Archive for the 'Trade' Category
NRA Version 2.0
Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
H.R. 4040 - Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008
I find it ironic that this country, and specifically it’s leadership, are as oblivious to the parallels of the Great Depression as is obvious. This bill was passed by Bush late last year. FDR’s Ghost channeled through Hoover?
Pandering vs. Standing Up For What You Believe In
Sunday, March 16th, 2008
Instead of becoming a beacon of bipartisanship, however, Nafta is the latest whipping boy for the anti-globalization crowd. During their last debate, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama said they would withdraw from the treaty unless Canada and Mexico agreed to further concessions. Canadian authorities were quick to respond that if negotiations were reopened, they would ask for some concessions of their own. True to form, Mr. McCain offered his unconditional support for the landmark agreement.
With the two political parties apparently divided on trade policy, you might expect those free-trade-loving economists to be predominantly Republicans. But that’s not the case. One reason is that economists are not single-issue voters. Like everyone else, they are divided over contentious issues like health policy, the Bush tax cuts and the war in Iraq.
BUT another reason is that many economists don’t really believe the populist rhetoric coming from the Clinton and Obama campaigns. They expect that once in office, either candidate would pursue a policy more like that of Mr. Clinton, who relied heavily on the advice of economic moderates like Mr. Summers and Robert E. Rubin, another former Treasury secretary. When reports surfaced recently of an Obama economic adviser telling the Canadian government to ignore his candidate’s anti-Nafta rhetoric, some people were appalled, but many Democratic economists I know were secretly relieved.
I’m not implying Dems have the market cornered on vote pandering - Romney and Huck both pandered for the populist vote when they were running.
