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Politics : Politics of Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (6312)	3/19/2009 10:05:16 AM
From: RetiredNow	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 86355

Wow, Tim. There are so many things wrong with your post, I'm having trouble choosing what to respond to. But in the interest of brevity, I'll just say that all trade is not good trade. This country has had a bad habit of fast tracking bad trade deals with other countries in the mistaken belief that all trade is good trade. I'll list for you some of the problems with our trade with China, which is bad for American companies, jobs, and our standard of living: 1) they don't float their currency, which makes their currency artificially weak, leading to US trade deficits with China 2) they aren't really a free market...they tightly control what we are allowed to sell there, although we let them sell whatever they want here, all of which again leads to trade deficits with China 3) they keep a tight control over Chinese companies and don't let the market decide who owns what. The most recent example is Coca Cola's attempt to buy a Chinese juice firm, which the government blocked. And yet, we let Chinese companies buy US companies all the time. 4) They don't regulate their companies nearly as much as we do when it comes to worker's rights or safety, which makes their labor cheap in comparison to ours, putting us at a disadvantage. 5) All of the above leads to them having an enormous amount of US Treasuries, FX reserves, with which to buy up US businesses and assets. All this is due to the deficits we've been running with them due to the unfair trade practices they employ. And so, given all that, you think the trade between us and China is fair and a free market? That's a joke. It's time for Americans to get their heads out of their asses, go back to school and learn economics, and then put our brains to use crafting trade policies and deals that are fair for our country as well as other countries. All trade deals are not good. All trade between countries isn't good. All trade isn't free and all trade isn't based on a free market. China is a great lesson for us to learn. They are winning the trade war with us already and yet you don't see it. All I need to do is look at one number to know that we are losing to China economically. The trade deficit with China tells the whole story.