Posted on 08/25/2015 6:33:42 AM PDT by conservativejoy
The Dow Industrial Average fell by 358 points on Thursday and 531 points on Friday. Yesterday, after plunging more than a thousand points, it recovered to a “mere” 588 point loss. Economic growth has been slow, and another recession appears to be on the horizon. Could a President Donald Trump get the economy going again? So far he has only laid out the bare bones of his economic plan. But it has the makings of an excellent program.
Balancing Trade
First and foremost, he plans to negotiate balanced trade agreements and even threatens taxes on imports as a way to move trade into balance. If he moves trade toward balance, that would provide a tremendous boost to the economy. In the short term, demand for American made products would immediately increase. In the long-term, manufacturers would build many new American factories that incorporate the latest in production technologies.
These is a simple way to balance trade, explained in a book of which we are co-authors, a single-country-variable-tariff, Balanced Trade (Lexington Books, 2014).
The tariff goes up as a significant chronic trade deficit with a trading partner increases but diminishes as the trade deficit is reduced, disappearing completely when trade is brought close to balance.
Countries with whom trade is close to balance would not be affected. Only large countries with significant chronic surpluses in their trade with us would be affected. The tariff would raise the price of imports from the country to which it is applied but would yield substantial tariff revenues that would more than compensate for the high prices.
Jobs for the Unemployed
An increasing percentage of American workers have left the workforce or have reduced their working hours. Meanwhile, the new jobs that have been created have mostly gone to immigrants, some illegal, some legal.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Agreed. Completely.
Is it a constitutional duty of the Federal government to ensure that 'classic Pyrex' is available for your kitchen??
I actually don’t remember any economics in high school, but I was taught by a fairly right wing guy in College Econ 101. He shocked some of the students when talking about New York rent control that you should throw a garbage bag over the old lady that won’t vacate her low rent apartment and beat her with a phone book.
I'd pay a premium for a quality product made in the USA, too. But only if it's my choice, not a forced choice due to tariffs.
I never got to meet him but many of the WalMart drivers I talked to did.
He had a good reputation with everyone I knew who met him.
I think it’s arrogance really.
They can’t imagine someone not agreeing with them.
Japan has always been an insulated society.
Even after WW2, they may have adapted certain things but not others.
I have heard they have a fondness for cheesey pop music and for awhile hamburgers.
But they were very protective of their workers.
They may import something, but it will sit on the docks for months creating an artificial shortage.
I have read the customs agents would let produce sit on the docks until it spoiled, then reject it on quality standards.
I agree with the German over engineering.
Hey, it’s one of the reasons they lost WW2.
Their tanks were very complex and so took longer to produce. And they couldn’t be repaired in the field.
Our tanks were smaller and under gunned, but we could turn out thousands of them.
I have always heard if you bought a German car, you should go ahead and adopt a mechanic. You would need him.
That’s where limited tariffs come into play.
Give us the same access to their markets that we give to theirs and no tariff.
Restrict our products and we place tariffs on theirs.
But we have to have a government that will stick to the treaty and not weasel out.
Absolutely.
I was responding to Sequoyah101’s comments about it being hard to find quality goods.
If you think that is dangerous fraud you ought to try shackles for heavy lifting that are stamped “Crosby” and “Proof Tested” that are counterfeit... and other stuff like that.
Do us all a favor and police the area a little better when you break camp, okay???
I'm just commenting on the reality of international trade.
I was working last fall with some people from a Swiss company who wanted to sell their products in China. First they were told they would have to build a factory in China to produce the products there. Then they were told (after building the factory) that they would have to turn over all engineering and design documents to the Chinese government before production could start.
That's the reality of "free trade" with China: coerced investment and then theft of intellectual property.
Perhaps you should lay off the international "free trade" Kool Aide for a while.
Ummmmm, no.
In the post I responded to, you were calling for lots more antitrust enforcement.
Unless our antitrust laws apply to Chinese companies, in which case I must have missed a memo somewhere.....
Then you think that US companies don’t conspire to fix prices when they can? That there is no natural tendency towards monopoly?
I'm concerned about a regulatory environment (Sarb-Ox, Obamacare) which favors big companies to the detriment of their smaller competitors.
And I'm not happy about local government-granted monopolies of telecom and cable service.
But other than that, "price fixing" and a "natural tendency towards monopoly" is about 9,753rd on the list of things I worry about.
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