Saturday, June 7, 2008

Nazinomics? Not so much.

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Economic nationalism
That's only the second time I've seen this peculiar phrasing and the first time was just last week.

Are we seeing the birth of a euphemism?

"Economic nationalism" is coming from the left in the US and now from Russia. It is used as a counter to global trade. Not far away is "economic egoism" coming from the desk of US Secretary of Commerce Pancho Villa.

"Economic nationalism" seems to mean putting one's country's interests first in dealing with trade. The rumbling undercurrent of national socialism in the phrase signals we're dealing with the fashioning of a new hammer for an old nail.

I'm a free trader, but I don't think those who ride to the sound of their own gums, and that's you Mr Buchanan, will be dissuaded by being compared to Nazis and that goes double for Mr Buchanan.

But it's not just free trade. The devaluation of the dollar is a form of economic nationalism as is 'buying locally.'

These aren't necessarily bad and don't deserve such a Cold War appellation.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I created the term NAZInomics, but it was not because of economic nationalism.

The phrase, "If you are going to tell a lie, tell a BIG LIE." is associated with the NAZIS.

I am saying that our economists are lying to us by not talking about what consumers lose on the DEPRECIATION of durable consumers goods, especially cars.

It is 39 years after the moon landing. Are we supposed to believe that economists with PhDs don't know planned obsolescence has been going on in cars for decades?

RIDICULOUS!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for stopping by. It's always a delight to meet the inventor of anything. Please poke around the blog and maybe find a chuckle.

Anonymous said...

No problemo, thanks for reading and quoting me.

The search capability is one of the coolest things about the internet. It is unfortunate that there is no real way to measure the effect of the spread of ideas via the internet though.

I forgot to put this link in my post:

GlobaLIES

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