The Atlantic

Every American Should Hope Trump Prevails Against China

Working on economic policy at the White House, I came to understand that the stakes of the confrontation are far higher than those of trade alone.
Source: Aly Song / Reuters

I spent much of the past two years on the staff of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, thinking about U.S. trade policy toward China. Many people, including me, were focused on the economics of this issue. Many still are.

The blow-by-blow of the bout between the world’s two economic heavyweights is easy to follow. The world’s stock markets gyrate in response to the trade news of the day; the U.S. dollar falls versus the Chinese yuan, and the president responds. Each new piece of macroeconomic data is interrogated until

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