Stephen Roach’s new nightmare

For the past decade, Stephen Roach has been the Eeyore of global economic analysis — gloomy about the U.S. economy, gloomy about Chinese economic policy, and in yesterday’s Financial Times, very, very gloomy about what would happen to the Sino-American relationship if Mitt Romney became president. Here’s how he closes:

By the autumn of 2013 there was little doubt of the severity of renewed recession in the US. Trade sanctions on China had backfired. Beleaguered American workers paid the highest price of all, as the unemployment rate shot back up above 10 per cent. A horrific policy blunder had confirmed that there was no bilateral fix for the multilateral trade imbalance of a savings-starved U.S. economy.

In China, growth had slipped below the dreaded 6 percent threshold and the new leadership was rolling out yet another investment stimulus for a still unbalanced and unstable Chinese economy. As the global economy slipped back into recession, the Great Crisis of 2008-09 suddenly looked like child’s play. Globalisation itself hung in the balance.

History warns us never to say never. We need only look at the legacy of U.S. Senator Reed Smoot and Representative Willis Hawley, who sponsored the infamous Tariff Act of 1930 – America’s worst economic policy blunder. Bad dreams can – and have – become reality.

Like Roach, I think Romney’s stated policies towards China have been a wee bit over the top.  And it’s certainly true that China hasn’t reacted terribly well to Romney. The key word here is "stated," however.  In Roach’s analysis, this is how things escalate: 

Feeling the heat from [plummeting] financial markets, Washington turned up the heat on China. Mr Romney called Congress back from its Independence Day holiday into a special session. By unanimous consent, Congress passed an amendment to [a 20 percent tariff on Chinese products] – upping the tariffs on China by another 10 percentage points.

Call me crazy, but if a brewing trade war triggers economic contraction, which then triggers rising financial discontent, I don’t see any president responding by accelerating the trade war. I certainly don’t see bipartisan support for such a trade war. 

If the 2008 financial crisis failed to spark a renaissance in protectionism, then Mitt Romney ain’t gonna be able to do it all on his own. Stephen Roach’s yarn is entertaining but not persuasive. 

Am I missing anything?