Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

'Radiation spike' sparks fears Putin tested nuke in Arctic ...

Le Pen cancels meet with Lebanon grand mufti over headscarf [requirement] ...

Marine Le Pen pledges to abolish same sex marriage ...

Trump: Anti-Semitism is 'horrible' and 'has to stop'

Exclusive: Lawmakers to request probe $418 million arms sale to Kenya on Obama's last day

Sweden incident: Riots, looting, cars torched, police attacked in migrant suburb

Milo resigns from Breitbart

Border tax hits political reality, only Trump can save it

Supremes to decide Constitutional rights of immigrants

Gorsuch's charm offensive may be working

[Kellyanne] Conway: Recess appointments 'on the table'

Nearly 1M immigrants ordered deported still free

VAT

Unraveling trade deficits might be very simple. Let me try to explain.

President Trump complains that the United States is stupid and being hosed in its trading with most other nations. One focus of this gripe centers around the innocuous value added tax (VAT) which, in most cases is a cumulative tax paid to the nation host during the various manufacturing sequences  ... but which is then removed when such products are exported. This very much is effectively a national subsidy for exporters. And most countries with whom we trade have VATs therefore put us at a trading disadvantage. Here is a compendium of countries with VATs: US Council for International Business List.

And in most cases these same countries impose a VAT on goods that are being imported into their countries ... see: VAT on Imports. This is the equivalent of a tariff or duty. So VAT, which seems so innocuous to the layman, is an insidious way of beefing up exports and discouraging imports. No wonder the United States has been running huge balance of payments deficits and Trump is down on our trade negotiators.

Rather than adding Trump's "border tax," perhaps we should also jump into the VAT to fix things?

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

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Obama quietly transfers 10 Gitmo prisoners to Oman ...

Trump wants more press in Press Room ... bloggers may be included

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Germany fires back at Trump's threatened border tax: 'Build better cars'

At least 30 killed in Turkish Airlines crash in Kyrgyzstan ...

STEELERS coach caught calling the Patriots 'assholes' ...

FBI arrests wife of Orlando nightclub terrorist ...

Hundreds of U.S. Marines land in Norway ... irking Russia ...