ECONOMY: Protectionism can hurt us bad!

I have sounded this warning before; if we engage in PROTECTIONISM such as the BY AMERICAN bill included in the Obama stimulus package we will invite retaliatory actions which will make global economic recovery much harder to achieve.

I have mentioned this before because economists and historians have emphatically stated that trade barriers that were erected as a form of job protectionism were to blame for extending the Great Depression for up to eight (8) years more that the Depression was calculated to last.

We are not the only ones going in the direction of protectionism; France and England have already endured strikes by workers that want their jobs protected. This is the natural, logical emotion that the public feels. Governments are hard pressed to preach free trade when their people are screaming for job protection BUT if they give in to the demands of the public, the public will suffer even more.

I am at a loss to say how this issue should be handled since we are not a dictatorship that can just ignore the cries of the people and it is these people that vote their leaders in or out of office if they feel ignored.

Our governor, Jennifer Granholm, just gave the State of the State speech and urged all Michiganians to BUY MICHIGAN. OK, I can understand that and people should be more aware of where products they buy are made and if they have a choice and the products are similar, why not support the product made right here?

What I object to is when people are compelled to purchase home products either through rules and regulations or because of the unavailability of competing (foreign) products.

Right now, we are importing much less than we were just a few months ago. In fact, all countries are importing less because their people are buying less - period! This hurts the countries that rely on their exports to power their economies. We don’t need to raise barriers to trade; the free market will do that naturally BUT if we raise artificial barriers to trade just to appease the public (unions), we will invite retaliation worldwide and then what…

I have heard Obama acknowledge the fact that protectionism is bad for the world economy and bad for the U.S. but he is a politician; can he convince Americans to trust in his economic judgment? - Gee, I hope he can or else we are in for a rough ride.