Speaker 1: Big conversation about policy over China. Joining us now to
Speaker 1: discuss as the former World Bank President David moultpas, David,
Speaker 1: good morning. It's going to see as always good morning.
Speaker 1: Everybody has the spread between sound economic policy and the
Speaker 1: kind of campaign promises that get you elected. Has it
Speaker 1: ever been wider?
Speaker 2: Well, there's a huge fight over what we should do
Speaker 2: in which way should we should go. So that's a
Speaker 2: wide divide from the market standpoint. I think they take
Speaker 2: it with a grain salt and say we're going to
Speaker 2: figure out a way to get through this. So bottom
Speaker 2: line comes out to earnings. You know, we know that
Speaker 2: old game, how do you make money within a within
Speaker 2: a volatile environment? And I think the markets are showing
Speaker 2: they're able to do that. Plus they've got the FED
Speaker 2: put behind them. We have to realize what's going on.
Speaker 2: As markets get dicey, the FED steps in and so
Speaker 2: that changes really the value of everything and addresses what
Speaker 2: Lisa is talking about the on the bond yield.
Speaker 1: Before we get to the economic bank, drop, just want
Speaker 1: to spend a bit of time talking about specific policies.
Speaker 1: Can we talk about Nippon Steele. Nippon Steele to us
Speaker 1: is a great example of where we are right now
Speaker 1: in this country. It feels like there's a big divide
Speaker 1: between doing the right thing and doing the kind of
Speaker 1: thing that gets you elected. Nippon Steele, We're talking about
Speaker 1: a Japanese ally looking to take over a US company,
Speaker 1: and no one on the campaign trail wants to entertain
Speaker 1: it because they know if they do, they won't win
Speaker 1: the election in November. How problematic is that because that
Speaker 1: doesn't feel isolated, that feels like policy across the country.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's a excuse me, a change in the
Speaker 2: US direction of inviting foreign investment into the US. But
Speaker 2: it's a Biden administration really pushing that. I've been disappointed
Speaker 2: in that they're the ones with the hand on the
Speaker 2: steering wheel right now and moving away from inviting foreign investment.
Speaker 2: But let me change gears. There's a giant problem in
Speaker 2: the world with the playing field not being level, and
Speaker 2: so this is going to be a fight that goes
Speaker 2: into future years, and it's both parties trying to figure
Speaker 2: out where the US wants to be in that fight.
Speaker 2: So I think there's got to be a lot of
Speaker 2: work done on what do we want in terms of
Speaker 2: foreign investment? Into the US and into certain sectors and industries, David.
Speaker 3: When it comes to nip on steel, the Biden administration
Speaker 3: is taking this approach because they were pushed there, and
Speaker 3: they were pushed there by Trump, who in January of
Speaker 3: this year said I would block that deal. Then Biden
Speaker 3: Harris had to come out and basically get behind Trump
Speaker 3: because it's an election year. Don't you think that the
Speaker 3: former president is also an individual that, if given this choice,
Speaker 3: would block that decision.
Speaker 2: He's got views and he's a leader, and so what
Speaker 2: you're basically saying is Biden is following the leader and
Speaker 2: Vice President Harris is following the leader. That's not a
Speaker 2: good position for the US to be in if it's
Speaker 2: trying to lead in the world. That's one of the
Speaker 2: problems going on in the world is the vacuum of
Speaker 2: leadership from the US and the world is really to
Speaker 2: look at that in each of the forum, what are
Speaker 2: we going to do when the US is not really
Speaker 2: showing where it's going to go.
Speaker 3: I love to also get your thoughts on one policy
Speaker 3: proposal Trump continuously talks about, so Republicans, when Kamala Harris
Speaker 3: came out, was talking about price gouging across the board
Speaker 3: for groceries. Republicans were all saying, she's a communist. This
Speaker 3: is price controls. What's the difference between that and capping
Speaker 3: interest rates on credit cards, which was a Bernie Sanders
Speaker 3: policy proposal. Now Trump's saying they should do it too.
Speaker 2: I'm not in favor of all of of those, but
Speaker 2: price controls, as described by VP Harris, we're sweeping, and
Speaker 2: that's just not a good answer to what you're going
Speaker 2: to do about inflation. You've got to have some answer
Speaker 2: that talks about more production, and that's what President Trump did.
Speaker 2: I think that's the better approach. If VP Harris is
Speaker 2: asked about inflation the next time, I hope she doesn't
Speaker 2: talk about the middle class, and maybe she can just say, look,
Speaker 2: I'm going to try to have our economy, the private
Speaker 2: sector of the United States produce a lot more. That's
Speaker 2: the way to deal with inflation. And she's just not
Speaker 2: saying that. She's got the government pushed into the middle
Speaker 2: of every part of the US markets.
Speaker 4: You said that the US needs leadership and clear leadership
Speaker 4: in terms of what his positions are in certain places.
Speaker 4: I'm just wondering, do you have a clear sense of
Speaker 4: how to weigh national security versus letting fare and free
Speaker 4: trade and business. What that looks like under Trump, I
Speaker 4: don't know.
Speaker 2: Under Trump, I know that issue. So starting in the
Speaker 2: nineteen eighties, there was a big push in discussion of
Speaker 2: whether what was industrial policy, how far did you want
Speaker 2: to go? There was the beginnings of SCIFIUS, the Committee
Speaker 2: on Foreign Investment in the United States. I was at
Speaker 2: the Treasury Department at the time and substantially involved in that,
Speaker 2: and there was lots of discussion of what is our
Speaker 2: national security and within the US government, how do we
Speaker 2: balance the various interests. So the Treasury Department is the
Speaker 2: chair of the SCIPHIUS, and that keeps a balance between
Speaker 2: the Commerce Department, which wants to export and wants to
Speaker 2: not or tended to, and the Defense Department, which often
Speaker 2: wanted to block. And so that kind of debate has
Speaker 2: been with US for a long time. It needs to
Speaker 2: be really worked out among leaders within the US as
Speaker 2: the decisions come down. In the nineteen eighties, it was
Speaker 2: Fairchild Semiconductor, it was France's investment in the US, in
Speaker 2: Japan's investment in the US that were really causing political
Speaker 2: tensions in the US. So it's not such a new
Speaker 2: thing now, it's just got to be discussed really from
Speaker 2: this standpoint of what's our national interest, there's.
Speaker 4: Also a sense of knowing who our friends are. What
Speaker 4: does front shoring mean when we try to change up
Speaker 4: our supply chain. Donald Trump recently said that if Deer
Speaker 4: leaves the US and moves some of its production to Mexico.
Speaker 4: This he said, I'm just notifying John Dear right now.
Speaker 4: If you do that, we're putting a two hundred percent
Speaker 4: tariff on everything that you want to sell into the
Speaker 4: United States. Do you have a clear sense of who
Speaker 4: our friends are under Donald Trump versus under Kamala Harris.
Speaker 2: Well, we know that to Trump, it's going to be
Speaker 2: American workers. So and he's going to use more tools
Speaker 2: and tools more strongly stated than what the Biden Harris
Speaker 2: administration has been doing. So that's the big challenge of
Speaker 2: how do you really enter a world negotiation where the
Speaker 2: trading system is broken, the foreign investment system is really
Speaker 2: broken because in part because China is not following the
Speaker 2: rules and is the intellectual property problem is still with us.
Speaker 2: And so we see in each of these areas there's
Speaker 2: got to be a balancing. I'm back to the same thing.
Speaker 2: What's the nation interest and how do we do the
Speaker 2: best job for workers in the US.
Speaker 3: Well, well LEASA is talking about is Mexico. So is
Speaker 3: Trump basically trying to ditch the USNCA that he negotiated
Speaker 3: under his first term.
Speaker 2: I know what he negotiated was a very strong agreement.
Speaker 2: It's not being fully implemented and Mexico has walked away
Speaker 2: from some of the principles of that. So as you
Speaker 2: look at it, these are living, breathing documents. You get
Speaker 2: the best negotiation you can that was twenty eighteen, and
Speaker 2: then try, but you try to get Mexico to stay
Speaker 2: on course. But think how much has changed in Mexico
Speaker 2: in these last six years of a government that really
Speaker 2: was anti business. Was the first act of AMLO, the
Speaker 2: current or just departed Mexican President Lopez Obrador, was to
Speaker 2: stop the airport that was being constructed. They needed that
Speaker 2: airport because of the expansion going on in Mexico, but
Speaker 2: he said, I don't like those contracts, and it just
Speaker 2: ended it. So we've got a partner to the south
Speaker 2: within the us MCA that's gotten major problems. So there
Speaker 2: has to be real discussion in the US of how
Speaker 2: do we interact with Mexico when they've been leaning towards China.
Speaker 1: It's a big to do list, David Mauntpas, We've got
Speaker 1: a lot to talk about. Hopefully we talked before the
Speaker 1: election once again in the next month or so. Thanks you,
Speaker 1: so good to see everybody. Good to see you, Sir
Speaker 1: David mauntpass there. The former World Bank President