The Pseudo-economics of Protectionism

re: The Pseudo-economics of Protectionism

Nelson — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:24:26 GMT

<blockquote>Foreigners buying-up assets, especially large corporations or critical infrastructure, threatens national sovereignty. They can blackmail the nation by threatening to pull out their investments, Thus the Govt should tightly control capital flows into the country.

How about that one? :)</blockquote>

I know it "feels" bad to have foreigners own our companies. But so what? If they "pull out their investments", someone else will own them.

re: The Pseudo-economics of Protectionism

kdnc — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 20:17:43 GMT

The Pseudo-politics of Trade Deficits/Free Trade

Lately it has become fashionable for those who claim to be astute economists to bemoan the evils of political views from both the left and the right. However, this penchant for the ascendancy of economic principles is founded upon a general lack of knowledge when it comes to politics.

I will stop the parody here because I believe most will have seen my point by now and it is this; writers like you make a fundamental mistake by leaving a discussion of political forces out when speaking about economics. No astute economist can leave politics out of his discussion of economics and no astute politician can leave economics out of his discussion of politics. This is a fundamental principle of Austrian economics.

In response to your “two points” (they are really just one since Assertion 1 would logically include Assertion 2 as well as many others like it) let me say that any reasonable “pseudo-economist,” or “pseudo-politician” for that matter, will understand trade deficits to be “bad” to the extent to which they set the stage for political forces that are destructive to the liberty of the free market and consequently the individual.

re: The Pseudo-economics of Protectionism

MCLA — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 03:15:14 GMT

Foreigners buying-up assets, especially large corporations or critical infrastructure, threatens national sovereignty. They can blackmail the nation by threatening to pull out their investments, Thus the Govt should tightly control capital flows into the country.

How about that one? :)