I have to admit that some aspects of the modern world are deeply puzzling to me. As I travelled into Bradford on the bus this morning I was reflecting on the fact that among the most incomprehensible elements of the current situation is Donald Trump’s economic policy, at least in so far as this is signalled by the recent flurry of executive orders. Three aspects in particular have set me pondering.
We now know that he is serious about the wall between Mexico and the USA. We also know that in setting aside earlier aspirations to reduce atmospheric pollution his aim is to give a new stimulus to America’s coal industry. To my mind the implication of these two decisions is that he is going to put official weight behind the expansion of employment in two areas based primarily on the technology of the last century (if not the century before that) namely, construction work and mining. Both of these are relatively low-skill areas, and cannot contribute much to the future technological development of the country.
Trump has also given his blessing to the completion of two large oil pipeline projects. I can only presume that his intention here is to reduce the dependence of the USA on imported oil, and furthermore that the major intended beneficiaries of this will be the motor manufacturers. He wants to keep the American car manufacturing industry afloat by ensuring that there will always be cheap fuel. Perhaps he hasn’t noticed that the car manufacturers throughout the rest of the world are vying with each other to win the race to develop a really viable electric vehicle, which will be cheaper to run than one powered by the internal combustion engine. My understanding is that we are not far from seeing the realisation of this goal. So just at the moment when the US car manufacturers are tooling up to make more cars which can take advantage of the enhanced supply of domestic oil, the market for their product elsewhere in the world will be disappearing. (Possibly also the domestic market will find itself in difficulties because of this challenge.) Once again, Trump is backing yesterday’s technology in the anticipation of economic gains that can only be short-term.
Is he calculating that the economic “bounce” from these developments will just about peak at the time of the elections for his second term? After that: who cares?
The trip into town today had its interest. I managed at last to see the display of my work on the “big screen” in Centenary Square. They didn’t look bad, but their impact was diminished by the fact that none of the pieces were given titles, which will have reduced their intelligibility quite a bit. I’m glad to have the opportunity, even so.
We had lunch in one of the recent attempts to stimulate commercial development in the city centre. It’s called “Sunbridge Wells” because it is located at the bottom of the Sunbridge Road, and the “wells” bit is a reference to its underground location.* There is a network of historic tunnels under a part of the city. I’ve yet to hear an authoritative account of the reason for their existence, although there is one theory that they once housed prison cells. At any rate, my wife remembers a time when one part of the system housed Bradford’s answer to Liverpool’s Cavern Club. Today they have been converted into a collection of bars, restaurants and little shops.
*The joke in the name is in the fact that there is a rather classy, but somewhat stuffy, town in the south of England called Tunbridge Wells, which is mocked by the raison d’être of Bradford’s version, namely, it’s an informal place to have fun.