Thread by @michaelxpettis

I apologize in advance for this long rant, but there really should be more outrage about this. I spent and enjoyed most of my career running bond trading and capital markets desks on Wall Street, and so I'm definitely not reflexively..

ft.com/content/6d0bc9… via @financialtimes

@FinancialTimes ...anti-Wall Street, but it's incredible that, as this FT article puts it, “Wall Street has emerged as one of the main winners from the ‘phase-one’ accord with Beijing”. In fact they are the only winner on the American side.

The trade deal is supposed to address real problems...

@FinancialTimes ...faced by American workers and local businesses, and the concessions Washington obtained from Beijing in exchange for access to US markets were meant to boost the US economy. Washington has every right and reason to intervene in the trade and capital imbalances in which...

@FinancialTimes ...distortions abroad are forced onto the US and create domestic distortions, but they must be the right interventions. In fact the tariffs on Chinese goods proposed by Washington will have no impact on the overall American trade balance, or on the US economy, and so will do...

@FinancialTimes ...nothing to resolve the very real problems of American workers and local businesses.

Trump is famous for saying out loud things that smarter politicians keep under wraps, and once again, at the trade deal signing last week, he doesn’t fail, yelling out to all the senior...

@FinancialTimes ...bankers at the signing: “Will you say ‘thank you Mister president’, at least? Huh? I made a lot of bankers look very good.”

He certainly did make a lot of bankers happy, but it's not the job of the US president to force foreign countries to help global banks to become more...

@FinancialTimes ...profitable in local financial activities, especially when their profitability adds nothing to the US economy or to American workers and local businesses. Was that really one of the main purposes (even the main one) of this whole trade conflict?

All this means is that Wall...

@FinancialTimes ...Street banks and financiers have far too great an influence on American politics, and now these bankers will all become more then ever vulnerable to pressure from Beijing because a greater share of their profits will depend on keeping Beijing happy.