We're Already Losing the Trade War Unecessarily

Short post today. I'm still reeling over this LightSquared story. Maybe I can find a tie-in, who knows?

I find it interesting that we're in a grand and glorious new age of global commerce. It could be a time of economic renewal for us as a nation, but there are a couple of things that are missing. Like the spirit of competition and a willingness not only to keep up with your competitition, but to do better and excel.

We're being told that we must be a player in this new world order. But, how can we compete if our own government is determined to tie our hands with regulations that are designed to make sure we can't?

All eleven of you know that I'm a firm believer in capitalism and the unfettered free market. But what we have today is anything but. I've outlined the tsunami of regulations that spewed from the 111th Pelosi- and Reid-led Congress. It may be gone, but the damage remains. In fact, we don't have a handle on the actual amount of economic havoc wreaked by this administration, as the regulations are still being written. It's the main driver behind the uncertainty that bedevils our economy.

Now, there's a bill winding its way through the current Congress that aims to put some pressure on China to allow their currency value to float like every other country. Needless to say, the Chineses aren't very happy with this, as they're now threatening a trade war with us.

How nice.

The fact is that we're already losing the trade war, as evidenced by our global trade imbalance. Billions and billions of our dollars are going out of the country and into the coffers of our trade enemies. All this is perfectly justifiable to this administration who sees the US as the bad guy who, because of our success, needs to pay reparations to the rest of the world.

In a sane world where everything wasn't backwards, other countries would be imitating our success instead of robbing us. They'd be reforming themselves instead of us. They would be upping their game, not tearing ours down.

Another thing that I've proposed is to withdraw from this whole idea of a global economy and concentrate on ourselves first. We have the natural resources and the business saavy to do it, just not the political will.

We could drill for our own oil, which we have in abundance, curiously, thanks to the Big Green Movement that has made it essentially forbidden to use. We could be constructing new nuclear plants and oil refineries today. We could stop using food for fuel, ending this outrageously idiotic notion of "American Ethanol" as the cure for our energy woes.

We could regain our manufacturing ability, which we destroyed through NAFTA and GATT. We could reduce the role of government in our economy. We could stop companies from interfering with our own technology, as in LightSquared, where we're shooting ourselves in the foot with a plan to seriously hamper our GPS system (see, I knew I'd find a tie-in).

In short, there's so much we could be doing for ourselves, but aren't.

It's all about the numbers, which so many in Washington either cannot or will not understand. We have met the enemy, and it is us.

One last thingy. I posted a chart by the Moron John E on Monday about numbers. Thanks to LauraW's hump, there's a better version making the rounds of teh Interwebs. This one features dancing girls with fans, champagne bubbles and a big band.

Well, not really.



You may now return to your life.