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Republican Shocker: Free Trade's Not So Good After All
CNBC ^
| 10-4-07
| John Harwood
Posted on 10/04/2007 7:07:18 AM PDT by SJackson
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To: grey_whiskers
If China's currency gets too low, they face inflation and high unemployment, if it has been held artificially low for too long. I'm talking about the impact on the US, not the impact on China. Try again?
521
posted on
10/05/2007 6:58:50 PM PDT
by
Toddsterpatriot
(Ignorance of the laws of economics is no excuse.)
To: grey_whiskers
Looks suspiciously like someone with a vested interest, at least on the outside. As I said, I benefit from a strong dollar, I benefit from a weak dollar.
522
posted on
10/05/2007 6:59:04 PM PDT
by
Toddsterpatriot
(Ignorance of the laws of economics is no excuse.)
To: flaglady47
Isn’t it great? We buy lots of stuff because we’re wealthy.
To: Toddsterpatriot
I wouldn't even bother trying to explain. It's just an ad hominem, anyway.
To: dennisw
It's not that complicated. "You cut your tariff on my widgets to zero, and I'll cut my tariff on your widgets to zero" is a workable policy. It also happens to be an ideal.
National security widgets are a completely different story, and your typical protectionist works overtime to conflate the two.
To: 1rudeboy
“Isnt it great? We buy lots of stuff because were wealthy.”
We won’t be if we continue to get screwed by bad trade policies that benefit the other parties but not us. That will have a big impact; it already is with off-shoring, shrinking U.S. manufacturing base, cheaply made products that bust or wear out in two seconds, lower wages for our workers, illegals replacing our workers further lowering wages, our car industry going down the tubes to foreign competition, undercutting of our own U.S. industries by foreign businesses propped up by gov’t subsidies, tariffs on our goods, closed markets to our products, ad nauseum. Oh, but everything is just fine, isn’t it. Free trade is wonderful. Pie in the sky my dear. Open those peepers and see the reality, not the fantasy.
526
posted on
10/05/2007 7:09:08 PM PDT
by
flaglady47
(Thinking out loud while grinding teeth in political frustration)
To: Toddsterpatriot
Just think of the likely effects on the US if China *does* have a bust...
As I said, Communists don't have any experience with "boom and bust" and the social unrest will probably provide a convenient excuse for the Chicoms to crack down, or to pick a war with the US or invade Taiwan, in order to distract from their own domestic failings.
Just like Bill Clinton did with the Lewinsky hearings, and as Dubya has been accused of doing by the left.
Cheers!
527
posted on
10/05/2007 7:15:29 PM PDT
by
grey_whiskers
(The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
To: flaglady47
What do you propose we do? This crap has been going on for years. I’ll give you a reading assignment. Go look at the “Hawley-Smoot Tariff” and get back with me.
To: flaglady47
And you're making my point. Fixating on trade as the cause of that laundry-list of problems is myopic, and it allows the
greater (in most cases) and
true (in some cases) causes to go unaddressed. Conservatives should be making it easier for U.S. companies to do business by reforming our tax, regulatory, and legal structures instead of sounding like Democrats.
If I posted a thread about the fact that U.S. companies pay the highest corporate income tax rate in the world (or second highest, depending how you calculate), and the fact that they must pay it on their world-wide income actually encourages them to offshore their operations the thread would skyrocket to seven replies . . . and your typical paleo-isolationist would be afraid to show his face there. But post a thread with a suitably-negative headline, and they flood here to whine. You don't have to be very smart to realize what's going on.
To: grey_whiskers
I compared them to a grocery store since you were ridiculing me for their "small" profit margin.Their profit margin is small.
And Wal-Mart sells food, too, including Chinese tilapia, for example.
How much of their total revenue is food, including Chinese tilapia, for example?
How does that compare to a typical grocery store?
530
posted on
10/05/2007 7:18:44 PM PDT
by
Toddsterpatriot
(Ignorance of the laws of economics is no excuse.)
To: flaglady47
And a trillion dollar trade deficit. And that hurts us how exactly?
531
posted on
10/05/2007 7:18:45 PM PDT
by
Toddsterpatriot
(Ignorance of the laws of economics is no excuse.)
To: grey_whiskers
Just think of the likely effects on the US if China *does* have a bust... I'm interested in the effects on the US of a weak Chinese currency. I'm interested in the effects on the US of a weak dollar.
532
posted on
10/05/2007 7:20:21 PM PDT
by
Toddsterpatriot
(Ignorance of the laws of economics is no excuse.)
To: Toddsterpatriot
I compared them to a grocery store since you were ridiculing me for their "small" profit margin.Their profit margin is small.
But not as small as grocery stores -- groceries get a disproportionate share of their profits from personal care and 'sundries' ; I don't have access to the relative profitability of different product lines or departments at Wally World.
Cheers!
533
posted on
10/05/2007 7:23:38 PM PDT
by
grey_whiskers
(The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
To: grey_whiskers
I don't have access to the relative profitability of different product lines or departments at Wally World.Excellent!
Perhaps you could show how WalMart's profit margins suddenly jumped when they "'encouraged' its suppliers to engage in wage arbitrage, pocketed the bulk of the savings, and passed a bit of the savings on to its consumers"
Since their percentage of foreign goods sold must be getting higher every year, according to some Freepers 100% of their goods are already from China, it should be easy to show that their profit margin is constantly rising.
Cheers!
534
posted on
10/05/2007 7:36:28 PM PDT
by
Toddsterpatriot
(Ignorance of the laws of economics is no excuse.)
To: Toddsterpatriot
I'll reply shortly -- I have a teenager to deal with here ;-)
Cheers!
535
posted on
10/05/2007 7:43:52 PM PDT
by
grey_whiskers
(The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
To: SJackson
Why is it happening? Um, might the $700 billion annual trade deficits running on and on, have something to do with it? How about parity with the Canadian dollar and a 50% rise in the Euro, since the last time they bothered to take the poll?
Pundits always think the American people react to rhetoric and their leading editorials. The American people react to reality. It is ideologues who don't.
536
posted on
10/05/2007 7:48:22 PM PDT
by
JasonC
To: Toddsterpatriot
537
posted on
10/05/2007 7:54:08 PM PDT
by
processing please hold
(Duncan Hunter '08) (ROP and Open Borders-a terrorist marriage and hell's coming with them)
To: processing please hold
538
posted on
10/05/2007 7:56:45 PM PDT
by
Toddsterpatriot
(Ignorance of the laws of economics is no excuse.)
To: pissant
That to me is an egregious assault on our sovereignty, as bad as the idiots on the SCOTUS citing international laws.And it'll only get worse.
539
posted on
10/05/2007 7:57:01 PM PDT
by
processing please hold
(Duncan Hunter '08) (ROP and Open Borders-a terrorist marriage and hell's coming with them)
To: JasonC
Um, might the $700 billion annual trade deficits running on and on, have something to do with it? Americans buying lots and lots of foreign goods makes Americans think free trade is bad?
540
posted on
10/05/2007 7:58:22 PM PDT
by
Toddsterpatriot
(Ignorance of the laws of economics is no excuse.)
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