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Comment by sanp | Hacker News Reader

The US is by far the largest consumer market. That is the real power we hold.

Damn right. Japan sank in the early 90s when the US imposed duties on their goods. Cue neutering their industrial power. I expect the same to happen to China and I believe we are already seeing that happening. If the Americans say they won’t buy then your economy will die. Indeed, the largest consumer market is the real power.

sure only 1/3 of the world's transactions happen in yuan. 2/3 in dollars. but an embargo on chinese (and taiwanese goods) is not going to sink them. They have the largest world population and along with the BRICs could freeze out the US. Japan was a drop in the bucket compared to the BRICs

Agreed. Such an action would most likely hurt the US significantly, as where else would we get our goods? Tariffs were added to imports during the start of the great depression to try and make American goods more attractive (stamp out competition), and it is one of the significant reasons the depression went on so long. How did Trump's tarrifs against China do?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2021/05/20/trump...

https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/tariffs-trump...

> They have the largest world population and along with the BRICs could freeze out the US.

This is a very real possibility and what I believe is the most likely catalyst for ww3.

You bring up a good point. From my perspective, I am amazed that Japan went along with the Plaza Accords (worth researching and reading about, intersecting stuff!)

Exports were essential to their economy. The alternative to the Plaza Accords was therefore worse.

The US is the deepest investment market. That's the bigger power.

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