{"id":56437,"date":"2019-08-06T07:00:52","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T15:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/?p=56437"},"modified":"2019-08-06T06:14:59","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06T14:14:59","slug":"donald-trump-intensifies-trade-war-with-venezuela-and-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/prophecy\/donald-trump-intensifies-trade-war-with-venezuela-and-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump intensifies trade war with Venezuela and China"},"content":{"rendered":"

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COGwriter<\/a><\/p>\n

Last night, US President Donald Trump intensified his sanctions-related trade war against Venezuela:<\/p>\n

August 6, 2019<\/p>\n

Late Monday President Trump\u00a0signed an executive order\u00a0imposing a\u00a0full economic embargo<\/a> against Venezuela after a week ago the White House began signaling it could seek to “quarantine” and fully “blockade”<\/a> the Maduro regime if the president doesn’t immediately hand over power of his own accord.<\/p>\n

The executive order freezes all government assets in the United States and prohibits all transactions by any Venezuelan officials<\/strong>, in what constitutes the first major expansion of sanctions targeting a nation in the western hemisphere in over three decades.\u00a0 …<\/p>\n

\u201cAll property and interests in property of the Government of Venezuela that are in the United States … are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in,\u201d the executive order says. Americans are further prevented from doing business with Venezuela’s government or officials, effective immediately.<\/p>\n

Though it falls short of an outright trade embargo, it does dramatically escalate US efforts to force a Maduro exit in favor of US-backed opposition leader and self-proclaimed “interim president” Juan Guaido. https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2019-08-06\/trump-imposes-total-economic-embargo-venezuela<\/a><\/p>\n

In a letter to Congress outlining the action Monday night, Trump said, “I have determined that it is necessary to block the property of the Government of Venezuela in light of the continued usurpation of power by the illegitimate Nicolas Maduro regime, as well as the regime’s human rights abuses, arbitrary arrest and detention of Venezuelan citizens, curtailment of free press, and ongoing attempts to undermine Interim President Juan Guaido of Venezuela and the democratically-elected Venezuelan National Assembly.” …<\/div>\n
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US sanctions already in place on Venezuela’s national oil company<\/a> have helped to accelerate a collapse in the country’s oil output, sending ripples into the global energy market. “Maduro is not a Venezuelan patriot,” Trump said in a speech earlier this year. <\/a>“He is a Cuban puppet.”\u00a0 https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2019\/08\/05\/politics\/trump-economic-embargo-venezuela\/index.html<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

US trade sanctions with Venezuela are getting closer to an actual war, though presumably the actions by Donald Trump are to topple the current regime without the US military.<\/p>\n

Now in the past couple of days, Donald Trump’s trade approach to China has gotten a lot of attention. Notice, for example, the following:<\/p>\n

August 6, 2019<\/p>\n

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The US-China trade war has always been serious. Now it’s starting to get scary. China allowed its currency to drop sharply on Monday to the weakest level in more than a decade<\/a>. And China announced its companies have halted purchases of American agricultural goods. The Trump administration escalated tensions even further late Monday by taking the historic step of labeling China a currency manipulator. This comes after US President Donald Trump vowed last week to impose tariffs<\/a> for the first time on a wide swath of US consumer goods<\/a> from China. The trade conflict has reached a new level of seriousness that will be difficult to reverse. The risk is that the trade war is approaching the point at which it causes a severe economic slowdown or even a recession.The sense that the trade war has entered a new and more dangerous phase was confirmed when the US Treasury Department officially designated China as a currency manipulator. The news prompted further selling in global financial markets and raised speculation that China could take even more aggressive steps to devalue its currency. “It makes things worse,” said Ian Winer, advisory board member at Drexel Hamilton. “If people thought they kept the yuan from weakening to avoid being labeled a currency manipulator, that just went out the window.”<\/p>\n

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Trade war fatigue<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
Investors around the world are spooked. The Dow<\/a> plunged 767 points<\/a>, or 2.9%, on Monday. The Nasdaq<\/a> tumbled 3.5%, suffering its longest daily losing streak<\/a> since just before Trump’s 2016 election. The VIX (VIX<\/a><\/span>) volatility index spiked 40% to a seven-month high. https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2019\/08\/05\/economy\/trade-war-china-yuan\/index.html<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Today, perhaps at least partially because of yesterday’s stock market drop, Donald Trump sent out the following tweet:<\/p>\n

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Massive amounts of money from China and other parts of the world is pouring into the United States for reasons of safety, investment, and interest rates! We are in a very strong position. Companies are also coming to the U.S. in big numbers. A beautiful thing to watch!<\/p>\n

\u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n