Adam Smith Institute

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Buy America! Number Go Up!

No, really, cash in the cat’s ‘nip mousie collection and everything before that to collect all the munnies possible*. Then buy, buy, buy, Americans. Stocks, bonds, ETFs, anything you can get hands on.

It’s obvious, innit?

Imports reduce GDP. We all know the equation:

GDP = C + I + G + (X – M)

Well, there we are, it’s in the textbooks. M is imports, the sign in front of it is a minus sign, imports reduce, detract from, GDP..

Therefore, clearly, the economy does better, GDP rises, when imports fall.

The US has a ports strike. Two of the three coasts (Atlantic and Gulf) are closed down, locked tight. There will be no imports through those ports. America is going to get so much richer as a result of imports falling. Thus US stocks, bonds, collective investments, are going to soar. Imports are around 16% of the US economy - GDP’s going to rise by 16%, right?

Heck, sell the cat to be able to cash in here.

Well, why not?

*It’s possible there’s a certain ridicule in play here.