Last week, a major Tokyo-based international securities firm contacted and requested for me to talk, in front of dozens of their most valuable clients, about the ongoing "trade war" between the United States and China. I initially said, "It's a great honor," but instantly told the caller that he might have picked a wrong speaker on that subject.
He basically said he wanted me to discuss the future of Sino-American trade relations, its potential impact on the international market and its ramification on Japan-China economic ties. I said if he was interested in numerical figures or relevant World Trade Organization regulations on this matter, please find a prominent economist, which I am not.
Then I told the embarrassed junior representative of the well-known securities company the following: