How do we fix the economy?

It's somewhat disheartening how many candidates fail to address the economy. In a time like this it should be at the top of every candidates agenda. The problems we are facing are as easy as the solutions.

1. International trade does not work as well as it used to becuase our dollars that are going out aren't coming back fast enough, if at all.

2. We are letting to many people in the country and competition for scarce jobs lowers wages.

3. Our economy and our businesses are over-regulated.

4. Taxes are too high and tax policy is to disjointed.

5. Obamacare is robbing the middle class blind. We just can't afford our health care premiums anymore.

The Solutions

-Free trade is good for an economy. But there are a couple of things that are necessary for it to work. The first is that the money we send out must come back. In other words if we buy goods from China with American dollars we would expect that money to come back to purhase goods from us. But it doesn't work that way anymore. England suffered under the same problem in the 1930s. They were on the gold standard and of course gold doesn't have to circulate back to the original source. The American dollar behaves just as gold used to. When your dollars go out to China, Mexico or Japan they can be used to buy oil from Saudia Arabia, Iran or Venezuela. Those countries can then cycle the money back to China. When China then manipulates its currency the dollar strengthens and more dollars flow out of the economy.

Tariffs should be slowly implemented and only on certain products that create high paying jobs back home or are necessary to our national defense.

- Immigration can also be very healthy for economic growth. But again a few things need to be in place for it to work. The first and most obvious is of course that it doesn't work very well to have mass immigration and a welfare state. It's a profound drain on the economy. The second is that nations who benefit from immigration often use the immigrant labor to help exploit natural resources. The citizens then can be freed up to engage in the higher paying jobs of processing these materials. There is also talk that we have a shortage of certain skilled labor. This is impossible in a free-market economy. If there is a shortage it simply means that business is not paying the computer programmers, welders or machinists enough money to attract people to develop the skill. Our borders should be closed and even legal immigration should be slowed until the economy recovers.

-We forget sometimes that all regulation has a cost to it and hurts the economy. That doesn't mean we shouldn't regulate certain products and ativities. But it does mean we need be exceedingly cautious when adding regulations. The Obama administration has added thousands and thousands of regulations that all will cost the consumer. We should roll back most of those regulations and before implementing any new rules perform an in-depth cost analysis.

-Taxes must be lowered. There is no clearer way to state this. Taxes on the business cost jobs and drive more work overseas. We cannot have high taxes, high regulation, unrestrited immigration and no or low tariffs and expect the economy to grow. If there is one area among all of these that has had the most profound affect it must surely be taxes. Ronald Reagan lowered taxes drastically and the economy boomed. Even more impressive is that in a very short period of time as Arthur Laffer predicted revenue to the government went up.

-The damage Obamacare has done to our economy cannot be overstated. Twenty years ago when I started my business I paid for all of my employees premiums for the entire family. Back then the premiums were just about $400. Now it is not uncommon for premiums for a family four to be in excess of $1,200. That is patently ridiculous. What is most troubling is that no one talks about the reason for this. When we allowed millions of people into the nation without jobs or money we were of course not going to deny them health care. They overwhelmed the system and the middle class got stuck with the bill. End of story. Anyone who tells you any different is lying to you and should be dismissed as a fool.We need conservatives in congress and a president smart enough to understand that immigration and health care costs go hand in hand.