The capitalist economy of the USA requires large amounts of debt to operate effectively. That debt does not just need to be accessible to new, starting companies and consumers making large purchases, but also to already (highly) indebted companies and consumers. Competition and lack of real pay growth means that the only way to finance growth is through debt spending.
It seems as though if you want to hobble your own economy, you can get access to the US market at a reduced tariff rate.
One of the biggest complaints that the left get from Capital when we raise regulations is the cost of implementation of those regulations. But, looking around the world right now, it is hard to understand that is even a thing to worry about for standard regulatory programs.
There is pressing need for Canada to develop a robust industrial strategy centered on public investment, strategic diversification of export markets, industrial investment, and the safeguarding of publicly funded intellectual property.
The abundance of resources is not enough for Canadian production and export to be commercially viable. And, trade between provinces is limited by the same thing it always was in Canada: distance. The solutions to ensure sustained prosperity of the Canadian people rests with the old ideas of economic solidarity through federal, provincial, and municipal owned companies.
Before Trump was elected, there was a lot of discussions and warnings about what we should avoid doing in response to Trump. Things like avoiding the idea that he means what he says, that we should analyse the psychology of the statements, that we should only pay attention to one of the things instead of looking wholistically at what is happening. We were warned that we should also avoid thinking that there is no plan or that it is all the work of some madman. Why do we seem to have forgotten this warning?
Two examples in Ontario of why the Canadian economy continues to be at risk from the aggressive threats of tariffs from the USA.
The biggest white lies we tell each other are when excuses do not match the real reasons we are doing something. Trump has expanded this out to American policy, the lies are bigger but the concept is the same.
Energy and processing power analysts are very taken with the Jevons paradox. The concept is that as energy or processing power become more efficient, demand expands to use up that increased efficiency and everyone wins. It has been applied in great haste by investors and firms in the AI space. Especially since much more efficient open source solutions have been made available commercially (such as DeepSeek).
Tariffs on Canadian oil imports and exports can change price calculation in the USA, making the market more susceptible to local conditions. Moves to increase the price of oil in the USA will bring more domestic production online and will speed-up ongoing transition of refineries and pipelines to use Permian/fracked oil.
