www.investopedia.com

www.econlib.org

* Mercantilism was the dominant economic system during 16th - 18th centuries
* Mercantilism was based on the idea that a nation's wealth and power were best served by increasing exports and reducing imports (trade surplus)
* It's characterized by the belief that global wealth was static and that a nation's economic health relied heavily on its supply of capital (due to rarity of precious metals)
* Due to the nationalistic nature of mercantilism, nations frequently used military might to protect markets and supply sources
* Mercantilism was replaced by free-trade economic theory in the mid-18th century

1. The Belief in the Static Nature of Wealth
2. The Need to Increase the Supply of Gold
3. The Need to Maintain a Trade Surplus
4. The Importance of a Large Population
5. The Use of Colonies to Support Wealth
6. The Use of Protectionism

"Of the false tenets of mercantilism that remain today, the most pernicious is the idea that imports reduce domestic employment."

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Penny-wise, pound-foolish - lifetime outcomes of Trump's "deals" which destroyed many of his and others' businesses, capital and billions of $$ for gullible investors banking on his "brand" and fake cultivated ('Art of the Deal') "tough negotiator" persona, and financiers / partners / contractors wanted nothing to do with him when his "deals" unraveled.

He was always "Art of the Con" huckster, a fake "celebrity tycoon," bailed out time and again by money-laundering Russian government and mafia.

'Art of the Deal' writer Tony Schwartz - www.newyorker.com - 2016-07-25
|------- "I put lipstick on a pig. I feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is." ...

If he were writing "The Art of the Deal" today, Schwartz said, it would be a very different book with a very different title. Asked what he would call it, he answered, "The Sociopath."

Trump appeared to have convinced himself that he had written the book. Schwartz recalls thinking, "If he could lie about that on Day One - when it was so easily refuted - he is likely to lie about anything."

"I play to people's fantasies. ... People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. ... I do it to do it. ... I like making deals, preferably big deals. That's how I get my kicks."
-------|

Trump wasn't even third candidate to host "Apprentice" - truly successful business people declined "reality TV" buffoonery.

www.nytimes.com - The Star-Making Machine That Created 'Donald Trump' - 2024-09-14

www.vice.com - The Long, Strange Beef Over Who Actually Invented 'The Apprentice' - 2019-11-14

www.newyorker.com - How Mark Burnett Resurrected Donald Trump as an Icon of American Success - 2018-12-27

"... Burnett has also spoken about his desire to make a television show with Vladimir Putin."
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