Some folks say were headed to a financial "perfect storm". I would say its the result of the following:
-Systematic destruction of US manufacturing resulting from free trade deals signed by Bill Clinton and endorsed by Al Gore.
-Collapsing US dollar which was caused by continuous government deficit spending and government creating money out of nothing.
-Burst of the stock bubble in 2000, followed by burst of the housing bubble and now the mortgage bubble. Now there are no more bubbles... just broken bubbles to be cleaned up.
Ummm... I thought you were in favor of fair trade and now you are bashing Clinton for being too conservative?
...and there are still bubbles. We still have the trade deficit and the feds still owe a quarter of the entire earth GDP in year to foreign banks.
Free trade is the one issue on which I part company with most libertarians. In that respect I consider myself a constitutionalist. The constitution clearly gives congress the authority to levy taxes on imports. I know people will say that's protectionism, oh horrors. Well I say what we have now is reverse protectionism. Domestic manufacturers pay payroll taxes, property taxes and income taxes to the feds and the states. In short they are taxed out of their shorts. But foreign made goods get a free ride- no taxes. How is that fair?
I would eliminate the corporate income tax and levy import taxes at a rate sufficient to be revenue neutral.
I certainly agree that the deficit and the debt are huge problems but I don't think they meet the definition of "bubbles".
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