Pat Buchnan?

Question

During the 1995-1996 Republican presidential primaries, Patrick Buchanan
wrote an editorial in The Wall Street Journal beginning, "Since the
Nixon era the dollar has fallen 75 percent against the yen, 60 percent
against the mark." What trade policies do you suppose he was promoting?
He went on to outline a series of tariffs. Agree or disagree with his
policies.

Answer 1

Well obviously republicans went the whole other way on that & we're irrevocably in a global economy now. Nobody ever gets ahead if you just spin the same money around in circles. You have to take wealth out of another economy & put it in yours. I don't know how it'll work out, because we clearly have to compete our labor force against others. That means they have to come up in the world & we have to average down (minimum wage/unions/etc), if not in policy than in inflating our currency to the same effect. If you don't do that then you get jobs outsourced or shipped overseas as we've seen with manufacturing. It'll take a very long time but eventually the world will reach a fragile global balance. I don't know, but backwards isn't the answer, it's too late for that.

Answer 2

While I don't have a strong opinion on trade, I'm generally against tariffs and protectionism. I believe in unlimited free trade as long as labor rights and environmental protection is part of the agreement.

Generally speaking, it's a good idea to take the opposite position of whatever Pat Buchannan advocates.