Trading Away Our Future: How to Fix Our Government-Driven Trade Defecits and Faulty Tax System Before It's Too Late Book

Preface     ix
Introduction     1
The Trade Deficit     7
Why Trade Deficits Matter     9
Why Balanced Free Trade Should Be Our Goal     10
Effect on Manufacturing     18
Danger of Hard Landing     27
Roots of the Trade Deficit     33
The Trade Deficits & Foreign Investment     34
A History of the Trade Deficits     35
1981-1984: Paul Volcker Causes the Trade Deficit     39
1984-1986: Creating Tax Breaks For Foreigners     41
1991: George H.W. Bush Reduces Foreign Savings     52
1996-2005: Dollar Mercantilism     54
2006-2007: The United States gets a Breather     64
Future of the Dollar Standard     67
Ostriches and Eagles     69
The Ostrich Attitude     70
Remedies Proposed by Eagles     81
How to Balance Trade     89
Restore the Withholding Tax     90
Impose Import Certificates on Mercantilists     93
Tax Foreign Dollar Reserves     101
Build Up US Foreign Currency Reserves     101
Changes Need to Be Gradual     103
Technical Appendix: Reciprocal Buying of Reserves     104
The Tax System     107
Taxation of Capital Gains     109
Consumption of Capital     109
Definitions of Income     111
Neutrality Regarding Timing of Income     119
Conclusion     120
Technical Appendix: Value of a Capital Asset     122
The Real Estate Tax     123
The Good Tax for Local Governments     124
Taxing Land, not Improvements: The Georgist Movement     127
The Problem of Equitable Assessment     128
The Proposition 13 Initiative     129
Recovery After Asset Values Fall     133
The Corporate Income Tax     135
Penalizing American Workers in International Markets     136
Double Taxation of Corporate Income     139
Violation of the Principle of Equity     141
Encouraging Borrowing Over Equity     145
Why Not Eliminate the Corporate Income Tax?     145
Solving the Low Savings Problem     149
The Value-Added Tax     151
The Flat Tax     157
The Growth and Investment Tax     161
The FairTax     164
The USA Tax     174
Comparison of the Consumption Tax Proposals      179
Technical Appendix: Tax Basis of Various Taxes     182
A Strong America     183
How to Protect Your Assets     185
Soft Landing Scenario     185
No Landing, Just Falling, Scenario     186
Hard Landing Scenario     188
Program for a Strong America     193
Actions That Need to be Taken     194
Improvements Proposed to US Tax Code     198
Innovations to Economic Theory     200
A Reason for Optimism     201
Notes     203
Index     221
List of Figures     229