Trump Slams EU Over $5 Billion Fine on Google (reuters.com)

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday criticized the European Union and said the bloc was taking advantage of the United States, pointing to the record $5 billion fine European antitrust regulators imposed on Google. From a report: European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is scheduled to meet with Trump at the White House next Wednesday to discuss trade and other issues. "I told you so! The European Union just slapped a Five Billion Dollar fine on one of our great companies, Google. They truly have taken advantage of the U.S., but not for long!" Trump said in a post on Twitter .

Comments

Re:not for long

[apoc.famine]

If you would bother to learn what you're talking about instead of just repeating incorrect political talking points, you'd seem much more intelligent.

Tariffs are only a fraction of the issue. If you're not a moron, you also look at the amount spent subsidizing the product in each country, and you look at the total of both goods and services exchanged between the two countries, and weight those including the tariffs. That's actually fair accounting, and not cherry-picking a number to prove your point.

If one country can make one product cheaper, it doesn't make sense to try to have balanced trade with them. It's in our best interest to buy that product or service at a lower dollar amount, and spend the resources we'd have normally spent making it on something we can do more efficiently. Making everything cost more and run less efficiently just to get a trade deficit number which will make Trump feel like a winner is stupid. This is why pretty much every serious economist is against what Trump is doing.