Posted on 08/12/2013 4:13:31 AM PDT by expat_panama
The World Trade Organization reports that the growth rate of global trade fell sharply from over 5% in 2011 to around 2% in 2012.
[snip]
...the U.S.’ “Buy American” initiative on government procurement (folded into the Obama stimulus package in 2009) probably restrained trade flows in a near-negligible way. No doubt that’s true, since it’s confined to certain categories of construction procurement and has more than a few loopholes. But does this mean that Buy American, or Buy French, or Buy Japanese, or Buy Madagascar stipulations on procurement are harmless after all?
[snip]
... the Dean Baker analysis reduces “Buy American” to the status of a bribe, not a policy initiative. And indeed, the imperfect analogy that comes to mind reading Baker’s Al Jazeera Editorial, would be for him to suggest that customs agents ought to have unobserved moments with their ‘customers,’ too, lest they can’t take the bribes that so smooth the flow of business which, in the big picture, really, is much more beneficial than a minor bribe is harmful.
[snip]
All it does is sacrifice comparative advantage to give domestic suppliers the illusion they are better off (a temporary effect at best). Buy Domestic bribes should be dropped from the repertoire altogether—preferably through binding mutual trade agreements. If that meant one less lure for those frankly phony stimulus bills, then all the better. Bargaining over extant Buy Domestic rules might bring hard, enforceable concessions that favor freer trade (bilateral or multilateral), where ‘Buy Domestic’ has become the poster child of nontariff barriers, all of which ideally should be eradicated.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Somehow it seems it’s been a long time since anyone’s wanted to push for buying gold or raising tariffs.
Weird.
Buy American made...
I think this is an important thing for many reasons the most important of course is this... if you don’t have a Job or another way of earning money, ie. Not being GIVEN money by the government. Then how can you buy any product no matter where it’s manufactured.
What’s the most common denominator of Barrios, Shanty towns, Tin hut alleys, etc. There is no WORK to earn money to better yourself and your family.
So buy American Made, you are helping Americans find and keep jobs here at home where they can buy the products that are made here at home.
Buy American.
Finally.
After an entire generation of American products is now manufactured overseas, and imported.
WTF took so long???
BUY AMERICAN.
It isn't rocket science. The more local the manufacture of goods and the supply of rescources/food is, the better it is for local economies. If it's less efficient, it means more jobs and income for the worker-bees and less for the manipulators.
Tariffs would put money in federal coffers. They would allow local economies to compete. Globalism by its very definition leaves a huge percentage of people behind...we become a cash crop for the elite to exploit when we become unnecessary.
Balderdash......
The age of isolationist is dead. We live in a world that thrives on trade.
To dream of a world that is no more is ok, but to demand reversion to the anomalous post war times when America had no competition is folly, sheer foolishness.
We do not live in a world of open trade.
We live in a world where AMERICAN PRODUCTS, are no longer made.
Bring back American manufacturing.
Stop buying everything from China.
The "thriving" isn't working real well for huge segments of the population of many nations.
Your ignorance is overwhelming. We thrive on trade and do quite well.
The trade laws around the world do not meet your ideas of Christlike purity but we are Americans and manage to negotiate the hurdles quite well. We pay no attention to doom and gloom isolationist clap trap, we forge ahead. We succeed. We make money.
Patience, patience...... time is a factor
Most importantly though is third world corruption factor
America needs to bring back American manufacturing, and American jobs.
We have exported the manufacture of things, for an entire generation now. We are not making things in America.
That has decimated what was once the most remarkable source of growth in the world.
Make things in America again. Now.
I’m doing a lot of work around two houses. Try to buy drywall screws, paintbrushes, nails or simple hand tools made in America. Cheap Chinese drywall screws are not even de-burred so I end up with fingers full of metal slivers. I cant find American made. Are Dodges made in Canada more American made than Subarus made in Georgia? This is not an easy matter.
I personally think Jobs will come back here based on largely on shipping costs and availability of energy here. I think its why the Chinese are buying property in Detroit.
Detroit is the northern gate of the busiest freight corridor on the continent. Its a port city with access to the interior of the continent. Michigan sits on an ocean of natural gas and GOP policies are increasingly business friendly. Plus Canada is building a second bridge over the river to ease the current trade bottleneck.
Quit drinking the “free trade” Kool-Aid. If it was “good for us” we would have record trade surpluses and countries borrowing money from us. Instead????? Follow the money.
The US taught and capitalized the rest of the world to build what we now buy from them. Had we not done so, they would still be buying from the US.
Japan (twice), Korea, now China just for example.....all built from medieval 3rd world economies into dominant world powers in less than a full generation.
The strategy in each....run your country’s economy for your exclusive benefit....not that of your competitors. Oh my gosh...capitalistic self interest on a national scale? Japan, Inc. they used to call it.
At the same time their econs were growing, the wealth spread across their societies as capital chased a shortening labor supply....wages and lifestyles skyrocketed while ours flattened and for many plummeted.
In turn, the US economy suffered an ever greater concentration of wealth amongst the ever narrowing elite monied class and the calculated erosion of the American middle class....last bastion of world freedom.
Would operating like USA, Inc. cause a trade war? Hope so....one we would still win as our market is far more valuable to others than theirs is to us....great negotiating position, eh? Wish I had it in my business.
There is no war now, because the US had been conditioned to bend over, spread our cheeks and even beg for more of the same.
Gee......almost looks like it was planned? Wonder why?
1. Many products that are made overseas would probably only be produced here in the U.S. in heavily automated plants with few employees anyway.
2. There are a lot of Americans employed in industries that are tied directly to foreign trade (stevedores at the ports, customs brokers, 3PLs, etc.).
bring back American manufacturing, and American jobs. --Cringing Negativism Network
Jobs will come back here --cripplecreek
Employment in America happens when one American hires another. There's no way this can be moved, kept, or brought back When a German shop keeper hires some German kid to mop up, it doesn't mean some American janitor has to quit.
This really isn't rocket science.
BUY AMERICAN MADE... AMERICA FIRST AND **** THE REST OF THE WORLD THAT ARE NOT OUR TRUE FRIENDS!
We need to stop thinking of trade as something the world does.
America once made everything.
In one single generation, we have sent American manufacturing to China.
Now China exports more than America.
Bring back US manufacturing.
In an open market, Americans have the right to choose who makes their products, including their neighbors.
And buying American often results in higher quality product than the ones made overseas for the lowest cost.
--even if that were true, raising import taxes only makes running a business harder; but it's not true:
US 2012 export of goods'n'services = 2,194.491 Billions of DollarsChina exports 2012 = 2049.185 Billions of Dollar
Chinese law is very clear:
Everything in China, is owned by China.
America is now in a completely new world. China is controlling everything.
Becoming stronger, and stronger.
Wake up people.
There’s that union problem that needs to be rectified first. Buy American at times can by analogous to buy union.
OK, so when that happens "often" then we don't need the government to control how, what, and where we spend our money. That means we can chuck the big government import tax hikes.
The Detroit bus company is a perfect example of people being willing to pay more for the services they desire. They’re a private bus company growing in a city with a taxpayer funded bus service because little things like dropping an old woman off at her front door with her groceries is worth the extra cost.
Let's think a second. This is what a factory looks like:
It's not possible for it to move "somewhere else". What is possible though is that the factory can get shut down when taxes are raised, and that's why we don't want import tax hikes.
LOL Moron.
If he’s the best the globalists have to put up, we’ve got nothing to worry about. LOL
We know that's crazy. It would mean there are no Americans are building American owned factories in China with dollars that pay for say, the surge in "U.S. Agriculture Exports To China".
Our “surge in imports to China” is temporary.
China owns the plants. America, for all its greatness, has a huge, historic blindness about China.
We are being played.
I really, really wish I believed otherwise.
But we are being played. Big time.
How many Americans own stock in Honda, Nissan, and Toyota, versus General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler? In a world of publicly traded companies, is it possible to “buy” American? As a side note, my husband and I will never purchase a GM or Chrysler product. I don’t car how many salt-of-the-earth Americans they employ.
I’ve always wondered if it were more ‘American’ to buy a Chrysler made in Canada than to buy a Subaru made in Indiana.
This movie was made in 1976, and it’s even more true today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jmuhZY2mgs
Everything in life is temporary, but it this isn't permanent--
--then it'll do until real 'permanent' comes along.
You’re right.
Ag is the one area we have a trade surplus.
Everything else, well I wanted to use another word, but let’s just say ... is less than optimal.
Overall our trade balance with China is real, real bad.
Over all trade with China balances to zero.
The sum of all the stuff we buy from China equals all the stuff we sell. That so-called 'trade deficit' is when we buy goods'n'services and sell an equal amount of stuff like like say, buildings and patent rights. Then again, even though the balance may always equal zero, it's the amount of total buying and selling that we want to increase.
I (strongly) disagree with your statement.
China is running a huge surplus with America now.
And it is getting ever worse.
We could check the record on international payments US/China, but it's easier just to remember that Americans buy & sell stuff in dollars while the Chinese buy/sell in Yuan. That means when I buy an oz. of gold from China with dollars, the only thing they can possibly do with those dollars is buy something from an American. If they buy a building in Shanghai that I owned, then there are folks that complain about a trade deficit.
It doesn't make sense to say it's bad for America if I swap a building I made for Chinese gold.
This is a patently wrong and dishonest statement....even for you.
What's truly moronic, however, is people -- who consider themselves conservative -- that think being able to freely choose the best products and services for their families is unpatriotic. To stop this injustice, these same conservatives willingly empower the government to further control the economy to right this perceived wrong. The net result is fewer choices, higher costs and bigger government.
Gee, thanks for nothing you big government conservatives.
You blame conservatives for big government? Wow
On second thought, never mind. I don’t have enough respect for you to bother reading your answer anyway.
Considering the fact that I suggest that the free market will bring jobs back to America by natural means. Oddly enough these “free” marketeers seem awfully opposed to letting it happen.
Don’t get to riled up. That post by Mase is incoherent and irresponsible. If I didn’t know better I would think Stephanie Cutter wrote it.
Second, the only way you're going to protect industries that can't compete for the many reasons I cited is to plead for the government to do something. You are either in favor of the freedom to trade (and the freedom to locate your business anywhere you choose) or you are a protectionist. You are arguing like the latter. Protectionists want the government to do something to solve the "problem" and that always results in more regulation, higher taxes, union protection, and on and on. There are a lot of people who consider themselves conservative that believe when it comes to trade the government all of a sudden becomes responsible, capable and reliable. You're sure sounding like one of those people on this thread.....and you're not alone.
Don't like it? Tough. If you're going to post like a protectionist, then learn to deal with it.
They talk free markets but its pretty clear that what they really want is managed markets. If encouraging the relaxation of taxation and regulations makes me a big government type then I’m the biggest.
These threads are rife with folks demanding government do something to bring jobs back, reduce the trade deficit, and increase our manufacturing. Problem is, government is the only reason unemployment is high, and why businesses look for better places to conduct business.
Finally, anyone who responds with pathetic and childish name calling whenever someone makes that point, shouldn't get all defensive and whiny when someone points out their errors.
Yeah, whatever. In the future you’ll just continue with the name calling whenever someone points out the flagrant inconsistency in your posts. Nice.
I have read this thread and cannot see where big government is the answer to anything.
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