All Posts Tagged With: "trade deficit"
The Right Amount of Manufacturing
Mark Perry, an economics professor at the University of Michigan, recently pointed out that in 2009 the U.S. economy had the world’s largest manufacturing sector. (The most recent data show that China’s sector edged out the United States because of our slow economic recovery.) Every year since 2004 U.S. manufacturing output, in constant 2005 dollars, [...]
22Jun2011 | David R. Henderson | 7 comments | ContinuedThe Balance-of-Payments Deficit: Not to Worry
Quick. What’s the trade deficit between California and the rest of the world? Don’t try Googling it because you won’t find an answer. No government agency—or private entity—computes the dollar value of goods that people in the rest of the world sell to or buy from Californians. Why not? Because it doesn’t matter. Yet governments [...]
5Jan2010 | David R. Henderson | 7 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – April 2008
- Globalization by Donald J. Boudreaux Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling
- Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement by Brian Doherty Reviewed by Bettina Bien Greaves
- Armed America: The Remarkable Story of How and Why Guns Became as American as Apple Pie by Clayton E. Cramer Reviewed by George C. Leef
- The European Economy Since 1945: Coordinated Capitalism and Beyond by Barry Eichengreen Reviewed by Waldemar Ingdahl
Book Reviews – January 2008
- The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care
by David Gratzer Reviewed by Jane M. Orient
- Self-Determination: The Other Path for Native Americans
Edited by Terry L. Anderson, Bruce L. Benson, and Thomas F. Flanagan Reviewed by William L. Anderson, Jr.
- The Wal-Mart Revolution
by Richard Vedder and Wendell Cox Reviewed by George Leef - On the Wealth of Nations
by P.J. O’Rourke Reviewed by Raymond J. Keating
Imports, Exports, and Nonsense
The Commerce Department (whose idea was that?) said recently that 2006 was another record year for the U.S. “trade deficit.” The value of imports beat the value of exports by $764 billion. That makes five record years in a row. China’s trade surplus with us hit $233 billion. Ordinarily, I would ignore this nonstory because, [...]
1Jun2007 | Sheldon Richman | 2 comments | ContinuedThe Trade Deficit Is Debt? It Just Ain’t So!
Writing in the October 4 New York Times, Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz worries about “global imbalances.” Stiglitz’s concerns are revealed in his opening paragraph: “The International Monetary Fund meeting in Singapore last month came at a time of increasing worry about the sustainability of global financial imbalances: For how long can the global economy [...]
1Dec2006 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 1 comment | ContinuedA Deficit of Understanding II
Writing in the January/February 2004 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, Sherle Schwenninger of the New America Foundation joined Warren Buffett and scores of politicians in bewailing America’s trade deficit. Like his intellectual compatriots, Schwenninger simply assumes that the trade deficit is debt and that it’s ominous. It is neither. A trade deficit exists for the [...]
1Jun2004 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 3 comments | ContinuedA Deficit of Understanding
“Nothing, however, can be more absurd than this whole doctrine of the balance of trade.” —Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations Here’s some sound advice: don’t worry about the trade deficit. The pundits’ and politicians’ hysteria over the trade deficit is rooted in confusion. The fact is, a trade deficit is unlikely to be a [...]
1Apr2004 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 5 comments | ContinuedFree Trade Has Been Refuted?
Perhaps the most settled of all economic propositions is that coercive interference with peaceful exchange is detrimental. Yet we often hear groups that want to stifle trade for their own benefit claim that some statistic or argument proves that free trade is a bad policy in general and that protectionism is good for the country. [...]
1Jul2003 | George C. Leef | 1 comment | ContinuedDon’t Be Framed
Experimental psychologists teach the importance of “issue framing.” The details of how a problem is presented to someone—how a problem is framed—often affect his response to it. Human brains aren’t fleshy versions of silicon microprocessors; we are not general-purpose calculating machines. Rather, our brains evolved over countless generations to deal effectively with those specific problems [...]
1May2001 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Trade Deficit: Much Ado About Nothing
I have a dirty little secret that I want to share with readers of The Freeman. It’s about a nagging problem I have had for a long time. It just never seems to go away. Heretofore, I have not wanted to admit to this problem in public because the newspaper headlines remind me monthly that [...]
1Dec1998 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedCursed by Economic Knowledge and Ignorance
Economic understanding is a curse. Americans are fed a steady diet of idiotic commentary and specious “analyses” most of which flow smoothly down the gullets of unsuspecting nightly-news, viewers, newspaper readers, and National Public Radio devotees. But for those of us vexed with some comprehension of supply and demand, comparative advantage, the role of prices, [...]
1May1998 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 0 comments | Continued-
The Latest
Contraception: Insuring the Uninsurable
Update below. Controversy rages over the Obama administration’s mandate that all employers – including... Read More
The Snow Plowers’ Petition
The following might have happened in a small college town in upstate New York… In a cold and snowy... Read More
Super Bowl versus Education?
In the spirit of Super Bowl weekend I’d like to deconstruct a Facebook status update that a friend... Read More
Capitalism, Corporatism, and the Freed Market
When a front-running presidential contender tells the country that thanks to Barack Obama, “[w]e are... Read More
Creating Jobs versus Creating Value
Picking on New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is one of the largest participation sports on the Internet.... Read More
