Quote of the day 23rd March 2021
"At least the vaccine row might undermine the ‘exports good, imports bad’ view of trade."
(David Gauke, former cabinet minister, on Twitter yesterday)
Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria
Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
Comments
There are a few things I never could fathom, one being why deflation is bad, another is the "exports good, imports bad" line.
I always thought exports are the way we pay for our imports.
Economists and historians refer to the idea that exports are good and imports bad as "Mercantilism" and it was a dominant idea among what passed for economic thinkers from about the 16th to the 18th centuries.
Adam Smith exploded the idea and Ricardo buried the fragments two centuries ago but unfortunately like John Barrowman's character Captain Jack in "Doctor Who" or the T1000 in "Terminator 2" the pieces keep coming back together.