Foreign Matter
Guest Post - Brad Smith
Since everyone has had it up to HERE with the whole (hole?) non-stop, wall-to-wall Trump Trial & Biden BS drama, I bring you another insightful piece from talented scribbler, Brad Smith.
What's on my Mind? Foreign Investment is on my mind. Why?
Because we seem determined to cut off foreign investments from as many sources as possible, with China being the biggest target of course. But worse than that they are going to steal money that Russian citizens invested in the US. This was included in the recent Ukraine "aid" package. Our massive debt is also a problem for investors, not to mention we are currently de-industrializing Europe and they are very large investors. It's hard to invest if you go broke due to the loss of cheap energy like Europe is, so that investment will dry up soon.
A lot of people, who know next to nothing about economics, can't seem to grasp how important foreign investments are for any economy, let alone one the size of the US which will always require an extra boost to stay even close to where we are.
The fact is that the US was Built on foreign investment and without it we would not have become a major industrial power or stayed one.
Our participation in The Industrial Revolution was only possible due to our ability to Attract Capitol.
One of the reasons we did so well after WWII was finally over, was that we massively cut taxes, but also because massive foreign investments flew into our country.
It wasn't just that factories were bombed out in Europe and elsewhere, it was the fact that we had a free market and we Allowed that Capitol to flow in and we knew how to treat investors well.
Imagine if we had gone full isolationist after WWII. Would we have a real middle class or would the US have more closely resembled the USSR after WWII? Or Venezuela after Chavez? The answer should be obvious. Russia didn't lose the war, their factories were putting out a hundred times as many tanks as ours, so why didn't the war make them rich, why didn't capitol flow in so that they could prosper? Oh, that's right, because they were dumb ass commies and didn't understand that Free Trade is a Win Win. People wanted to go there and invest and make them rich but they refused. How well did that work out?
Who is refusing to do business and cutting ourselves off from capitol right now? It sure as hell is not Russia or China, they are attracting more investments than ever. We are the ones becoming isolationist not them.
And we think that we, who are 34 trillion in debt will automatically win this new cold war.
Up until now the US has Always treated Foreign Capitol VERY Well. Anyone in the world knew they could invest in America and make their money back, plus some. If this trend continues those days will be over.
If you want to make America great, you have to make it a place that attracts Capitol, it won't happen by chasing it away. As goofy as Trump could be, that was in fact one thing he did understand and he tried hard to get capitol to flow back into our economy, including tax brakes for people who re-repatriated money.
One last thing, there always is.
Ludwig Von Mises, the founder of the Austrian School of Economics had a few major lessons, one of them was on the vast importance of Foreign Investment.
According to Mises It wasn't our brains or our resources or our labor or even our Technology that turned us into a economic powerhouse, not that they weren't also needed, but without the capitol they would have gone to waste, just like they do in fact go to waste, in half the nations around the world.
Plenty of nations have resources, labor, brains and technology, but most of them are too poor to use it well. If they can get capitol it's often from the very scammy World Bank or IMF, and half of those funds end up in some dictators hands instead of the people, leaving the people with the bills and not much else.
Brad Smith
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I’ve worked a variety of jobs, for a variety of employers, and even have some entrepreneurial experience as well. A few of my endeavors even involved working with some slightly shady characters, but I never worked with anyone of bad repute, just questionable repute. However, no matter whom I’ve worked with, irrespective of just how abnormal their nature, notoriety, or wealth could have been, I learned one lesson, a particular lesson, over, and over again.
‘The lesson,’ is the simplest lesson, and it’s the most basic of all of the business lessons that one can expect to learn, whether they work for themselves, or with anyone else. What’s, ‘the lesson,’ and why so mysterious? Well, in a nut shell it’s; “always keep the money straight.” The lesson might take the form of a command, “Teddy, always face your bills, and always be ready to drop your bank in the blink of an eye, and you’ll go far.” Or, instead, it might take the form of a question such as, “Does Gimble’s tell Macy’s?” Sometimes, ‘the lesson,’ can even be taken straight from the pages of history, or ripped from the headlines of local rag: "Nothing personal, it's just business."
I can draw a thousand rough sketches of, ‘the lesson,’ or even two thousand, but it’s not something that one can ever genuinely explain to someone else, it’s just something that a guy learns, or that he comes to realize is a part of his personal being, his ethic, even though it’s the most important lesson he can ever know, and yet, at the same time, it’s also the one thing about business that your average, ‘stinko pinko,’ and commie mommy will never fully grasp about business because it is the one lesson that violates everything they personally believe to be true about business and the business world.
This is where the lesson about, ‘the lesson,’ ends, because it’s really that simple and you either get it, you already had it, or you’re never gonna understand it no matter how hard you try: “keep the money straight.”
Capital is good. Debt is bad.