Trade Deficit Angst

Walter E. Williams / Townhall Columnist

Let's look at the political angst over trade deficits. A trade deficit is when people in one country buy more from another country than the other country's people buy from them. There cannot be a trade deficit in a true economic sense. Let's examine this.

 

I buy more from my grocer than he buys from me. That means I have a trade deficit with my grocer. My grocer buys more from his wholesaler than his wholesaler buys from him. But there is really no trade imbalance, whether my grocer is down the street, in Canada or, God forbid, in China.

Here is what happens: When I purchase $100 worth of groceries, my goods account (groceries) rises, but my capital account (money) falls by $100. For my grocer, it is the opposite. His goods account falls by $100, but his capital account rises by $100. Looking at only the goods account, we would see trade deficits, but if we included the capital accounts, we would see a trade balance. That is true whether we are talking about domestic trade or we are talking about foreign trade.

The uninformed buys into the mercantilist creed that trade deficits are bad and trade surpluses are good. My George Mason University colleague Donald Boudreaux wrote a blog post titled "If Trade Surpluses are So Great, the 1930s Should Have Been a Booming Decade". The U.S. had a current account trade surplus in nine of the 10 years of the Great Depression, with 1936 being the lone exception. The fact of the matter is that our nation has registered current account deficits throughout most of our history, from 1790 right up to our modern period (http://www.econdataus.com/tradeall.html). Over that interval, we went from being a poor, relatively weak nation to the richest and most powerful nation in the history of mankind. So if, as our fearmongers would have it, current account deficits are so harmful, how did we accomplish that feat? Economies are far too complex to draw simple-minded causal connections between trade deficits and surpluses and economic welfare and growth.

Obama Proudly Poses in Havana with Che Guevara—(Who Craved to Murder Millions of his Countrymen)

Humberto Fontova / Townhal Columnist

 

While in Havana yesterday president Obama carefully arranged a photo-op with the huge mural of Che Guevara as backdrop. If the phrase “carefully arranged” strikes you as rhetorically “pushing the envelope,” I invite you to watch this brief video for proof.

“Better” still, this mural—the biggest of the celebrated (by many liberals) mass-murderer, racist and warmonger-- adorns the headquarters for Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior, which is to say: the headquarters for Cuba's KGB and STASI trained secret police. Nothing could be more fitting.

In 1959, with the help of Soviet GRU agents, the man President Obama felt a burning need to arrange as his backdrop helped found, train and indoctrinate Cuba’s secret police. "Always interrogate your prisoners at night," Che Guevara instructed the Castro regime’s torturers. "A man's resistance is always lower at night." Che Guevara, that whacky cut-up, often signed his early correspondence as “Stalin II.”

If the phrase “celebrated (especially by many liberals)” strikes you as yet another rhetorical “pushing of the envelope,” I invite you to consider that in 1999 when Time magazine hailed “The 100 Most Important People of the Century,” Che Guevara was among them.

OK, at first glance this might seem reasonable. The term “important,” after all, can be construed as morally-neutral. But Time magazine placed Che Guevara in its “Heroes and Icons” category of the “Century’s Most Important People,” alongside Anne Frank, Andrei Sakharov, Rosa Parks and Mother Theresa.

Cruz: “In the wake of Brussels, we don’t need another lecture from President Obama about Islamophobia”
By Robert Spencer / Jihad Watch

 

“Today’s attacks in Brussels underscores this is a war. This is not a lone war. ISIS has declared jihad.” Yes. This shouldn’t even be controversial. It’s painfully obvious — as is Cruz’s call for an end to Obama’s suicidal migrant policies. “Cruz: ‘We Don’t Need Another Lecture on Islamophobia,'” by Cortney O’Brien, Townhall, March 22, […]
 
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BREAKING: Belgian nuclear power plants evacuated after Brussels jihad terror attack

Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs

“Schools and universities have also been evacuated and the European Parliament will remain closed until Thursday at the earliest.” This is Europe’s new normal — the future they have invited for themselves.

“BREAKING: Belgian nuclear power plants evacuated after Brussels terror attack,” by Tom Batchelor, Express, Mar 22, 2016:

TWO nuclear power plants in Belgium have been evacuated after explosions tore through Brussels Airport and metro this morning.

The Tihange power plant, an hour’s drive from the Belgian capital in the province of Liege, and the Doel power plant in Antwerp have been cleared amid heightened fears of another attack.

Security has been stepped up at both Doel, which houses four...

Read the whole entry »

     

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Op-ed:
Trump v. Cruz at AIPAC
By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Right Side Patriots on http://www.americanpbn.com/

“I didn't come here tonight to pander to you about Israel..” 
 - Donald Trump speaking at AIPAC

"Believe me"..."Believe me"..."Believe me"...said over and over again. Guess what...I believe not one word Donald J. Trump said at this years AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, America's largest pro-Israel group) for while Trump talks the talk...sort of...he showed just how little he knows about foreign policy in regards to Israel, and the audience responded in kind with the most subdued of all the responses given to any of the presidential candidates in attendance.

Entering the hall like a despot surrounded by bodyguards, Trump read off a teleprompter like so many politicians before him... something he said he's never do or be...while simultaneously releasing his prepared remarks on his campaign website while he was speaking. And Trump, to the chagrin of many in attendance, actually used part of his time to promote his narcissistic self and his books, and to try to do damage control in relation to his recent statement said both at the last debate and on CNN that he hoped to be neutral in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But how can one do damage control when making such outlandish statements as first Trump saying that he had studied the Iran deal to an extent “greater by far than anybody else,” sending both the audience and myself into fits of laughter for with that one line Donald Trump showed just how little he knows about the true danger Israel faces today. And second, “We know Israel is willing to deal...” flip-flopping from what he said again at the last debate and in an Associated Press December interview when he alluded that Israel was unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary for Middle East peace...in other words Trump wanted Israel to give up even more of its tiny sliver of land to those wishing to wipe her off the map.

“My number one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran,” Trump said, but how can that be his number one priority when he has spewed out time and again that building a wall along our southern border is numero uno with him. And really folks, to dismantle is not to eliminate the “disasterous deal” for remember Trump's interview a few months ago on 'Meet the Press' when he said, “it would be very hard for the next president to undo the deal.” What Trump seems to be pushing for with his carefully chosen word “dismantle” is just a renegotiation of the current deal, so, I call these words Trump said to AIPAC indeed pandering for the Jewish vote and nothing else.

And I also call his words, "I know deal-making and let me tell you, this deal is catastrophic for America, for Israel, and for the whole of the Middle East," adding that "The problem here is fundamental. We have rewarded the world's leading state sponsor of terror with $150 billion and we received absolutely nothing in return," the words of someone who is not as astute on deal-making as he thinks he is for the most important thing Trump is missing here is that we...the United States... should not and must not under any conditions be doing any deals whatsoever with the world's leading sponsor of terrorism...good deals, bad deals, or indifferent deals...no deals period.

"Let me be sort of a neutral guy...I have friends of mine that are tremendous business people, that are really great negotiators, [and] they say it's not doable," were Donald Trump's words regarding the Israeli/Palestinian conflict said during an MSNBC town hall just this past February. And remember, too, that last year the Republican Jewish Committee (RJC) actually booed Trump when he would not commit to recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. But now at AIPAC, Trump flip-flops on both accounts as he wants us to believe that he sides with Israel by his simply calling for the moving of the American Embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem never mentioning the waiver in the 'Jerusalem Embassy Act' that would actually allow him as president to avoid doing so.

But the truth is that Trump's now saying that our embassy would be moved in a Trump administration just masks the fact that first, Donald Trump truly does want to stay neutral in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict to protect his current business dealings in the area and second, that his heart is truly not in moving our embassy to Jerusalem as both Israel and the Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital, and moving said embassy would neutralize his stance of neutrality making him an enemy of those who business deals he will try to court in the near future.

Trump the empire builder will always 'trump' Trump the policy maker in the end.

And so the man whose sole Israeli foreign policy experience consists of 'lending' former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani his plane so he could fly to Israel, his having in his own words “taken a risk” by serving as the Grand Marshal of the '40th Salute to Israel Parade' way back in 2004, and his having a few Jewish grandchildren...that man did not address two issues important to Israel...those being efforts here in America to silence campus support of Israel, and the 'Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement' growing within our country. And this man now wants us to believe that he supports Israel one hundred percent in her fight against Iran and other enemies just because he says “believe me.”

NO...I don't think so for at a news conference right before his AIPAC reality show appearance, Donald Trump had the audacity to raise the possibility of first, eliminating American aid to Israel by saying, “There are many countries that can pay [to aid Israel], and they can pay big-league”...and second, by suggesting that Israel repay the U.S. for the foreign aid it has received to date. Shades of isolationist Rand Paul I would say...shades of a man who while he might be 'friendly' towards Israel is a friend Israel needs to keep a watchful eye on.

See Donald Trump's AIPAC speech here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHmINZRwiZU

So while Donald Trump tried to suck the air out of the conference room just with his mere presence, the other two Republican candidates spoke to AIPAC as well. And while John Kasich offered a sound but predictable vision for American/Israeli relations, it was Ted Cruz who brought the house down. And Cruz rightfully pointed out that Trump’s constant use of the word 'Palestine' showed his true lack of knowledge on the history of modern day Israel when he said, “To the surprise of the previous speaker, Palestine has not existed since 1948.” By his saying those words Ted Cruz acknowledged as fact the main touch point in the ongoing Israeli/Palestinian conflict, while Donald Trump's teleprompted words gave the land of Israel an identity that goes against everything Israel stands for...and goes against everything the Holy Bible dictates.

Ted Cruz understands the problems Israel faces today and he had actual policies in place that would help defund any college or university that supports the 'Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, against Israel; he was able to turn Hilary's 2014 well-publicized statement that Israeli rockets hit civilians in Gaza occasionally because it is a densely populated area against her by saying that, “the reason the missiles are in schools is not because Gaza is small. The reason the missiles are in schools is because Hamas are terrorist monsters using children as human shields;” and he nailed Donald Trump when saying, “My leading Republican opponent promised he, as president, would be neutral between Israel and the Palestinians,” adding that “Let me be very, very clear: As president, I will not be neutral. America will stand unapologetically with the nation of Israel”...an unwavering stance Ted Cruz has taken since even before announcing his run for the presidency.

And Ted Cruz also called Trump to task for promising that he’s going to negotiate and get a better deal with Iran by (rightfully) saying that, “Well, my view is very different...I will rip up the deal, reimpose sanctions and tell Iran to shut down (not just pause) its nuclear program or we will shut it down for you.” Tough but heartfelt talk from a man who has a deep love for Israel and a man who wants to see the Jewish State survive intact and whole.

And Ted Cruz brought the audience to its feet when he explained his personal love for Israel. Starting with, “Now some have asked, Why on earth did a Cuban American Texan become one of the leading defenders of Israel in the United States Congress?,” Cruz explained that “Israel is a liberal democracy that shares our values, Israel is a steadfast and loyal ally, and our military aid to Israel is not charity, it is rather furthering the vital national security interest of the United States of America.”

Explaining further his father's story of leaving Cuba and coming to America in 1957, by saying his father told him that, “When I faced oppression in Cuba, I had a place to flee to, If we lose our freedom here, where do we go?,” Cruz finished by saying, “And there’s only one other nation on earth like the United States of America that’s created as an oasis, as a beacon of hope, to people who have faced oppression, who have faced the horrible murder and persecution, and that nation is Israel.”

See Ted Cruz's AIPAC speech here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRyiT1geIGs 

And herein lies the differences between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump not only in their speeches given at AIPAC but in their true feelings when it comes to the Jewish State of Israel. And highlighting those differences is the fact that Donald Trump sees Israel as merely sound bytes for votes, sound bytes he's learned about through perusing magazines and newspapers while listening to the talking heads on TV...while Ted Cruz immerses himself in the intricacies and nuances of foreign policy as it relates to Israel and truly sees Israel as America's closest ally and friend. “Am Yisrael Chai”...the nation of Israel lives...Ted Cruz said...simple words that proved not only to those attending AIPAC but to Jews everywhere that he is the best candidate to not only cover Israel's back but to rebuild the fences between the two nations that Barack HUSSEIN Obama has torn down.

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RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS...LIVE!

Wednesday, March 23rd at 2 to 4pm EST, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori will discuss the events in Brussels, how to stop Donald Trump, the newest on Hillary's email scandal, and the AIPAC event.

Tune in at www.americanpbn.com