Thank you for trying. Right now, Larry Kudlow is speaking with Secretary Bessent. Okay, let's listen in.
We had a dose of that in the prior four years and we have virtually no growth and 21% cumulative inflation rate. We're still feeling the hangover from that cumulative inflation rate. That was a big dose of big government socialism. There's a lot of loose talk in the elections about socialism. It doesn't work. Free enterprise works. That's why the numbers are very important to back up the points on the economic boom. That's why I've taken some time on this to make sure that you get your message out. We don't need socialism, and I think also Trump's policies are an example for the rest of the world because they should grow as rapidly as we are growing. Growth solves a lot of problems, but growth comes from free enterprise and market competition, not from a statist government.
Look, if I look back, Japan implemented in 2012, 2013, and one of the most important aspects of that was the deregulatory aspect. It was the corporate sector getting more efficient in the private sector jobs. And as I've said over the past few days, I think Abenomics, it's a restructured program and I think that Japan can sit back and enjoy the benefits of that.
I was talking last night at dinner. A finance minister next to you at the table. We're seeing free enterprise move through this hemisphere, very interesting, a lot of overturning of the left and socialism, moving back towards free market economics. Chile, Argentina is probably the best example, but by far not the only example. I sat next to the finance minister of Poland; he was talking about reforms. I sat next to the finance minister of Italy moaning and groaning, he can't get his through, and we'd like to see more of it in Europe. I think that Europe is too sclerotic, and I think it needs a dose of deregulation and probably lower tax rates as well. My point here is with all of this talk about socialism, I don't know where it comes from. We have a prosperous free enterprise economy. We go into the elections, beyond the elections, these are such important changes and it works. The point is the theory is no good if the facts don't back it up. What is significant is that facts do back it up.
Look, I agree, and we've seen some great examples. I think we have a generational opportunity in the Western Hemisphere. As you said, it was led by Argentina and the reforms there. Everyone said it couldn't be done, and now we're seeing the inflation drop, the change in economic circumstances. And Larry, I thought what was most interesting, and when you talk about socialism here in the U.S., when we look at the demographic of those voters, they are overeducated and underearning.
These are underachievers who are jealous of those who want to go and work every day. And if you were to dissect the last election that the President had, the poorest segment of society and young people came out and voted. But as you said, we're seeing Argentina, we're seeing Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador, and I think we could see many more.
Let me switch gears and talk about trade and a brilliant speech you made at the Economic Club a month or so ago. You called it economic statecraft, which was very important. Let me read and I want you to talk about it: 'The first and foundational principle is that economic security begins with national capacity, the ability to build, invent, finance, and scale the industries that will define the next century.' You talked about semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and advanced technologies. And one key point you made, and perhaps this is the central point: we must in our trade relations never leave the country with a foreign choke point from abroad. And this is the heart of the reciprocity trade policy that Mr. Trump has put into effect. We started it in the first term when I was there. It's continuing in the second. There must not be choke points, and we have to be as strong as we need to be. Nobody likes protectionism, but there has to be reciprocity, and onshoring has now become an important thing for our whole economy.
Larry, as I've said many times, the only good thing about COVID—and we were just talking about your experience in the White House during the COVID crisis—the only good thing that it showed us is where many of the choke points are. And I often say in our trade discussions with China that we do not want to pull apart from them, but we have to derisk. We have to derisk. We have to derisk everywhere in the world. We could see the Iranians are trying to use the Strait of Hormuz as a choke point. It's not a choke point for the U.S., but it is a choke point for many other countries. But you know, that will be bypassed in two years, and in two years the Strait of Hormuz will be a worthless piece of water, as the oil will be going on pipelines across land. But we've seen semiconductors, critical minerals, advanced precursors for many of our medicines. I think probably everyone in this audience and everyone on TV who is listening to you has had a child that has had amoxicillin. We do not produce amoxicillin in the U.S. So we have to do that. And look, sometimes the people who say let the market work, the market will sort it out—well, there are market failures. There are market failures, and I think what we've learned is maximum efficiency is not maximally secure. Under President Trump's direction, there are a group of us in the administration who are securing all of these critical nodes in the supply chains, again, whether it's critical minerals, whether it's semiconductors. We're trying to bring 35% of the semiconductor production, the advanced semiconductor production, back into the U.S. by the end of the President's term or by the end of the decade, which is very important.
And I think it's interesting. I know sometimes the President embellishes just a wee bit.
