If the US is to retain a leading position in world commerce today we need better infrastructure, better schools and the ability to harness the efforts of all Americans in support of economic growth. Washington has fallen down badly on all three fronts for a very long time. Discontent with the status quo has resulted in the election of Donald Trump as president, as I see it, on the idea that things couldn’t be worse.

Whoops!

Though a Barnum-like showman, Trump is, unfortunately, a popular former reality show host but not much else. He’s an incompetent businessman and a white racist who appears to relish the suffering of others. His economic “vision” is for a return to the TV sitcom world of the 1960s, to be achieved by creating a Depression-era tariff wall that will prevent better-made or cheaper products from reaching the US.

In my view, this is suicidally crazy. As far as I can tell, mine is the consensus view in the rest of the world, which is appalled by the severe turn for the worse in the US. Even now, though, my sense is that Americans in general have been surprisingly complacent the damage Trump is doing.

So far, the stock market reaction has been to shun stocks tied closely to the US economy and bid up shares of companies with global franchises or with intellectual property that could just as easily be held in, say, Canada. Over the past month or so, foreign stocks have also begun to outpace US equities for the first time in years.

What if Trump is reelected?

Let’s ignore the messy possibility the Financial Times, for one, is now beginning to discuss–that Trump will “steal” a close election, again losing the popular vote, in a contest marred by voter suppression in red states. Without that complication, the results of a Trump victory would be pretty straightforward.

First and foremost, it would be read worldwide as a national endorsement of his loony-tunes economics, as well as his racism, sadism and eagerness to use the military to violently suppress civil dissent. Not a pretty picture.

The current trend toward stocks with substantial non-US businesses, innovative technology and/or the ability to transfer operations elsewhere would likely continue. Presumably, we’d also begin to see downward pressure on the dollar for both economic and ethical reasons, as fixed income investors as well as equity holders sought to reduce their US exposure.

US brands would likely begin to lose their aspirational appeal, if they have not already. Tourism, both to the US and to US-operated attractions, would wane, even if the coronavirus is brought under control. Global businesses would feel pressure from customers and from employees to relocate. The working population of the US would begin to shrink, as a result and as 1930s Germany became a more plausible analogue for the US. Even Japan might start to look good.

US self-destructive impulses would also open the door wide to China to supplant the US as a cultural and economic world leader. At the very least, capital and portfolio investment diverted from the US would have to find a home somewhere.

more on Monday