FDA's Commissioner has departed from the President:
After being pummeled for weeks on Capitol Hill over the president’s budget, Food and Drug Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach has written Congress that the agency needs an immediate infusion of $275 million to ensure that imported foods, drugs and medical devices are safe. ... Dr. von Eschenbach’s action surprised agency observers and was taken as perhaps a sign of the president’s waning influence in the closing months of his presidency. “In 30 years at the agency, I never saw anything like this happen before,” said William Hubbard, a former deputy F.D.A. commissioner.
After being pummeled for weeks on Capitol Hill over the president’s budget, Food and Drug Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach has written Congress that the agency needs an immediate infusion of $275 million to ensure that imported foods, drugs and medical devices are safe. ...
Dr. von Eschenbach’s action surprised agency observers and was taken as perhaps a sign of the president’s waning influence in the closing months of his presidency. “In 30 years at the agency, I never saw anything like this happen before,” said William Hubbard, a former deputy F.D.A. commissioner.
The core point is this: The imported food and product inspection system should be fully equivalent - in process and standards - to the domestic system. Imports should not be favored with token inspections and deceptive "harmonization" provisions in trade agreements.
Since Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" revealed horrible conditions in the nation's packing plants, the U.S. has worked to improve its food safety system. The USDA and FDA have increasingly tightened the safety regime domestically, though there are many complaints.
When China devalued its currency by 40% in the 1990's, imports surged like never before. Imported food, drugs, medical devices, toys, and everything else. Our regulators have token representation at ports and other border crossing. 100 years of food and product safety were undone.
The tension was growing. Pets made the difference in 2007, oddly. Fluffy and Spot died from wheat gluten containing melamine that was in their pet food last year. Pet owners were a force to be reckoned with. The press paid attention. Then antifreeze in toothpaste and cough syrup was reported. People died from imported heparin injected into their bodies. Imported seafood disclosures became frightening, as found by Food and Water Watch. Mattel's imported toys were painted with lead based paint. Congress held more than token hearings. Non-food safety issues like shoddy imported steel gained more attention.
The Administration's official line was things are basically ok, but we'll tighten things up a bit. The FDA Commissioner's letter shows the power of this issue. The multinationals are powerful, but you don't mess with things that people ingest or inject into their bodies.
We don't here a lot about it, but we experience it every day. The U.S. infrastructure is crumbling. Potholes multiply, certainly. And bridges are in disrepair. But our electrical transmission lines lose gargantuan amounts of electricity between generation and consumption. Our internet lines do not reach rural citizens, who struggle with 1994-era dial-up access.
Here is a good piece in the WaPo about infrastructure. The topic is fundamental, but not yet sexy.
Forgive my repetitive focus on the NY Times editorial board, but they are really a study in inconsistency. Bipolar perhaps, in a vague metaphorical way.
The board pushes free trade agreements that are a substantial factor causing manufacturing loss. In other regular written forays, the board complains of Asian environmental devastation and U.S. income inequality - without causally connecting them to the current flavor of free trade policy.
Today, the board has a very insightful editorial, "Down and Out in Connecticut."
Over the past two decades, of all the 50 states, income inequality increased the most by far in Connecticut — and not only because of the outsize gains of the state’s many hedge fund managers. ... Over the last 20 years, Connecticut has lost a third of its manufacturing jobs, replacing them with lower paying service-sector jobs. Virtually no additional jobs have been created. ... Connecticut’s schools are big underperformers. The gap between the educational performance of low-income and middle- and high-income pupils is the widest in the nation. ... The loss of manufacturing jobs, coupled with an achievement gap, is a recipe for perpetually worsening poverty.
Over the past two decades, of all the 50 states, income inequality increased the most by far in Connecticut — and not only because of the outsize gains of the state’s many hedge fund managers. ...
Over the last 20 years, Connecticut has lost a third of its manufacturing jobs, replacing them with lower paying service-sector jobs. Virtually no additional jobs have been created. ...
Connecticut’s schools are big underperformers. The gap between the educational performance of low-income and middle- and high-income pupils is the widest in the nation. ...
The loss of manufacturing jobs, coupled with an achievement gap, is a recipe for perpetually worsening poverty.
I have lived in Connecticut. That which they say is true. It is fundamental, economically and societally. The inequality and squandering of opportunity is happening across the country. The trade policy they espouse causes that which they decry.
The role of agriculture in rural America is the similar the positive manufacturing dynamic in a more urban community. Agriculture founded upon millions of independent entrepreneurs is a great wealth generator, a great class and wealth equalizer, and a great community builder.
This is not to argue for eliminating service jobs. It is an argument for balance, and for recognition of how to preserve and build an economy. And a society.
Duly noted:
Counterfeit products are a routine threat for the electronics industry. However, the more sinister specter of an electronic Trojan horse, lurking in the circuitry of a computer or a network router and allowing attackers clandestine access or control, was raised again recently by the F.B.I. and the Pentagon. The new law enforcement and national security concerns were prompted by Operation Cisco Raider, which has led to 15 criminal cases involving counterfeit products bought in part by military agencies, military contractors and electric power companies in the United States. ... Arrests have been made in China as part of the investigation, she said.
Counterfeit products are a routine threat for the electronics industry. However, the more sinister specter of an electronic Trojan horse, lurking in the circuitry of a computer or a network router and allowing attackers clandestine access or control, was raised again recently by the F.B.I. and the Pentagon. The new law enforcement and national security concerns were prompted by Operation Cisco Raider, which has led to 15 criminal cases involving counterfeit products bought in part by military agencies, military contractors and electric power companies in the United States. ...
Arrests have been made in China as part of the investigation, she said.
Hillary Clinton has developed good talking points on trade and China. She hits China currency manipulation/misalignment head on. She wants a pause on trade agreements, which is sensible because those agreements miss the mark of what is wrong with trade.
Obama recently said that free trade is good, but we need labor and environmental protections. Fine, as far as it goes. And is free trade, as practiced for the last 20 years, good? The economic results have been horrendous, from trade balance, to foreign debt, to job loss, etc. Trade is good when conforming to the national interest, which it did for about 200 years before running off the rails with Fast Track, NAFTA and their progeny. But free trade in its current form? Good? Not so much.
McCain is still a wacko free trader. Don't call me partisan, look at his record. Duncan Hunter, the Republican candidate that dropped out, was very good on many core economic trade issues.
Both Obama and Clinton, last week, agreed to co-sponsor S. 796 which is a currency manipulation bill introduced by Senators Bunning, Stabenow and Bayh. That is very good news.
But what to make of Hillary? Is she for real? She is behind in the nomination race and must be aggressive in courting the blue collar voters in Indiana and North Carolina... people who rightly think trade agreements just benefit the outsourcing multinationals and the Wall Street international finance guys.
She supported NAFTA and refuses to admit it now. She could say that she supported NAFTA and was wrong, but she has not. Bill Clinton, in 2005, promised Colombia President Uribe that he supports the Colombia FTA that Hillary opposes. Mark Penn, her former campaign manager and current pollster, works for the Coloumbia government to lobby for the FTA here in DC.
Today, we find out, from McClatchy, that Bill Clinton has a multimillion dollar stake in a company controlled by the Chinese government.
He also received $2.6 million, some of it in ``guaranteed payments,'' from the Cayman Islands-based Yucaipa partnership, which invested in Xinhua Finance Media Ltd., China's leading, government-controlled financial and entertainment media company.
I want to believe Hillary. And I want Obama to be stronger on sensible trade change that addresses the fundamentals. And I want McCain to convert. And I want a pony. But can we believe Hillary?
