I don't think the video should be completely dismissed, mainly because these things are EXACTLY what one would expect Carney and Pardo to be discussing. And every other major economy as well. I do have some doubts about the speed with which all these things can happen. I think the video is probably too optimistic about that.
Ports are vitally important, and the US has enjoyed a strong advantage here since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. We maintained that advantage by providing an efficient service at a fair price. But Trump is changing all that The tariffs make it extremely expensive to use our ports, so countries are going to cut the US out of these deals. And the worst part of this is that once these bilateral arrangements get going and the foreign ports built out, that business will never come back, even if we eliminate the tariffs altogether.
Another irony is that the US ports had a natural advantage over most of the Canadian ports because of the weather. But with global climate change, more Canadian locations are in play to become major ports, including in the Arctic Circle routes.
Trump understands NONE of these things. His decisions are making the US less and less influential on the world stage. Meanwhile, we continue to spend a huge portion of our GDP on military systems that are ineffective in 2025 and health care that costs 2X what any other country pays. This is not sustainable.
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