News Story of the Day: President Donald Trump must certainly be giving the fist bump to every person he sees in the White House, especially after the latest jobs report.
The United States economy added 228,000 jobs in November, which is more than the 195,000 jobs economists predicted. The unemployment remained unchanged at 4.1 percent.
Trump is taking all the credit for the job gains. But will he do the same when jobs come down?
Chart of the Day: here are the payroll figures every month since 2012 courtesy of Bloomberg:
Illustration of the Day: first, it should be noted that government-managed trade is very different from free trade. Second, some trade is better than no trade. Third, if you embrace international trade, your nation will be better off. Republicans, who are increasingly opposing trade, should remember this. The Heritage Foundation put together an illustration to highlight the benefits of free trade:
Quote of the Day: yes, yes. Again with the trade! Mises.org posted a Ludwig von Mises essay on the “Ideas on Postwar Economic Theory,” which included a passage on trade. Here is an excerpt:
The main characteristic of policies implemented in the decade that preceded the current war, was economic nationalism; that is, an economic policy based on the belief that it is possible to promote the wellbeing of all nationals of a country, or at least of a specific group of them, through measures harmful to foreigners. It was understood that deterring or prohibiting, in an absolute way, the importation of foreign goods; restricting the immigration of aliens; or expropriating, partially or totally, the capital owned by foreigners could provide an important service to a country. This is not the appropriate place to analyze if those measures are suitable to achieve their desired end. The classical economic theory of free exchange has already proven, beyond refutation, that the final result of restrictions placed on foreign trade is the general decline of the productivity of labor and, therefore, of standards of living. In this way, production ceases to occur in places where a high return may be achieved and moves to others where, with the same investment of capital and labor, much lower returns can be obtained. The classic doctrine of free exchange of Hume, Smith and Ricardo has never been refuted. All objections to it turned out to be unfounded.
However, protectionism not only creates economic disadvantages. It also precludes peaceful cooperation between states leading to a sure war. The Society of Nations’ efforts to stop the new global conflagration, through a system of collective security, were in vain because of this environment since all states, big or small, tended to harm one another by implementing certain economic measures.
If we are unable to overcome economic nationalism, all hopes of achieving the reconstruction of our culture will prove illusory. Economic nationalism prevents industrialized States ¾ that is, all those that are compelled to import foodstuff and raw materials ¾ from gathering the necessary means to pay for their imports. How would they be able to pay if not through the exportation of their industrial products? If not permitted to export their industrial articles, these states would be fatally forced into autarchy; on the other hand, countries that possess raw materials would loose markets for the produce of their land. In industrialized states, this situation provokes the desire to dominate nations that possess raw materials through military means. We must not fool ourselves: ambitions of conquest lie behind apparently innocent claims for the equal distribution of natural sources of wealth and free access to raw materials.
In a peaceful world ruled by free trade, there would be no problems regarding raw materials. Each country would be able to buy all the raw materials it could pay for in international markets. In a world subject to protectionism things happen in a very different way: in this world the problem of raw materials cannot disappear; and for small countries, that is those that are weaker militarily, having mines or a fertile soil within their borders represents a danger.
Tweet of the Day: YouTube is restricting content. Facebook is restricting content. Twitter is banning users. Social media has gone mad, especially if you’re a conservative or libertarian. If you go against leftist groupthink, be prepared for ads on your content to be removed. Here is a solution:
I have solved the adpocalypse, just give your video a far left as fuck sounding title because the algorithm hasn’t learned to recognize sarcasm yet. pic.twitter.com/Q0pP0ZD20m
— Count Dankula🏴 (@CountDankulaTV) December 8, 2017
Video of the Day: we posted this last year, but we thought it would be a great reminder for libertarians since Christmas is coming! The Libertarian Holiday Gift Guide! If you want to send us some presents, we would prefer the invisible gloves for the invisible hands.
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