Word: important
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...fundamental issue is that Nigeria is a single-export economy. Oil accounts for more than 90% of our foreign exchange earnings. We earn dollars because of the OPEC pricing system, but we are suffering now because we produce less and sell the oil at lower prices. We must import only goods that are basic and essential to our economy. A lot of emphasis has been put on agriculture. Because of the shortage of food in the country, people are going back to the land. We have taken stock of our debts and redone the budget. We tried to cut expenditures...
...strong dollar is a mixture of both pluses and minuses. On the positive side, it not only creates travel bargains but also lowers the cost of Italian clothes, Japanese cars and everything else that Americans import. Although the resulting flood of foreign goods has helped to create a yawning U.S. trade deficit, the cheap imports have done much to hold down prices. As the dollar's value swelled in 1981 and 1982, inflation fell from roughly 9% to 4%. "About half of that drop can be attributed to the strong dollar alone," says John Paulus, Chief Economist for Morgan...
...President has 60 days to decide what to do. Reagan is philosophically opposed to protectionism, but he may agree to import curbs rather than risk losing votes in big steelmaking states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio. The quotas, however, would limit the supply of steel in the U.S. and thus raise its price. That, in turn, could hurt all consumers by driving up the prices of a wide range of products...
Virtually all economists agree that protectionism is counterproductive and dangerous to the long-term health of the U.S. economy. Import restraints cut down the range of products available to American consumers and boost prices. If fewer Japanese cars or videotape recorders are allowed into the U.S. because of import restrictions, the prices of those available will be driven up by the law of supply and demand. Protectionism also frees American industry from the discipline of having to become more efficient, and import curbs invite retaliation against U.S. exports. Says Sidney Jones, Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs: "It strikes...
Perhaps the most serious problem with import restrictions is that they treat the symptoms of America's economic ills without getting at the cause: high interest rates. The best thing the Government could do for U.S. industry would be to slash the federal budget deficit, which threatens to top $200 billion. That would reduce upward pressure on interest rates and allow the value of the dollar to drift down to a more moderate level. Congress last week passed legislation to cut the deficit by $63 billion over three years, but that is only a feeble first step toward easing...