P. J. O'Rourke Quotes

The more competitive value of the dollar turned around the trade deficit.

The largest annual U.S. trade deficits since 1980 have been accompanied by the largest annual job-creation numbers in recent memory. The reason is simple: stronger economies tend to have stronger currencies, and the increased economic activities in these stronger economies and exchange-rate differentials lead inevitably to trade deficits

Today, we have a trade regime which has led to the largest trade deficits this country has ever experienced.

America is becoming more and more dependent upon imports from foreign manufacturers than we are exports from our country in all fields: in appliances, in clothing, even food. This year America may become for the first time in its history a net food importer.

Don't make such a big deal out of this trade deficit…. In the United States you cannot find anybody to produce such labor-intensive products and it will be more expensive if you were to import such products from other countries and the regions than China. Only China is in the best position to produce such products, and this is also beneficial to China because this has provided job opportunities to China.

By definition, by reducing our trade deficit we will be hurting consumers. Consumers are always better off with a trade deficit.

Every dollar a foreigner spends over here directly subtracts a dollar from the trade deficit.

China got the local currency, the yuan which is appreciating against the dollar which means that all these Chinese people have more purchasing power. And they're willing now to spend some money after saving, you know they provided America with savings for years. Now they're going to spend some money. So this means that they are willing to allow the dollar to weaken because it means that their currency, the yuan goes up, so they're actually in a winning situation.

That level of trade deficit throttles real growth in our country and continues the unfortunate path of selling out America. We are not winning the global trade war, we are losing it badly.

All those trucks and barges that carry our goods to port are vital connections to the only force which can balance our trade deficit: export. We must keep doing what we do best if we are going to get America out of the red.

I think bolstering free trade is a boon to the dollar.

Unless the trade deficit shrinks, the combination of the trade deficit and the interest and dividend payments to foreigners will grow ever more rapidly.

Whenever the debate moves on to hard numbers - our deficit with Europe, our surplus with the rest of the world, our Brussels budget contributions, the tiny part of our economy dependent on sales to the EU, the vast part subjected to EU regulation - Euro-enthusiasts quickly shift their ground and start harrumphing about influence.

Foreign trade clearly has been a reason why inflation has been low.

We are on pace this year to have a trade deficit that is larger than $800 billion. We have never faced that before, but we continue to put forward trade agreements like these that leave us naked to competition that is neither free nor fair.

Nearly every one of the foreign financial crises of recent decades has led to an increase in the U. S. trade deficit.

International trade is not a zero-sum game.

Wealthy nations cannot grow richer unless they have customers beyond their border.

May our exports be so great, and our imports so small, that the balance of trade may be in our favor.

Wee must ever observe this rule; to sell more to strangers yearly than wee consume of theirs in value

Trade never balances. It hasn’t since 1776.

Free trade is good for all countries but not necessarily good for all peoples in all countries.

While the Japanese are shipping us Toyotas, they’re exporting something more important than cars. They’re sending us unemployment.

We have at last awakened to the realization that foreign and domestic trade are not in separate water-tight compartments--that they flow through the same pipes and seek a common level. We cannot live by ourselves, shut off from the balance of the world, without working harm to our economic system that would require many years for repair.

The benefits of trade diffuse across the economy, but the cost of trade are concentrated.