3 ms·
With so many countries borrowing so much to make their bubbles grow and regrow, citizens of countries that don't go for this false growth are supplying the fund
by stretchwithme 16y ago
With so many countries borrowing so much to make their bubbles grow and regrow, citizens of countries that don't go for this false growth are supplying the funds by deferring consumption and saving their money.
And countries like Germany and China run trade surpluses, because the bubble countries are not borrowing paper; they're borrowing the labor of all those savers.
That labor must be delivered somehow and that's why there has to be a trade surplus.
The bubble countries can't resolve this imbalance by cajoling the savers into not saving or somehow obstructing trade. The trade imbalance HAS to equal the net borrowing of the country.
The only way is to correct the trade imbalance is balance their budgets AND stop artificially lowering their own interest rates, which causes the private sector to borrow more than it otherwise would.
Policymakers have bought into the idea that somehow there is a shell game to be played that magically creates prosperity. But the reality is that all the game playing wastes an enormous amount of resources.
- Derbasti 16y agoIt feels like you are saying something insightful here but I struggle to parse your writing. Could you somehow rephrase what you just said in more layman-readable English?
- stretchwithme 16y agoWhat phrases are you having difficulty with? Maybe you can give me some examples?
- Derbasti 16y agoBasically, it is this sentence: > That labor must be delivered somehow and that's why there has to be a trade surplus. How so? How can labor be borrowed? How can it be delivered?
- stretchwithme 16y agoIt's more accurate to say that the results of labor are delivered. That might be a product or service. And these things can be exchanged for money, which can then be given to other people in exchange for their labor. Yes, technically you are borrowing money, but it has no effect until its used to purchase the results of labor, which is what you actually want to borrow. Your mortgage is actually borrowing the results of all of the labor required to build it, including the labor to make the sheet rock. If there's a disaster in Haiti and the US lends Haiti a billion dollars, that money will be used to buy things. Or pay people to do things, who will then go and buy things with the money. Demand then rises for these things and more of them must be imported. Even if they come from a third country, that additional demand causes imports to increase there. Ultimately, that additional demand affects exports from the US. And, if Haiti ever pays the money back, Haiti will be the one experiencing an increase in its exports. The beauty is that we are not locked into buying just the products and services the lender offers. We can get anybody's. To learn more about this, you could check out Austrian economics and the division of labor.
- Derbasti 16y agoThank you for clarifying this. There is indeed wisdom in what you say.
- stretchwithme 16y agoThanks.