Trade war a bluff in the game of a paper tiger

Some hawkish members of the Donald Trump team have repeatedly adopted war-like rhetoric about the incoming administration's trade relations with China and other developing countries. They seem to want to send the message that other countries need the United States more than the other way round.

But like many presumptuous war mongers in the past, they may not see the whole picture or understand history.

The trade war warriors' first miscalculation is not recognizing that the world is now vastly different from the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan, their role model, was US president.