Photo: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
Photo: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

“We are already at the negotiating table,” arch-trade-warrior Peter Navarro told Bloomberg Radio Monday morning. Navarro’s comments followed a statement yesterday by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and comments this morning by Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Kevin Hassett about a negotiated settlement with China rather than a trade war.

Evidently the US stock market’s free-fall on Thursday and Friday got the undivided attention of the Trump team, which compared the benefits of gaining advantage with China by threats and the costs of destroying confidence in US equity markets.

There always was going to be a deal at the end of the day. Asian leaders have gotten used to Trump’s “Art of the Deal” negotiating style, which like the month of March goes in like a lion and comes out like a lamb.

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