34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Is Free Trade really Free?, April 26, 2006
This review is from: The Myth of Free Trade: The Pooring of America (Paperback)
SMU Professor Ravi Batra's significant work outlines
why America could become a debtor nation. The main
cause is free or unlimited trade. This policy might
create real wages to fall for 80% of the work force
despite increased productivity because of manufactured
goods falling relative price. This phenomenon is known
as "agrification". This term means total or agragate
declining economic conditions in the market.
Moreover, poor leadership has allowed foreign nations
such as Japan, South Korea, and China to sing free trade's
praises while following protectionist policies as tariffs,
quotas, exchange controls and the like at home. The post
WWII General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade negotiations
resulted in a lack of reciprocity for American exports.
Before GATT lowered tariffs, to permit imports to flood
U.S. markets, the country was largely a closed, self-sufficient
economy. However, if we become an open economy the country
can become awash with red ink in the current or trade account.
To remedy this potnetial situation, Dr. Batra suggests
a national policy of "competitive protectionism". This solution
entails raising the average tariff from 5% to 25% while promoting
domestic competition to spur innovation by prohibiting most mergers
and monopolies. The result might be an improved living standard for
Americans. The standard of living once declined for most workers as
measured by the real wage in 1973. The year the U.S.A. would have
became an open, free economy.
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35 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Myth of "Free" Trade now needs a follow-up, May 31, 2004
This review is from: The Myth of Free Trade: The Pooring of America (Paperback)
Batra has done a fine job of pointing out the problem. Some want more figures, but the key here is the concept of "averaging". For that, I wish Batra had given us a simple example like the one below:
With some 6 Billion People on the planet, 5 Billion earn less than $1,000 per year (say $5 Trillion) - only about 1 Billion earn around $25,000 or more ($25 Trillion) - with 300 Million those in the USA. So, if 6 Billion people "share" the $30 Trillion total World GDP, that means an "average" of $5,000 for each person.
While a peasant in China might be temporarily better off, it would mean the economic end of the USA, Japan and Europe, then total collapse for the West. If China's current goal is to conquer the West, they can do it without a shot fired - just keep exporting while we keep importing and closing factories.
I only hope that Batra writes a follow-up book quite soon and offers up an overview that all of us can internalize. My further hope is that he can present his comments on CSPAN, CNET and CNN before the US election in November.
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28 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well thought out, June 2, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: The Myth of Free Trade: The Pooring of America (Paperback)
Well done. It's a shame however that Batra doesn't follow through on this topic in his later books, and gets side-tracked instead by other factors which at best have secondary impact on global economy and ecology. After suffering an entire generation (30 years) of decoupling of per capita productivity and per capita real wage, one wonders how much more stress the US economy can take before it collapses. Then again, what are the limits of human ingenuity and resiliency? Can these factors reverse the damage done by the Free Trade policy? Batra's addressing this factor would have been extremely helpful.
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