BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, MAY 2, 2016) —  THE PLANET would like to share this excellent piece by our long-time friend, colleague, and economic mentor, Dr. Charles Trczinka. This piece was first published in the Indianapolis Star.

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BY DR. CHARLES TRCZINKA

Special to Planet Valenti News and Commentary

It has been fun to watch progressives at Indiana University cringe at Donald Trump’s crass and offensive speech. He simply can’t be presidential. He thinks it’s boring and makes fun of it. I imagine our progressives quivering in safe zones from all Trump’s micro-aggressions. But the fun comes at a very high price. Trump has consistently and repeatedly argued that Americans are being taken advantage of by international trade. He is demanding high tariffs (taxes) on imports from China and Mexico. We need to realize that this will start a trade war with both China and Mexico responding. It is a war that will devastate this state.

Indiana is ranked 8th in the nation in international trade. Transportation equipment and the life sciences (primarily pharmaceuticals and medical devices) are Indiana’s leading exports with $10.5 billion and $8.7 billion in value, respectively. The rest of the top five export industries in Indiana are industrial machinery (which includes engines) at $4.2 billion, miscellaneous manufacturing at $2.1 billion and computer and electronic products at $1.8 billion.

About half of Indiana’s $35.5 billion in exports went to our nearest neighbors Canada ($12.2 billion) and Mexico ($5.0 billion). People are angry, especially after Carrier, and demand the government do something about the harm that these companies cause. Trump promises to impose tariffs — aka taxes — on imports and taxes on companies that want to move. Our trading partners will respond to our high tariffs with their own tariffs and this will cut Indiana’s exports. Indiana employers will have to slash jobs here or move production overseas. Currently Indiana has below average income and needs these exports expanded, not contracted. We cannot expand income and jobs if anyone in Washington adopts “economic nationalism,” which is little more than government protection for companies that get a lot of press.

Trump has become popular at exactly the wrong time.

I understand how nice it is for someone to smash at political correctness, but we cannot allow Trump to destroy Indiana’s exports. This economy needs more freedom not more deals. We need freedom from regulation, from political cronies, and especially freedom from trade “deals.” Let’s keep the consumer in charge of the market place and keep the deal-makers on the sidelines. The last thing Indiana needs is the economic nationalism championed by Trump.

Trzcinka is a finance professor in Indiana University’s Kelly School of Business.

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We thank Dr. Trczinka for the piece. Here’s THE PLANET’s reply:

Chuck:

Love the piece, especially the line about how much fun it is to watch progressives (aka liberals) cringe at The Donald. Actually, we agree with your points. We want free trade and certainly don’t believe in tariffs used as and for political punishment.

Companies (US and otherwise) should have the right to take their manufacturing to wherever they can get the best price for labor while still ensuring quality. If that’s in American, so much the better. If not, then it’s the marketplace asserting itself, as it should.

We Americans say we love freedom, but we don’t. We lately want all sorts of impositions on free speech, freedom of assembly, free trade and the like, and we want Government to be the imposer. Not THE PLANET. We am willing to extend freedom to its realistic limits and accept the consequences, good and bad. For trade, this means that, in a global economy, companies will shop for the what’s best for their profitability. It if means taking operations somewhere else, so be it. 

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Once in a Lifetime at Old Fenway

Fans of the Boston Red Sox had a good weekend, to be sure, with the team’s three-game sweep of the New York Yankees, a broom ride that put the Red Sox in first place. What THE PLANET enjoyed most, however, was an occurrence in Friday night’s game. Something happened that night that has never happened  before in the long history of Major League Baseball. Nothing like it has occurred in the 17,790 games the Red Sox have played since 1901 or the 17,681 games the Yankees have played.

What would that be?

It was the first time in MLB history that two players 40 years old or older homered in the same game. Alex Rodriguez connected for the Yanks and David Ortiz for the Sox. A-Rod‘s blast gave the Yanks an early lead. Big Papi‘s dinger won the game.

Nice and sweet, befitting for the lilacs.

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“It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere” — Voltaire.

OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.

LOVE TO ALL.

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