Why have 300 US employees manufacturing $15 hats when you can have 300 US employees importing and distributing $5 hats? In one scenario, you have 300 employed and a guy with a hat. In the other, you have 300 employed, a guy with a hat + $10 in his pocket. That's MORE WEALTH for our nation. And he's going to spend that $10 bucks at the local butchers. = more domestic jobs.
There is no such thing as a "trade deficit" because we don't trade exports for imports. We trade exports for cash, and cash for imports. EACH transaction should be independently profitable TO US. EACH trade is an import & export, only one form of wealth is represented with cash, the other is represented with a commodity. IT DOESN'T MATTER which way each form of wealth flows AS LONG AS WE MAKE A PROFIT on each transaction. If each trade is profitable, it's IMPOSSIBLE to have a wealth "deficit".
@ElJefer said, [["It's interesting to note that those who support liberty on the show are more respectful than those who want to restrict liberty."]]
That always seems to be the case. The isolationists (and yes, Dobbs is an isolationist) are reacting out of fear and defensiveness rather than solely on objective reasoning.
Free trade that results in month after month of humongous trade deficits is not free. The USD is virtually worthless. Manufacturing is the basis for wealth creation. Professor Ravi Batra wrote about this phenomenon in the 1990s, and we see it coming to pass with the destruction of the U.S. middle class and descent to third world status. At the same time Communist China is establishing economic trade zones in Idaho, etc., relegating the U.S. to the status of colony.
@nicenter1 The US manufacturing output is larger than the german, french, italian and british output combined. The share of manufacturing as a share of (deflated) GDP is pretty stable for decades. USA is a world leader in every industrial economic sector. Think about any sector: industrial machinery, agricultural and earthmoving equipment, medical equipment, chemicals, aerospace, semiconductors, etc
@nicenter1 What has changed in the last 25 years is the volume of imports. The dollar system has allowed americans to live beyond its means, gettind into debt by spreading wealth around the world. US imports (around 2 trillion a year) sustain millions of jobs worldwide. That´s why the US dollar is so well accepted, no matter how crazy the monetary and fiscal policies are.
Mr. Dobbs does understand (in that instance anyway) schmuck. (Foreigners wanting to invest in an economy with a low productive sector means they are taking advantage of our WEAKER currency.)
Stossel's brilliant but it seems like he's gotten a lot more snarky, self-important and mean-spirited as of late. He used to be more humble and Socratic. And while he's amazing on the economic issues he discusses he has yet to really delve into monetary policy and the federal reserve system. It's a shame because I'm sure he could explain it quite lucidly and informatively if he had the mind to do so.
Wow how embarrassing. Douche chills. He would have been better off making it look like the guy wasn't telling him anything new. He should have just said I misunderstood what we were talking about. Instead of agreeing that he didn't and has NEVER understood the difference. Ouch.
I'd like to see Peter Schiff on Stossel. It seems like in theory trade deficits shouldn't matter. Walter E Williams explained this well; I buy more from iTunes than they buy from me. Same with a grocer, and he buys more from his supplier than his supplier from him.
But ultimately it can't be good that ultimately every consumer product is produced in China. And we borrowed the money from them to purchase all these things!
Smith said it the year this country was founded and Friedman said it pretty well too. It goes like this: You produce something to make your money; You use that money to buy things (groceries, sweaters, shoes, etc.); Would you rather have more money going out of your household than goods coming into your household or the reverse? Can you consume what goes out of your household or what comes into your household? Eagleye1975 has it right, either way, over time ALL money returns home.
@Goodatconnect4 But during the time the money takes to return home, won't even more money have flown out of the country? I'm not disagreeing, just trying to understand this point of view.
@dawgg981 trade deficits are the net value of what is imported into america minus what we export. The overall effect of this trade deficit is that foreigners have american dollars left over that they want to spend in america. This excess is spent on things as "sinister" as toyota and BMW automobile factories in the right to work south to stock and bond investment, particularly in federal bonds, which lowers the cost of borrowing.
Another thing Lou might not understand. We send China green pieces of paper, in return China sends us clothes, shoes, frying pans, toasters, tv's, chairs, carpet, etc, etc, etc. Lou is only looking at one side of the transaction which is dollars going out, he's not seeing the goods coming in.
those who think Lou is right? are you ok with businesses paying higher taxes for Obamacare? because that will certainly drive even more businesses overseas.
we need to start getting competitive again. that means getting out of the 2nd place in the list of countries with top corp tax rates. it means simplifying the tax code. it means not becoming protectionist.
smoot-hawley tarrif act helped cement the Great Depression in the late 20s. ALL i repeat all economists agree on that. just say no
Stupid people! how can exporting manufacturing base to China be an investment? you export your nation's manufacturing base - you export jobs. America's workers can not compete with the surplus of china's workers. Yes, we can buy cheap products at Wal-Mart, then throw them away after a few times use but what will the real cost in the long run?
@matrxmax Did you watch the end where Dobbs admits he'd misunderstood the term "trade deficit"? Your differences with the panelists other than Dobbs is that you think international trade should be run by government. But if you look at our economy, the trillions in debt racked up by government, plus the bankruptcy of EVERYthing run by the government from Amtrak to the Post Office to Medicare to Fannie/Freddie etc etc etc. WHY do you fantasize those incompetents can be world finance wizards?
germany and japan pay wages comparable to the US yet they have trade surpluses with China. Why do you suppose that is? Our governments taxes and regulations are chasing jobs away, not free trade.
America used to produce the lowest cost, highest quality manufactured goods in the world while simultaneously paying the worlds highest wages. It was government regulation and taxes that made us uncompetative
@psw003 US manufacturing outcome, as a share of real GDP, has remained stable in 15-17% in the last 60 years. There are less workers because of productivity growth. US trade deficits have to do with overconsumption, with too many people borrowing too much. If you look at the trade balance, the deficit is 100% concentrated in energy and consumer goods sectors.
@xaviqaz we import parts and screw them together so we can stamp 'made in america' and call it manufacturing. it makes productivity look larger than it is.
@psw003 Heavy industries outsource some manufacturing. It happens everywhere. For example, there are thousands of US workers manufacturing the fuselage, landing gear, engines of Airbus, Bombardier, Embraer and others. I guess some nationalists here would prefer the french, the canadian and the brazilian to have more "patriotic" supply chains and leave US workers without orders.
In case you missed reality by the way, america doesn't have free trade and hasn't ever. we're paying companies to fucking go to china how hell is PAYING them to fucking send their shit to china free fucking trade? in the 90s WE GAVE BILLONS OF TEX INCENTIVES TO GO TO CHINA HOW IS THIS FREE TRADE???
This guy has a problem in his theory soon people WON'T be investing in this country. ASIA - RUSSIA; CHINA; INDIA and the MIDDLE EAST. Pretty much our government just told china to start trading with themselves because we CAN'T AFFORD TO FUCKING TRADE WITH THEM. You free trade monkeys don't realize the future is ASIA and because all our goddamn wealth is pouring CHINA which is investing in ASIA; AFRICA and SLOWLY NOT INVESTING IN AMERICA. Not everyone can serve coffee and trade on wall-street LOL
Americans have it great. Chinese send kewl things like LCDs, computers, and just about anything else for worthless pieces of paper (US Dollars). Of course, at some point, you'd better learn to say "Do you want extra shine on those shoes" in Mandarin. LOL!
If the US doesn't do something soon, when the last shoe factory or tool making factory moves to China there will be no industry left to operate, and when a crisis occurs all these factories have to be rebuilt. China will have a six month head start. And you all know what I mean by crisis. Hell when is the last time you bought something that in some way didn't come from Chins? THINK!!!
The problem as I see it is that our economy is almost completely a consumption based economy. I think that is very dangerous myself and as such I don't think Lou is entirely wrong. This isn't all just economics, part of the puzzle is national security and safety mechanisms.
You know the real reason why America never pushes any issues with China? It isn't because we owe them money, it's because they hold most of the manufacturing cards...
There is no trade deficit. China makes valuable products and trades them for worthless American fiat currency and bonds. The way I see it China is the sucker in this trade. Lou D. just looks so stupid in this piece.
Many dirty, dangerous, manual labor jobs formerly done by low paid, low skilled American workers are now being done by robots IN AMERICA. The job didn't go anywhere, the workers skills just became obsolete. On the other hand there is a huge highly skilled labor shortage in America.
Free trade, how about free trade that is FAIR. Allowing or encouraging slave nations is not good for anyone, it lines the pockets of the globalists and the middle class Americans will pay the big price... for both the trade deficit AND the national debt. Really it is not that complicated... How wonderful it is that we allowed for and contributed extensively to the massive growth in China, we are all in such a better situation here in the USA, just wonderful !!!
We HAVE manufacturing CAPACITY. It is simply not being USED because there is insufficient DEMAND. We could produce twice as many cars as we do today, but there is no one to buy them. If the government would just GTFO and lower taxes, our goods would be competitive on the world market again.
What Lou is not understanding here is that every dollar that flows OUT of our economy causes each dollar that stays IN to be worth more in that time. Those dollars WILL find their way back to us, because after all, they have no value to anyone else BUT us. If China has so many of our dollars, they can trade them to Japan, or Australia, but eventually, ALL of those dollars have to find their way back to our shores.
@eagleeye1975 The real problem with the U.S. is that since the dollar is the international trading currency, those dollars may never come back to our shores. Also it is that same reason that we cannot as easily adjust our currency trading to better match up real value. Because if we lowered our currency to say the Chinese yuan, it would devalue the dollars held by so many other countries who we rely on and pist them off.
@eagleeye1975 The problem is that the value of the dollar is ARTIFICIALLY worth more because it is the international trading currency. The Feds continue to inflate our money supply making the dollar worth less, which is why wages require cost of living increases to remain flat. But since the dollar is propped up abroad, the value of our wages is also propped up, making us less able to compete for work and Chinese goods less expensive to ALL countries.
This propping up is akin to what the Feds did to the housing market and it will eventually cause the dollar to crash (as it did in the 70's). This is the "foreign investment" that the last guy in the clip was talking about (dollars as IOUs). The Chinese are selling us "cheap" goods for our dollars and then using those dollars to corner the market on commodities such as oil, steel, and precious metals. So we sold our future (now and beyond) for plasma TV's.
The problem isn't free trade, but rather monetary policy. We can see the cheap Chinese goods on the shelves of stores, but then feel the pain at the pump or for manufacturing companies the pain of their steel bills. This is why it appears as though we have a trade imbalance. It is not imbalanced. It is just skewed towards certain countries and certain goods and services as a result of monetary policies.
@eagleeye1975 they find their way back to our shores buy foreigners buying our countries assets. so whats the benefit to our country and our citizens? the liability of one country not only receiving our trade while owning our debt is not an asset to us. what lou doesnt understand is basic policy over talking points. get out of nafta, cafta, and the wto, and institute bilateral fairtrade agreements.
@eagleeye1975 This ancient argument isn't a very good one in our contemporary times. The international currency is the US dollar. (really $100 bills). When someone in Singapore builds a bridge in HK, they transact in American dollars, and that's always the case.
@eagleeye1975 What you and the clods on the panel don't understand is that china buys T-bills, assets, and financial products with most of the money. This equates to making money with money. Where does the money they make with their money come from? Our economy. This system doesn't create jobs, especially not good paying jobs like our own manufacturing base used to. They also keep a reserve. The dollar is artificially stronger and serves to mask our ever declining wages.
Lou Dobbs is really confused. You cannot buy imports without FIRST having the funds to do that: those funds come from foreign direct investment and they must precede consumption.
I think it's odd how he wrote a book on the subject and wasn't aware of the basic principle of the issue. It's like writting a book on chess and not knowing the bishop moves diagonally.
I refuse to believe that this apparently braindead vermin went to Harvard, much less graduated with a degree in the subject in which he is genuinely a neophyte! First of all any form of restricting imports, be it tariffs or pegging a currency at an artificially low rate, keeps people poorer especially export workers being exploited as in China for artificially competitive produce. Secondly their exploitation doesn't directly harm the West. Chinese Mercantilism limits THEIR purchasing power.
@Nintendomanwill Well Lou Dobbs has just been exposed for being a hypocryte. Look at john stossel he admitted on one of his ABC Shows that he was once a welfare queen.
Hell, doesn´China have power in the US economy?! Thats been all the message of Peter Schiff. I love free trade, BUT, in this case, about China, I think that Dobbs have, a t least, some honest thoughts.
Love both of these guys on this issue.... but China buying bonds as an excuse for the U.S. buying their exports... is just a dumb way of going about it.... we're talking about private business in this episode... China buying bonds just fuels the large government for the most part... now if they would be investing that money instead into buying products from small-medium businesses it would be more productive and keeping a healthy middle-class instead of diminishing an already weakened one...
Why have 300 US employees manufacturing $15 hats when you can have 300 US employees importing and distributing $5 hats? In one scenario, you have 300 employed and a guy with a hat. In the other, you have 300 employed, a guy with a hat + $10 in his pocket. That's MORE WEALTH for our nation. And he's going to spend that $10 bucks at the local butchers. = more domestic jobs.
TRADE CREATES WEALTH.
LucisFerre1 2 months ago
04:03, back up and punt, head scratch and stutter, LOL.
LucisFerre1 2 months ago
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There is no such thing as a "trade deficit" because we don't trade exports for imports. We trade exports for cash, and cash for imports. EACH transaction should be independently profitable TO US. EACH trade is an import & export, only one form of wealth is represented with cash, the other is represented with a commodity. IT DOESN'T MATTER which way each form of wealth flows AS LONG AS WE MAKE A PROFIT on each transaction. If each trade is profitable, it's IMPOSSIBLE to have a wealth "deficit".
LucisFerre1 2 months ago
Comment removed
LucisFerre1 2 months ago
It's interesting to note that those who support liberty on the show are more respectful than those who want to restrict liberty.
ElJefer 2 months ago
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@ElJefer said, [["It's interesting to note that those who support liberty on the show are more respectful than those who want to restrict liberty."]]
That always seems to be the case. The isolationists (and yes, Dobbs is an isolationist) are reacting out of fear and defensiveness rather than solely on objective reasoning.
LucisFerre1 2 months ago
Free trade that results in month after month of humongous trade deficits is not free. The USD is virtually worthless. Manufacturing is the basis for wealth creation. Professor Ravi Batra wrote about this phenomenon in the 1990s, and we see it coming to pass with the destruction of the U.S. middle class and descent to third world status. At the same time Communist China is establishing economic trade zones in Idaho, etc., relegating the U.S. to the status of colony.
nicenter1 7 months ago
@nicenter1 The US manufacturing output is larger than the german, french, italian and british output combined. The share of manufacturing as a share of (deflated) GDP is pretty stable for decades. USA is a world leader in every industrial economic sector. Think about any sector: industrial machinery, agricultural and earthmoving equipment, medical equipment, chemicals, aerospace, semiconductors, etc
xaviqaz 7 months ago
@nicenter1 What has changed in the last 25 years is the volume of imports. The dollar system has allowed americans to live beyond its means, gettind into debt by spreading wealth around the world. US imports (around 2 trillion a year) sustain millions of jobs worldwide. That´s why the US dollar is so well accepted, no matter how crazy the monetary and fiscal policies are.
xaviqaz 7 months ago
Mr. Dobbs does understand (in that instance anyway) schmuck. (Foreigners wanting to invest in an economy with a low productive sector means they are taking advantage of our WEAKER currency.)
Rensune 9 months ago
I don't care for Dobbs but he was the one that makes the most sense here.
MsZeitgeist85 9 months ago
Stossel's brilliant but it seems like he's gotten a lot more snarky, self-important and mean-spirited as of late. He used to be more humble and Socratic. And while he's amazing on the economic issues he discusses he has yet to really delve into monetary policy and the federal reserve system. It's a shame because I'm sure he could explain it quite lucidly and informatively if he had the mind to do so.
RosenzweigBenjamin2 10 months ago
Wow how embarrassing. Douche chills. He would have been better off making it look like the guy wasn't telling him anything new. He should have just said I misunderstood what we were talking about. Instead of agreeing that he didn't and has NEVER understood the difference. Ouch.
AroundSun 10 months ago
I'd like to see Peter Schiff on Stossel. It seems like in theory trade deficits shouldn't matter. Walter E Williams explained this well; I buy more from iTunes than they buy from me. Same with a grocer, and he buys more from his supplier than his supplier from him.
But ultimately it can't be good that ultimately every consumer product is produced in China. And we borrowed the money from them to purchase all these things!
VictoryCough 11 months ago
Smith said it the year this country was founded and Friedman said it pretty well too. It goes like this: You produce something to make your money; You use that money to buy things (groceries, sweaters, shoes, etc.); Would you rather have more money going out of your household than goods coming into your household or the reverse? Can you consume what goes out of your household or what comes into your household? Eagleye1975 has it right, either way, over time ALL money returns home.
Goodatconnect4 8 months ago
@Goodatconnect4 But during the time the money takes to return home, won't even more money have flown out of the country? I'm not disagreeing, just trying to understand this point of view.
luizcadu 8 months ago
can someone please explain trade deficits
dawgg981 11 months ago
@dawgg981 trade deficits are the net value of what is imported into america minus what we export. The overall effect of this trade deficit is that foreigners have american dollars left over that they want to spend in america. This excess is spent on things as "sinister" as toyota and BMW automobile factories in the right to work south to stock and bond investment, particularly in federal bonds, which lowers the cost of borrowing.
ThePythagoran 11 months ago
Another thing Lou might not understand. We send China green pieces of paper, in return China sends us clothes, shoes, frying pans, toasters, tv's, chairs, carpet, etc, etc, etc. Lou is only looking at one side of the transaction which is dollars going out, he's not seeing the goods coming in.
Mooja12 1 year ago
I support free trade, but NAFTA and CAFTA are NOT true free trade.
thinkrevolution 1 year ago 2
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LOL
Dobbs got mad at Stossel because he make a laughing-stock out him himself.
MigDanskeren 1 year ago
Comment removed
MigDanskeren 1 year ago
those who think Lou is right? are you ok with businesses paying higher taxes for Obamacare? because that will certainly drive even more businesses overseas.
we need to start getting competitive again. that means getting out of the 2nd place in the list of countries with top corp tax rates. it means simplifying the tax code. it means not becoming protectionist.
smoot-hawley tarrif act helped cement the Great Depression in the late 20s. ALL i repeat all economists agree on that. just say no
umrmecheman 1 year ago
Fuck China and Lou too!
perry911 1 year ago 2
Stupid people! how can exporting manufacturing base to China be an investment? you export your nation's manufacturing base - you export jobs. America's workers can not compete with the surplus of china's workers. Yes, we can buy cheap products at Wal-Mart, then throw them away after a few times use but what will the real cost in the long run?
matrxmax 1 year ago
@matrxmax Did you watch the end where Dobbs admits he'd misunderstood the term "trade deficit"? Your differences with the panelists other than Dobbs is that you think international trade should be run by government. But if you look at our economy, the trillions in debt racked up by government, plus the bankruptcy of EVERYthing run by the government from Amtrak to the Post Office to Medicare to Fannie/Freddie etc etc etc. WHY do you fantasize those incompetents can be world finance wizards?
leafwatch 1 year ago
@leafwatch Wow1 Could you not tell Lou is being mockingly cynical - in a way he is rediculing them.
matrxmax 1 year ago
@matrxmax and he's mad wrong too, so dogmatic.
ProIndividual 1 year ago
Trade deficits with China is a transfer of wealth.
matrxmax 1 year ago
Free trade at what cost, exporting our manufacturing base to China. Lou Dobbs is right.
matrxmax 1 year ago
germany and japan pay wages comparable to the US yet they have trade surpluses with China. Why do you suppose that is? Our governments taxes and regulations are chasing jobs away, not free trade.
America used to produce the lowest cost, highest quality manufactured goods in the world while simultaneously paying the worlds highest wages. It was government regulation and taxes that made us uncompetative
psw003 1 year ago
@psw003 US manufacturing outcome, as a share of real GDP, has remained stable in 15-17% in the last 60 years. There are less workers because of productivity growth. US trade deficits have to do with overconsumption, with too many people borrowing too much. If you look at the trade balance, the deficit is 100% concentrated in energy and consumer goods sectors.
xaviqaz 1 year ago
@xaviqaz we import parts and screw them together so we can stamp 'made in america' and call it manufacturing. it makes productivity look larger than it is.
psw003 1 year ago
@psw003 Heavy industries outsource some manufacturing. It happens everywhere. For example, there are thousands of US workers manufacturing the fuselage, landing gear, engines of Airbus, Bombardier, Embraer and others. I guess some nationalists here would prefer the french, the canadian and the brazilian to have more "patriotic" supply chains and leave US workers without orders.
xaviqaz 7 months ago
In case you missed reality by the way, america doesn't have free trade and hasn't ever. we're paying companies to fucking go to china how hell is PAYING them to fucking send their shit to china free fucking trade? in the 90s WE GAVE BILLONS OF TEX INCENTIVES TO GO TO CHINA HOW IS THIS FREE TRADE???
stylistic101 1 year ago
This guy has a problem in his theory soon people WON'T be investing in this country. ASIA - RUSSIA; CHINA; INDIA and the MIDDLE EAST. Pretty much our government just told china to start trading with themselves because we CAN'T AFFORD TO FUCKING TRADE WITH THEM. You free trade monkeys don't realize the future is ASIA and because all our goddamn wealth is pouring CHINA which is investing in ASIA; AFRICA and SLOWLY NOT INVESTING IN AMERICA. Not everyone can serve coffee and trade on wall-street LOL
stylistic101 1 year ago
Americans have it great. Chinese send kewl things like LCDs, computers, and just about anything else for worthless pieces of paper (US Dollars). Of course, at some point, you'd better learn to say "Do you want extra shine on those shoes" in Mandarin. LOL!
hagbard72 1 year ago
If the US doesn't do something soon, when the last shoe factory or tool making factory moves to China there will be no industry left to operate, and when a crisis occurs all these factories have to be rebuilt. China will have a six month head start. And you all know what I mean by crisis. Hell when is the last time you bought something that in some way didn't come from Chins? THINK!!!
trashcanman1000 1 year ago
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The problem as I see it is that our economy is almost completely a consumption based economy. I think that is very dangerous myself and as such I don't think Lou is entirely wrong. This isn't all just economics, part of the puzzle is national security and safety mechanisms.
You know the real reason why America never pushes any issues with China? It isn't because we owe them money, it's because they hold most of the manufacturing cards...
kmg501 1 year ago
There is no trade deficit. China makes valuable products and trades them for worthless American fiat currency and bonds. The way I see it China is the sucker in this trade. Lou D. just looks so stupid in this piece.
Many dirty, dangerous, manual labor jobs formerly done by low paid, low skilled American workers are now being done by robots IN AMERICA. The job didn't go anywhere, the workers skills just became obsolete. On the other hand there is a huge highly skilled labor shortage in America.
XCritonX 1 year ago
Free trade, how about free trade that is FAIR. Allowing or encouraging slave nations is not good for anyone, it lines the pockets of the globalists and the middle class Americans will pay the big price... for both the trade deficit AND the national debt. Really it is not that complicated... How wonderful it is that we allowed for and contributed extensively to the massive growth in China, we are all in such a better situation here in the USA, just wonderful !!!
SimeoneZone 1 year ago
We HAVE manufacturing CAPACITY. It is simply not being USED because there is insufficient DEMAND. We could produce twice as many cars as we do today, but there is no one to buy them. If the government would just GTFO and lower taxes, our goods would be competitive on the world market again.
strongbadXCP 1 year ago
@strongbadXCP Amen!!!
SuperGuitarman69 1 year ago
Lou's heart is in the right place, but sometimes his head is not.
Frettsy 1 year ago
What Lou is not understanding here is that every dollar that flows OUT of our economy causes each dollar that stays IN to be worth more in that time. Those dollars WILL find their way back to us, because after all, they have no value to anyone else BUT us. If China has so many of our dollars, they can trade them to Japan, or Australia, but eventually, ALL of those dollars have to find their way back to our shores.
eagleeye1975 1 year ago 15
@eagleeye1975 The real problem with the U.S. is that since the dollar is the international trading currency, those dollars may never come back to our shores. Also it is that same reason that we cannot as easily adjust our currency trading to better match up real value. Because if we lowered our currency to say the Chinese yuan, it would devalue the dollars held by so many other countries who we rely on and pist them off.
TracyII77 1 year ago
@TracyII77 if that money doesn't ever come back to our shores, that's fine too... that's deflationary, making all of our dollars worth more. :)
eagleeye1975 1 year ago
@eagleeye1975 The problem is that the value of the dollar is ARTIFICIALLY worth more because it is the international trading currency. The Feds continue to inflate our money supply making the dollar worth less, which is why wages require cost of living increases to remain flat. But since the dollar is propped up abroad, the value of our wages is also propped up, making us less able to compete for work and Chinese goods less expensive to ALL countries.
TracyII77 1 year ago
This propping up is akin to what the Feds did to the housing market and it will eventually cause the dollar to crash (as it did in the 70's). This is the "foreign investment" that the last guy in the clip was talking about (dollars as IOUs). The Chinese are selling us "cheap" goods for our dollars and then using those dollars to corner the market on commodities such as oil, steel, and precious metals. So we sold our future (now and beyond) for plasma TV's.
TracyII77 1 year ago
The problem isn't free trade, but rather monetary policy. We can see the cheap Chinese goods on the shelves of stores, but then feel the pain at the pump or for manufacturing companies the pain of their steel bills. This is why it appears as though we have a trade imbalance. It is not imbalanced. It is just skewed towards certain countries and certain goods and services as a result of monetary policies.
TracyII77 1 year ago
@eagleeye1975 they find their way back to our shores buy foreigners buying our countries assets. so whats the benefit to our country and our citizens? the liability of one country not only receiving our trade while owning our debt is not an asset to us. what lou doesnt understand is basic policy over talking points. get out of nafta, cafta, and the wto, and institute bilateral fairtrade agreements.
thedaoofplus1 1 year ago
@eagleeye1975 This ancient argument isn't a very good one in our contemporary times. The international currency is the US dollar. (really $100 bills). When someone in Singapore builds a bridge in HK, they transact in American dollars, and that's always the case.
LucisFerre1 2 months ago
@eagleeye1975 What you and the clods on the panel don't understand is that china buys T-bills, assets, and financial products with most of the money. This equates to making money with money. Where does the money they make with their money come from? Our economy. This system doesn't create jobs, especially not good paying jobs like our own manufacturing base used to. They also keep a reserve. The dollar is artificially stronger and serves to mask our ever declining wages.
FSUSW15009 1 month ago
What a loser. And it should be obvious which of the two I refer to.
TheBrotherMouzone 1 year ago
Debt approaching 90% of GDP is national suicide.
espada9 1 year ago 4
"you need to get straight on this, Lou"....LOL
manoman0 1 year ago
Lou Dobbs is really confused. You cannot buy imports without FIRST having the funds to do that: those funds come from foreign direct investment and they must precede consumption.
Xerriva 1 year ago
@Xerriva what about on credit?
jpcl21 1 year ago
I think it's odd how he wrote a book on the subject and wasn't aware of the basic principle of the issue. It's like writting a book on chess and not knowing the bishop moves diagonally.
Runesocesius 1 year ago 22
I refuse to believe that this apparently braindead vermin went to Harvard, much less graduated with a degree in the subject in which he is genuinely a neophyte! First of all any form of restricting imports, be it tariffs or pegging a currency at an artificially low rate, keeps people poorer especially export workers being exploited as in China for artificially competitive produce. Secondly their exploitation doesn't directly harm the West. Chinese Mercantilism limits THEIR purchasing power.
Nintendomanwill 1 year ago
@Nintendomanwill Well Lou Dobbs has just been exposed for being a hypocryte. Look at john stossel he admitted on one of his ABC Shows that he was once a welfare queen.
dinfg6 1 year ago
Hell, doesn´China have power in the US economy?! Thats been all the message of Peter Schiff. I love free trade, BUT, in this case, about China, I think that Dobbs have, a t least, some honest thoughts.
gabrielguitarman 1 year ago
Lou Dobbs got owned.
Runesocesius 1 year ago
Love both of these guys on this issue.... but China buying bonds as an excuse for the U.S. buying their exports... is just a dumb way of going about it.... we're talking about private business in this episode... China buying bonds just fuels the large government for the most part... now if they would be investing that money instead into buying products from small-medium businesses it would be more productive and keeping a healthy middle-class instead of diminishing an already weakened one...
jsjs525 1 year ago
I hear Albany has an enormous trade deficit with New York.
selfrealizedexile 1 year ago 5