Posted on 12/26/2004 6:19:34 PM PST by Cableguy
Excellent article, thanks for sharing the info!
"Actually, Tom, there is a debate going on. The New York Times just isn't part of it, because it operates at too low a level of information to be useful to knowledgeable news consumers."
Oooooh! That one will leave a mark!
Thanks for the ping!
Wow, what a great example #4 is for "foot in the mouth"! How ignorant can they get! when any tiniest bit of false info is presented, and without checking the source, asking questions, or any such references, the democrats such as Corzine, will go histerical and roar at the Bush Administration with big accusations about it and technically tell them the way it really should be. (if I worded that correctly enough)
And when they find out about the truth...are any appologies even mentioned? no, because they don't want to admit that they were wrong in the first place...
But they don't have a problem demanding that President Bush apologize and say he made mistakes
No kidding...What a corrupted society we live in today... :(
In the long run, imports and exports must equal each other. It is exports that pay for imports, and vice versa. When we decide to increase our exports, we are, in fact, deciding to increase our imports.
An American exporter sells his goods to a European importer and is paid in euros. The American exporter cannot use the euros to pay his workers, or his overhead, or his rent, or his mortgage, or his daily food, or his movie tickets. For these he needs dollars. So the euros are of no use to him unless he uses them himself to buy European goods directly from a European exporter, or sells his euros for dollars at the going exchange rate to an American importer, who will then use them to buy European goods. Whichever he does, the transaction cannot be completed until the American goods he exported are paid for by an equal value in European imports. [paraphrased from "Economics in One Lesson" by Henry Hazlitt].
The low value of the dollar vs. the euro is a result of inflation, which is the usual way our government has of trying to pull us out of the "bust" part of the business cycle (the last "boom" was in the 1990s, and, of course, was also caused by inflation). By increasing the quantity of money (either physically or in the form of credit; it doesn't matter), the value of each money unit -- the dollar -- is lowered. If Europe does not inflate as much as the U.S., then the euro will be more valuable compared to the dollar (it takes more dollars to buy one euro than it would without inflation). This means that an American good will sell for fewer euros in a European market than a comparable European good; the European consumer will buy the American good, making it seem as if "exports are good" for the American exporter. Indeed, they are. But what are the consequences of this inflationary policy on everyone else?
If American goods are selling cheaply abroad, foreign goods are selling dearly at home. American consumers are discouraged from buying a European good that they may prefer; or, if they decide to buy the European good anyway, they have fewer dollars left over with which to buy some other good. This means that a sale of something else that could have come into existence is prevented from doing so. If the American consumer opts to buy American, he is, first of all, still paying a higher price than he would if there were no monetary inflation (thus reducing additional purchases he could have made in other industries); second of all, he may, in fact, be buying from a producer who is less efficient than his European competitor. Because of the way it distorts the structure of prices and production, inflation makes it impossible to know this with any certainty; but if true, the American consumer is merely subsidizing the American industry in question; a boon to that industry which it could not have obtained without inflation.
Additionally, while our inflation helps European consumers, it hurts European producers, who, of course, would prefer European consumers to buy European products. What will they do? The last thing they will do is look for more efficient ways to produce the product in question so as to compete effectively with the cheap American good. The first thing they will probably do (being good interventionists) is to demand a tariff on American goods. Suppose they succeed. If so, European consumers will no longer opt for American goods, and it will appear that American exporters are not selling as much. What will the American exporters do? Of course, they will shout "unfair!" at the European tariff policy; they might demand a tariff on European goods as retribution, though that won't help them sell more American goods abroad. The only way they can circumvent the tariff is by convincing the U.S. government to engage in hardball diplomacy ("Remove the tariff . . . or else!"), or by convincing our government to inflate the supply of money even more, thus reducing the value of the dollar even more, thus lowering the price of American goods even more.
Inflation is always a vicious circle, and always requires a maze of legislation to cope with it. That's why politicians like it so much, and that's why it's the official monetary policy of most governments.
Mo1, that is such a great essay by Powerline. I'd have missed that and have added it to my media bias file and sent it to friends.
What planet do you live on?
Yeah, I'm not sure that he ever came right out and said "I agree we should invade Iraq." He came pretty close, though, writing very positive Bush pieces right at the time that Bush was pushing to invade. You'd have thought he would have mentioned that he did not agree with the invasion.
Good report!
(But the MSM "knows" that it (The Times) is the "only" valid source of news. )
/sarcasm
Thanks for the ping. I hope you had a Merry Christmas. Happy New Year!
The New York Times:
"Made up news that ain't worth spit."
No surprise here.
"You'd have thought he would have mentioned that he did not agree with the invasion."
When you're dealing with hair-splitting Clintonites like Friedman, watch your wallet.
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