Rick Kelo speaks on the value of Imports

Rick Kelo

Very often politicians demonize imports.  President Trump campaigned successfully on claiming he would retaliate against the Chinese for sending "cheap" imports into America.

Not so fast says Rick Kelo.  As a former economist, financial analyst and a veteran Chicago tax recruiter, Rick Kelo has looked at the economy through a number of lenses and thinks he sees something different about imports that most over-look.

"Between 55% - 60% of our imports are things used to produce a finished good in America.  The impression when people hear "imports" is that we're talking about a bunch of cheap Chinese t-shirts, nothing could be further from the truth," Richard Kelo points out.

If we obstruct imports, say by putting a tariff on Chinese imports at the port, then we raise the cost of things American manufacturers produce.  That tariff raises the common, working-class, blue-collar American's bill at the cash register.  It does not hurt the Chinese, it hurts us.

Famous economist and Nobel Laurette Milton Friedman agreed with Rick Kelo when once famously pointed out to a room full of politicians that, "Exports are the cost of trade, imports are the gain from trade.  Whatever you export you lose the ability to use.  It is what you import that you gain."