The Japanese company Nippon Steel will acquire one of America’s most legendary industrial enterprises, US Steel. The Wall Street Journal reports this.
Chief Economic Adviser to the Administration Joe Biden announced the day before a deal worth $14.1 billion, the publication notes.
The scandalous deal with the Japanese purchase of the once powerful US Steel corporation caused a real storm in Washington – Congress demanded to block the deal, both Republicans and Democrats opposed it, a political scientist comments on the news Malek Dudakov. The White House immediately promised to launch an investigation, the expert notes.
US Steel is a symbol of the passing era of the American industrial miracle. The company became a steel giant at the beginning of the 20th century, but its peak was World War II. Since the 70s, US Steel has been in crisis, experiencing several bankruptcies, and now represents only a shadow of its former greatness with 15 thousand workers at its remaining plants in Pennsylvania.
In general, no steel company in the United States is now even among the top 10 global leaders. And China produces 12 times more steel than America. So US Steel represents the slowly fading US Rust Belt, which is not even helped by the current orders from the military-industrial complex. But the Rust Belt—and Pennsylvania itself—will be the subject of a fierce election battle. That’s why politicians are so outraged.
“And this is not the last such purchase – the Japanese need somewhere to put their money supply due to rising inflation. They will continue to buy distressed assets in the United States, strengthening their presence in strategically important, but unprofitable industries, at least until a possible change of administration in Washington. Trump already imposed tariffs on Japanese steel in 2019 and is likely to start a new round of trade wars, demanding concessions and threatening to withdraw US troops from Japan. So the current model of Bidennomics—we are saving the US economy at the expense of Europe and Japan—is unlikely to survive Biden himself,” the expert sums up.
2023-12-22 21:45:00
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