Posted on 04/04/2009 6:57:06 AM PDT by LowCountryJoe
[Snip]Free trade has another, less appreciated benefit: It frees domestic resources for use in newer, more productive pursuits. Workers, land, steel, fuel, and other resources in the United States that were once used to make, say, shoes and television sets, are today used to design Web sites, to erect cellphone towers, to carry out research in pharmaceutical labs, to perform Lasik surgery, and to do countless other jobs that wouldn't exist if trade were less open.
Trade fuels economic change, precisely what many crisis-wracked countries desperately need. Resources must be reallocated from inefficient activities -- such as the bloated housing market in the United States, or its automaker behemoth -- to more viable pursuits, consistent with consumers' genuine desires and abilities to pay. Inevitably, some producers will go bankrupt while other new industries will soar.
This economic change, however, is rather inconvenient for leaders hoping to "stimulate" the global economy. Economic change is a painful adjustment, and not one that can be completed overnight. "Stimulus" only delays the necessity of undertaking this process. By adding massive amounts of government demand to the demands of consumers, stimulus -- like protectionism -- keeps resources employed in familiar yet wasteful ways. When the government bails out failing industries, sets up home-mortgage subsidies, and props up sagging companies that agree to keep employees on, it prevents those resources from moving to new, more promising sectors. Stimulus, like protectionism, prevents the economy from shedding inappropriate activities and taking on more appropriate ones.
Government stimulus shelters producers from the need to adjust today to the true state of consumer desires. As a result, the future becomes less robust and less prosperous.[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at experts.foreignpolicy.com ...
So, does this mean that you generally agree with bailouts and subsidies?
Recession Named The Reason For Worldwide Slump In Shark Attacks.
Protectionism is long overdue.
We have almost entirely given away the farm.
It’s past time to stop doing that.
AMERICA FIRST.
Protectionism is the word they use like libtards use the word racism. It should be treated the same way for exactly the same reasons.
I call it self preservationism.
The only things we need this protectionism from is the TOTUS and congress.
Mostly nonsense. The bloated housing market was caused by stupid government interference in the market, not by "inefficient activities". And the slow correction and turnaround seems to already be underway.
The "automaker behemoth" was profitable only a couple of years ago, and was paying $2.00 per share dividends. The auto industries current problems are far more a function of gasoline prices that rose from less than $2.00 per gallon to $4.00+ in about a year. Then, that was followed by the financial crisis where most investors saw their holdings decrease in value by 40% or more, and understandably became less interested in major purchases. This 'analyst' also failed to mention that all major auto producers have experienced huge drops in sales and some losses.
This guy is just taking the recent government caused crises and trying to force them to support his narrow view of the US and world economies.
He's simply pointing out that it's rather ironic that, with the evidence we have of government medding contributing to this problem, your typical protectionist sees the solution to be more government meddling.
Seems to follow the standard line - US Protectionism = Bad, Foreign (eg China, Japan, Korea etal) = Good.
They can call it protectionism or anything else, but if we don’t fix our own country first, we can’t fix or help fix other countries. The first thing we need to do is change our Congress, then we can go to work. Get rid of the lifers in Congress. Hold them accountable for what they do.
He doesn't make the case. Maybe the question is: when should government stop meddling, and what industries seriously damaged by previously government meddling should be saved to prosper in the absence of future government meddling?
And he definitely lives in the same fantasy world as most pretend free traders and pretend free marketers by failing to acknowledge that free trade and free market conditions do not now exist. And they are unlikely to ever exist because so many nations consider the maintenance of certain 'inefficient' industries to be in their national interest, and have not, and will not give up those industries in the name of free trade or free markets.
And the nations that pretend that free markets do exist will always run trade deficits and budget deficits as other, parasitic nations take advantage of the pretenders.
I don’t think you understand the point he is making, frankly. If we want to maintain “inefficient” companies, whether one is named AIG or GM, we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that there isn’t a cost.
Politicians spending more money than their government takes in has nothing to do with "free markets," however you choose to conflate the two.
So, more government interference in the marketplace is long overdue? Got it.
We have almost entirely given away the farm.
I'm an individual and haven't given up any farm that belong to me without getting something back in return. Who is this "we" you speak of. Or is that your inner nativist/collectivist showing through?
AMERICA FIRST.
As long as it is one that still has liberties, sure. I'm on board with that. Something tells me that a USA with economic liberty is something you just will not get onboard with, though. tell me where I'm wrong.
How about central-planning asshat. You can identify with those words, can you not?
If only you truly believed in the soveriegn-self as an entity; we would find some real commonb ground then.
This guy is just taking the recent government caused crises and trying to force them to support his narrow view of the US and world economies.
You should read the blog that he co-blogs from then you'd be in a better position to see just how 'narrow-minded' he is.
Bingo! I'm amazed at the legions of foolish supposedly limited-government 'conservatives' that do not understand this.
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