Reading 16 Trading with the World by Miachael Parkin. It reads like a middle school text. “The goods and services that we buy from people in other countries are called imports. The goods and services that we sell to people in other countires are called exports.” “you may be wondering how a country can “export and “import” services.” (I love the quotations) Farmland (a fictitious conutry) (thanks for that clarification) “Trade between the Farmers and the Mobilians does not create winners and losers. It creates only winners.” (Yaaaaa!!!) “Lets see how” “You can now see” “We’ve seen that” “You can now literally see” (Thanks Michael for taking me on this wild ride of economic theory” Its especially unnerving as he assumes that there are no trade problems in the world and that everything just magically works itself out. Oh China having low wages makes no difference as they are 1/10th as productive as American workers. Whatever.
I thought it read like free trade propaganda. The section that talked about all the wonderful benefits of government regulation was the same way. Everyone opposed to all free trade is simply trying to benefit certain industries at the expense of the overall economy. What about the tainted dog food and toys from China or the currency manipulation? I understand the theory, but my view is that it works if you’re dealing with similar countries that all play by the same rules.