Why is there such unilateral confusion about the cause of our suppressed GDP? What AS ALWAYS is the cause of our shrinking middle class? Some stupid foreign country? NO!!! The cause of a shrinking middle class and the flight of business and industry from our country has always been, is, and will always be THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! Tariffs and protectionism layers MORE government upon that which government has caused to begin with.
Has anyone (I know SOME have) asked themselves WHY business and industry flees our country? The answer is business costs forced higher by the federal government. Free enterprise is in business to make a profit. Business would be negligent if they failed to go where their profits are maximized. Nuke high business tax (a misnomer - business tax is a hidden tax on the individual), nuke unconstitutional federal minimum wage, dead-end regulations, and federal protection of unions, and American business and industry would once again thrive in the environment of open competition in the marketplace FREE from government interference. The American consumer would win once again, their standard of living would rise once again, American competitive “can-do” spirit would make us winners in the marketplace once again, and our country and economy once again would thrive, proper, and grow.
The mostly unconstitutional $4 trillion FEDERAL GOVERNMENT is the enemy of our prosperity as well as our freedom. Quit agreeing with the socialists. THOSE ROOT CAUSES mentioned about are the reason for a foundering GDP and the flight of industry. Tariffs and protectionism do NOTHING to address these root causes and actually make matters worse.
And I thank you very much.
Yeah, Wide Open Borders, and Unfettered Trade have been great for blue collar workers.
it’s funny how all these leftist socialists organs like NY Times is so concerned about free market capitalism
If China only allows American companies to sell 100 different types of goods to them, then China should be restricted to selling only 100 similar items.
When you have open borders, free trade AND big government you’ve got a worst case scenario.
NYT is as bad in everything as it is in politics.
Why is so much of their garbage being posted here these days? False-flag posters thinking we will be persuaded if our betters only shove their drooling-idiot crap in our faces?
A well functioning society should be able to provide jobs for people of all skill levels. We have largely removed low-skill jobs from the US — now those jobs are done in cheaper countries. The result is that our low-skill workers can find no work.
But we get cheap stuff from China, so that’s a plus, right?
Well, the other side is: large segment of our society needs government support because there are no low-skill jobs here. Those people get bored and they break the law: violence, robbery, drugs, etc. There is a cost to us all for that. And those people breed — multi-generation households where no one ever has a job. Does that hurt our culture and cost us all? You bet.
Does all of this affect our schools?
Does it affect our elections? Do voters just want “free stuff” because they have no jobs?
That “cheap stuff” from China that we get because of “free trade” and the global marketplace?
It’s hideously expensive.
Again, NYT’s = DNC
The DNC is telling you “trade deficits are great!”
Here’s why:
“So money has flowed from China into the United States — both from the Chinese government’s purchases of United States Treasury bonds ...”
Because for every piece of Chinese plastic crap we buy, the money eventually ends up at the fedgov.
oh, yeah then our taxes have to go up, to pay China the interest on those Treasury Bonds.
I (completely) disagree.
100%.
Bring back American jobs.
Is it better to own or to be owned?
What would open borders look like for the Wall Street crowd? You have to answer this question honestly before you vote for anyone besides Trump. If you cannot, congratulations, you win a tube of vagasil to ease the pain. Good job, alleged conservative.
Um, no thanks. No interested in “trade” and propping up the economy of our enemies, like communist China. I’d rather increase our own manufacturing sector, be relatively independent, and create jobs for American workers.
Trump is right on this.
Privatize profits, and socialize the costs is the name of the game.
The free traitors don’t even attempt to hide it anymore.
You could take away all of the bars to entry for the US business: cut taxes, eliminate regulations, ban unions, eliminate the minimum wage, create dirt cheap energy prices, and it would still do no good.
You can’t compete against slave labor ruled over by communist regimes that own and subsidize producrion.
Financial interests are drown to communist regimes like a moth to a flame. It’s a win-win for them.
And it’s not just the “cheap plastic crap” these regimes are making. No, they’ve really moved up the food chain over the decade.
When there is a net outflow of capital and wealth from trade the country and people become less wealthy.
When there is a net inflow of capital and wealth from trade the country and people become more wealthy.
Agreed but it sure seems like we're in the middle of an insane protectionism/tariff craze on the FR --over the years this sort of thing comes and goes but now w/ Trump/Sanders it's gotten to be a bit much. The way it works on the FR is the import taxers descend on a thread and declare anyone not following the party line is a traitor --then they try and find out where you live. Kind of makes sane people want to keep a low profile.
Meanwhile we wait for the crazies to sober up while we also look for some other forum where folks want tax cuts and free enterprise.
The Triffin dilemma first began to show itself in the Eisenhower administration. The European allies we were assisting with the Marshall Plan were holding on to more dollars than we could support with our current gold reserves.
Triffin results from the conflict between domestic monetary policy versus an ambitious foreign policy. The solution was either to put the US into recession or to end the dollar’s role as world reserve currency. Even Keynes had warned against making the dollar the reserve currency back at Bretton Woods in 1944 because of the pressure it could put on the dollar.
Kennedy inherited the problem and his decision was to devalue the dollar which showed up with the end of silver coinage and silver certificates. The inflation simmered on during LBJ with the French demanding gold for their dollar holdings, and finally came to head when Nixon drove a stake through what was left of Bretton Woods by ending the dollar’s last link to gold.
>> The mostly unconstitutional $4 trillion FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
It owns the debt making it at least a $20 trillion liability.
>> Tariffs and protectionism do NOTHING to address these root causes and actually make matters worse.
I hope you’re not implying Trump is a protectionist.