Lou Dobbs and his contempt for Adam Smith

He has become so cynical and pessimistic I have stopped reading and watching Lou Dobbs with regularity. While I was reading CNN today I saw Lou had an article linked titled “It’s good to be a Superpower”.

He not only shows again his cynicism, this article he adds a degree of hate capitalism and it appears to me contempt for the US. My assessment of him may not be accurate for I do not know the man personally. I suppose he could also simply be ignorant. He may have never read Wealth of Nations. Remember, he is a journalist, a master of none.

I have linked articles and EU charts which disagree with Lou’s article.
GERMAN IMPORTS RISE FROM CHINA

WORLD EXPORTS AND US IMPORTS

Per this article it appears the US buys roughly 23% of the world clothing output, while we have less than 5% of the world population. If it were not for the US purchasing products from other nations, their clothing industries everywhere would contract painfully or maybe collapse. If a company suffered a 23% loss in sales, what do you think would happen to the company? Mass layoffs, possible closure or sale to a another firm?

According to this article, clothing imports are up in Europe.

The real news is what the Dutch have done to their clothing import trade. The article appears to suggest the Dutch government has applied an import duty on textiles and clothing. The import market has fallen dramtically. This not only raises prices on imports, but it will inevitably raise the price per unit of clothing made in country. Artificially softening competition in a nation will always allow prices to rise.
“Prices go up
This big fall in the Netherlands was due mainly to a big price increase of 203 per cent to an average 15.89 euros per kg paid by Dutch importers in the first quarter.
EU importers on the whole in the first quarter also saw an increase in prices of 21.1 per cent in knitted clothing and 12.7 per cent in woven clothing.
The average cost for knitted clothing was 13.56 euros per kg and 17.21 euros per kg in woven clothing.”


But is not only Lou Dobbs who does not understand the world's market economy. The Washington Post also has a story, "China to Raise Tariffs On Clothing Exports". It is about China's textile exporting. If people are buying China's clothing, they must be satisfied with a) the quality, with relation to b)the price.

Regarding the possibility of China's export tax, The New York Times adds the most meaningful bit of information I have read from the media to date. Yes, the quality. China clothing manufacturers understand this... If all they make is inexpensive and lower quality clothing, they are limited in their market. However if some of China's clothes are of higher quality (and would still be relatively inexpensive versus US or EU produced clothing, then the China textile market will find new and more customers. The market always finds it's own way.