S&P 500 Companies Earn 6x More In China Than US Exports: Hedge Fund Manager Says Trade War With Beijing Level Of Stupidity That Has 'No Precedent'

Hedge fund manager Spencer Hakimian calls out the “stupidity” of the current trade and tariff war, while pushing back against the notion that the United States is losing out in global trade.

What Happened: Hakimian, the founder of New York-based hedge fund Tolou Capital Management, posted on X Sunday night, pointing out that S&P 500 companies generate nearly $1.17 trillion in annual revenue from China.

This is six times more than the value of goods and services these companies export from the U.S. to China, at $200 billion, according to data from FactSet, Macrobond, the Census Bureau, and Apollo’s Chief Economist.

“Nobody dominates and benefits more from global trade than the United States,” Hakiaman says, while highlighting the popularity of American brands and products in China, such as Apple Inc.‘s AAPL iPhone, coffee at Starbucks Corp. SBUX, and burgers by McDonald’s Corp. MCD, among several others.

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“Tearing the current system down voluntarily would be the biggest unforced error in economic history,” he says, adding that there is “no precedent for this level of stupidity.”

Why It Matters: Several prominent voices have echoed similar concerns in recent weeks regarding the tariffs and the United States’ widening trade deficit.

Last week, investor Mark Cuban said that “having a trade deficit with China isn’t such a bad thing for the U.S.,” citing the surplus in services that the U.S. has with China, which now stands to get hit, along with agricultural exports.

Similarly, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers rejected the narrative that China was cheating on trade, saying that “if China wants to sell us things at really low prices, it’s kind of a good deal for us,” when addressing questions regarding predatory pricing and dumping at the University of Austin two weeks ago.

However, others, such as Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood, have come out in support of the tariffs, saying that if negotiations lead to lower tariffs and non-tariff barriers globally, “it would be a very good thing.”

Economist Arthur Laffer, while critical of the tariffs themselves, has praised President Donald Trump’s negotiation style, saying that if this leads to lower global trade barriers, it would be an outcome that he would applaud.

Photo Courtesy: PalSand On Shutterstock.com

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