Friday, November 19, 2004
Falling dollar
I love the balancing job in this article. A falling dollar will bring jobs to manufacturing exporters in Iowa, but may provoke a massive financial crisis in the medium term. But don't forget that factory in Iowa!
Of course a falling dollar is good for exporters, and, during an economic slump, is a pretty desirable thing. I've had to explain this to people who assume a "strong" dollar is always good more times that I care to remember. And a (gently) falling dollar would probably be a part of a sensible economic policy, if our government had one.
But why would we want to run an economic policy during a weak recovery that combines a.) a huge structural budget deficit that has relatively little stimulative effect, given the tax policies that created it, b.) reliance on foreign bondholders to finance the deficit, and c.) no realistic plans to cut the deficit, but lots of promises to further monkey around with the tax system?
That's just crazy.
But then, what's crazy today, anyway? The Republicans are now talking about eliminating the employer health insurance tax deduction to pay for more tax cuts for the rich and investor class. The health insurance tax deduction is the American health care system, at least for working people. It's a dumb way to run a health care system, but not as dumb as having no system at all.
Maybe the R's have decide there should be more uninsured. Maybe they think Americans would like to have a society where everyone buys their own health insurance, on their own, with after tax dollars. Or maybe they're closet Marxists working to "heighten the contradictions". I really don't know anymore.
But if they pull of this crackpot scheme, I know what business the Democratic Party should get into---the health care business.
Of course a falling dollar is good for exporters, and, during an economic slump, is a pretty desirable thing. I've had to explain this to people who assume a "strong" dollar is always good more times that I care to remember. And a (gently) falling dollar would probably be a part of a sensible economic policy, if our government had one.
But why would we want to run an economic policy during a weak recovery that combines a.) a huge structural budget deficit that has relatively little stimulative effect, given the tax policies that created it, b.) reliance on foreign bondholders to finance the deficit, and c.) no realistic plans to cut the deficit, but lots of promises to further monkey around with the tax system?
That's just crazy.
But then, what's crazy today, anyway? The Republicans are now talking about eliminating the employer health insurance tax deduction to pay for more tax cuts for the rich and investor class. The health insurance tax deduction is the American health care system, at least for working people. It's a dumb way to run a health care system, but not as dumb as having no system at all.
Maybe the R's have decide there should be more uninsured. Maybe they think Americans would like to have a society where everyone buys their own health insurance, on their own, with after tax dollars. Or maybe they're closet Marxists working to "heighten the contradictions". I really don't know anymore.
But if they pull of this crackpot scheme, I know what business the Democratic Party should get into---the health care business.
