Trump: Invest In The United States – OpEd

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At the Davos World Economic Forum, President Trump urged global investors to invest in the United States. “I’m going to Davos. We’re going to be talking about investing in the United States again,” said the president.

That would be good for Americans. More investment increases productivity, which boosts our standard of living. But where will those global investors get the dollars to invest here? Foreign investors earn dollars which they can then invest in the United States by selling goods to Americans for dollars. The more goods foreigners sell to us, the more dollars they acquire which can then be invested in the American economy.

So, while President Trump is telling global investors to invest here, his policies that aim to limit imports into the US (such as the recent tariffs he announced on Korean washing machines and solar panels) will reduce foreign imports into the United States, and so reduce the dollars global investors have to make those investments.

His words say, invest in America. His actions say otherwise.

This article was published at The Beacon.

Randall G. Holcombe

Randall G. Holcombe is Research Fellow at The Independent Institute, DeVoe Moore Professor of Economics at Florida State University, past President of the Public Choice Society, and past President of the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Virginia Tech, and has taught at Texas A&M University and Auburn University. Dr. Holcombe is also Senior Fellow at the James Madison Institute and was a member of the Florida Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors.

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