"... there is no such thing as a trade imbalance. Trade can't be out of balance because a balance is what a trade is. Buyers and sellers decide that one thing is equivalent to another. Free trade is balanced trade. You might as well have free love then claim your partner had sex but you didn't."I have been blogging this very argument for a year - most recently just earlier this week (on Tuesday, May 23 - three days ago):
Trade deficits are also BUNK - illusions - a bogeyman promoted by polemicizing Lefties. ... The so-called "trade imbalance" or "trade deficit" is a phony number derived by treating GOODS as VALUELESS - which is ABSURD.
I cited economist Walter WIlliams for this iron-clad argument. It's time that the anti-trade demagogies stopped using this intellectually fallacious and factually inaccurate argument. (MORE HERE - at post on this subject I blogged in July 2005!)
BOTTOM-LINE: Trade is good for everyone.
BOTTOM-LINE: Trade is good for everyone.
This article by O'Rourke proves one other thing: THE ASTUTE BLOGGER is ahead of the curve - in reporting news and analyzing it. SO: you all should be reading me EVERYDAY and should tell your friends. And blogroll me if you have a blog. NOW! Please.
5 comments:
you can also make the case the much of the "trade deficit" is actually repatriated goods made by american companies and then "imported" into america. it is counted against our numbers.
there is one issue with the numbers though. as we send money out, we need to attract foriegn investment in our country or it is a net loss of investment. it weakens our reserves.
eventually all those dollars MUST come back here. and eventualy is a really long time.
until they do. their just notes/paper/ and all the timje WE HAVE THE GOODS, AND ARE USING/ENJOYING THE GOODS.
i argue this puts us ahead.
also" china buys T-bills with much of it. so we get it back, and pay them interest. whicheventually they must spend here, too.
IOW: we are creaming them, any way you slice it.
also: never forget that out consumption fuels the entire world's growth. if we stopped consuming IMPORTS the rest of the world would go into RECESSION. not good for them - and - as the libs always say: the poor would be hardest hit.
all the best!
You keep forgetting to add the Pastorius theory of economic growth into the mix, Reliapundit.
All trade between multiple parties is effected because each party believes the thing they are trading for is worth more to them than the thing they are trading away.
In this way, all trade is a net gain for each individual.
This may sound crazy, but compare it to what happens when trade is effected in any way.
What happens?
The economy grows.
See? I'm right.
sure pasto, sure... and, as i've written many times, pasto, that's the reason the stuff people buy is called GOODS: because it's what people want for themselves. people don't like to spend mnoney on things they don't want/things they think are bad.
people EXCHANGING things they each want (GOODS) is GREAT. whether it's barter or done for cash/credit.
the left hates trade and people selecting for THEMSELVES what goods and services they want for themselves.
the left wants to redistribute goods and services according to their idea of who should get what, AND they do that based on membership in groups/classes, not INDIVIDUAL merit.
the left thinks that third oartioes can assign value - as when they say OIL IS TOO EXPENSIVE or DRUGS ARE TOO EXPENSIVE or sportstars get paid too much. the left woud prefer it if a hillary-picked politburo set all prices.
ONLY ONE PROBLEM: this has always failed.
choice creates compoetition and that creates pressure for ever-increasing VALUE. which is why the cars we can buy today are better than they were twenty years ago. HEY: WE AIN'T DRIVING CUBAN OR SOVIET OR NORTH KOREAN OR VIETNAMESE CARS, ARE WE!?!?
it also why the left LOVES taxes and thinks that the state has a PRIOR claim on YOUR money - which is why the left describes a tax cut as a government giveaway, when in fact it's just the govt letting YOU keep what's YOURS.
they love taxes and hate trade.
they love redistribution by third parties and hate people deciding for themselves what's valuable to them
they are fundamentally anti-libertarian.
and as we know - as history PROVES: prosperity is the by-product of liberty.
all the best!
:)
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