Adam Tooze

America, of course, in the early stages, in the 40s, 47, 48 Marshall Plan and so on, deliberately accepted that as the trade.

They would be part of the American hegemonic block in the Cold War, and American consumers would benefit from the inflow of relatively affordable, high-quality goods.

It didn't need to worry.

It would out-compete.

It would out-innovate.

It would rise to the top.

No stress.

Through the early 70s, that bargain works pretty well on balance.

Not, of course, for everyone in American society because of racism and inequality, but nevertheless,

standard of living go up, so you don't see that divide opening.

And it's really from the mid-70s that it breaks down.

And at that point, I think a kind of national mercantilism, Japan as the bad guy, merges with a social resentment, which is driven by the real stagnation, indeed deterioration of the standard of living of the American working class.

And you begin to get that hard hat coalition

these labor, populist, nationalist, protectionist forces gaining quite a lot of strength.

By the 90s, Buchanan and people like this can really begin to make a powerful case along these lines.

And he doesn't understand the economics, right?

Because if you were serious about Greenland's resources,

Anyone could have invested in Greenland.

America has a great treaty, 51, the wartime treaty renewed.

Those resources are not somehow lying fallow, hidden behind a protective wall of Danish anti-American nationalism that prevents good American businesses from... No, no, no.