Posted on 11/06/2004 2:45:55 PM PST by Willie Green
Then why do we get larger and larger trade deficits?
Where have I heard that? Oh wait...I posted that myself. When do I get my award in economics?
Wal-Mart buys everything from China to give American consumers the lowest prices until every American is unemployed and can't even buy a hot dog. Everything at Wal-Mart eventually costs a nickel and no American has a nickel to spend.
There's nothing wrong with Friedman's life's work.
Nor Samuelson's, for that matter.
They are both Nobel Laureates, afterall.
It's just that Milton has become more senile and set in his ways.
He no longer has the mental agility to evaluate changing market conditions and adjust his perspective accordingly. He just chants the same old mantra, even though market conditions have changed.
those "freed up resources" are going to go to taxes - to pay for all the social welfare programs americans who now have lower wage jobs, will need. and to pay for the increasing number of americans working for government, directly and indirectly.
Within the current timeframe it's mostly due to Clinton's overly strong dollar. But the economy can take decades to reach equilibrium, and it's still recovering from the Bretton Woods era (early 1940's to early 1970's) when the dollar and imports and exports were artificially held flat. People put too much emphasis on imports and exports. A far better focus is on GDP and productivity growth.
yes, and we don't want america to enter that hole that you correctly point out, europe is in. keeping a strong private sector middle class job/wage base is the only way to do that.
It is not free trade that plagues us. It is not low paying jobs. It is the lack of will of Americans to educate themselves in new career fields. George Bush had it right all long in the debates when he spoke of education being the key to evolving the jobs market, and America. But, people expect the government to hand jobs to them. This is NOT the Soviet Union. "Every man, according to his ability."
USA is also being drained by the high wage economies which shifted their taxation to the Value Added Tax. This tax works like a tarrif on the imports from America and like a subsidy on exports. The impact of VAT might be higher than labor cost difference or cost of regulations.
USA need a national economical policy in order to avoid the fate of Argentina.
Don't you think it's past time for blaming Clinton for all our economic problems?
Conservatives expect a business-friendly domestic economic environment that generates employment opportunities.
The Bush Administration's priorities don't address that expectation.
The administration has left federal regulatory burdens in place while undermining our economic efforts with imported goods and labor. It is a form of economic tyranny being waged against the American Middle Class for the benefit of transnational corporate interests.
the US auto industry is protected by both tariffs (light trucks) and import quotas. foreign manufacturers are building plants all over the US, hiring americans.
You give too much credit to the Administration, I think you mean Congress and the Senate. They are the law makers who created the regalutory burdens in the first place. By the way, talking about a friendly environtment for employment creation, did you see the jobs numbers for the month of October? 337,000 Jobs!!!
Smoot-Hawley's impact on the Great Depression is about the same magnitude that cow farts have on the ozone hole.
Yes, we should all pray for more destructive hurricanes to hit Florida to help generate temporary, government subsidized, construction jobs. </sarcasm>
Ain't it great? I was saddened to hear that Mitsubishi is closing some plants, though. My Sebring is well made.
???
Would you care to try again... in English perhaps?
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff was more a consequence of the onset of the Great Depression than an initial cause. But while the tariff might not have caused the Depression, it certainly did not make it any better. It provoked a storm of foreign retaliatory measures and came to stand as a symbol of the ‘beggar-thy-neighbor’ policies (policies designed to improve one’s own lot at the expense of that of others) of the 1930s. Such policies contributed to a drastic decline in international trade. For example, U.S. imports from Europe declined from a 1929 high of $1,334 million to just $390 million in 1932, while U.S. exports to Europe fell from $2,341 million in 1929 to $784 million in 1932. Overall, world trade declined by some 66% between 1929 and 1934. More generally, Smoot-Hawley did nothing to foster trust and cooperation among nations in either the political or economic realm during a perilous era in international relations.
japan inc has had more than its share of problems. they export but refuse to buy imports. in the 80s this surplus of cash drove real estate sky high, and then everything came crashing down. japanese isolationism (more adequately put: exportationism) literally makes the japenese slaves of others: they work like hell, but because they don't buy imports, they do not reap the benefits of their wages.
miti and japan's private businesses do have enourmous clout. too bad they are not using this clout to solve their economic problems.
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