About the original NYT editoral by Schumer & Roberts--

Conservative economist Daniel Drezner & liberal economist Brad DeLong have
been sniping at each other recently, but they both agree this op-ed column
is nonsense.  Each (http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/001002.html
http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2003_archives/003004.html)
points to a New Republic item (http://www.tnr.com/etc.mhtml?pid=1155) which
corrects the fallacies in the original op-ed.


On related items:
==================================================================

Scott Gates said:
> I'm ambivalent about free trade for goods.  But SERVICES?

The United States runs a net SURPLUS on services.  It was $79 billion in
2001.

Statistical Abstract of the U.S. 2002 Table 1262
http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/02statab/foreign.pdf  (250K)

> But the VIRTUAL employees in India, China, and other
> countries give NOTHING back to the American economy.  They spend no money
> here, they pay no taxes, they buy no souvenirs nor T-P at the local
> Wal-mart.  ZIP, NADA, NOTHING!.   Capital flows ONLY ONE DIRECTION.

Of course they do buy some things from America.  E.g. China bought $19
billion dollars worth of U.S. goods in 2001.  More importantly, the net flow
of _capital_ is INTO the United States.  In 2001, there was $895 million of
investments flowing into the U.S. and only $440 million flowed out.

Statistical Abstract of the U.S. 2002 Tables 1262, 1283

==================================================================

Joe Andress writes:
> You will not have to worry about selling your house. No one will be
> able to afford a home and the property tax rate is not very high on a
> multilevel cardboard box under the interstate bridge.

So far there's no sign of this, to say the least.  Even during the current
recession, the home ownership rate continues to rise.  It is now at an all
time high of 68.4%.
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/q303tab5.html

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