The Inimitable Sanity of David Frum

I think that it's fair to say we would all be in better shape if the current manifestion of conservatism in America looked less like Sarah Palin and more like David Frum.  I really disliked his views of 9/11 and the Iraq War.  He's also credited with coining the phrase "axis of evil."  And he was not a crossover conservative in 2008, voting for McCain despite his opinion that Sarah Palin was unqualified.

But since then, he sounds increasingly sane to me.  He was so vocal in his criticisms of GOP obstruction on healthcare reform that it led to a parting of the ways with the AEI.  And on today's edition of Marketplace, he had this to say:

Nerts to them. China keeps its currency cheap so as to promote exports -- especially to the United States -- thus creating jobs for China's needy millions. How extreme is China's manipulation? Well, think of it this way: Since September 2008, the U.S. dollar has declined 30 percent against the currency of number one trade partner, Canada. Against number two, China? Flat until this summer, then down only five percent.

China deploys all kinds of administrative tricks to suppress the value of its currency and sustain exports. But these tricks come with a fearsome side effect. To keep level with the declining U.S. dollar, China ends up creating lots of excess Chinese money. That excess money bids up the price of assets inside China, especially real estate. In fact, we may be witnessing the biggest real estate bubble in the history of the world inflating before our eyes. The Financial Times reports the typical apartment in Beijing or Shanghai sells for 15 times the typical income. Even at the peak of the U.S. housing bubble, our home price-to-income ratio was less than half what China's is now.

This bubble frightens the Chinese, as well it should. But China has a simple remedy available: They could quit printing so much excess money of their own and allow their currency to appreciate. Or they could make the opposite choice: Keep their currency artificially cheap, borrow jobs from the rest of the world and brace for a great real estate crash sooner or later. Their call. But what they're calling for now is for Americans to rescue them from their own self-generated problem. They want the U.S. to run a tighter monetary policy -- and accept more unemployment -- to spare China the need to make any hard choices. And they won't even offer cooperation on Iranian nukes to sweeten the deal.

Why would any American say yes to that one-sided proposition?

[Emphasis mine.]

Take out the part at the end about Iranian nukes and this piece could have been written by Paul Krugman.  It's full of substance and reeks of sanity!

I still don't share Frum's ideology and still disagree with him on many points, but wouldn't it be nice if we could find agreement with our ideological opponents?  Frum isn't necessarily who I would want to run the country, but I would much prefer someone who can reason on the basis of substance and recognize where our ideological differences don't exclude mutual goals versus people who are to obscure and obstruct no matter what.  It seems that Mr. Frum would prefer that, too.