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If you're an H vac technician and a call comes in, Grainger knows that you need a partner that helps you find the right product fast and hassle free. And you know that when the first problem of the day is a clanking blower motor, there's no need to break a sweat. With Grainger's easy to use website and product details, you're confident you'll soon have everything humming right along. Call 1-800-GRAINGER clickgrainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. Sir, this is an executive order. Realigning. People have wanted to do this for years. On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order. Thank you, sir. Renaming North America's tallest peak, Mount Denali, to its former name, Mount McKinley. In honor of the nation's 25th president, William McKinley, we will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs. Trump has had something of a love affair with McKinley for years. William McKinley. William McKinley. William McKinler. Because they both shared a passion for tariffs, this is the man that wanted tariffs. He spoke beautifully of tariffs. He understood the crucial importance of tariffs. McKinley called himself a tariff man, spearheading a roughly 50% tariff, later earning the nickname the Napoleon of protection. He raised massive amounts of money. He made our country very rich. According to Trump, McKinley's tariffs spawned a golden age in the late 1800s. We had so much money, we didn't know what the hell to do with it, making America the wealthiest it has ever been before or since. We were so rich because we were taxing other people for coming in and taking our jobs. There are a few gaping holes in Trump's version of history. America is much richer today by every measure than it was then. And McKinley's big tariff was actually a big disaster, hiking up prices and leading Republicans to a massive defeat in the midterm election. The 1890s Gilded Age was no gold age for most Americans, with a recession so deep it is better described as a depression and staggering inequality. He was very strong on protecting our assets, protecting our country. What's more, McKinley would eventually change his tune on tariffs, recognizing the reality that America's bustling manufacturing would was outgrowing its market at home. Commercial wars are unprofitable, the former tariff man declared. God and man have linked the nations together. Now President Trump is tearing apart those bonds. My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day. On April 2, 2025, I will sign a historic executive order instituting reciprocal tariff. A Day he called Liberation Day. They do it to us and we do it to them. Trump launched a full scale attack on eight decades of American led open trade. Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country that had created a world economy that, while far from perfect, had produced unprecedented peace and prosperity. We will pry open foreign markets. He placed large tariffs on America's closest, closest allies. It's our declaration of economic independence. Tariffs are now in place against more than 100 countries, including impoverished African states like Lesotho and on two uninhabited territories near Antarctica. The United States now has its largest tariffs since the early 1930s, likely raising prices on cars and groceries costing the average household thousands of dollars per year. It's a chaotic experiment with all of our wallets, inspired by economic policies from the 1800s. Tariff. It's more beautiful than love. How did we get here? And where are we going to understand, we need to go back and examine the history behind Trump's big, beautiful tariffs. Welcome to a special hour on tariffs. I'm Fareed Zakaria. In theory, tariffs sound like a great idea. They drive up the price of foreign goods to help businesses at home in America, and they feel like a way to level the playing field with other countries. But the problem with tariffs is that they tend to hurt a lot more people in America than they help. For example, the steel industry got a big Trump tariff on foreign steel in his first term. But studies show that for every job in the steel industry that the tariff helped, there were 75 jobs in other industries that were lost because American businesses were paying more for foreign steel. The current Trump tariffs are predicted by almost all economists to drive down economic growth and increase costs to consumers. But perhaps the worst part about Trump's big, beautiful tariffs is that they are a cruel, false promise to bring back manufacturing jobs to America that will never return. I'm going to impose a tariff on the outside world. They're going to have to pay tariffs like they never had to even think about before. We're going to make our country so strong and so rich. At the heart of Trump's tariff policy is one overarching goal. The basic material upon which 20th century man has built his foundations. The great American comeback of manufacturing. Making good steel isn't easy. It takes the best materials, the best machinery, the best men. As I've said before, Trump believes the key to making America great again is to revive the factories and foundries across the nation. It begins with an ever growing investment in factories. The idea that America should make more stuff is a seductive one. From 20 different fabricating plants, they come. We all think of a rich and powerful country as one with factories belching smoke, churning out goods and selling them to the world. The beating heart of a modern nation. But that is an image of the past, not the future. Remember Allentown, the hit song by Billy Joel? Well, we're living here in Allentown and they're closing all the factoriestown. It's about the sad decline of an American manufacturing powerhouse. The kind of steel town that once led the nation and the world. The sky is lit by the hungry furnaces of little steel. That song came out in 1982, over 40 years ago in what Trump seems to recall as the good old days. The stacks are cooling, the steel furnaces have been turned off. The trucks are rolling out empty. America has been mourning the loss of manufacturing jobs for many decades now. In 1973, manufacturing jobs made up about 25% of the American workforce. Today, they make up around 8%. In fact, since Allentown, manufacturing jobs have stopped steadily declined in almost all rich countries, not just America. So what kind of jobs are the jobs of today? They're overwhelmingly in the service sector in the world's richest nations, including the U.S. where more than 80% of jobs are in services. Think entertainment, Silicon Valley, software, 440, 450 on 800, going on finance and other less tangible things than steel. Those are the industries of today, which America dominates, running a trade surplus with the rest of the world. The real story of the last few decades, you've Got mail. Is that the US has prospered far more than other advanced economies. Apple could not churn out small computers fast enough to satisfy demand because it leaned into the industries and jobs of the future. Today, the average American's income is almost 50% higher than a person in Germany, France or Japan. And many of these countries, like Japan, tried to protect their economies through government support. Others, like France, protected their workers. The once robust Japanese economy is now short of capital. Japan's gross domestic product shrank. None of it worked. Many, many things are vital to our living. A big one is steel. More worrying, in a search to get back the jobs of the past, we might put in jeopardy the jobs of the future. Sweeping layoffs across several agencies. The cuts may be deep and widespread. Trump is slashing funding for science and technology research, closing down labs. Foreign born employment in the United states is down by 1 point million and making life inhospitable for brainy immigrants who have powered much of the high tech economy in America. China is turbocharging its bid to become a tech superpower dubbed China's Google, the world's largest and fastest growing. This comes at a dangerous moment when we are losing the high tech race. You see from 2003 to 2007, the US outpaced China in 60 of 64 frontier technologies. But from 2019 to 2023, China beat the US in 57 out of 64 pivotal technologies. A stunning reversal. The president today putting Apple on notice. When they build their plant here, there's no tarif. While Trump's tariffs try to bring back iPhone factories and other low level manufacturing jobs to American shores, the best jobs of the future may be much more likely to end up in China. Up next, the last time the US Raised tariffs sky high, they made the Great Depression even worse. The infamous Smoot Hawley Tariff act coming up. Honey, this is it. When you can't miss the last shot and neither can he. Don't take slow. For an answer, switch to Optimum Internet. Reliable fiber powered Internet starting at just $40 a month. Call 866-9-APUMENT or visit optimum.com today. What went through your head on the last shot? It all happened so fast. Optimum don't take slow for an answer, turn to ply. See optimum.com for details. This year, CNN podcasts produce more than 170,000 minutes of content covering breaking news. Investig everything in between from the headlines that start your day with the five things you need to know. Hey everyone, it's Audie to conversations that change how we see the world. ChatGPT says the word delve at way higher rates than usual. What etymologist was like. Let's figure that out with deep investigations that dig beneath the headlines. What happened to James Gibson was more than violence at the hands of police and human experiences that remind us of what matters most. Hey, I'm Anderson Cooper. On my podcast all there is, we explore grief and loss in all its complexities. Through carpool, pickup lines, airport waits, morning commutes or evening walks, you chose to spend your time with us. And for that, we're grateful. So from all of us at CNN Podcasts, here's to another year of stories that matter. Thank you for listening. The President of the United States. April 2025. America's so called liberation Day. As President Trump unveiled new tariffs on countries spanning the globe, jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country. He wanted to return America to its glory days. We're going to produce the cars and ships, chips, airplanes that we need right here in America. We make steel. We make steel and talk steel. Trump was tapping into a powerful nostalgia for an economy that used to make things and for the bountiful middle class manufacturing jobs that came with it. This will be indeed the golden age of America. It's an understandable desire to go back to a past that had shaped this country's economy and character. A century ago, America had a longing for another lost era. It led to massive tariffs designed to help one industry. Depression, fear and failure stalked the nation, which then damaged the entire economy. This is the story of the Smoot Hawley Tariff Act, a law that carries dire warnings for America today. They were called the roaring twenties for a reason. 100 years ago, America was booming. Revolutionary technology had captured the American imagination. This is the part that is called the television camera. American movies were shaping a new mass culture. Henry Ford had perfected the assembly line, making his signature car affordable to the average American. The Model T put the nation on wheels. The country was mass producing planes, radios and cars to sell around the world. Money is pouring in. But while the American economy was booming, the American way of life was in peril. The farm had been the heart and soul of the country since its founding. Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God. Thomas Jefferson had written. Washington. Adams. Jefferson, indeed. Many of the founding fathers had been farmers. But by the early 20th century, farming was in decline. Low food prices and high debt forced nearly one in five farms to foreclose. Between 1926 and 1929, Republicans proposed a solution, a tariff to help farmers. There is this notion that you can restore something through a tariff almost, that you can turn back the clock. Shepherding the law through Congress were Senator Reed Smooth and Congressman Willis Hawley, both steadfast proponents of high tariffs. But a bill that began as a way to help farmers turned into a lobbying free for all, with industry after industry angling for its its own protective tariff to drive up the prices of their foreign competitors. It's not just the farmers who are lobbying Congress. Manufacturing industries get into the act. Mining companies get into the act. But you also had very small producers, goldfish producers in Ohio, who came and said, we're signed up for a higher tariff, too. Congress happily obliged, and its members began to trade votes in backroom deals. The steel states would say, look, look, if you vote for our steel tariff, we'll vote for your sugar tariff. And so you got this dynamic where tariffs were just being ratcheted up without any consideration about who's going to pay this. Will the nation overall be helped or hurt by this tariff before long the new tariffs were set to raise taxes on thousands of imported items across the country. Experts of all stripes condemned the bill. The business world urged President Herbert Hoover to reject the tariffs. Henry Ford told the president the bill was an economic stupidity. The most stunning rebuke appeared on the front page of the New York Times. A letter signed by over 1,000 economists calling on the president to veto the tariff bill and warning of the devastation if he did not. They specifically point to the threat of retaliation, of global retaliation. Republicans scoffed at the ivory tower elites. When asked what he thought of the economist's warning, Congressman Hawley said, my opinion of it cannot be printed. President Hoover ignored the economists ignored Henry Ford ignored even his own secretary of state and signed the Smoot Hawley bill into law on June 17, 1930. It couldn't have come at a worse time. It was the beginning of the worst calamity the United States economy had ever known. The country was in the early months of the Great Depression. Wall street had crashed about one year earlier. $30 billion in stock value vanished. Unemployment, only 3% in 1929, was about to skyrocket to nearly 25%. Millions of able and willing Americans bewildered and jobless. And now, as America retreated behind a high tariff wall, its angry allies retaliated. Just as economists had predicted. In just three years, US all exports were nearly cut in half. Yet even as exports collapsed and the economy cratered, many Republicans stood by their tariffs. The sponsors of the Smoot Hawley bill hold on to the very end. They're like, no, no, no, this is going to work. This is going to work. But the American people had enough. In 1932, President Hoover, Senator Smoot, and Congressman Hawley were all voted out of office. I. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Franklin Roosevelt catapults himself into the White House not simply by saying the American people are suffering, but also by articulating the policies of the Republican party in the United States are responsible for your suffering. After that, Congress got out of the tariff business altogether. The hope was that by putting it in the hands of the presidency, ironically, you would insulate it from politics. And of course, now the tariff has very much become this extraordinarily political tool. While the president touts tariffs today tariffs are the greatest thing ever invented and raises them to levels not seen since the 1930s. He seems not to care about the lessons of smoot hauling. While the bill did not start the Great Depression, many economists say it made it much worse. What's more, the tariffs did nothing to help farmers. The reason they were enacted in the first place, farming jobs kept disappearing in America, going from 40% of all jobs in 1900 to just over 1% today. So the idea that we're going to make America great again by going back to this kind of isolationist, non trade moment, that's not realistic. Coming up, the word tariff, I love it. I think it's beautiful of them. How did President Trump become so obsessed with tariffs in the first place? The answer comes from the 1980s, As President Trump has been hurling America's economy into turmoil with his big, beautiful tariffs. You may have asked yourself a question. When did he first fall in love with tariffs? Well, Trump's obsession with protectionism is a tale that goes back decades. They are beating the hell out of this country. They have taken tremendous advantage of the United States, folks. They are systematically ripping off this country. You'd be forgiven for thinking that was an anti China tirade from Donald Trump on the 2024 campaign trail. Or maybe the 2016 campaign trail. Not quite. These are the words of a much younger Trump in the 1980s, then, laser focused on Japan. Japan's economy appears to be in the best shape of any Western industrialized economy. So who's looking out for number one? Toyota. Toyota. Sony. Panasonic, the smallest AM FM radio. In the 80s, Japanese technology and culture were taking America by storm. Game Boy only from Nintendo. Japan in the 1980s is a country in ascent. Japanese exports from Walkman to cars flooded into America. The assembly lines are working overtime to meet the demand. Japanese products were some of what we think of as the signature products of the 1980s. In July 1980, fully 25% of US auto sales were Japanese imports. Globally, people are saying Japanese cars are better. Americans are saying that Japanese cars are better and more innovative. Japan had become the world's second largest economy, and the Japanese were ready to spend. Within the decade, Japanese investors committed nearly $300 billion to buy up iconic American real estate from California to New York. They're buying up US Assets. They're buying in the US Stock market. They're buying US land, some buying up some US Companies. Sony acquired CBS Records and Columbia Pictures. Mitsubishi bought Rockefeller Center. It looked like the future belonged to Japan. And many felt that its success represented a dire threat to America. You have a lot of fear and anger about the rise of Japanese imports in this era. American policymakers describe Japan as predatory. Japan bashing became rampant. We fought the Japanese three years and now we turn around feeding them and buying their cars. Ain't that right? The early 1980s were a time period of recession, unemployment was over 10% and it became very easy for many people to look to Japan and the rise of Japanese imports as the cause of America's economic problems. In Detroit, people smashed Japanese cars, angry at their impact on America's own auto industry. The media warned of the japanning of America and of an economic Pearl Harbor. Hollywood movies fed American fears. Music and movies are all America is good for, right? We make the machines, we build the future. We want peace. Americans were beginning to experience globalization and watching other nations rise in wealth and status. And it made them anxious, even outraged. A feeling that has not gone away. Look at the holes in these beams and the man who really tapped into America's fear and loathing of the Japanese at the time was Donald Trump. As with many things, it was personal for the Donald. People who worked with Trump at the time have gone on record as saying that Trump did not like dealing with with the Japanese. Japanese are major players in America with huge investments in the US as he watched the Japanese buy chunks of his city and receive a seemingly endless stream of praise for their business acumen, Trump got jealous. To add insult to injury, he needed their money. He courted Japanese investors for Trump Tower and even visited Tokyo to market properties like Trump Palace. Trump is very, very angry and he feels slighted and he feels resentful about the success of Japan because he argues that Japanese success has come at the expense of the United States. He lashed out on the national stage. In September 1987, Trump spent almost $100,000 on full page ad in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe. Its message, a call now familiar to us all to tax wealthy nations, not America. And an accusation Japan and other nations have been taking advantage of the United States. He says that Japan has been giving us a bad deal, that they have been stealing from us, that they owe us. The timing was no coincidence. Trump's very first book, the Art of the Deal was set to hit shelves within weeks. Republican party consultant Roger Stone had devised a novel publicity plan for the New York businessman tease a presidential run in the 1988 election. While talking about the book, Trump didn't even need to to enter the race. Just flirting with the idea publicly would be good for the book and for his brand. It was this sort of mix of developing his political Persona, but also a very elaborate book tour. Seeking to sell his book and sell himself as this unique, clear headed, ruthless deal maker, Stone persuaded Trump to visit New Hampshire in advance of the first presidential primaries. The country is at an awful big disadvantage on national talk shows hosts asked Trump about his political ambitions. I know people have talked to you about whether or not you want to run. Would you? Would you ever? On that subject, Trump was cagey. I would never want to rule it out totally. But one topic Trump did not shy away from was Japan. If you ever go to Japan right now and try to sell something, forget about it, Oprah. Just forget about it. They come over here, they sell their car. They're VCRs. They knock the hell out of our companies. The Art of the Deal shot to number one on the New York Times best seller list. And Trump went to the 1988 Republican convention. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. As an eager attendee, looking back, it was a pivotal moment. He is deeply enamored with the pomp and the circumstance of party politics. This is entertainment. It's power, it's influence. As he contemplated a future run for the White House, Trump found his core political philosophy taking shape. In 1989, he criticized Japan and other countries on ABC's Nightline, telling Diane Sawyer, america is being ripped off. We have tariff. His notion that a tariff is a powerful tool that one can use to bend other countries to your will. I think that vision has been pretty consistent since the 1980s. 1989 turned out to be the year Japan peaked. The Japanese economy headed toward recession. Its economic bubble burst, plunging the country into decades of slow growth. But as China has risen to wealth and power, if you look at Japan, if you look at China, where we lose $100 billion a year with China, Donald Trump has simply replaced one foreign foil with another. We can't continue to allow China to rape our country. And that's what they're doing. Thank you very much, everyone. And to battle against China in China, Trump says, give me the power to dole out tariffs and bounties. Up next, it's our declaration of economic independence. How Trump's new protectionism could transform America's economy into one where politics matters more than economics. One woman, a lethal lunch. Three people dead. A premeditated murder or horrible accident. The new CNN original series, Death the Mushroom Murders, now streaming exclusively on the CNN app. Go to CNN.com watch to subscribe or log in with your TV provider. You believe we fixed up over 100 houses in Laurel. Now Ben and Aaron take on their most ambitious transformations yet. This is something different. This is the biggest challenge we've ever had. $400,000 to do it all. More on the line. Anytime we start a new house, we don't know how it's going to go. The bat just flew through here. More to love. Oh my gosh. Just another day of making our favorite small town better. Hometown season premiered January 4th at 8 on HGTV. Billionaire investor Ken Griffin was a Republican mega donor in the 2024 election, donating $100 million to help secure a GOP victory. Thank you. I will not let you down. America's future will be bigger, better, bolder, stronger than it has ever been before. I think from a policy perspective, this was the best outcome from America. So let's now talk about some of the those policy issues. Perhaps the biggest one being this question mark that nobody knows the real answer to, which revolves around tariffs because they have a huge, huge impact on the economy. You're missing the big picture. It's not even close to the biggest issue. Bring it. The biggest. Bring it in the United States is that America's open for business again. This is Liberation Day. But in the months that followed, Griffen was surprised and appalled. This is big stuff. By Trump's big, beautiful tariffs. Like many other corporate moguls, Griffin said the tariffs could slam consumers and tarnish the dollar. But perhaps his scariest warning was Trump's tariffs have unleashed an era of crony capitalism. I thought it would play out out over the course of years, he said. It's terrifying to watch this play out over the course of weeks. Crony capitalism happens when the winners and losers in an economy are not chosen by the market, but by politicians. It's a term that originated to describe the regime of the Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos. He devastated his nation's economy while reveling in in personal luxury and extravagance. You might remember his wife Imelda's famous affinity for shoes. Marcos ran the nation's economy like a mob boss, doling out entire industries to his friends while punishing his enemies with the power of his government. Marcos plundered the national economy and left the people nearly bankrupt. Along the way, he pocketed a King's right ransom. $10 billion by one estimate. I love tariffs. Beautiful tariffs. The word tariff to me is the most beautiful word in the entire dictionary. With tariffs, President Trump can wield enormous power over America's economy, bringing some businesses to their knees while empowering other companies with valuable exemptions. And if you don't think this kind of corrupt favoritism can happen in modern day America, it already did. During Trump's first term, we will have a 25% tariff on foreign steel. In 2018 and 2019. President Trump slapped big tariffs on steel, aluminum and on China. And a tariff exemption process was created for American companies that could show that they would be greatly harmed by the tariffs. An exemption could mean the difference between survival and extinction for a business. And so a great lobbying boom began. The exemptions were where the action was. In the first term, trade related lobbying spiked over 50%, hitting an all time record. They petition for exemptions. They petitioned for special treatment. They petitioned to be part of the inner circle. Around half a million exemption requests were filed, overwhelming understaffed government agencies. The government's decisions were often arbitrary and baffling, favoring Bibles over textbooks and children's car seats over cribs. As the New York Times reported, this is not a moment where the merits of the case in terms of economic growth have as much currency as we'd like to hope that they do. There was a lot of favoritism involved. Tim Cook of Apple wooed Trump directly. It takes government, private sector and education and got exemptions for iPhones and watches. All too often, the game of tariff exemption roulette came down to politics. A study of nearly 7,000 exemption requests found that companies that made political donations to Republicans had twice as much success as companies donating to Democrats. The tariff exemption process allowed the government to reward its political friends and punish its enemies, the study said. In what it called a very effective spoil system. One of the authors told CNN there was clear evidence of corruption. You have to petition the supreme ruler for access and for exemptions. When one of President Trump's companies was applying for trademarks in Argentina, he implemented tariffs on the country and then withdrew them. And then the trademarks were approved. American fireworks companies faced big tariffs. But after two companies donated roughly $750,000 worth of their services to Trump's 2019 Independence Day extravaganza, Trump delayed the tariffs. A tariff exemption was even granted to the American subsidiary of a sanctioned Russian company with ties to Vladimir Putin until the decision was reversed after an outcry. The Trump administration, Trump's company and the fireworks companies denied that there was any quid pro quo with the tariffs. Tariffs and protectionism have long been a part of the autocrats playbook. A recent book documents the decades long unholy trinity between authoritarians, crony capitalism and protectionism. Ferdinand Marcos drew on that formula to build his autocracy. So did the PRI and men, Juan Peron in Argentina and Francisco Franco in fascist Spain. These days, it's a trend that's become the new normal all over the world, even in America, the authors of the book warn. He goes. I'm able to do it, there'll be a little disturbance. We're okay with that. Trump 2.0 appears to be an even bigger gold rush for favoritism than Trump's first term. Spending on trade lobbying spiked nearly 300% in the first few months of 2025 compared to 2024. There was no formal application process for tariff exemptions. The decisions were being made behind closed doors. And it is happening in an administration that is threatening media companies, law firms, universities, and even private individuals using the powers of the federal government to help friends and punish foes. There can be permanent tariffs and there can also be negotiations. Trump's tariffs may look like they are just bad economics, but their effects are also to create very bad politics. Coming up, my closing thoughts on these big, beautiful tariffs. Here's to quitting Quitting the couch for a quick run. Quitting the snooze button for a morning workout. Quitting giving up after two weeks. You see, staying committed to your fitness goals isn't easy. But with Apple Watch you don't have to do it alone because Apple Watch gives you real time motivation plus advanced metrics that track all your workouts so you can stick to your New Year's fitness resolutions. And once and for all, quit quitting With Apple Watch iPhone 11 or later required. And now for some of my own closing thoughts. When we talk about tariffs, we always focus on the economic arguments for and against them. And as you know, I think the economic arguments are mostly against. But I think there's a larger point that is often missed. It is about the vision of society and the world that tariffs represent open versus Closed positive sum versus Zero sum. It might be easier to make this point by looking at the history when Franklin Roosevelt led the United States during World War II to he thought hard about the kind of world he wanted America to shape after the war. He had seen the peace and prosperity of the 1920s founder as narrow nationalism turned into protectionism, military rivalry and war. He believed that the world would only be peaceful if countries found they had much to gain from that peace. He was not much naive about international cooperation. He knew that the great powers had to be given special status and privilege so they'd be invested in maintaining the peace. But he fervently believed that the competitive economic nationalism of the 1930s, symbolized by America's own Smoot Hawley tariffs, had led the world down a dangerous path of competition and war. So he determined that America would shape a post war international order that was open, rules based and gave nations opportunities to trade with one another, cooperate economically and grow rich through this peaceful commerce. That vision was then implemented by FDR's proteges in the Truman administration after Roosevelt died. It led to the creation of the United nations and many bodies of international cooperation, and also the emergence of assisted of mostly free trade for goods and capital. The United States was generous in its approach. It opened its markets and gave aid and loans so that Western Europe and parts of Asia could rebuild from the ashes of World War II. As they did, they too opened up their markets, which in turn provided opportunities for American businesses to sell their products. The system proved good for Western Europe and East Asia, but also for America. It helped make America's allies strong and dynamic, thus laying the conditions for victory in the Cold War. It also helped American businesses to dominate the world, from General Electric and General Motors to IBM and Procter and Gamble to Microsoft, Google and Apple. And crucially, it made the dollar the reserve currency of the world, allowing the US to borrow money on favorable terms. That exorbitant privilege confers a benefit to the average American, whose credit card rates and mortgage payments are lower thanks to the dollar's global status. So America was generous, but it could also have been called long term greedy. It built a system that helped others, but also helped itself stay rich and powerful for decades. The proof is in the numbers. As parts of Asia, like China, have risen from dirt poverty to great wealth. That has changed the balance of power among nations. Except for one country. The United States 45 years ago was about 25% of global GDP and today it is roughly the same number, in fact, slightly higher. America created a win win world in which others prospered and America stayed strong. It wasn't a world without problems. The communist world refused to participate in the more free trade system and stood in opposition within the UN and other fora. But it lost that struggle and by the early 1990s, much of the world was headed in the American direction, seeing that vision as a better pack for peace and prosperity. China tried to grow within that system, but stayed unreformed in some crucial ways. That challenge has to be dealt with and Beijing needs to be confronted or isolated for some of its actions. Other countries like Brazil and India stay deeply protectionist and they need to be encouraged to open up. But none of these problems required that the United States abandoned the entire 80 year project of building, sustaining and stabilizing a world based on open trade, on rules and on cooperation. There is no better vision on offer, simply a return to narrow self interest, nationalist competition and economic protectionism. That leaves everyone poorer and the world more unstable. But that is the new vision of the populists in Washington. My greatest hope now comes from watching other countries who are dealing with Washington as best they can, but not going down its path of protectionism. They know that they need more trade, not less, to raise their people's incomes and standards of living. They're making trade deals with each other, working around Washington to forge new ties. It's the ultimate vindication of of the vision that America offered the world, that as Washington has lost faith in it, the rest of the world has not. They are holding the American lit porch, perhaps hoping that one day America will come back and lift it up again, believing once again in its own ideas and ideals. Thank you for watching this special hour. I'm Fareed Zakaria. With the state of today's economy, it is more important than ever to invest in products that last for years to come. As the seasons shift and get cooler, make sure your closet is stocked with durable layers that stand the test of time from American Giant. American Giant's clothes work harder and are wearable season after season. Their greatest hoodie ever made is made of the highest quality materials that are cut and sewn right here in the United States. So you're investing right back into your local community. Choosing American Giant means taking a stand for American manufacturing and hardworking Americans, something other megacorporations don't care about. 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