Part one - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PQrz8F0dBI
Part two - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZTzPmn-87w
Part three - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_hiEvTNV5k
Part four -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yonUgZ2Y6Qs
Part five - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW6KkF6aa_A
Part six - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDxufaKZLjc
GATT - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Agreement_on_Tariffs_and_Trade
I'm very interested to hear your comments on this. Link was provided on #Mises by cyr- (thanks!).
It would help if you provided some cliff's notes.
Part six is the most interesting segment. He alludes to the frailty of the world economy and the dangers of derivatives...
I suppose the Game Theory reply would be that states that don't play the trade war are losers. So who has really tried it? Maybe a historical case would prove different than the probabilities. I don't believe it is sane to treat all situations in life as if it where game because folks are rational they deserve the respect to opt out of games.
Maybe the best model for free international exchange is the microcosmic one? If one actor chooses not to charge in excess for his services while the rest of the actors at the market choose to charge in excess, should he clear his goods with more haste to more folks, and reciprocate by spending as well?
The economy is global and depends on international trade. A truly liberal trade policy would incite commerce more than any protectionist scheme/scam.
Oh is it possible? Yes. Will it happen? Not without a radical change in the status quo's ideology.
Individualism Rocks
All this is from Part One:
First: china can make things cheaper, cause the workers get pennies. therefor there will be millions unemployed in the US if we let them sell us stuff
My possible rebuttal: I've heard that this is actually good for everyone, "comparative advantage" it's called. because if things are cheaper it's good for everyone. As for the unemployed, they will find new jobs. Does not the USA need people to do things here at home? I seem to remember Gerald Celkente recommending going to making high quality stuff in the West, that the chinese don't have the experience to do.
Of course I'd love to hear a really educated reply to this, being unclear about it.
Next piece of part One: The workers and owners have fought for decades to reach this equilibrium division of the profit pie. Now the poor workers are going to get shafted, after all the mighty efforts to better themselves.
My possible rebuttal: They will be better off in the long run if the economy is humming, which it will be if we allow totally free trade. In the meantime, their mighty struggles ahve bankrupted the auto industries here, and closed down the whole once thriving rust belt in the USA. Maybe we should let them keep it up, so they can bankrupt and shut down the whole nation.
Next: Don't get me wrong, I love free enterprise and free markets, BUT BUT BUT this will destroy the whole f-ing society.
My possible rebuttal: So say you. But experience shows that the unions right here have destroyed society. Just look at us now. Look at Detroit. Look at The rust Belt. Look at the whole State of California going bankrupt to pay off union pensions.
My humble blog
It's easy to refute an argument if you first misrepresent it. William Keizer
Part Two: Since I was a boy , we have gotten so rich, and yet the country has more problems than ever. And its because we have become slaves of the market, not letting the market serve us.
My Possible Rebuttal: You have yet to show a cause and effect relationship, which you aren't.
More: All the big companies are moving their factories overseas, where labor is cheap. First it was clothes, then shoes, then high tech, then service. So it's not just unskilled labor. [Implication: no one in the USA will find a job, all the chinese will work and we will all starve].
Some bitching about how some company is using a satellite to communicate with Bombay and hiring the folks there to answer the phones, AND WHY????????
"So they can reduce their costs by 95%", that's why. WHAT AN OUTRAGE!
At this point, a semi-hottie Clinton lady was invited to rebut him. She said, firstly, that cheap labor means better ability to compete wroldwide for US companies, who still hire plenty of people right here. And it also means WE ALL GET GOODIES CHEAPER! [emphasis mine] Something about creating 5 million jobs.
He rebuts the clinton lady: by saying we are importing more than we are exporting by 150 billion. [which he then calls "infinitely more"].
My rebut to his rebut: Peter Schiff says importing more than exporting is bad BECAUSE WE HAVE NOTHING TO GIVE THEM IN RETURN. We have stopped making things, and are like the farmer who sells all his cows to buy cheap milk. So that one day he will have nothing.
Sir James, on the other hand, sees a totally different problem. If we are importing, it means we are GIVING OUR JOBS AWAY TO CHINA. The USA wil be a nation of unemployed, cause china will do all the work for cheap.
In fact , this seems to be the common thread of all his argument so far. We need jobs jobs jobs.
He further rebuts th eclinton lady by saying: we get stuff cheaper har har har de har har. Yes they are sold at a teeny lil bit below what the local yokels are selling their goods for, giving us a minimal savings, but that goes together with a terrible horrific incalculable loss. The good ole USA made in america salt of the Earth deserving workers ALL LOSE THEIR JOBS. Cause their factory has to close down.
Clinton lady: USA is facing terrible tarrif barriers, too. We would be better off if both sides got rid of the tarrifs.
If I'm right, there will just be more of the same. We need the jobs, and cheaper prices be damned.
So this is prophetic? Nowadays we indeed buy everythig from China, but thats NOT what destroyed the economy by any means. According to AE the Fed did that. According to the party line, "lack of regulations on the banks" did it. According to Peter Schiffthe Fed and too many regulations and taxes did it. But everybody just loves that Chinese stuff at WalMarts.
The Protectionist Manifesto
The factories producing goods to import back to the US will all move to China and unemployment in the US will be 99%. Then rich aliens from the Antares system will settle in the US, enslave the unemployed humans as house maids and buy up those products sitting in the stores unable to be bought by the unemployed humans. Then when the aliens run out of trilithium crystals to pay the Chinese for billions of tons of toys and t-shirts the world economy will blow up due to lack of aggregate demand and the humans will revolt against the aliens. Everyone will sew his own shirts and build his own toys and the aliens will be punished by making them dig holes and fill them back up.