Brilliant “Market-Based” Solution Proposed For The “Trade Deficit”
Written by Brian Garst, Posted in Economics & the Economy
Two Democratic senators, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, have proposed that any company wishing to import goods into America would need a government-issued certificate. The senators, according to this New York Times article (link requires subscription), view this as a “market-based system to cut the trade deficit to zero within 10 years.”
. . .Sherman Katz of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace was quoted in the article as saying that “it looks on the face of it to represent an enormous intrusion of government activity into business totaling trillions of dollars each year.”
“Enormous” doesn’t seem to quite capture it though, does it? How about “insane?”
Can you imagine the type of federal oversight this would require? And how would our trade partners react to the U.S. market being restricted in this way?
I wonder, what does one call a “market-based” solution that relies entirely on government? Nuanced.
I serve as Vice President of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, a non-profit think tank dedicated to preserving tax competition and free markets. This site features my personal views, which are not reflective of CF&P.