Financialization and Deindustrialization – Michael Hudson

Trump’s economic policies have not addressed the fundamental forces that have gutted industrial jobs under the administrations of both parties, says economist Michael Hudson ontheAnalysis.news podcast with Paul Jay. Transcript TRANSCRIPT Edited for Clarity Paul Jay Hi, I'm Paul Jay and welcome to th Trump’s economic policies have not addressed the fundamental forces that have gutted industrial jobs under the administrations of both parties, says economist Michael Hudson ontheAnalysis.news podcast with Paul Jay. Transcript TRANSCRIPT Edited for Clarity Paul Jay Hi, I'm Paul Jay and welcome to theAnalysis.news podcast. Please don't forget, at the top of the webpage, and there's a donate button. Donald Trump has tried very hard to make this election about his pre-pandemic economic record, which is supposed to be a success story. Of course, he ignores the fact the cyclical upswing of the economy started during the last Obama years. But what Trump tries to trumpet is his approach to trade with China. He claims his tariffs and remarkable negotiating skills have brought hundreds of thousands of jobs back to the United States. Well, the Wall Street Journal reported on October 26 that, quote, "President Trump's trade war against China didn't achieve the central objective of reversing a U.S. decline in manufacturing, economic data show, despite tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods to discourage imports. The tariffs did succeed in reducing the trade deficit with China in 2019. Still, the overall U.S. trade imbalance was bigger than ever that year and has continued climbing, soaring to a record 84 billion dollars in August as U.S. importers shifted to cheaper sources of goods from Vietnam, Mexico, and other countries. The trade deficit with China also has risen amid the pandemic and is back to where it was at the start of the Trump administration. Another goal reassuring of U.S. factory production hasn't happened either. Job growth in manufacturing started to slow in July 2018, and manufacturing production peaked in December 2018. Manufacturing job growth began to slow when the trade wars started and had nearly stopped growing before the pandemic". A little further down, the article continues, the annual change in manufacturing tariffs are, quote, "are having the effect of bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in an interview, citing statistics that show a net gain of 400,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs from November 2016 until March 2020, when the pandemic forced widespread factory closures. However, about 75 percent of the increase in manufacturing jobs occurred before the first tranche of tariffs took effect against China in July 2018. With annual growth in manufacturing, jobs peaked and then began to decline. By early 2020 even before the pandemic reached the U.S., manufacturing jobs had stalled out, and factories shed workers in four of the six months through March," end quote. So why is there so little industrial growth despite all of Trump's rhetoric? Well, now joining us to help answer that question is Michael Hudson. He's an economist, a professor of economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and a researcher at the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College. He's also a former Wall Street analyst, a political consultant, a commentator, and a journalist. Thanks very much for joining us, Michael. Michael Hudson Well, it's good to be back with you. Paul Jay So Trump made all kinds of promises and is still bl...