Trump: Invest in the United States

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.

Randall G. Holcombe is Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and DeVoe Moore Professor of Economics at Florida State University. His Independent books include Housing America: Building Out of a Crisis (edited with Benjamin Powell); and Writing Off Ideas: Taxation, Foundations, and Philanthropy in America .
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