Opposing free trade because it only results in massive and continuous trade deficits which are an outflow of wealth, just like the tens of billions leaving the country in drug revenues from illegals as well as the tens of billions they send to their families in their home countries. Politicians follow Academics believe it or not. And for decades now the orthodoxy in Academics has been that if there were total deregulation and free flows of labor, capital and products that every country benefit. But they were of course wrong, just as Academics and intellectuals are usually wrong. Instead what we got were colossal trade deficits, a hollowing out of the middle class, massive income inequality, wages down to zero, fifty million people on food stamps, and on and on. Most Economists are not worried about a 19 trillion dollar debt either because they claim it never has to be paid, but the interest is crushing, and once again they are dead wrong. When interest rates eventually go back to normal levels we will never be able to pay the interest on the debt, which at this rate will continue to grow and grow with no end. But there will be an end. At some point lenders won't want to purchase it anymore because it cannot ever be repayed. Funny how repayment is still a consideration of lenders if not these moronic Academic economists.
And in foreign policy Trump is dead on when it comes to NATO. NATO kept expanding to include every fucking country right up to the Russians' borders, and NATO even wanted to absorb Ukraine. The Russians finally said enough is enough and that's when they started fighting back. Trump is actually intelligent enough to put himself in the shoes of someone like Putin and try to look at things from his point of view. No one else in the "foreign policy" community is able to do that. They just look at Putin's violent reactions and then sanction him. But everything he's doing is reactive because of these idiotic expansions of NATO. And if Lithuania or Estonia are attacked by Russia will NATO go to war with Russia to defend them??? Hell no. And Trump knows this and as much as says this.
Trump is no genius but he isn't contaminated with false orthodoxies which these experts and intellectuals don't have. I have no fucking idea if he can put his ideas into action. But all his ideas are opposed to the insanity of the orthodoxies, and for that reason alone his message must be supported.
Originally Posted by pussycat
There are so many differing opinions and statistics, and so much higher math, I tend to get stymied when reading about trade issues. However, I think it's unfair to, and I tend to dislike the broad brush strokes of a delegitimizing politic, of which the very broad assumption that intellectuals and academia are almost always wrong is a part. Of course, policy follows research. As it should be. Also of course, not all research holds up over time and, especially in areas of economics where what once worked won’t always work. . People do tend to cling to ideas that have outlived their usefulness, and I do agree that examining the trade orthodoxy is good. I don’t think that getting into a trade war with China will benefit anyone. I don’t hear Trump say much but introducing tariffs, and that’s what that will lead to. '
The disparity between capital that can go where it pleases and a labor market that can’t, is beset with an entrenched inequality from the get go. From what I have understood about trade, usually there is a net gain for countries involved, the problem is that there is also a net loss in terms of income inequality. Why would we not then start looking at ways to address a more progressive labor policy across countries? Trade does create a certain amount of geo-political stability, might we also, by addressing and regulating for issues of income inequality through labor protection, keep the stability born of economic ties and also mitigate some of the issues it creates? This is where institutions like the WTO come in handy. Does it have to be a zero sum game?
NATO doesn’t expand itself willfully or annex countries. Countries apply to become a part of NATO. No one forces them to. The Ukraine is a complex issue, but for brevity’s sake, the Ukraine applied to become a part of NATO in 2008. Then, when pro-Russian Victor Yanukovych was elected in 2010, the official Ukranian stance was to stay non-aligned with the west in that way. It wasn’t until AFTER 2014 when he was ousted and Russia offered it’s “support” in the Ukraine that the country renewed its interest in joining NATO. That’s a sovereign country’s decision. Should NATO not consider their application because of Russia? Russia was iced out of NATO, for sure. Cold War bitternesss ran deep, I guess. In light of recent events, probably will prove to be a big blunder by the west. But, we didn't create Putin's autocratic behavior there. I would seriously question the Russian narrative of going in to protect Russian speaking and leaning citizens there. Wasn't that the same argument Hitler used when invading the sudetenland? I think constructing NATO as the perpetrator and Putin's Russia as the victim of NATO expansion is extremely shortsighted and that's probably the understatement of the year. The Kremlin oligarchy is entrenched corruption and nothing but. I don’t know why any American would offer any idealogical support to the blatant human and civil rights abuses happening in Russia right now. The burgeoning reforms created in the 1990s were all but destroyed under his regime. He eviscerated the media, being journalist there is a very dangerous profession, shuts down dissent of human rights and other civil society organizations, lines his and other's pockets with corporate raiding, colludes with crime organizations, the list goes on. I hate to keep bringing up Hitler because its something of an overused trope, but there is something of a playbook for imperialist designs, squashing opposition and basically creating an information ghetto where dissent is deadly. They appear to be doing it.
I"m usually not much of a conspiracy theorist, but I think he (putin) and the kremlin oligarchy are truly dangerous and much more sophisticated and discursive than their communist counterparts. Expansionist designs? I don't know. But whatever the goals are it doesn't bode well for a lot of the ideas that most western democracies hold dear. Interesting website regarding this below.
http://www.interpretermag.com/the-me...ure-and-money/
Considering that there are more and more CA people living here, it might happen!!!
