If you forgot what the trade landscape looked like — and how Trump’s policies impacted Wisconsin — here’s a picture of Wisconsin real exports during and after (was thinking about this, prepping for WisconsinEye show tomorrow, where Mike Knetter will be talking).
Figure 1: Wisconsin real goods exports in millions of 2000$ (blue). Nominal series seasonally adjusted by author using X-13 in logs, deflated using US commodity exports deflator for US. Red dashed line at announcement of Section 232 and Section 301 measures. Source: Census, BLS, and author’s calculations.
What type of products does Wisconsin export? I was just thinking about how Harris-Walz might get the votes of some farmers and ranchers. After all we export the things they produce and we know a trade war would hurt the demand for their goods.
Exports – Industrial Machinery, Electrical Machinery, Medical & Scientific Instruments (hence the $50 million grant from Biden/Harris to help develop this sector), Plastics – companies such as A. O. Smith Corp., Oshkosh Trucks/Military Equipment, Bemis, Rockwell Automation, HD Motorbikes (personally not a fan-Honda better engineering IMO), Snap-On Tools, also financial services -such as CUNA Mutual – in recent years – Epic Systems – healthcare software – mostly U.S. but international as well (mentioned because I know people that work there)
Ag Exports – Paper Products – (BTW – the Green Bay Packers were named after a meat packing company not paper packaging), cereals, soybeans, corn, fruits and vegetables (cranberries and potatoes) and dairy – of course.
For full breakdown – see WEDC https://wedc.org/export-from-wisconsin/wisconsin-export-data/ (BTW- WEDC should not be confused with WMC – Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce – a business association and lobbying group)
I have never understood Trump’s appeal to farmers – they must know that their dairy and farm workers will be caught up in Trump’s Mass Deportation – (which BTW – should be unsettling to everyone – Trump says “Getting them out will be a bloody story.” – why isn’t the corporate media making this front page news? – https://digbysblog.net/2024/09/08/the-bloodthirsty-48/ – where are you NYTimes? – too busy trying to make this into horse-race as usual election?)
I thought farmers would sour on Trump when he destroyed their biggest export market with his trade war with China (China has now permanently switched to Brazil as a more reliable supplier) – of course – Trump and corrupt Sonny Perdue – did a massive $28 billion voter buying scheme to ensure the votes of commodity farmers https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/12/31/790261705/farmers-got-billions-from-taxpayers-in-2019-and-hardly-anyone-objected – and ole Sonny got himself a sweetheart deal with ADM – https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/sonny-perdue-s-undisclosed-deal-with-adm-raises-ethics-questions – all in a day’s work for the massively corrupt Trump admin.
That’s an informative link. Thanks. Farmers should support Harris as Trump has indeed been a disaster for them.
Farmers often feel angry and have a chip on their shoulder because the stereotype on farmers is they are all kind of dumbies. My paternal grandfather was a farmer (in Iowa) along with his father and many members on my Dad’s side of the family. So I am sympathetic to the anger over labeling all farmers as dumbies. But a little self-awareness on the donald trump worship and MAGA “cult of personality” could bring farmers a lot more respect on their intelligence, and, bring to the table contrary evidence for the dumb farmer stereotype.
While I’m on my last dregs of alcohol here, I should also mention semi-truck drivers (of which I was one for 3 years) suffer under many negative stereotypes (idiots, rapists, illiterate, racists etc). Which could also be semi-solved (no pun intended) by taking the dixie flag off their truck grill and stop supporting MAGA.
I know many truck drivers who beat that stereotype (myself?? Maybe??), one truckdriver who when I left my wallet on a toilet paper dispenser in Pennsylvania (Virginia?? I forgot) public rest area contacted my company/dispatcher and drove many miles backward of his delivery to return my wallet to me (which had $200–$300 in twenties and money cards in it) Guys who would stop and help you when you broke down (other semis and females broke down on the interstate and alone). These are the guys I self-flatteringly refer to as my “brothers” clear to this day.