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No, we should recognize that the “free trade” and “free markets” dogma is simply nonsense. There are no “free” markets or trade, period, thanks for playing.

Maybe if you said "freer trade" and "freer markets" you'd be more on board?

Thanks to the policy of “free trade” we’re rapidly approaching a point where major trading partners (first the Arabs and oil producers, then China, and now Japan) are talking about wanting to move away from the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

And that would never happen if we only had more government control?

This is obvious to all but the pinheads who have an analytical ability that can be completely contained on a bumper sticker.

Government is the only think that can save us now. LOL!

Yes, if we said “free-er” markets and “free-er” trade, I’d be on board.

The move to de-reserve the US currency would not happen if the US were not in so much debt. The ONLY way the huge trade and current account deficits would not happen is if we did not have a huge trade imbalance, and the only way that trade will be brought back into balance is to ditch the stupid free trade agreements as they’re currently defined - in particular, the one with China first, and Japan second.

Once the US dollar loses reserve status, the US consumer is going to see a period of rapid inflation, because we currently enjoy a price stability in our trade accounts that other nations do not - because world trade has been settled in dollars. Look at what happened to the UK post-WWII for an example of what happens when a nation’s accounts are settled in a currency that once was a reserve currency.

There is no lack of interference in US trade currently. We’ve just sold out to extra-national outfits like the WTO. The idea that the current trade scheme is “free” is the stuff of myth and propaganda. Why do we need to negotiate these trade agreements through some extra-national trade organization? The US government has all the powers needed to make trade agreements with any nation we so choose. Why go into nonsense like Doha, where it is either “everyone on board, or nothing is agreed to?” That’s stupid.

There’s no reason why we should be allowing the French obsession with ag subsidies to muck up US trade agreements with South American countries - but that is exactly what we’re doing right now due to the “free trade” dogma that the GOP has bought into, hook, line and sinker.