Posted on 01/29/2009 7:22:27 PM PST by Crazieman
Actually it is the only sound argument....
Do you really think it is better for Communist China to buy our t-bills and bank accounts? That money would be better served being held by Americans.
The global reality is that the US has a multi-trillion dollar trade deficit. Even if that money is reinvested into the US...it is still held by non-Americans...our economy is at the mercy of foreigners
And Communist China isnt exactly “friendly” with the USA.
Also, Communist China keeps American exports from being sold in China...as China floats their currency to artificially lower the value of their domestic goods...and keeping US goods artifically high.
Actually....the Free Trade Globalism you espouse is the “Third Way”....you should familiarize yourself more with “Third Way” before making that accusation.
The reality is that Free Trade Globalism does not work....will not work...and will never work.
The Third Way, first articulated by the likes of Joseph Broz Tito and Juan Peron (with its roots in Mussolini’s Italy) emphasized economic nationalism (via import substitution) as a “third way” between laissez faire capitalism and communism.
The globalists love to come out with that trinket talisman every time they get a whiff of protectionism coming. If protectionism was so bad, then how did we manage to grow so powerful while it was a significant part of US economic policy? By the end of the Civil War, which was far more about tariffs than about slavery, we had achieved a level of industrial and military power that had the British trembling with fear. Little of the industrial base that enabled the protectionist Union to smash the free-trade Confederacy would've existed without the protectionism that made sure those industries could grow.
Really? Third Way politics have been around a long time. In fact the Mennonites are major proponents and advocates of Third Way politics.
Third Way has nothing to do with economic nationalism...you think Bill Clinton (probably the biggest US proponent of Third Way politics) was some sort of economic nationalist...With his wife? Uh yeah right
Excellent points...
The British were the first European power to advocate Free Trade in the 19th C....and it led to the protectionist United States and protectionist Germany surpassing the British in manufacturing and GDP by the end of the century. The British went from THE economic power to getting bypassed by relatively new nations (Germany only formed as a nation in 1871).
The “protectionist” system has historically been successful...whereas the Free Trade model has not.
Sigh....
We’d all love to be able to “Buy American” as a choice. Bill’s Khaki’s, Carhartt, Vera Bradley, etc....We can support America and Americans. But it has to be by choice!
We should instead entice American companies to come home and employ people by:
1) Drastically lowering corporate taxes
2) Passing a national right to work law
3) Addressing illegal immigration by closing the borders and kicking them OUT!
I second that.
We should replace the corporate income tax with the VAT. That would put American manufacturing on a more even field with foreign competitors.
George Soros, the billionaire investor famed for "breaking the Bank of England" has launched another assault in recent months, cashing in as Britain's currency slid.
By Edmund Conway in Davos
Last Updated: 9:09PM GMT 28 Jan 2009
The hedge fund manager, whose assault on sterling in 1992 was seen as responsible for causing the UK to leave the Exchange Rate Mechanism and forcing up interest rates to double-digit levels, said he had been selling off sterling in recent months.
It comes with experts warning that the slide in the pound over the past year has been the worst ever seen by the UK currency, and with others predicting that the UK may have to seek emergency funding from the International Monetary Fund as a result.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in the Alpine Swiss town of Davos, Mr Soros said he had foreseen the recent fall in the pound, which has slid from over $2 against the dollar to below $1.40 in recent weeks.
However, he indicated that he did not expect it to fall much further - a comment which caused sterling to leap yesterday by more than 1 per cent to almost $1.44.
Mr Soros said: "I did actually have a short position in sterling and it was one of the trades I carried out. But sterling did fall from around $2 to about $1.40 and at that level the risk-reward balance is no longer compelling. I'm not saying won't fall any more though - it will continue to fluctuate"
Mr Soros also warned that the scale of the current economic crisis was now potentially even worse than the Great Depression in the 1930s and urged Western nations to set up "bad banks" to absorb their toxic assets.
The truth is always in style.
I’d like to see a cartoon of Obama and Pelosi stealing televisions and stereos out of a store called “Future Generations”.
That’s loopy.
bump
bump for later.
People we do not have a shortage of goods to buy, the general population is so deep in debt they cannot afford to buy.
The average American household’s credit card debt in 1990 was $2,966. In 2007 it was $9,840.
Free trade is not the reason Americans are in debt. That is a complete lie.
Americans are in debt due to materialism and the breakdown of morality.
Too many people want "things" they cannot afford or just want to keep up with friends.
THAT is why Americans are in debt.
No, the VAT is just another "behind-the-scenes" tax that consumers do not see. Governments use the VAT destructively while the corporations get the blame for high prices.
The only true answer is a sales tax that everyone sees on their bill and pays for at the time of transaction. Only then will people wake up to how much they are sending to Washington.
Would you please show where I said that it was. Thank YOU!!
Free trade and open borders brought us here.
People we do not have a shortage of goods to buy, the general population is so deep in debt they cannot afford to buy.
The average American household’s credit card debt in 1990 was $2,966. In 2007 it was $9,840.
The above is from YOUR post #28
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.