I’m not living on borrowed money. I worked 80 hrs a week and had to be away from all all the time and missed much of my kids growing up so that I managed to retire before I was 47.
This oil spill may end up driving me back into some kind of career activity, if just because it will take away my ability to go fishing all day it looks like.
Having said that, the price of imports going up to the point where they can’t compete with domestic products is probably a good thing. I used to be a huge free trader as most MBAs are but for our country, we can’t have both free trade status and maintain a strong currency vis-a-vis the rest of the world with the costs of livings and US dollar living standards we have in America.
That’s what spurs outsourcing.
I think dollar depreciation represents one way to at least bring down unemployment and therefore ensure stability. Would I stand to lose money? Absolutely. It’s why I’ve begun reducing my liquidity and putting it into what I hope are fiat proof assets. It doesn’t mean I can’t see that from the macroprospective the US is facing a lot of unattractive choices and devaluation of the dollar is among the least unattractive of them.
I think we must start adopting FAIR TRADE POLICIES to go along with our FREE TRADE POLICIES even if it means getting into tariff wars with our trading partners. Most of our big trading partners such as China take advantage of us trading wise. It’s about time we fought back and use the same tools these guys use against them.