Econ 101 for Presidential Candidates (and VN) - CATO

#251
#251
KentheOrange said:
Reading comprehension is not your strong suit I see. I didn't even come close to saying anything resembling that.

If you would read news other than your local malls paper you would understand that the EU have allowed massive numbers of refugees and once they're in a member country they can freely move to any other member country. That was one of the leading reasons for BREXIT.....they wanted their country back.
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So the refugees are or are not documented?
 
#259
#259
n_huffhines said:
A standard, tabletop, color, 21" television in 1960 cost $500 which, due to inflation, is $4,000 today.

The 23" RCA phono (1969) was $975, which is $6,400 today.
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That's a lot in inflation. If you go from the 20's to now, its 10:1.
 
#260
#260
Great article. We had a trade surplus for 102 of the 120 month Great Depression. Anybody want a trade surplus today?

Americans may be alarmed when they hear that the U.S. buys more from the rest of the world than it sells because they can’t run a household deficit. But national accounting isn’t the same as household accounting, and a trade deficit isn’t a debt that must be repaid. It is often a sign of economic prosperity.

A trade deficit equals a capital surplus. The trade deficit is part of the “current account” and it means that Americans are importing more merchandise and services than they export. On the other side of the ledger is the “capital account,” which records capital inflows. When the U.S. has a current-account deficit it has to have a capital-account surplus of the same amount.

This is not by choice or speculation. It happens by definition because for every buyer there must be a seller, as these columns have written for 125 years. The national payments must “balance.”

The capital-account surplus arises, in part, because in selling oil, TVs, jewelry, cars, steel and clothing to Americans, foreigners get dollars in return. Mexicans and Chinese could wallpaper their dining rooms with Georges and Benjamins. But it is more common to put the money in dollar-denominated assets like real estate, stocks, debt or dollar bank accounts.

Eliminating a current-account deficit is not as easy as it sounds because it is often the byproduct of a healthy economy. It means the purchasing power of the currency is strong, and consumers are rich and optimistic enough to spend. The opposite is also true: Countries in recession after a devaluation tend to have trade surpluses as the unemployed are forced to tighten their belts and even those working cannot afford imports.
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-think-about-the-trade-deficit-1489103616
 
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#261
#261
Basically every single argument against opening up immigration is bull****.

"The benefits that immigration brings to society far outweigh their costs," declares an open letter to congressional leaders and President Donald Trump. The letter, published on Wednesday and signed by nearly 1,500 economists—including six Nobel Prize winners—notes that immigrant entrepreneurs start new businesses that hire lots of Americans; that immigrants are far more likely to work in innovative, job-creating fields such as science, technology, and engineering; and that they bring diverse skill sets that keep our workforce flexible, help companies grow, and increase the productivity of American workers. A new study parsing employment data between 1991 and 2008 confirms that immigrants significantly boost both the productivity and the wages of workers.

The results? "What we found was remarkable. In cities that are unwelcoming to immigrants, as diversity rises, people's wages either don't change, or they go up by only a small amount. In cities that are welcoming to immigrants, as diversity goes up, people's wages go up, and by a lot."

If the intent of anti-immigrant laws is to boost native-born wages, it does not work. To the contrary, the researchers find that "the average worker in a metropolitan context featuring pro-immigrant laws receives a 36 percent wage increase." In addition, scoring in the top third of cities on the social capital inclusiveness indicator correlates with a 21 percent increase in the average worker's wage.

What appears to be happening is that in urban areas that welcome them, immigrants' economic and social diversity helps increase overall productivity, which in turn boosts average wages. How? Among other things, immigrants bring different skill sets, higher levels of ambition, and a greater likelihood of adopting more outside-the-box approaches to solving problems.
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http://reason.com/archives/2017/04/14/welcoming-immigrants-means-higher-wages
 
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#262
#262
This didn't really deserve its own thread and it kind of relates here:

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) predicts that U.S. companies will be facing two million job vacancies by 2025. And the American Welding Society contends that manufacturing industries will need 300,000 welders and welding instructors by 2020. Technology has replaced some jobs and made others obsolete. But a significant number of manufacturing jobs remain open with not enough people to fill them.

So, why aren’t jobseekers clamoring to get into manufacturing — where a welder can earn $90,000 a year?

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) convened a panel in early April on this topic. The event, called the “State of the Workforce and the Future of Work,” illuminated rising concern over the skills gap that many “backbone” American industries face.

Fred Goff, CEO of Jobcase, an online community offering job searches, career development and support for blue-collar workers, told HR Dive that much of society believes the best path to a rewarding, prestigious career is a college degree and a job in finance, marketing, law, engineering or teaching. That leaves retail, trade, construction and manufacturing jobs facing serious perception challenges. The “image problem” that these blue-collar fields face has finally come home to roost — and employers are struggling to make up the difference.
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http://www.hrdive.com/news/why-blue...facing-such-a-massive-skills-shortage/439756/
 
#263
#263
n_huffhines said:
A standard, tabletop, color, 21" television in 1960 cost $500 which, due to inflation, is $4,000 today.

The 23" RCA phono (1969) was $975, which is $6,400 today.
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The key in all of that was the year 1964, the last year our money was backed by silver.

The price of silver right now is $18.40/toz. So $6400 of today's money would buy you 348 toz of silver. In 1964, one dollar was equal to .72 toz. So that means 348 toz X ($1/.72 toz) ~ $483 in 1964.
 
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#264
#264
Rasputin_Vol said:
The key in all of that was the year 1964, the last year our money was backed by silver.

The price of silver right now is $18.40/toz. So $6400 of today's money would buy you 348 toz of silver. In 1964, one dollar was equal to .72 toz. So that means 348 toz X ($1/.72 toz) ~ $483 in 1964.
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Yeah, that's part of it.
 
#265
#265
Trump interview with The Economist. Trump is italics. Falsehoods are in red.

It sounds like you’re imagining a pretty big renegotiation of NAFTA. What would a fair NAFTA look like?

Big isn’t a good enough word. Massive.

Huge?

It’s got to be. It’s got to be.

Another part of your overall plan, the tax reform plan. Is it OK if that tax plan increases the deficit? Ronald Reagan’s tax reform didn’t.

Well, it actually did. But, but it’s called priming the pump.

But beyond that it’s OK if the tax plan increases the deficit?

It is OK, because it won’t increase it for long. You may have two years where you’ll … you understand the expression “prime the pump”?

Yes.

We have to prime the pump.

It’s very Keynesian.

We’re the highest-taxed nation in the world. Have you heard that expression before, for this particular type of an event?

Priming the pump?

Yeah, have you heard it?

Yes.

Have you heard that expression used before? Because I haven’t heard it. I mean, I just … I came up with it a couple of days ago and I thought it was good. It’s what you have to do.

It’s …

Yeah, what you have to do is you have to put something in before you can get something out.
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Reagan's tax plan was in fact designed to be revenue neutral. We're also well below average on taxes as a % of GDP.
 
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#266
#266
n_huffhines said:
Trump interview with The Economist. Trump is italics. Falsehoods are in red.



Reagan's tax plan was in fact designed to be revenue neutral. We're also well below average on taxes as a % of GDP.
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lol that's a great interview. "I just came up with it".
 
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#267
#267
It's cool. He's been in the business world his whole life, so of course he knows economic history, understands how the economy works, and how to manage it....despite that being a completely unrelated set of skills to running a business.
 
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