US economy displaying self-inflicted wounds

While Larry Kudlow, director of the US National Economic Council, tried to shrug off the worse-than-expected job increase in the United States last month, the lowest since October 2016, claiming that the performance of the US economy is not contingent on the outcome of the trade frictions with China, Washington might want to consider the harm its ill-judged trade war is doing to the US.

True, it is unreasonable to place too much stock in one month's data, as Kudlow said. But just 75,000 new jobs were added in May, markedly lower than the expected 180,000, amid widespread anticipation that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in the near future in an attempt to fuel the US economy.

And if the US administration continues to press its trade attacks on China, last month could mark the point when the US started to lose the Chinese market, as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations replaced the US as China's second-largest trade partner after the European Union.