Built like a Mercedes 3664

Budd Cochran

That's put me off Jaguar, Volvo, Saab, Land Rover, Ford, Vauxhall, and all the other American owned brands we buy in Europe then. F*** 'um foreign things. We'll buy European domestic products like Renault, Fiat and Peugeot instead.

But wait, how does nationalism and protectionism help all those American Ford and GM brands? Oh it doesn't, it guarantees even bigger losses for them. Perhaps Americans only believe in free trade when the going is good for them? Yes that is probably it.

Fact is, there is only one way to stem those losses at Ford and GM and that is for them to become more efficient and trade their way out. It can be done. Just look at the example of Nissan which under French management has been transformed from imminent bancruptcy to a modern success story in less than ten years.

There is nothing magical about Japanese or German industry. Just look at the present debacle at Mitsubishi which Daimler-Chrysler could not turn around.

If you want a global recession where you are absolutely guaranteed to have fewer sales and total business failures then certainly go protectionist. If you want continued relitive prosperity and employment then become compebreastive and grow your economy. There is no stopping China and other major compebreastors becoming more prosperous because they are coming around to the American way of doing business. If enough trade is done both ways then both economies win. Obviously America has more to lose and China has more to win but what you need is a win-win situation. It is inevitable though that China will become a stronger economy than the USA in the medium term.

Huw