A good US summary

Erick Erickson writes:

The good news for Democrats is that the President has started a trade war with Canada. He just imposed new tariffs and says more are coming in January. Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister and an actual trained economist, which is more than you can say for the people whispering tariff policy into the President’s ear, says his country will reciprocate. He is not bluffing. He has twenty billion dollars in counter tariffs ready for the day after Labor Day, which is the day Americans start paying attention to the midterm election.

The President says we have a trade deficit with Canada and that this proves the Canadians are taking advantage of us. The truth is we import a lot of oil from Canada. Take the oil out of the ledger and Canada runs a deficit with us. American crude is light and sweet. Before the fracking revolution we could not get to most of it, so our refineries retooled to run heavy crude from elsewhere. Now we sell our light sweet crude abroad and buy heavy crude to feed refineries built for it. This is basic chemistry, not advantage.

Canada is going to retaliate. So look for gas prices to go up. Northern states like Michigan and Maine, where the GOP has two competitive races it cannot afford to lose, get electricity and a lot of trade from Canada. The power bills will go up as early voting starts in must-win states.

Even crazy Democrats will win when the President starts a trade war that hurts American consumers.