Seriously though, she is right. The tariffs are only a small portion of the inflation. The much bigger problem is the trillions dollars of the extra money printed by the central banks. These "wealth on paper" do not have the actual goods to support its face value.
I don't think Biden and his team are overlooking this. But it's a myth that nobody is speaking out.
The tariffs are only a "small portion" of the inflation, but every little bit helps. As a matter of fact, dollar printing and Euro printing affect the entire world, because the markets are global. China, the biggest commodity importer of the world has had to cope with much hyper inflated prices, and yet has low consumer inflation and manageable producer inflation.
The reason for this is that China itself takes a piece-meal approach to inflation, trying to cool energy prices at the end of last year, for example. China does this mostly through market intervention (buying and selling commodities) as well as regulation. Biden was copying an Chinese method when he released oil from the strategic reserve. In fact, China has not only a strategic oil reserve (for war, embargo, etc.) but also a commercial strategic reserve whose aim is to help stabilize prices. It also maintains stocks of metals, of grains, and of frozen food for the same purpose.
The tariffs never caused much direct pain, as they only affected areas that would have moved elsewhere anyway. It was the unpredictability in those years which caused problems, but at this point all of the shifts and adjustments which resulted from the tariffs are complete. If tariffs were to come off, It would be silly to undo those adjustments completely, because the tariffs can be reimposed at any time. Therefore, China does not care very much if the tariffs come or go.
Has anyone considered that China is playing a trick on Biden, like the Agent Tai meme. China knows the tariffs are disproportionately hurting US more, so China doesn't actually want US to remove the tariffs. By constantly telling the US to remove tariffs, China is increasing Biden's domestic pressure, since if he removes them he will look weak for the domestic audience.
If China really wanted Biden to remove the tariffs China would have just kept quiet.
China is trolling Biden, but is not playing a trick. China has consistently said that
all of the tariffs must come off, thus letting the US now beforehand that releasing
some tariffs only to benefit the US will not be seen as an "olive branch". China's position makes it clear for Biden that both choices are bad for the US because that's what friends are for. But I don't think China cares which way it goes.
I also don't think China cares (
@dengyeye) whether Biden, Trump or someone else comes in 2025. Biden's policy is not a change from Trump; it is simply a refinement. The establishment, if it is unable to block Trump, will find a way to manipulate/convince/force him to continue the refinements or "improvements", and to add some new ones. Either way none of it is working, because the core of the strategy, it's basic goals, are not based on reality.
