Jeffrey Sachs on Trump’s Trade Fallacies I heard on some news show an incredibly stupid statement from our President earlier today and in utter disbelief fired off this comment on some blog: Trump equates our trade deficit with us being ripped off. Let’s do this as a simple example. You walk into Best Buy and purchase a 00 computer but do not have cash. So you put it on your credit card incurring a 00 liability. Even though you now have the computer and Best Buy does not – Best Buy just ripped you off as you have a 00 financial obligation. An odd statement from someone who routinely defaulted on his financial obligations! Never mind that as on Friday Jeffrey Sachs beat me to this: But don’t expect an impulsive and ignorant man like Trump to heed
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ProGrowthLiberal considers the following as important: politics, Taxes/regulation, US/Global Economics
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Jeffrey Sachs on Trump’s Trade Fallacies
I heard on some news show an incredibly stupid statement from our President earlier today and in utter disbelief fired off this comment on some blog:
Trump equates our trade deficit with us being ripped off. Let’s do this as a simple example. You walk into Best Buy and purchase a $1000 computer but do not have cash. So you put it on your credit card incurring a $1000 liability. Even though you now have the computer and Best Buy does not – Best Buy just ripped you off as you have a $1000 financial obligation. An odd statement from someone who routinely defaulted on his financial obligations!
Never mind that as on Friday Jeffrey Sachs beat me to this:
But don’t expect an impulsive and ignorant man like Trump to heed the lessons of economic history, logic of retaliation, and the basics of trade. His actions are based on three primitive fallacies. First, Trump thinks that America runs trade deficits with countries like China and Germany because the US is being swindled by them. The real reason is that the US saves too little and consumes too much, and it pays for this bad habit by borrowing from the rest of the world. The Trump theory of international trade is like a man in deep debt who blames his creditors for his spendthrift behavior. Come to think of it, that is precisely how Trump has spent his whole business career: over-borrowing, going bankrupt, and blaming his creditors.
Check out his discussion of the other two primitive fallacies! I guess Trump would argue that it was very unfair to me when Best Buy gave me a credit card.