[disjunction]

[ QUOTE ]


The financial markets are a system. That system has feedbacks. Right now, American products are looking really good overseas. Capital equipment manufacturers are reporting really good overseas sales. Farmers are raking it in with cheap American food exports. The dollars outside the borders will flow back into the capital markets. There will be no capital shortage and everything will be fine.


[/ QUOTE ]

Yes but you can argue that this system is the reason why the American standard of living must decline. All things being equal, there is no reason why an hours work by a person in America should allow him more purchasing power than a similar person doing a similar job in Romania. But of course historically all things haven't been equal.

But that's not the natural state. The more you allow free trade, the more you allow the water to find its own level, the more that everybody will have equal purchasing power. This means Americans losing some, and other countries gaining. In a state of equlibrium, that farmer exporting cheaply will make the same amount as a Chinese farmer.