Basic and Simple, Yet Important, Facts
26 May 2007
Editor, Baltimore Sun
Dear Editor:
Two of your readers - both opposed to immigration and at least one opposed also to imports - are unaware of a central fact of international commerce (Letters, May 26). When people in America buy imports or send money to family members abroad, they are not "removing that money from our economy." Dollars are valuable to foreigners only because those dollars can be spent or invested in America. If dollars, upon leaving the U.S., became irredeemable here, no foreign producer would sell products to Americans and no immigrants to America would bother sending dollars to their home countries.
Foreigners want dollars for the same reason that Americans want dollars: to buy American-made products and to invest in the American economy.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Editor, Baltimore Sun
Dear Editor:
Two of your readers - both opposed to immigration and at least one opposed also to imports - are unaware of a central fact of international commerce (Letters, May 26). When people in America buy imports or send money to family members abroad, they are not "removing that money from our economy." Dollars are valuable to foreigners only because those dollars can be spent or invested in America. If dollars, upon leaving the U.S., became irredeemable here, no foreign producer would sell products to Americans and no immigrants to America would bother sending dollars to their home countries.
Foreigners want dollars for the same reason that Americans want dollars: to buy American-made products and to invest in the American economy.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Tuesday January 15, 2008 at 10:02am