The John Batchelor Show

Tuesday 2 October 2018

Air Date: 
October 02, 2018

Map: The Maeotis lake (now the Sea of Azov) draining in to the Euxine Sea (the Black Sea).  
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Larry Kudlow, Director of the National Economic Council under US Pres Donald Trump.
 
Hour One
Tuesday 2 October 2018/ Hour 1, Block A:   Elizabeth Peek, Fox News, in re:
Tuesday 2 October 2018/ Hour 1, Block B:   Elizabeth Peek, Fox News, in re:
Tuesday 2 October 2018/ Hour 1, Block C:   Spectacular news of the USMCA. “Trade Coalition of the Willing”— renewed trade relations with Europe and Japan; we signed a tripartite agreement at the UN meetings last week against all the Chinese missteps of illegal protections, tech transfers, tariffs and non-tariff barriers, IP theft; first time such a document has been signed. The problem is China, the center of the broken trading system. Canadian PM Trudeau in a call with Pres Trump spoke on how to deal with unfair trading practices outside of North America.  I hope, I really hope, China gets the message.
 
In the EU, 28 countries;  plus Canada the US and Mexico and Japan— 32 democracies­— all explaining the matter to China.  China has been brutal. Other presidents have mentioned this but have always backed off. Pres Trump has the backbone. The allies – the  32 –are making our trade deal and our statement. We're willing to talk with China in any [reasonable ] way.
JB: This is piracy! Everyone going to China is watched. Xi Jinping’s tyranny. A rogue nation that has to comply with international limits.  The market reforms launched by Deng Xiaoping were stopped under Pres Xi, regrettably.
 
American companies that want to open in China are forbidden ownership – the US firm is always a minority stakeholder. China commands Americans to lay down their blueprints on the desk. They now permit tiny financial companies to have majority ownership—but they aren't granted a license.  Even Google is running up against the same problem. The ownership problem is the core of the issue: the state wants to own everything,.
Does China understand that they create a disruption of our supply chains and that that constitutes a threat to peace?  Absolutely yes, including Macron, Abe, and all the major leadership. This has opened the door to new and constructive negotiations among the allies. Pres Trump’s approach seems to be working. The US supply chains are now all taken care of.
Tuesday 2 October 2018/ Hour 1, Block D:   Bill Whalen
 
Hour Two
Tuesday 2 October 2018/ Hour 2, Block A:  Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; American Committee for East-West Accord; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin;  in re:  
Tuesday 2 October 2018/ Hour 2, Block B:  Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; American Committee for East-West Accord; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin;  in re: 
Tuesday 2 October 2018/ Hour 2, Block C:  Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; American Committee for East-West Accord; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin;  in re: 
Tuesday 2 October 2018/ Hour 2, Block D:  Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; American Committee for East-West Accord; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin; in re: 
 
Hour Three
Tuesday 2 October 2018/ Hour 3, Block A:  Michael Farren,  Mercatus Center, in re:
Amazon will raise its minimum wage to $15/hr and will campaign for that to become a national standard.  “Raising rivals’s costs” is great for low-wage workers; but the fact that Amazon will lobby for that to be a federal wage causes problems for its rivals. It can build automation – robots – into production, which neither Walmart nor mom and pop businesses can do.  “The Baptists and bootleggers’s policy” – it benefits both the morally stanch and the bootleggers.   . . .  This $15 is an olive branch to buy some social goodwill; Amazon fears government regulation more than anything else.  . . . Dearth of workers; Walmart is even willing to pay college tuition to workers. We’re in a Goldilocks economic phase.   . . . Walmart trying to catch up with Amazon with its  own online sales. Good to have all these competitors.
Tuesday 2 October 2018/ Hour 3, Block B:   Charlie Pellegrino,  , in re:
Tuesday 2 October 2018/ Hour 3, Block C:   Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re:
Tuesday 2 October 2018/ Hour 3, Block D:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re:
 
 
Hour Four
Tuesday 2 October 2018/ Hour 4, Block A:  The Great and Holy War: How World War I Became a Religious Crusade, by Philip Jenkins
Tuesday 2 October 2018/ Hour 4, Block B:  The Great and Holy War: How World War I Became a Religious Crusade, by Philip Jenkins
Tuesday 2 October 2018/ Hour 4, Block C:  Mary Anastasia O’Grady, WSJ editorial board, in re:  Colombia
Tuesday 2 October 2018/ Hour 4, Block D:  Mary Anastasia O’Grady, WSJ editorial board, in re:  Colombia