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Odd, Perot was the person who coined the phrase "giant sucking sound" when NAFTA was signed. Tariff-free trade between the U.S. and Mexico meant that U.S. manufacturers could ship parts to Mexico duty-free, have them assembled into finished products, then shipped back to the U.S. duty-free again. The giant sucking sound was U.S. manufacturing jobs being sucked south of the border to Mexico. I think time has proven Perot to be absolutely correct in this.

Tariff-free trade with an equal partner such as the E.U. makes sense, but tariff-free trade with a partner who has vastly different wage and living standards only invites exploitation of those wage differences at the expense of the higher living standard workers.

So which part did Rush say he was wrong about?

So which part did Rush say he was wrong about?

I paraphrase: he said he bought off on free trade decades ago based on phony economic theory. 'Free trade' was sold as 'they' get to export to us duty free and 'they' can tariff out exports all they want. This is what was passed off as 'free trade' back in the day. He also said retaliatory tariffs are necessity and Trump is/was right to do so.

As far as NAFTA goes, he had originally not supported NAFTA ( I am a long time listener and I don't remember that but I take him at his word) but some old guy economist, whose name I can't remember, erroneously led him astray on 'free' trade. So he became anti Perot and pro NAFTA.

Some good radio today.

Odd, Perot was the person who coined the phrase "giant sucking sound" when NAFTA was signed.

I remember when Perot was running for President, and during one of his Show and Tell TV spots, he showed a picture of a Ford factory in Mexico and asked "What's wrong with this picture?"

I couldn't see anything until he pointed out that there were no parking lots - the people who worked there, unlike their American counterparts, couldn't afford to buy the products they made. They were bussed in from the barrios.

I worked in Macon, GA at the time, and when NAFTA went through, there was an article about a small black community where the only jobs were at a broom factory. They packed up and headed for Mexico and the whole town had to go on welfare.

Later on I landed a gig in the midwest and drove through areas where there were abandoned facories. I went through the same area and the factories were torn down as taxes on bare land was lower that on empty buildings. I thought at the time that we'd never see them come back. Glad I was wrong.