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Comment by s1artibartfast

11 days ago

I'm on the side of free trade and dont think there is a single policy. The strongest arguments I can think of are:

1) raise tax revenue in a way that partially falls on foreign nationals

2) reduce trade deficits and foreign purchasing of treasuries.

3) Increase relative power if other economies are damaged more than the US. There are situations where zero and negative sum strategies are optimal, like war, where it is better to have a larger % of a smaller overall pie.

4) stimulate demand for us labor

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s1artibartfast

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JumpCrisscross  11 days ago

> 2) reduce trade deficits and foreign purchasing of treasuries

None of the GOP budgets reduce the deficit. Trump’s blew them out even further.

  • s1artibartfast  11 days ago

    Im talking about trade deficits, not budget deficits. Im not convinced trade deficits are a bad thing to begin with, but that is a whole sperate can of worms.

    My understanding is that yes, the national debt is still increasing, although the administration is counting on tariff funds to supplement revenue. Would you agree?

    • JumpCrisscross  10 days ago

      > the national debt is still increasing, although the administration is counting on tariff funds to supplement revenue

      Not the debt, the deficit. The debt is the card balance. The deficit are new swipes. Nothing in the current policy package is about deficit (let alone debt) reduction.

      (Valid on trade deficits. I guess we can run trade surpluses if we give up dollar hegemony. That, of course, means no more deficits.)

    • mahogany  10 days ago

      > My understanding is that yes, the national debt is still increasing, although the administration is counting on tariff funds to supplement revenue. Would you agree?

      Let me see if I am following. The tariffs are ostensibly about spurring domestic industry so that American companies can flourish and we don’t have to pay tariffs on imports of foreign goods in the long term. Is that right? If so, then long term, aren’t we hoping that the “tariff funds” are small? But they are simultaneously supposed to supplement revenue to pay down debt too?