bendog
Diamond Member
Well Obama was elected twice, and so was W, so it's not really the same no matter how much you may want to tell yourself it is. But there ARE trade issues affecting US middle class workers.
The real free trade issue is this. Milton Friedman, who was the intellectual basis for Thatcherism/Reaganomics, had this to say about why trade imbalances don't matter.
An excess of dollars SHOULD mean that the Yen or Yuan have to gain value and the dollar lose value - which would make American goods cheaper.
Trump's comments on trade are halfway there (and Hillary ain't talking even if you waterboard her). Friedman was right in theory, but in effect China doesn't need to turn our dollars back into Yuan, because it can use dollars to buy our debt. So, China can keep the value of the Yuan lower than it monetarily should be, and still maintain a balance of payments, i.e. they don't just have a warehouse of greenbacks doing nothing.
When Donald says I'll do something about China cheating, he's blowing smoke, because financially we and China are each pointing guns at each other's head. Neither side can afford to pull the trigger. China has to have our trade, and we have to have them buy our debt. Without the other, either side is focked. ( And Hillary ain't talking, even if you waterboard Huma - and seeing her all wet and nekid isn't a horrible thought, nor is whipping her with a soapy sponge)
And that's not diss the Chinese. They're just playing the hand we dealt them. We have chosen to allow the 1% to benefit more from free trade than workers. They profit from buying the cheap foreign shite and selling it to us for dollars.
Instead of cutting spending and raising taxes, or even forcing the 1% to pay for all our healthcare and retirement, we used the Chinese's dollars to cover our spending.
The real free trade issue is this. Milton Friedman, who was the intellectual basis for Thatcherism/Reaganomics, had this to say about why trade imbalances don't matter.
An excess of dollars SHOULD mean that the Yen or Yuan have to gain value and the dollar lose value - which would make American goods cheaper.
Trump's comments on trade are halfway there (and Hillary ain't talking even if you waterboard her). Friedman was right in theory, but in effect China doesn't need to turn our dollars back into Yuan, because it can use dollars to buy our debt. So, China can keep the value of the Yuan lower than it monetarily should be, and still maintain a balance of payments, i.e. they don't just have a warehouse of greenbacks doing nothing.
When Donald says I'll do something about China cheating, he's blowing smoke, because financially we and China are each pointing guns at each other's head. Neither side can afford to pull the trigger. China has to have our trade, and we have to have them buy our debt. Without the other, either side is focked. ( And Hillary ain't talking, even if you waterboard Huma - and seeing her all wet and nekid isn't a horrible thought, nor is whipping her with a soapy sponge)
And that's not diss the Chinese. They're just playing the hand we dealt them. We have chosen to allow the 1% to benefit more from free trade than workers. They profit from buying the cheap foreign shite and selling it to us for dollars.
Instead of cutting spending and raising taxes, or even forcing the 1% to pay for all our healthcare and retirement, we used the Chinese's dollars to cover our spending.
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