Pity the poor LIE-berals who have NO logical defense of their policies! It is why there are so many LIE-berals in class rooms- they know that kids do not yet have the life experience needed to be able to LAUGH LIE-beral policy out of the room! LIE-beals only get support from the ill educated and from those they BUY- like civil service union Hogs!
Here is an article illustrating the HUGE economic mess that LIE-berals have made of international trade. The article illustrates that trade and job issues can not be sorted out by giving control over to a committee made up of LIE-beral loons such as Our idiot Boy Justin and a cabal of third world despots from places like China, Russia and Iran! With some comments of my own in brackets):
GUEST COLUMN: Trump, trade and the China syndrome
Special to Postmedia Network
Published: December 29, 2017. Updated: December 29, 2017 6:00 PM EST
Filed Under: Toronto SUN/ Opinion/ Columnists
Related
Editorials
EDITORIAL: Trudeau showed lousy judgment
Columnists
MALCOLM: 'Deprogram' radical Islamists. How?
Columnists
GOLDSTEIN: PM's carbon scheme a $16B failure
Columnists
BONOKOSKI: The curious case of Boyle and Trudeau
David T. Jones, Special to Postmedia Network. For centuries there was no question of trade being for “mutual benefit”.
Rather, states sought colonies, essentially for exploitation, to extract useful material from at low prices, while dumping excess industrial products manufactured in the “mother country” at high cost.
Ostensibly, economic theory eventually moved on to “mutual benefit” with the emphasis on “comparative advantage”, wherein each country provides the products it produces most efficiently and a trade balance results.
This theory falters when countries with effectively nothing worthy of trade end up borrowing from those countries who still push products upon them. The resulting debt loads have economy-distorting consequences for both borrowers and lenders.
(Much of our current trade problem is related to credit. In a gold based economy- meaning your wealth is measured in gold coins and your spending is limited by how many coins you have; and prices are regulated as well since the seller may choose to accept fewer coins- on the grounds that a cheap sale is better than no sale- if you are poor. But all these mechanisms that used to regulate sales and trade are GONE! Swept away in a tide of paper money and easy credit.)
(After WW2, western govts chose to end the “gold standard”- the traditional measurement of wealth- in large part because of all the looting and destruction that occurred during the war- staggering sums of gold and art and all manner of stuff was stolen or lost. Going off that gold standard allowed govt to get things running again while police sifted through various claims for compensation and ownership that are still going on 70 years later- with various art galleries arguing over who owns what. Problem is the gold standard is gone and it has not been replaced- there is no longer any real control over trade and deficits. This permits bankrupt Greeks to hide the scale of their bankruptcy. And it allows Chinese and other third world countries to manipulate currency on a grand scale.)
One classic approach for a country developing its industry and economy is to put high tariffs on imported goods. Theoretically, once these industries are strong enough to “stand on their own”, the tariffs can be reduced or eliminated.
Of course, that approach reduces profits of the now powerful manufacturers, who see no interest in enhancing competition. For a generation following World War II, the U.S. had no realtrade competition. It was the global powerhouse for manufacturing efficiency and technological innovation.
U.S. products, particularly automobiles, supported a vast U.S. middle class in which an auto worker could count on a well-paid, lifetime job. The U.S. ran trade surpluses and was the great global lender. Goods imported from other countries were regarded as cheap and shoddy.
But then the U.S. lost its “mojo.” Competitors, most notably Japan, were able to take advantage of new factories, using new technology and cheap labor. They challenged simultaneous U.S. technological failures, high prices, and social arrogance. U.S. cars were suddenly inferior.
The media were besieged with articles and studies suggesting Japan was about to lead the world in everything. Japan obliged this fear by purchasing a wide array of highly visible U.S. properties.
(The reality is that Japan was accumulating a mass of Yankee dollars and needed to do something with this cash- and what better idea than to re-invest that cash in United States? Japan took paper money that can and does fluctuate in value- and one has only to look at the vast crap game/floating casino that is the stock market to understand how volatile mere paper is- and turned their dollars into hard assets- such as real estate- which happens to be a product in ever shorter supply and ever increasing value!)
U.S. government trade efforts focused on thwarting Japan, and in an ancillary manner Mexico, whose low labor prices were (supposedly) producing a “vast sucking sound,” in Ross Perot’s words, pulling U.S. jobs south of the Rio Grande.
(Yes- that “vast sucking sound” was heard here in Canada as well- with the LIE-beral Chretien govt presiding over a debauched Cdn economy where our dollar hit $63 cents U.S. A combination of low Mexican wages and insane LIE-beral vote buying nearly bankrupted Canada! Only major tax increases by LIE-berals and serious cuts to federal fund transfers to the provinces reversed the flow of red ink! And later, the Conservative govt of Harper held the line on federal wage increases for civil service Hogs! Frugality is a good thing- too bad LIE-berals despise it and must literally have guns put to their heads to make them save a penny! Chretien LIE-berals ran on a promise to kill NAFTA and then chickened out after winning the election- the economic reality of dead NAFTA costs would be too high!)
But while America was focused on Japan and Mexico, China, quietly and efficiently “ate our lunch”.
China now has a massive trade surplus driven by manufacturing efficiency and currency manipulation.
(Yes- that paper money is wonderful stuff- you can make it worth whatever you want- especially in a CLOSED economic system like China where foreigners do NOT get to see the books! Its even easier to manipulate when local Chinese govt gets to decide what products MAY be offered for sale to the local people! This is in sharp contrast to the Cdn experience where our dollar went from that nasty $63 cents over to $1.05 U.S. and took a PILE of jobs away as Cdn goods began to cost to much!)
His country arguably now the factory for the world, Chinese leader Xi Jinping recently announced a “Made in China 2025” policy described as “involving local content requirements and the elimination of foreign suppliers.”
(So xenophobic Chinese are now implementing a “made in China” program that makes the Trump model look open and inclusive! And Our idiot Boy Justin thinks he can destroy NAFTA with his feminist/native rights blather and then make up the economic difference with Chinese business? HAHAHAHAHA!!!)
For the U.S., the past 20 years have seen the loss of two million manufacturing jobs.
(Automation is the real killer of most of these jobs. Robots are increasingly commonplace even in third world pest holes- its all about speed and efficiency and robots don’t get tired or sick or forget details. Reality is there are very few jobs to recover-especially in the automotive business which Trump is mainly focussed on. In addition -thanks to huge competition our vehicles are more reliable and longer lasting than ever before- meaning we buy new ones less often!)
Plus, growing frustration expressed by displaced workers that trade agreements reducing costs for manufacturing imports have cost them their jobs, for which “retraining”, or McJobs, are poor substitutes.
(LIE-berals keep assuring us our economy is “booming” but desperate LIE-berals do NOT want to tell us that the only good full time jobs out there are for govt employees- with the rest of us stuck in those McJobs and struggling financially! Cdn biz is cutting costs by killing good full time work and replacing it with part time and short term crap work. This trend will only increase as LIE-berals bomb business with their electricity price gouging and minimum wage garbage! The ugly truth is we Cdns cannot produce enough gravy to satisfy the civil service Hogs that LIE-berals rely on to keep them in power! It is LIE-beral gravy traded for Hog votes- and SCREW the general public!)
Hence, U.S. President Donald Trump’s urge to eliminate or reject trade agreements such as the Trans Pacific Partnership and call into question agreements such as NAFTA with Canada and Mexico
Trump’s claim, which resonates massively with voters, if not economists, is that the U.S. has been outsmarted and out-negotiated in these agreements.
(Western govts decided after WW2- that breaking down trade barriers would promote peace as countries that do lots of business are presumed to be unlikely to fight each other. This concept works with Europeans but it clearly does not work with third world nations in Middle East and in Asia! It is China that is happily stirring the pot in blood soaked Darfur/South Sudan as they pursue oil and natural gas contracts. It is Russians and Chinese who happily sell weapons to Iran, North Korea and Syria and it is bankrupt western govts that get to deal with the swarming millions of refugees- many of whom represent national security risks!)
China is a tougher problem, especially since Washington is desperately attempting to induce Beijing to castrate North Korea’s nuclear program.
Perhaps, while it is currently a rudimentary idea, a coordinated U.S./European Union, World Trade Organization action might secure better Chinese adherence to WTO rules.
(IN other words- when Trump called out NATO “slackers” especially including Canada- he was on the right track! A united front can achieve better results than a few isolated individuals! And a firm commitment to greater economic cooperation between like minded western countries can balance out influence from dictators and bullies! Too bad Our idiot boy Justin is so bigoted against Yankees he would rather see NAFTA die than agree with Yankees on ANYTHING! Our idiot Boy is deliberately hurting NAFTA by ignoring very real Yankee fears that Cdn national security is so sloppy that Yankees risk importing Muslim terrorists along with their Cdn dairy and softwood lumber!)
(LIE-beral policy is running in circles as usual- they shun trade with the Yankee democracy and seek out trade with Chinese dictators! But what can we expect form Our idiot Boy- who has his fathers vile values! After all it was Pierre Trudope who heaped fawning praise on Chinese Chairman Mao “for his genius in rushing 30 million Chinese to the gallows” just so he could cement his power over China!)
Jones is a retired U.S. State Department senior foreign service career officer. A version of this column first appeared in The Epoch Times
