Why This Is The End Of The British Empire | Susan Kokinda

Kokinda frames Trump's bilateral approach and pullback from some multilateral institutions as a challenge to what she calls 125 years of British imperial architecture, and contrasts that system with an American model centered on production and sovereignty. She also argues that the permanent-enemy framing of China sustains elite influence, while citing Sun Yat-sen's interest in the American system and Abraham Lincoln as evidence of a historical connection between the countries.

Kokinda links economic strain in Europe and Canada to policies she says have weakened production: she argues that free trade has damaged Europe's auto industry and green policies have weakened industrial capacity, while citing layoffs of 500 to 900 workers at an Ontario steel plant. Separately, the host reports that the French-German government bond spread widened to levels associated with the Greek credit crisis, signaling relative stress in French sovereign debt.

Kokinda presents U.S. industrial projects and employment indicators as signs of a production-focused shift, citing a planned Iowa steel mill with 6,000 construction workers and 1,700 permanent jobs, and a Texas shipbuilding facility expected to employ 10,000. She and the host also point to manufacturing employment rising again after a brief plateau, alongside low childhood and Hispanic poverty and rising—but slower and less broad—PMI and wage growth.

Kokinda says high fuel prices reflect reduced U.S. refining and production capacity from past energy policy, while the host notes that crude supply had returned to pre-war levels on some measures but refined-product supply had recovered less. The host says prices could ease if Middle East flows continue and recover; Kokinda also cautions that short-term pain at the pump may distract voters from the economic restructuring she supports.