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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPossibly Trump's stupidest tweet ever
By Jennifer Rubin
August 16 at 9:15 AM
President Trump has issued shameful tweets, offensive tweets and self-serving tweets. Rarely, however, has he sent out a tweet that better conveys his abject ignorance about the country and economics than the tweet he posted Wednesday:
Link to tweet
No, no, no.
Our country was founded on a principle Trump often seems unacquainted with: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Unless Trump wants to retreat to a 1776-sized economy or relive the Great Depression (care of Smoot-Hawley) its best we not follow the outdated mercantilist philosophy that was supplanted fortunately by Adam Smith who deplored tariffs (extraordinary restraints upon the importation of almost all sorts of goods from those countries with which the balance of trade is supposed to be disadvantageous). Unlike Trump, Smith knew that a balance of trade deficit is not disadvantage, let alone a debt to be repaid or money stolen from us:
Nothing can be more absurd than this whole doctrine of the balance of trade, upon which, not only these restraints, but almost all the other regulations of commerce are founded.
When two places trade with one another, this doctrine supposes that, if the balance be even, neither of them either loses or gains; but if it leans in any degree to one side, that one of them loses and the other gains in proportion to its declension from the exact equilibrium. Both suppositions are false. A trade which is forced by means of bounties and monopolies may be and commonly is disadvantageous to the country in whose favour it is meant to be established, as I shall endeavour to show hereafter. But that trade which, without force or constraint, is naturally and regularly carried on between any two places is always advantageous, though not always equally so, to both.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/08/16/possibly-trumps-stupidest-tweet-ever/?utm_term=.780dab721220
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Possibly Trump's stupidest tweet ever (Original Post)
DonViejo
Aug 2018
OP
Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)1. Indeed...new trade deals for russia and china...
way to go!
exboyfil
(17,863 posts)2. Actually our country was built on stealing
trade secrets.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/12/06/we-were-pirates-too/
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)3. I honestly can't believe this dumb-fuck is the president.
Some days it just floors me.
mnhtnbb
(31,388 posts)4. I can't believe that 60 million people were dumb enough to be conned by him.
onethatcares
(16,168 posts)9. and that there are
30 million others that at this time support his dumb lying ass.
Vinca
(50,271 posts)5. Definitely a contender.
Turbineguy
(37,329 posts)6. Well,
he is up against some pretty stiff competition when it comes to that. Himself.
pansypoo53219
(20,976 posts)7. faith based ekonomikks usually sucks in reality. like tinkle down.
all i see is underpants gnomes. PROFIT!
dalton99a
(81,486 posts)8. The moron knows nothing about trade or commerce