OK, I nearly failed my pass/fail Econ 101 course, and too much Brad DeLong makes my eyes glaze over, although I'm sure he's a nice guy.
But I've been seeing a lot of anti-corporate/anti-outsourcing rhetoric here and something about this doesn't strike my (practically DLC) ears the right way.
I need a little help clarifying these issues, and knowing you all, I'm sure some will be happy to oblige.
What would the best economic system look like to you? What would provide some combination of high employment, low inflation, low deficits, appropriately strong dollar (as I understand it, we don't want it to be TOO strong either), and would provide for the social services that we want like medical care, public schools, etc. etc.
Anti-corporatism is a bit troubling to me, because even if you waved your wand around and got rid of all the corporations, what would you install in their place? I'd rather regulate the hell out of corporations rather than get rid of them altogether because there are some things big corporations do better than other entities, just as there are some things small businesses do better and some things the government does better (the trick is figuring out who should do what). My not so wide observations lead me to think that "capitalism" and "socialism" need to exist in a sort of equilibrium. Pushing too hard to one side or the other produces a lot of negative unintended consequences.
With outsourcing too, there's been a lot of gloom and doom about "never getting those jobs back." I'm sure there are certain jobs we won't get back. There's not a lot of demand for buggy-makers anymore after all. What I do think Americans do better than anybody else is practical innovation. If you aren't going to get certain jobs back, maybe in a better economy you would have new jobs--ones you can't foresee now.
Also, this business of trade. This is tricky stuff. A blanket anti-NAFTA soundbite seems to me to gloss over a lot of issues.
So give it your best shot. Assume you have the power--how would you fix the economy and/or design an ideal economic system?