Posted on 02/05/2018 9:44:53 AM PST by SeekAndFind
TWO BIG THINGS threaten the improving U.S. economy: a weak dollar and trade protectionism. Both routinely seduce policymakers, and both always result in bitter aftermaths with terrible political consequences. Yet some in the Trump administration are playing with both--and with fire.
1) The dollar. Great nations do not have weak currencies. Nonetheless, with a surety born of ignorance, Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin has bluntly stated his desire for a weak dollar.
Thankfully, President Trump immediately contradicted him. But the fact that Mnuchin and his department want to undermine the value of our currency is troubling. Mnuchin has bought into the alluring fallacy that trashing the greenback will help sell more of our stuff overseas, thereby strengthening the U.S. economy. Such false and toxic notions obviously mean the poor fellow has completely forgotten real-world experiences.
This is an incontrovertible fact: No country has ever devalued its way to greatness and enduring prosperity. Ever.
[SNIP]
2) Protectionism. Trade deficits? In and of themselves, they tell you nothing. The U.S. has had merchandise trade deficits for most of its existence. A key to our growth has been--and still is--investment capital coming to our shores. We're starting to get inflows of hundreds of billions of dollars, thanks to the Trump tax bill.
It's one thing to update trade agreements such as Nafta, quite another to blow them up or try to dictate specific outcomes, such as forcing companies to move their facilities back to the U.S.
Ditto trade abuses, such as China's unfairly restricting access to its markets for foreign companies or forcing businesses to part with their proprietary technology, not to mention its outright theft of trade secrets via hacking.
But the thrust of trade negotiations should be reducing barriers, not erecting them via import taxes or anti-import regulations.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
I just pray that the Forbes aren’t part of the global Luciferian cabal. Only time will tell.
Remember when Forbes claimed Obama was wrong and 2% growth was not the best US could do?
Remember when Forbes successfully predicted the phenomenal stock market growth when Trump would take office?
Remember when Forbes decried Obama’s economic policies as harmful to the country?
Nah - neither do I - funny they want to claim the mantle of a knowledgeable authority now.
Doesn’t he support illegal immigration?
ya...welll....”trade protectionism” means different things to different people.
Opposing TPP which threatened U.S. sovereignty is NOT “trade protectionism”!
With all due respect, Mr. Forbes, we’ve been following your playbook for three decades, and it hasn’t exactly been working for us.
Massive increases in the deficit don’t help either.
>> I just pray that the Forbes aren’t part of the global Luciferian cabal <<
You’re prayers will not be answered, because Forbes definitely is very much a part of the cosmopolitan globalist conspiracy known as “logic and evidence.”
Steve Forbes is the quintessential GOPe/Wall St. type, so he’s nervous.
The Chamber Of Amnesty publishes a hissy fit.
Fake news.
This truncates what Mnuchin also said.
Mnuchin clarified his words and said, “everybody knows a weak dollar helps the economy ONLY in the SHORT TERM, but that it would never be long term policy”. President Trump jumped in also and clarified the original statement Mnuchin had made.
Forbes may not like Mnuchin, ya think? Nevertheless, Mnuchin is no dunce at math either.
Forbes backs “Trade deals,” fair to the U.S. or not, better not and they are for a constant US business supply of “cheap labor,” wherever it happens to appear in the U.S. regardless of how it screws ordinary American workers and taxpayers!
Forbes is after all about money!
I always thought Forbes was a serious source of financial information. I was wrong. Fortunately, they shot themselves in the foot right off the bat.
Making statements doesn't require knowledge or judgement. Explaining why or how, with concrete historical examples might, but that is never done. The "appealing to authority" thing again...
THREAD REJECTED! unread...
Was Forbes on the bandwagon of all the other mainstream ‘economists’ that were predicting a stock market crash if Trump was elected? I can’t recall specifically if Forbes was on board with that because I generally ignore the globalist crony capitalist crowd.
RE: Was Forbes on the bandwagon of all the other mainstream ‘economists’ that were predicting a stock market crash if Trump was elected?
As far as I can tell, Steve is NOT a never Trumper.
He likes the Corporate tax cut but has reservations about the individual tax policy because it does nothing to simplify things ( in fact it complicates tax filing for lots of earners ).
The man has his own economic point of view, which often diverges with the GOP.
I do remember them saying those things except for number two. Do you read Forbes? Did you predict the stock market growth? And it’s recent nose dive? I sure you did and you are wealthy because of it.
HAAHAH.
One thing that turned the economy around so suddenly was exactly that tough talk on trade. We don’t have free trade, we have managed trade. Trump merely pointed out it should no longer be managed to prop up US Foreign policy agendas but instead be used to future US economic interests.
The cabal are liquidating their assets
Steve Forbes has been against a weak dollar for ever. So, this is nothing new.
He is right about the rest of it though
People like Forbe’s author do not make fine distinctions between protectionism and fair trade policies.
NAFTA was flawed against America from the beginning. Trump will remedy the harmful policies which is not protectionism.
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