489'

WHEN DONALD TRUMP arrived in the Oval Office he promised to restore America’s might. His method has turned out to be a wholesale weaponisation of economic tools. The world can now see the awesome force that a superpower can project when it is unconstrained by rules or allies. On May 30th the president threatened crippling tariffs on Mexico after a row over migration. Markets reeled, and a Mexican delegation rushed to Washington to sue for peace. A day later preferential trading rules for India were cancelled. Its usually macho government did not put up a fight and promised to preserve “strong ties”. China faces a ratcheting up of tariffs soon, and its tech giant, Huawei, has been severed from its American suppliers. A tighter embargo on Iran, imposed over European objections, is strangling its economy. 

Oval Office 指白宫
crippling tariffs 征收破坏性关税
row 指争端
Markets reeled 市场震荡
preferential trading rules 优惠贸易待遇
macho 大男子主义/态度强硬
ratchet up 逐渐增加
autocratic 专制/独裁
embargo 禁令

80'

President Trump must view this scene with satisfaction. Nobody takes America for granted any more. Enemies and friends know that it is prepared to unleash an economic arsenal to protect its national interest. America is deploying new tactics—poker-style brinkmanship—and new weapons that exploit its role as the nerve centre of the global economy to block the free flow of goods, data, ideas and money across borders. This pumped-up vision of a 21st-century superpower may be seductive for some. But it could spark a crisis, and it is eroding America’s most valuable asset—its legitimacy. 

tactics—poker-style brinkmanship
赌博式边缘政策/外交冒险政策
nerve centre 中枢
pumped-up 打了鸡血的……
seductive 有魅力的/吸引人的
erode 侵蚀
legitimacy 正当性/合法性

51'

You might think that America’s clout comes from its 11 aircraft-carriers, 6,500 nuclear warheads or its anchor role in the IMF. But it is also the central node in the network that underpins globalisation. This mesh of firms, ideas and standards reflects and magnifies American prowess. Though it includes goods traded through supply chains, it is mainly intangible. America controls or hosts over 50% of the world’s cross-border bandwidth, venture capital, phone-operating systems, top universities and fund-management assets. Some 88% of currency trades use greenbacks. Across the planet it is normal to use a Visa card, invoice exports in dollars, sleep beside a device with a Qualcomm chip, watch Netflix and work for a firm that BlackRock invests in. 

clout 势力/影响力
anchor role 根本作用/主导地位
node 节点
underpin globalisation 撑起全球化
prowess 指实力/勇猛/超凡技术
mesh 网眼
intangible 无形的
bandwidth 带宽
greenbacks 林肯绿币/指美元
currency trades 货币交易
venture capital 风险投资
invoice 结算
Qualcomm chip 高通芯片

69'

Foreigners accept all this because, on balance, it makes them better off. They may not set the rules of the game, but they get access to American markets and fair treatment alongside American firms. Globalisation and technology have made the network more powerful although America’s share of world GDP has fallen, from 38% in 1969 to 24% now. China cannot yet compete, even though its economy is approaching America’s in size. 

36'

Despite this, Mr Trump and his advisers are convinced that the world order is rigged against America, pointing to its rust-belt and its trade deficit. And rather than mimic the relatively restrained tactics of the last trade conflict, with Japan in the 1980s, they have redefined how economic nationalism works. 

把advisers翻译为幕僚哈哈哈哈
rig 操纵
rust-belt 铁锈地带/指从前繁盛现在没落的地区
mimic 效仿
economic nationalism 经济民族主义

26'

First, instead of using tariffs as a tool to extract specific economic concessions, they are being continuously deployed to create a climate of instability with America’s trading partners. The objective of the new Mexican tariffs—fewer migrants crossing the Rio Grande—has nothing to do with trade. And they breach the spirit of USMCA, a free-trade deal signed by the White House only six months ago, which will replace NAFTA (Congress has yet to ratify it). Alongside these big fights is a constant barrage of petty activity. Officials have skirmished over foreign washing machines and Canadian softwood lumber imports. 

extract 榨取
concessions 让步/让与
Rio Grande 美国和墨西哥间的格兰德河
breach 违背
USMCA 美加墨贸易协议
Congress has yet to ratify it 国会尚未批准
NAFTA 北美自由贸易协定
barrage 弹幕
Alongside these big fights is a constant barrage of petty activity.除了这些大阵仗，还有连串的小动作。
skirmish 小争论
lumber 伐木

52'

Second, the scope of activity has been extended beyond physical goods by weaponising America’s network. Outright enemies such as Iran and Venezuela face tighter sanctions—last year 1,500 people, firms and vessels were added to the list, a record figure. The rest of the world faces a new regime for tech and finance. An executive order prohibits transactions in semiconductors and software made by foreign adversaries, and a law passed last year known as FIRRMA polices foreign investment into Silicon Valley. If a firm is blacklisted, banks usually refuse to deal with it, cutting it off from the dollar payments system. That is crippling—as two firms, ZTE and Rusal, discovered, briefly, last year. 

Outright 彻头彻尾的/完全的
sanction 制裁
……，a record figure 创历史新高
regime 政体/体制
prohibit 阻止
transaction 交易/事务
semiconductor 半导体
adversaries 敌对者
FIRRMA 外国投资风险审查现代化法案
crippling 在这里指——后果很严重的

52'

Such tools used to be reserved for times of war: the legal techniques used for surveillance of the payments system were developed to hunt al-Qaeda. Now a “national emergency” has been declared in tech. Officials have discretion to define what is a threat. Though they often clobber specific firms, such as Huawei, others are running scared. If you run a global company, are you sure your Chinese clients are not about to be blacklisted? 

surveillance 监督
al-Qaeda 基地组织（领袖为拉登）
discretion 自由裁量权/判断力
clobber 猛打
run scared（哈哈哈我可以说是惶恐吗）

35'

The damage to America’s economy so far has been deceptively small. Tariffs cause agony in export hubs such as northern Mexico, but even if Mr Trump imposes all his threatened tariffs, the tax on imports would be worth only about 1% of America’s GDP. His poll ratings at home have held up, even as they have slumped abroad. His officials believe the experiment in weaponising America’s economic network has only just begun. 

deceptively 迷惑地/虚伪地
hubs 枢纽
poll ratings 民调支持率 hold up坚挺 slump下跌

33'

In fact, the bill is mounting. America could have built a global coalition to press China to reform its economy, but it has now squandered precious goodwill. Allies looking for new trade deals with America, including post-Brexit Britain, will worry that a presidential tweet could scupper it after it has been signed. Retaliation in kind has begun. China has begun its own blacklist of foreign firms. And the risk of a clumsy mistake that triggers a financial panic is high. Imagine if America banned the $1trn of Chinese shares trading in New York, or cut off foreign banks.
 
bill is mounting 代价正在上升
coalition 合并/联合
squander 浪费
tweet 小鸟吱吱叫
scupper 使…沉没/突袭
retaliation 报复/反击
clumsy 笨拙的
a presidential tweet could scupper it after it has been signed.哈哈哈，说美国总统发一条推文就可以把签好的协议推翻~

50'

In the long run the American-led network is under threat. There are hints of mutiny—of America’s 35 European and Asian military allies, only three have so far agreed to ban Huawei. Efforts to build a rival global infrastructure will accelerate. China is creating its own courts to adjudicate commercial disputes with foreigners. Europe is experimenting with building a new payments system to get round the Iran sanctions, which could in time be used elsewhere. China, and eventually India, will be keen to end their dependence on semiconductors from Silicon Valley. Mr Trump is right that America’s network gives it vast power. It will take decades, and cost a fortune, to replace it. But if you abuse it, ultimately you will lose it.

hint 暗示/提示
mutiny 暴乱/叛乱
infrastructure 基础设施
get round 规避

61'

终于录完啦