Posted on 01/03/2012 6:34:54 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Governor Mitt Romney’s greatest economic policy weakness is not the timidity of his tax plan, as limited as it is. His Achilles’ heel has been ignored by the media and gone largely unchallenged by those vying for the Republican nomination. And, it is the one part of his economic platform that is virtually identical to a failed Obama Administration policy.
What is it? His support for a weak dollar policy — especially relative to the Chinese yuan — as a way to improve U.S. competitiveness.
On his first day in office, Romney promises an executive order “to sanction China for Unfair Trade Practices.” The order:
“Directs the Department of the Treasury to list China as a currency manipulator in its biannual report and directs the Department of Commerce to assess countervailing duties on Chinese imports if China does not quickly move to float its currency.”
“Float” is code for forcing the yen higher against the dollar. By advocating a strong yuan/weak dollar, Romney has embraced President Nixon’s greatest policy error, and is following in the footsteps of Presidents Carter, Bush 41, Bush 43 and Obama, each of whose weak dollar policies produced a desultory affect on the U.S. economy and American living standards.
For all of its intuitive appeal, a weak dollar has failed time and time again to increase U.S. growth rates or benefit its manufacturing sector. The dollar’s value has fallen more than 70% against the euro/German mark and Japanese yen since Nixon first broke the final link between the dollar and gold in 1971. Yet, net exports have gone from near balance to massive deficits in excess of 3% of GDP.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Why do people to continue to put opinions in the title instead of the provided comment box?
Why do people to continue to put opinions in the title instead of the provided comment box?Yes, that's a puzzler, but at least we can all agree that the author of RomneyCare with all its new taxes, new rules, its exchanges, and its mandates, a botch of policy that is functionally identical to ObamaCare, should never be the GOP nominee.
RE: Why do people to continue to put opinions in the title instead of the provided comment box?
It’s an FR tradition.
That reason is that the ruling class mostly agrees with his worldview and is not opposed to the direction he is taking the country.
Mitt Romney is one of them.
Romney hasn’t been vetted at all this primary, with the exception of an occational passing mention of Romneycare.
As soon as someone competent (like Gingrich) turns his fire on Romney, Romney will go down like a sack of rocks. Bachmann and Santorum could even easily destroy Romney if they wished. Only Perry is to inept to actually point out the target rich environment that is Myth Romney.
They are trying to sway us with an opinion. Heaven would be Romney as president, and a republican House and Senate to hold his feet to the fire about some things.
Do you people want 4 more years of Obama and his EPA dictatorship?
"Mr. President! We've detected multiple launches of nukes from Iran, what will you do?!?"
"Well, I'll tell you one thing, when I'm a god and I create my universe, those things just aren't going to be allowed."
BADABADABOO-OO-OOMMM... /s
If you want to "deal" with China's trade gap, then the government should encourage savings. First stop running deficits that we need to finance with foreign money. Then create a tax code and retirement system that encourages individuals to save rather than hoping for government welfare masked as social security. If this happens, then business will have available capital to invest in the US and not rely on foreign supply chains. China will then have to take all those dollars and invest in the US which will create jobs or dump them on foreign markets which will create a "weaker" dollar which will make our products further competitive without at home inflationary pressure.
However, it is much easier for the politicians to blame China, erect trade barriers, hurt the US consumer, get donations from big business and Union, rather than fix the real problem.
great . we can look forward to another GW Bush, who increased spending faster than LBJ.
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.