Trade War Negatives

Time Magazine recently quoted Michael J. Hicks, an economics professor, on the Trade War with China. They highlighted his quote in red ink in a sidebar with bigger type. Hicks said, “Almost no company isn’t going to import something from China.” I have to work hard to make sure I understand his point which I think is: “Almost every company is going to import something from China.” I cannot be sure for two reasons. First, we have now popularly interpreted double negatives as simple negatives. For example, the phrase I don’t got no money is generally taken to mean I don’t have any money. Secondly, I cannot be sure because I did not actually read the article which looked really boring. But I think I can make the Hicks quote less boring: “Almost no company isn’t going to import nothing from China.”

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