Peter Schiff on last weeks jobs report and more
* Slight point of disagreement: One thing I struggle with is Peter’s insistence that we need manufacturing jobs (@0:35). Neither he nor any other single person knows what the economy needs. The free market will decide. Maybe there is a future in services.
Peter says service jobs lead to a trade deficit, but I suspect the whole notion of a trade deficit is BS. Governments (i.e. nations) don’t trade. People trade.
If I buy a loaf of bread from the bakery down the street, I’m richer in bread and the baker is richer in money. Subjective theory of value. We’re both happy.
If I take a long walk, and buy the bread from a baker in Canada, doesn’t the same situation hold true? Isn’t everybody richer? Why do we speak of this latter situation in terms of a trade imbalance? Perhaps it’s for the employment of all those government economists and television pundits.
* Meaningful recoveries all over the world. This is primarily a U.S. problem.
* Metals very strong because dollar is finally weakening. (Investors originally fled to the dollar, follow the old, incorrect philosophy that dollar=security.)
* Tax cuts are good, but government shouldn’t be targeting them, or combining them with business load guarantees.
* Some Bloomberg reporter dismissed double dib with the logic: things are pretty bad, so they probably can’t get worse.
* We probably can’t afford Obama’s latest idea – a new GI bill.
