What does America First really mean and how can we best achieve it? It should mean pursuing a foreign policy—our relations with other countries—that best serves our national interest. That requires that our relations with other countries maximize our security and our ability to profitably trade with them including traveling and vacationing in them. In short, our own interest is best served by having friendly relations with our neighbors. It serves our interest for others to trust us and to interact with us on the bases of known and shared rules. Tourism in the US is one of our best exports both in terms of revenue and its contribution to mutual understanding. Sadly, these goals have been seriously damaged over this year leaving us less safe and poorer than we could have been.
I am reminded of the debate over whether companies should strive to maximize profits (shareholder value). As John Mackey, a co-founder of Whole Food, has insightfully argued, a firm’s profits are maximized (assuming the government is not protecting its monopoly) when its workers, neighborhood, and customers are treated well and kept happy with the most efficient cost possible of supplying whatever the firm supplies. We might call this the right way to serve Shareholders First. Supporting this or that charity or cause should be left to the individual shareholders, who are likely to choose to give to different causes.
Author: Warren Coats
I specialize in advising central banks on monetary policy and the development of the capacity to formulate and implement monetary policy. I joined the International Monetary Fund in 1975 from which I retired in 2003 as Assistant Director of the Monetary and Financial Systems Department. While at the IMF I led or participated in missions to the central banks of over twenty countries (including Afghanistan, Bosnia, Croatia, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Kyrgystan, Moldova, Serbia, Turkey, West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Zimbabwe) and was seconded as a visiting economist to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (1979-80), and to the World Bank's World Development Report team in 1989. After retirement from the IMF I was a member of the Board of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority from 2003-10 and of the editorial board of the Cayman Financial Review from 2010-2017. Prior to joining the IMF I was Assistant Prof of Economics at UVa from 1970-75. I am currently a fellow of Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise. In March 2019 Central Banking Journal awarded me for my “Outstanding Contribution for Capacity Building.” My recent books are One Currency for Bosnia: Creating the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina; My Travels in the Former Soviet Union; My Travels to Afghanistan; My Travels to Jerusalem; and My Travels to Baghdad. I have a BA in Economics from the UC Berkeley and a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago. My dissertation committee was chaired by Milton Friedman and included Robert J. Gordon. I live in National Landing Va 22202
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