Sunday, June 15, 2008
More Trade Nonsense from the New York Times
There is a lot I could jump on in Roger Lowenstein’s witless diatribe in today’s New York Times Sunday Magazine, but let’s keep it simple. Lowenstein, claiming to paraphrase Gary Hufbauer of the Peterson Institute (who should either sue for libelous misrepresentation or go into a different line of work), writes: “Thanks to the cheap dollar, U.S. exports are booming; trade is now the economy’s strong suit.” Now read that last clause again: “trade is now the economy’s strong suit.” Um, no. Have I mentioned that we have numbers on that?
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4 comments:
Maybe this the old levels v. growth debate. Sure we are importing a lot more than we are exporting but export growth in 2007 was stronger than import growth.
Suppose you had a business with two divisions, A and B. A made $5M profit last year and the year before. B lost $4M last year and $5M two years ago. Would you say that B is your company's strong suit?
Peter - I agree with you and it's a good analogy. There is no telling what Hufbauer really said. See Dani Rodrik's post on this same Lowenstein piece.
So, maybe he means trade deficit is the economy's strong suit?
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