Trump's 'jawboning' on jobs not always good economics

JAWBONING is back in style, courtesy of Donald J Trump. Those with long memories will recall that "jawboning" is a term that became fashionable in the 1960s. It signified an effort by the government, usually the president, to persuade companies - through intimidation, bullying or shaming - to do what the president asked in the "national interest" even if it wasn't in the firms' immediate self-interest.

This is what Mr Trump has been doing. First, he pressured Carrier, a maker of heating and air-conditioning units, not to move some work to Mexico, saving 800 to 1,000 jobs (various figures have been published). Next, he pushed Ford not to build a new US$1.6 billion assembly plant in Mexico; this purportedly saves 700 American jobs. More recently, he's made nasty noises about General Motors' and Toyota's Mexican operations.

All this may be good politics - but it's not good economics.