MADDOG'S LAIR
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Trump knows nothing about trade, but he does know a lot about what is terrifying middle America , and he exploits it like a boss

3/11/2016

Comments

 
A Trade Tutorial for Trump


He needs a tutorial on trade. Trump is either an idiot on the subject, or he venally stands out front of the American people as a Man of Action, promising to act on their behalf even though the actions he promises will devastate them. 

"The real-estate developer recently added Japan to his most-wanted list of job killers, which includes China and Mexico. “We have a trade deficit with Japan of over $100 billion a year,” he said during his post-primary press conference in Florida on Tuesday. “They’re killing us. You know what we sell to Japan? Practically nothing.”

Is $116 billion worth of annual goods and services exports to Japan practically nothing? Japan is the fourth largest U.S. export market in goods after Canada, Mexico and China. In 2013 the top U.S. exports to Japan were agricultural products ($12.1 billion), machinery ($10.7 billion), medical devices ($8 billion) and aircraft ($7.1 billion)."

The WSJ Editorial Board gets this dead bang correct, but even so misses an even greater point "that every $1 of a US trade deficit is almost always and exactly offset by a $1 “foreign investment surplus,” resulting in a balance of payments of zero after accounting for all cash inflows and outflows for both merchandise/services and financial assets. As Don Boudreaux explained several years ago, lamenting America’s trade deficit is to lament the fact that foreigners are eagerly investing hundreds of billions of dollars in America every year. We should keep in mind that America’s trade deficits result in “inflows of foreign investment capital that strengthen America’s economy” — about $10 trillion in foreign investment over the last 30 years, see chart above." See, item number 3 in Perry's Thursday evening links column.

An example follows: China rust belt investment set to challenge US voting habits - FT.com

The Democrat party does not understand this. The progressives tend not to understand this. Trump seems to not understand this. And while he remains a New York City real estate developer it doesn't matter. But once he becomes President it does. His policies would simply strip America of this investment capital, in order to keep jobs in which Americans do not have a competitive advantage. This is like sacrificing your top quality players in a sports franchise, in order to keep your benchwarmers. Lunacy!

Mark Perry explains the "logic of protectionism," which, of course is illogical to its very core. Don Boudreaux offers this rejoinder to those who oppose free trade: Yet Another Open Letter to Paul Krugman - Cafe Hayek He follows this up with a longer post on The Essence of the Case for Free Trade - Cafe Hayek.

As far as I can tell, the essential case against free trade is: Politics. The adherents of some political factions need to believe trade is bad, and the clerisy of that political belief are willing to support such nonsense. Then there is Trump, he seems to stand apart, from the political party he allegedly represents, while supporting this key position of the opposite party.

The only "good argument against trade is the one made by Malthus lo those many years ago, and history has proven this argument to be baseless. Yes, change does result in, well, change, including job change. This is not a negative, unless one really believes we were better off in days of yore riding around in horse drawn carts, plowing land with horse drawn plows, and generally living a life lacking in anything even remotely resembling modern leisure, health, or security.
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

    Author

    Maddog

      Blog Subscription

    Subscribe to Blog

    Archives

    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016

    Categories

    All
    1000-ways-to-die
    Abortion
    Amazon
    America
    Antisemitism
    Anti-semitism
    Bible
    Blogging
    Blue-model
    Book-links
    Booze
    Bus
    Cancer
    Children
    China
    China-ccp
    China-gdp
    China-ghost-cities
    China-ponzi
    Climate-change
    Coast-guardrescue-swimmer
    Cold-war
    Concealed-carry
    Constitution
    Cool-stuff
    Corruption
    Creative-destruction
    Crime
    Crisis-change
    Dead-guy-vote
    Dead-pool
    Death-of-the-pc
    Declaration-of-independence
    Deflation
    Democrat
    Demographic-decline
    Diet
    Earth-hour
    Ecommerce
    E-commerce
    Economic-change
    Economy
    Education
    End-of-history
    Energy
    Environmentalism
    Epa
    Eric-barker
    Europe
    Executive-outcomes
    F35
    Faith
    Family
    Fascists
    Financial-irresponsibility
    Financial-times
    Firearms
    First-world-problems
    Fitness
    Flight-to-security
    Food
    Fourth-turning
    Free-eye-exam
    French
    Funny
    Gdp
    Gdp-usa-vs-britain
    Gdp-usa-vs-germany
    Gdp-usa-vs-sweden
    Generational-theft
    Global-warming
    Government-incompetence
    Government-we-deserve
    Happiness
    Health
    Helicopter-parent
    Hell
    Holocene
    Honor
    Housing-affordability
    I-love-beaver
    Imf
    Immigration
    Independence-day
    Inefficiency
    Inflation
    Innovation
    Intelligence
    Intergenerational-conflict
    International-relations
    Investing
    Iran
    Iraq-war
    Islamic-reformation
    Italian-travel
    Japan
    Jodie-foster-effect
    Kayaking
    Keynesian-economist
    Kurdistan
    Law
    Leave-nato
    Leave-the-un
    Light-rail
    Maddog-story
    Marine
    Marriage
    Media
    Medical-insurance
    Medicine
    Middle-east
    Military
    Military-waste
    Money
    Monopoly
    Nanny-college
    News
    New-seasons
    Nirvana-is-another-name-for-hell
    North-korea
    Nukes
    Obama-doctrine
    Oil
    Oregon
    Organic
    Parenting
    Partition
    Pearl
    Pensions
    Peter-principle
    Police
    Politicians
    Portland
    Portlandia
    Portland-transit
    Predictions
    President-bush
    President-feckless-odither
    President-obama
    Psychology
    Race-huckster
    Rape
    Recession
    Recipe
    Replace-the-un
    Republican
    Research-studies-are-always-wrong
    Reviews
    Russia
    Salafism
    Sanctions
    Science
    Science-versus-faith
    Self-defense
    Self-drive-vehicle
    Sex
    Shale-oil
    Shia
    Sjw
    Sleeper
    Smart-growth
    Socialism
    Sovereignty
    Sport
    Sunni
    Supreme-court
    Syria
    Tax
    Technology
    Terrorism
    The-fed
    The-house-of-saud
    The-last-economic-superpower
    Therapy
    Trade
    Transit
    True-believer
    Tvfilm-review
    Un
    Union
    Urban-planning
    Urinals-of-note
    Venezuela
    Voter-fraud
    Wages
    Wahhabism
    War
    War-crimes
    Weird
    Weird-science
    Welfare
    Whole-foods
    Work



    RSS Feed

​Maddog's Lair is copyright 2016-2018 by Mark Sherman. Please feel free to quote from this site provided you link back to the original article.
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact