lower crude oil prices, Trump said: "It’s the messenger."

"I can send two executives into a room. They can say the same things; one guy comes home with the bacon and the other guy doesn’t," Trump said. "I’ve seen it a thousand times. … We don’t have the right messenger. [President Barack] Obama is not the right messenger. We are not a respected nation anymore and the world is laughing at us."

Well, I agree with Trump that the world is laughing at someone. 

The statement that the U.S. is "not a respected nation anymore" is flatly false.  As for whether the "right messenger" can convince OPEC to lower crude oil prices, methinks that Trump is vastly exaggerating the ability of any messenger to tell countries to act against their economic and political self-interest (not to mention OPEC’s influence over oil prices).  Well, that or he’s been watching this scene way too many times. 

According to Politico’s Maggie Haberman and Ben Smith:

More than anything else, according to those who’ve spoken to [Trump], he doesn’t want to be seen as the butt of this particular joke.

“He gets mad that people aren’t taking him seriously,“ said one Republican who’s spoken with him.

So, just for the record , this is me trying to take Donald Trump’s policy pronouncements seriously.  That said, I’d like to thank the Donald for providing such easy blog fodder on a holiday!