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...During the 1981 campaign, Finance Minister Yoram Aridor played what his opponents called "election economics" by cutting excise taxes and import duties on foreign items like autos and color TVs. The Begin government then tried to ease the pain of inflation by broadening indexation and encouraging spending. Losing confidence in the shekel, Israelis increasingly turned to the American greenback. "Our national currency is now the dollar," Ezer Weizman, Begin's former Defense Minister, who is now heading his own ticket, charged last week. "This is a disgrace...
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...
Much of the money from foreign loans has gone to prop up the value of national currencies, which makes foreign goods cheaper and encourages consumers to go on import-spending sprees. Even though Chile's unemployment rate in 1981 was 35%, the country was a major importer of radios, TV sets, refrigerators and cars. The surge in foreign auto sales has made Santiago one of the world's most polluted capitals. Argentina went on a similar binge starting in the late 1970s, a period known as La Plata Dulce-the sweet money...
...India faced a gaping, long-term payments deficit. The previous year its oil-import bill had jumped to $5 billion and foreign exchange reserves had fallen by $1.4 billion in seven months. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, then newly returned to office, responded by negotiating the largest loan in the history of the IMF, $5.8 billion. Critics in New Delhi immediately charged that she had plunged the country into a "debt trap." Yet last November, Mrs. Gandhi announced that her government would not need the last $1.1 billion installment of the loan. What had happened? Increased domestic oil production and remittances...