Trendy as hell to identify oneself as a supporter of Free Trade. (FT) Also trendy to disparage anyone who does not support it as some kind of extreme left authoritarian anti-free market throwback.
Had a few exchanges with pain in the arse Libertarians on Twitter recently, and unsurprisingly, especially when it come to those who hang on every word of the pretentious sneering condescending Not PC, its they who have demonstrated their left wing attachment.
They do this mainly by means of slogans and name calling in lieu of rational and numerically based argument and analysis. A strategy typical of shallow thinking bubble living inner city progressives. A strategy getting older and more tired everyday.
See what I mean?
Now to the real argument. Of course FT is desirable. Of course FT would benefit the globe. As long as it was real FT and not the grossly malformed ideology that today parades itself as FT. TPP for example is an agreement that needs over 5000 regulations, mainly to ensure “fairness” among socialist countries participating. How can such a highly regulated arrangement possibly meet any reasonable definition of Free Trade??
In other words, you can be part of our little make believe FT group, but you better damn well not do one thing to upset the equilibrium of socialist waste, debt, welfare spending and politically based economic regulation, the atrociously false economy that almost every government involved has created.
This farce has been covered on TrueblueNZ before, but the views expressed there need to be updated due to Donald Trump’s actions, and the widespread criticism from those who posture as FT advocates. Most of them are wrong and here is why-
The earlier post says why FT as it is promoted today is a farcical con on mainstream voters. This update is an argument in opposition to those who criticise Trump for his stand against Mexico. Basically the disagreement is on tariffs. Trump is presently threatening to impose a 5-20% tariff on Mexico as leverage to make it come to the table on meeting the costs of the border wall.
It should be said that Trump is only threatening to do this, as part of his negotiating strategy with Mexico. He may or may not carry out his threat, but lets proceed on the basis that he does.
Firstly, anyone supporting the present status of trade between Mexico and the US is no free marketer. Both countries are deeply socialist (in the US case, in complete contravention of the US Constitution) and manipulate and control their countries’ economies to the maximum extent. Trade takes place, but only under conditions that will not disrupt the socialist status quo of each country.
However, even under such constraints, Mexico has run up a trade deficit with the US of $US60-90 billion. This is a massive imbalance in Mexico’s favour. Trump’s threat to impose tariffs cannot make things worse for the US, only for Mexico. Trump has no allegiance or responsibility for the economic condition in Mexico, his sole responsibility is to the US. (Hence “America First”). Mexico’s economic well being is the responsibility of Mexicans, not Americans.
Under such mangled and regulated conditions of trade, the imposition of tariffs upon Mexican exports does not effect market conditions or the US economy as it would IF THERE WAS REAL FREE TRADE. The overall outcome of these tariffs could well be beneficial to the US economy, as much as that is possible when it is so restricted. Its merely a matter of adjusting the artificial levers on the artificial economy. As is done every day anyway. Tarriffs on Mexico could easily improve the overall economic position of US citizens, living as they do in their socialist dreamland.
Here is the bottom line.
Until govts get right out of the economy, stop their Keynesian interference, stop bailouts, stop printing money, stop borrowing, stop spending, stop controlling interest and exchange rates, FREE TRADE IS WORSE THAN A MYTH, ITS A DAMN JOKE.
Let’s stop being led by the nose by socialist PMs and Presidents who are taking us on a stupid socialist unicorn hunting expedition. THEY”RE CONNING YOU FOR GODS SAKE!!!
If you want FT, then work to end socialism, socialist govts and Keynesian intervention. Only after this objective has been achieved can we follow through and accomplish true Free Trade.
As for the wall, whatever has to be done to vet immigrants has to be done. Even if it does cost the estimated $16 billion, this is nothing compared to the cost of allowing un-vetted people to pass over US borders. (Some studies estimate this cost at over $110 billion) It could easily be much much greater due to cultural degradation from increased crime and attacks on American sovereignty from hostile forces. This post is already too long, so go here for an excellent summary of the border wall situation.
Here’s another good read on how illegal immigration distorts and perverts America’s election system.
TrueblueNZ 
9 responses to “Free Trade? Lets have the real thing”
Trendy FTer’s seems to think that “free trade” means the USA is there to be fleeced, losing jobs and piling up huge trade deficits whilst the other partner nations reap all of the benefits. Trump is right pull the plug.
Also, lurking behind the coat tails of the TPPA was the TISA agreement – Trade In Services Agreement – and TISA would’ve done to the service industry in the USA what NAFTA and others have done to the manufacturing industry.
Fuck all of this globalist crap. Nations have traded for centuries without the need for thousands of pages of regulations and bureaucratic and legal gobbledygook.
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I respond to Cresswell on Not PC on occasion (about religion and immigration generally) and believe that Liberterians are fixated on theory at the expense of reality. In that regard they are like the far left – all would be OK if we just did socialism the right way. This ignores reality because it ignores the human condition.
The Liberterians also come across as nasty as the far left in their attitude to dissent. You have to love the same people, politics, art and music as they do to be acceptable. You have to hang onto Ayn Rand as the Messiah. While I like much of the Liberterian politics I find the rest of it tiresome with the endless chanting of a mantra that would work in a perfect world but would be an abject failure in this one.
Despite that I still like Hubbard. He’s got stuff in his past that has made him angry about religion and rightly so.
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Free Trade, Free Market.
All a con.
Governments and to big to fail banks have been manipulating everything for as long as I can remember.
Libor, Interest rates, exchange rates, commodity prices (especially Gold). markets, inflation etc
As for the so called FREE trade deals, if it was truly a FREE trade deal the whole agreement could be written on the back of an A4 envelope.
But lets look at how even if there are no tariffs how it works.
It costs as much to get goods shipped from suppliers, in south east Asia, to a freight agent, get the goods collected in one place, packaged for shipping, loaded into a container, freighted to a ship, loaded on the ship and shipped to New Zealand.
As it does to get the container offloaded at ports of Auckland and freighted to an approved storage facility. in Auckland, for unpacking.
Then just for fun we add on a 15% TAX and we wonder why shit is so expensive in New Zealand.
Here is a good laugh, on one of our trips a friend was travelling on the same flight. She had brought 3 bottles of nice wine for $50 each at the duty FREE shop at the Airport, Total $150. The same wine was on special that week at Countdown for $19 each, Total $57. The duty FREE shop did OK out of it, Auckland Airport with the most expensive rents in New Zealand did very well out of it.
The captive market is continually bent over a table from this Monopoly.
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That faction of the Libertarians influenced by Not PC is basically the same kind of political force as the global left. During my exchange with Mark his constant refrain was “what about Mexico’s economic fortune?”
In other words, Donald Trump and each individual in the US has an obligation to care for Mexican citizens. This is a POV hardly any different from that of the far left global socialists in National and Labour.
Ross Cameron said it well on Sky this morning.
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I had to whoop and holler out loud when those hopelessly misguided American leftist twats and the MSM whine on how the mean Mr Trump has dropped the ban on countries but did not give them warning? Awesome.
Get used to being attacked without warning scumbags. This is war and it’s not going to be pretty for Islam. Trump is not going to signal to the thug globalists, the scum media or Islam what he is doing.
NZ and Australia are not in step with the Trump world strategy which is simply restoring common sense. Yet again it is election year in NZ and what choices do we have?
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Agree with your comment,
Australia is in for political hell this year, even more so now that Cory Bernardi has bailed out of LNP…they are aleady on the thinnest of margins but now getting legislation through senate is going to be even harder now… and with the rise of one nation even at state level, just look at upcoming WA election, the time has come…. for BIG change in OZ politics.
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Free Trade according to David Ricardo and David Hume meant I create something for you, you create something for me, we trade. Furthermore if their are consistent trade deficits, you will run out of money. When your nation is shorter on money, prices and wages go down. Less imports, cheaper exports, this is a corrective mechanism. This exists when you have a gold or silver backed currency.
Free trade only exists if its only an exchange of goods and services. As soon as loans to government and businesses are allowed as free trade and buying up a nation’s assets, you have one country investing in another country so that other country can spend it on items. This is not what David Hume and Ricardo had in mind.
But it makes it easier for the big corportations to take over your nation and your government. China lends to us and with that money, we buy their goods. And that money is creating out of thin air.
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Not so sure that it is created out of thin air.
It is Borrowed into existence out of thin air.
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No such thing as free trade, only the perception of fair trade. Pretty simple really…
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