There was an article on LewRockwell.com today.  It is reprinted from the Economic Collapse Blog.  LewRockwell.com (LRC) is the best libertarian site there is (IMHO).  The second best site is the Mises Institute, which was founded by Lew Rockwell.  It is rare that I disagree with anything significant in the daily articles on the Mises Institute.  I find a little more disagreement at times on LRC.  Lew Rockwell will publish articles on his site if they are informative, even if they are not pure libertarian.

In reading this article today, I actually was wondering if the whole thing was sarcasm.  I was waiting for a punchline at the end saying, “just kidding”.  I think it is a serious article.  I will never take anything seriously written by the “Economic Collapse Blog”.  There are a few things right in the article.  Even a blind squirrel gets a nut once in a while.  Overall, it is horrible.  The person who wrote this piece just doesn’t know what he is talking about.

He says that a significant percentage of young Americans can’t tell you what a trade deficit is.  Yet, I’m not sure that whoever wrote this can define it.  He sure doesn’t understand it.

Then he quotes Warren Buffett, that free market capitalist (now that is sarcasm).  Buffett is quoted as saying that the trade deficit is a bigger threat than the federal budget deficit.  I presume the author agrees, or he wouldn’t have quoted it.  If he understood anything, he would understand that the trade deficit wouldn’t really matter if there were no budget deficit.  The Chinese wouldn’t be buying U.S. treasuries because the U.S. government wouldn’t be selling any if there were no budget deficit.  The only way a trade deficit would occur then is if the Chinese invested in the private sector.  Now why is that so bad?

Then the author (or maybe authors) goes on to sound like a pure leftist/socialist blaming China for the problems created by the U.S. government and Federal Reserve.  He says China doesn’t play fairly.  They keep their currency lower than it should be.  I guess it should be whatever this author determines it should be.  He says it is a subsidy to China’s exporters.  What he doesn’t mention is that it is also a subsidy to American consumers.

If the U.S. had a stable money (like gold) and the government was small with a balanced budget, then it wouldn’t really matter what China did.  This author doesn’t understand any of this.  Of course, he has to add in the typical leftist line that we need “fair trade”.  That is never defined.  It is whatever he thinks is fair.

This is a lesson.  LRC is a great site and very informative.  But you have to be careful what you read anywhere.  I will never trust anything written by the Economic Collapse Blog.  This piece is garbage.