Quote from: rehydrogenated on April 20, 2018, 01:40:51 AM

To me this just seems like a political opportunity for the greedy people in power in both countries to protect their crony industries. Also, many of the companies on both sides, like steel manufacturing, seem to be owned by the same groups. It doesn't matter whether they are in China or the US. So they managed to increase steel prices (and profits!) in both countries at the expense of everyone else. And they probably give the politicians a nice vacation on a yacht and a nice donation or whatever. Protectionism is always this way. Just because you call it a "trade war" doesn't mean countries haven't been doing this exact same thing since the dawn of civilization.

That's a very good point, in a loose sense it could be looked at as a high level intelligent version of collusion. It almost reminds me of house of cards in a way. Someone always wants something and you can always use that in a way to manipulate them so both of you are winners.