HippoBLOGamus

I’ve always enjoyed Robert Reich’s economic insights into how our market economy downgrades the value of people who do the work, who create real value with goods and services in their communities. He was outstanding as Clinton’s first Secretary of Labor, although I was appalled by his hallucinations in “Locked in the Cabinet.”

But Reich has been wrong on trade throughout his career, going all the way back to "The Work of Nations" up to and through his advocacy for the North American Free Trade Agreement. And he’s peddling more of the same in his latest blog, telling Democrats to avoid vilifying China during the election campaign, even though voters believe China is a villain.

Reich dismisses the impact of China trade on the struggling U.S. economy because he only wants to go back to the housing bubble bust, but the staggering trade deficit with China goes back more than a decade – and follows an exponential curve that promises more lost jobs to China for decades.

I know Reich is a brilliant economist, but he just doesn’t get trade. If Democrats had stood up to the multinational corporations and the Clinton arm-twisting on NAFTA we might have a rational approach to trade today, rather than continuing this pie-in-the-sky policy that assumes we all will have our comparative advantage tomorrow.

We are not going to train our way out of this situation, a regular Reich mantra, because the jobs that are being created in the wake of the good manufacturing jobs we encouraged to leave our shores are service and retail jobs that require little training and pay even less.

No, the solution is to rebuild our manufacturing base, and not diminish our capacity to produce goods, to compete on the basis of quality. Not letting China set the standards based on an undervalued currency, subsidized industry and little safety or environmental protections.

China maintains a command economy and a mercantilist trade policy.  This fact is conveniently missing from Reich’s analysis. Beijing is aggressively marketing its manufacturing to the world, and it is breaking the rules.

I hope Democrats don't listen to Reich. Let's draw the line! We need leaders who will stand up to China, not kowtow to their good fortune.

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