The Sphinx in Winter

The American Conservative ^ | 03-01-04 | Eamonn Fingleton

[NMC EXP]

Greenspan’s message on trade is the simplistic one of a thousand undergraduate economics textbooks: trade benefits the consumer. And of course this is true—to a point....What the textbooks rarely mention is that the larger an economy is, the less it stands to gain from international trade.

[NMC EXP]

Trade FYI.....

[Willie Green]

Strangely, though, one crucial economic concern gets short shrift: international trade. Not only are there no trade statistics, but America’s perennially rising trade deficits have received virtually no attention from the Fed’s monograph writers in recent years.

Those stats are available at Foreign Trade Division, U.S. Census Bureau

[NMC EXP]

Thanks for the link.

No wonder this sort of info is hard to find.....the Census Bureau tracking foreign trade stats.

Go figure.

Regards

J.R.

[Bob J]

Some will characterize this as America falling behind while others, correctly, will bill it as the rest of the world catching up.

[A. Pole]

The U.S. has already sold so much of its asset base that its economic standing on the world stage has been significantly undermined. While this may not be obvious to the American public, it is shockingly clear in figures compiled by the International Monetary Fund. These show that between 1989 and 2000, America’s net foreign liabilities ballooned from $47 billion to $2,187 billion.

Free trade bump.

[bvw]

President Washington considered the risks of outsourcing, and warned against it in his 1796 annual address. (See http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1083465/posts?page=8#8)

[A. Pole]

Their buy-the-dollar policy makes no sense on a stand-alone basis. It makes eminent sense, however, as part of a larger strategy. That strategy is to facilitate a historic shift in the world’s manufacturing center-of-gravity. The Japanese have an adage that explains it all: "Ebi de tai o tsuru" — "Use a shrimp to catch a sea bream."

Scary.

[the invisib1e hand]

President Washington considered the risks of outsourcing, and warned against it in his 1796 annual address.

care to simplify?

[stylin19a]

The dollar is lately being propped by japan.

-Japan is on an unprecedented spending spree, all focused on the same product: the U.S. dollar.

Tokyo bought an astounding $172 billion last year to keep the yen from strengthening too much against the greenback. The push accelerated in January, when Japan snapped up another $67 billion.

Japan's economy is starting to stabilize...but how long can they keep buying the dollar ?

[templar]

Some will characterize this as America falling behind while others, correctly, will bill it as the rest of the world catching up

The balance of trade deficit? Hardly.

[Porterville]

Only one man has the capacity to provide effective leadership on this: the Federal Reserve chairman. But Greenspan has long since proved himself incompetent to the task. The key charge against him is a startling one: a signal lack of intellectual curiosity. Faced with a trade trend that has defied all textbook theory, he has monumentally failed to ask intelligent questions.

I don't much care for Greenspan, but in this posting there are so many comments like this that go nowhere. This writer pulls you into a thesis, sparks your interest, gets you saying to yourself, "Yeah really," and then changes the subject. One anti climax after another. I feel like I was thrown around like a Russian Politician.

[Porterville]

And the similes, the guy uses more similes than a Kindergartners phonics book.

[ETERNAL WARMING]

Excellent article. What amazes me is that either our leaders have no common sense, or they know exactly what they're doing, ie. NWO sell out. Our son graduated from Sloan Business College-MIT in the spring. They no longer teach that Free Trade is THE means of creating wealth. Thank God! It's also good to see more and more of those in powerful positions coming out on our side of the issue. How long can we be a superpower when we're indebted to every pissant nation on the face of the earth? How long can we remain sovereign when they can blackmail us any time they choose? How long can we defend ourselves when we don't even manufacture most of our weaponry? This has to stop. And it has to stop now.

[neutrino]

Powerful article. Thanks for the ping.

I think we're in deep trouble...this article does nothing to reduce my concern. When will the free-traders start thinking instead of spouting slogans?

[Porterville]

similies, actually more like analogies....

[Clintonfatigued]

Corporate America is so funnel-visioned towards short-term personal gain that they unaware that they are selling out America. Foreign debt on this scale can destroy national sovereignty and put us at the mercy of multi-national congolmerates.

[RaceBannon]

I hate it when arm chair economists who never worked in a factory in their life tell us who did work all our lives in a factory how good it is to see factory work disappear.


Make sure you keep repeating the mantra!

The problem is not jobs leaving the country, it is not capital equipment leaving the country, the problem is not intellectual property leaving the country, the problem is not contracts going to communistic/fascistic/socialistic government run countries that prop up their companies with government funds to defer losses that the US companies cannot compete against...

THE PROBLEM IS YOUR ATTITUDE ABOUT IT!! JUST KEEP TELLING YOURSELF THINGS WILL GET BETTER AND THEY WILL!

"But, in general, the protective system of our day is conservative, while the free trade system is destructive. It breaks up old nationalities and pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade." ~ Karl Marx, On the Question of Free Trade, January 9, 1848
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/01/09ft.htm#marx

[FreedomPoster]

>>Some will characterize this as America falling behind while others, correctly, will bill it as the rest of the world catching up.

Thank you!

This stood out:

>>--America’s share of world manufacturing has fallen from 60 percent in 1950 to less than 25 percent today.

In 1950, much of the world was still removing rubble and rebuilding from WWII. And much was behind the Iron and Bamboo Curtains.

[Happy2BMe]

You would be absolutely stunned to find out how much real property and business countries such as Saudi Arabia and Japan own in the United States.

Now, even China is getting in on the act.