TrueValueMetrics ... Impact Accounting for the 21st Century

Date: 2026-03-03 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00028076

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SECTION 16
WHY DONALD TRUMP WANTS
TO TAKE THE PANAMA CANAL
'and the actual best reason to control it'
Version 1 ... February 2025

1:59:01
his exclusion and he was trapped in that contradiction without the ability you
know I don't know if he can spell contradiction let Al use it analytically
but as a as one of the Senators whose name I forget once said there is no
intelligence requirement to be a senator yeah it's a good one well the the the

Why Donald Trump Wants to Take the Panama Canal (And the Actual Best Reason to Control It)

1:59:26
second of these rhetorical topics that I wanted to address you've already mentioned but I think it might also be a
good opportunity as a throwback to some of our earlier more pedagogically focused episodes for a bit of a an
economics or a trade lesson but what is the Strategic importance of the Panama
Canal for us and why would Trump make the hint well they're not hint
the claims about taking it as he has been well I can I'll give you the

2:00:00
answer but I'm not at all sure that the answer I'm giving you is why Mr Trump
did this and I'm genuinely concerned not to be misunderstood on that point I can
make a better case for what he did than he has so far made okay interesting that
so my here's my suspicion why he did it because it
[Music] is a way of being naughty and tough you
know Jimmy Carter I believe 1977 signed the documents that gave the
canal to The Sovereign independent country of Panama okay so it violates so
he's naughty he's violating the rules he's the the rule breaker the new rule maker
he you most Americans had no idea that there's an issue there right number one

2:01:05
what what is the big issue there the only issue that I can
see is part of an anti-china
agenda the number one country that uses the Panama Canal is the United States
the number two country is China because they're number one and two
in a whole lot of areas there's one too China has built not
surprisingly a bunch of Port facilities on either end of the canal you know
buildings and bought land and have establishments there Chinese companies
and who may or may not be part of the Chinese government
so American companies began some years ago to be a

2:02:03
little bit worried about what is going on in these Chinese
companies which comes out of a fantasy that's what I think it is that the
Chinese are a
aggressively moving into position to cause difficulties for the United
States I don't think that's true uh I do think that the American
Empire is declining and that the Chinese either are going to be the next
Empire or if we're lucky will be the sponsor
for a genuine multilateralism will we'll see we don't know yet and I don't know yet but I know
no one else knows yet either I do know that the United States

2:03:02
everywhere is trying to stop slow constrain and constrict
China the containment policy that they believe worked on Russia has now been
adapted or extended to apply to China That's why they held back the chips
which didn't succeed because of what happened with deep seek all right that's why
they all of a sudden got interested in Taiwan again that's why the seventh
fleet is in South China Sea [Music]
um so here the president can show he's doing something against China look the
problem is the United States ability to slow down and stop China has
so far proven to be zero they can't do anything um I want to remind people who

2:04:06
might question this leading government spokesmen and
women have been saying for at least 10 years if not
longer that we need need to put more we the
Americans need to put more pressure to constrict and constrain China didn't use
those words but that's what it amounted to why because the
expectation this is sort of the official line the
expectation in the minds of Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon when they
went to China ended the refusal to recognize the government of China
let's remember the communists come to power in 1949 and and Kissinger and Nixon go to

2:05:00
China in 1970 early 70s okay so whoa that's a long time when you pretended
they're not there you would not send an ambassador you would not receive an ambass all of
that what that meant was that the Japanese and the Europeans got to do productive and profitable trade with
China Americans were excluded they didn't want that anymore and so okay
open up that was the real reason then the the the BS official was this is going to
help integrate China into the world economy moving it closer to the liberal
democracy that we have it's hard for me to repeat this nonsense but it's the
official line we were all supposed to wait for China there to come around when
it came time to bring them into the World Trade Organization which was necessary for the

2:06:00
benefits to American companies of being able to deal with China the same BS was we
recycled by letting them into the World Trade they would become more like us
which of course means freedom democracy apple pie and baseball
okay um good things absolutely
uh starting 10 or 15 years ago it became
clear particularly to the kind of American politician who came to be known
as a neocon uh for good reason um began to
realize that this strategy wasn't working
that it was enabling China to grow like
blazes economically but it wasn't becoming more like us at all the Communist party was

2:07:06
still the the the controlling political element it managed the state and the
state supervised a hybrid economy one half private capitalist Enterprise one half
government own owned Enterprise which is more or less the way it is now uh and the New York h
decided and used Clinton Obama and Biden to
articulate they persuaded them or so they became the Democratic Center
championed by Clinton um
that China was a a net enemy it that we bringing them into the World Trade
thing was too good for them number one and number two

2:08:06
wasn't doing which by the way some of them were honest enough to say regime change you know a liberal Democratic
parliamentary system and so it became
necessary to constrain and constrict and limit and punish and hurt
them um and because of the legacy of the Cold
War again sitting down with this Chinese to try to say
look you're declining Empire we're a rise Empire we can come to blows over
that Lord knows human history gives us examples or we can try to find a way to
share the planet let's at least try this sharing the
planet after all the last quarter of the 20th century

2:09:06
was a time when both the United States and China experienced pretty good
economic growth together um the
neocons Mash that they didn't didn't want that kind of talk then we have to
Crystal Clear like with the Soviet Union and remember the Soviet Union conveniently implodes in 1989 so there's
the see the success it worked Reagan was able we defeated them okay so we have a
plan how to do it doe to the Chinese what we did to the Russians it worked
with the Russians it should work so the they're very upset now it didn't it
didn't they didn't change anything now of course with half a brain you might

2:10:01
have said to yourself China went from one of the
poorest countries on Earth in 1949 to a superp power economically
speaking in 30 to 40 to 50 years what incentive would would there
be for the government of a country that had that record to change itself are you
talking are you crazy that's their success they give that up would what you
know it it's it's crazy it's a crazy thing to imagine that that would happen
um and it didn't happen so they don't know what they that they made a mistake
in their strategy Americans can't do that
made a mistake no never make a mistake like Mr Trump he's in that way he's not
nor never he always doubles down or tells us another story but that's not

2:11:02
unique to him so the Panama Canal is a way to hit
the Chinese that's all it it says um we may close it we may not let
you through now could they do that anyway sure what's the point so here
comes the theater holding back China is a complicated game because it's only half
real because in the last 40 years the Chinese not only grew but the American
dependency on China also grew for goods and services look the the what you have to
pay an American worker is much less than it would have been if you could not
unload cheap Chinese consumer goods on
everybody your pants your shirt your your car your toaster your shaving

2:12:01
equipment it's all made in China or was still most of it is that cheapens the cost of living for
workingclass people which allows you to pay them less money because they can still go to the mall and pick up at
Walmart or Target all of that junk which comes from China
and which is distributed in America by Walmart and Target you marriage made in
heaven now those two companies have to be very careful never to say that but if
you look at it it's no secrets easy to show Walmart and China Walk hand in hand
for the last 50 years they need each other dreadfully Walmart is against all these
tariffs it doesn't want to have to charge the people who go to Walmart more money because it knows who those people
are and it knows what this all means now that's true for Dollar General and