Scott Bessent on Fox: "Maybe they'll call me one day."

The US has been calling on China for weeks to come to the negotiating table and talk about trade tariffs.

But from China, there's only silence.

"The worst thing you can do in a deal is seem desperate," Trump writes in his book "The Art of the Deal."

However, I can't shake the impression that Trump & co are becoming quite desperate. They clearly miscalculated.

Trump even promised to be "very friendly" to China.

And then, finally, a response came from China in the form of... a video.

A video with a very clear message.

The Chinese will not kneel before the US.

"Bowing to a bully is like drinking poison to quench thirst, it only exacerbates the crisis."

"The US once accused Japan of dumping semiconductors and destroyed companies like Toshiba. Later, they forced Japan to sign the Plaza Accord, which caused decades of weak economic growth."

That, of course, is the core of the problem for Trump: the Yuan is too cheap, giving China an unfair advantage over the US.

Trump wants to force China (and others) into a Mar-a-Lago Accord.

But China clearly wants nothing to do with it. They will not kneel, bow, or bend. They know they have little to gain from negotiations.

What China seems to be doing here is smoking out the US.

The Chinese are betting that the US needs China more than China needs the US. Moreover, time is on their side.

Meanwhile, hardly any Chinese containers are entering the US, making empty store shelves seem like a matter of time.

Empty store shelves and a rapidly spinning money printer (coming soon?) are the ideal cocktail for sky-high inflation. It's also the cocktail that was served during Covid.

And yes, it will be felt in China too, but that's a different order of magnitude: exports to the US now only account for 2% of their GDP. That can be absorbed.

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