Patrick Smith
The Fiscal Times
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Past articles by Patrick:
Why Trump’s NAFTA Strategy Is a Surefire Failure
Long-awaited talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement began in Washington Wednesday. And it doesn’t look good for President Trump and Robert Lighthizer, his special trade representative and leader of the U.S. delegation facing Mexican and Canadian officials. → Read More
Why the Escalating Threats Between Trump and Kim Won’t End in War
The supercharged threats volleyed between President Trump and Kim Jong Un this week bring us closer to war with → Read More
Putting the Squeeze on China Could Turn Into a Trade Disaster for Trump
Get set for the Trump administration’s big new push on China. The White House wants to turn tough on trade problems while putting more pressure on Beijing to force North Korea away from its nuclear and missile programs. → Read More
Trump Has Just Raised the Stakes With Moscow and Tehran in Three Risky Moves
President Trump made three big moves on Syria and Iran this week. They crisscross and contradict one another, but the administration’s game plan in the Middle East just got a lot clearer. → Read More
Trump’s Non-Existent Foreign Policy Is Costing the US Both Money and Influence
The Trump administration has no coherent foreign policy, and the U.S. → Read More
Trump’s in a Corner With China. Here’s How He Can Get Out
While Trump still boasts of his good personal relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he still does not have a China policy. Despite his grand promises to remake Sino–U.S. ties when he was elected, he has exactly zero to show for them six months into his presidency. → Read More
A Trillion Dollar Plan to Rebuild the World Makes China the New Global Leader
While most of the world wonders nervously what’s next from the Trump White House, the confident China President Xi Jinping is shifting his bid for global leadership into a full-court press. → Read More
As Trump Abdicates Global Leadership, Europe Moves to Fill the Vacuum
Donald Trump has Europe quaking. His performances at the NATO and G–7 summits last week have left the Continent more uncertain of its trans–Atlantic ties than at any time since the early postwar years. → Read More
Are China’s Hidden Liabilities Behind Moody’s Ratings Downgrade?
Concerns about China’s “massive debt burden” and slowing economy are causing new concerns after Moody’s Investor Services sounded a full-blown alarm this week downgrading China’s credit rating on sovereign debt from Aa3 to A1. → Read More
Trump the Diplomat? Will He Charm or Harm US Relations?
Whoever put together President Trump’s first foreign tour has a good grasp of the grand gesture. When he departs Friday, his main stops are Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the Vatican, making Trump the first U.S. leader to visit the seats of the three great religions, one after another on the same trip. But grand themes are sometimes too grand. And that’s the trouble with the Artful Dealmaker’s… → Read More
Trump Does Have Real Connections to Russia—and Here’s Why
When President Trump handed foreign policy over to his generals a few weeks ago, his plans for a new détente with Russia were dead in the water, and Secretary of State Tillerson was more or less out of the picture. → Read More
From Xi to Duterte: Why Trump Holds His Enemies Closer
President Trump is suddenly talking to a lot of the world’s “strongmen”—two in the past week—and proposing to talk to others. Should he be? → Read More
Has Erdoğan Turned Turkey From an Ally Into an Enemy?
When the heedless Recip Tayyip Erdoğan ordered Turkish jets to → Read More
With Iran in His Crosshairs, Trump Has One Risky Chip to Play
Looks like Iran is next on the list of foreign-policy bad guys Team Trump has in its crosshairs. In an assertive statement Wednesday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson didn’t invoke George W. Bush’s “axis of evil,” but he may as well have. Substitute Syria for Iraq and you’ve got the Trump administration’s version of Bush’s threesome. → Read More
Trump’s ‘Tough Guy’ Foreign Policy Falls Flat with Russia and China
Now that Russia and China have jumped to the top of Donald Trump’s foreign policy agen → Read More
Trump Acts on Obama’s 'Red Line' by Launching Missiles at Syrian Targets
A week ago, administration officials said that ousting Syrian President Bashar al–Assa → Read More
Trump’s Climate Fail: Another Loss for American Leadership
President Trump put more than progress on climate change in jeopardy when he reversed the previous administration’s clean-energy policies on Tuesday. With a signature on an executive order, he put America’s global leadership more seriously at risk than at any time in the last seventy years. → Read More
Trump’s Next Challenge: Russia Returns to Afghanistan
America’s 16-years in Afghanistan has so far resulted in 2,216 dead soldiers, 20,049 c → Read More
Tillerson’s Asia Trip Could Signal the End US Soft Diplomacy
Tillerson’s tour is an opening round in an extended process. But early signals indicate that Washington risks serious damage to important relationships across the Pacific—notably with China and South Korea—if it remains as inflexible as it appears. → Read More
If France Elects Le Pen, Another Country Will Have Been Scared Stupid
The French, along with the rest of Europe, were on the edges of their seats before the → Read More