It used to be that those watching us plunder ourselves with lobbyist-written trade agreements were cast aside and insulted by those Very.Serious.People in Washington. They called us "protectionist" for questioning why our trade surplus turned into the biggest trade deficit in human history. The political epithet was designed to cast us into the outer darkness, where there is only weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Now folks like Sebastian Mallaby are gnashing their teeth. Cognitive dissonance is excruciating for Mallaby - because the economic facts are hammering his ideology and it is so hard to keep rejecting the facts. Mallaby is a wacko free trader that repetitively writes in the Washington Post, without evidence, the constant "all trade agreements are good and everyone else is misinformed" message.
The Dem presidential candidates don't like NAFTA anymore. Mallaby is really upset. His ideology is crashing around him. What is left?
Meanwhile, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have pushed trade populism beyond the point at which it can be easily forgiven. Quite a lot of trade populism can be forgiven, even if it is intellectually dishonest. Like it or not, trade liberalization has stalled, so mild populism makes no practical difference. ... But it's one thing for Democrats to call for a timeout on negotiating new trade treaties and another to threaten violence to existing ones.
Intellectually dishonest. Ha, ha. The pot calls the kettle black. And get this claim!
It's not that difficult to explain that U.S. manufacturing output has gone up, not down: It simply isn't true that production has been shifted en masse to Mexico or even China.
You can explain whatever you want Mr. Mallaby. Proving it is a bit tougher.
Maybe this is why we are spending our inheritance and leaving our kids to pay the bill.
Narcissism and entitlement among college students have increased steadily since 1979, according to a study to be published this year in the Journal of Personality. Between that year and 2006, 16,000 college students were asked to pick between such paired statements as "I expect a great deal from other people" and "I like to do things for other people," and "I will never be satisfied until I get all that I deserve" and "I will take my satisfactions as they come." The data are clear: The ascent of narcissism and entitlement is dramatic. "What we really have is a culture that has increasingly emphasized feeling good about yourself and favoring the individual over the group," says the study's co-author, Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University. "And that has happened across the board, culturally, and it's showing no signs of slowing down."
It seems the transnational CEO's have this problem in spades. Let's try living within our means, having an actual national economic strategy, and give our kids a chance to live better than we. Let's try making America better. How about it.
Duncan Hunter has a good op-ed describing what he would be saying if he was still in the race.
DURING this campaign season, one issue has often been left out of the national discussion: the deterioration of our industrial base. More than three million manufacturing jobs have been lost over the last eight years alone and, for the first time since 1950, fewer than 14 million Americans are employed by domestic manufacturers. ... Free trade agreements should promote collective economic interests, but the policies of recent administrations have only made it more difficult for our workers to compete in the global market. China enjoys a $256 billion annual trade surplus with the United States, and thanks to subsidies and currency manipulation, Chinese products cost less here than our manufacturers have to pay just to procure raw materials.
DURING this campaign season, one issue has often been left out of the national discussion: the deterioration of our industrial base. More than three million manufacturing jobs have been lost over the last eight years alone and, for the first time since 1950, fewer than 14 million Americans are employed by domestic manufacturers. ...
Free trade agreements should promote collective economic interests, but the policies of recent administrations have only made it more difficult for our workers to compete in the global market. China enjoys a $256 billion annual trade surplus with the United States, and thanks to subsidies and currency manipulation, Chinese products cost less here than our manufacturers have to pay just to procure raw materials.
Isn't there a law against hate speech? Or hate crimes? Or something? Isn't it a hate crime to engage in hate speech in a campaign? Especially if you hate NAFTA.
Carlos Gutierrez, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, wishes that were so. Obama and Clinton are sparring over who opposes NAFTA more. They are messing up his placebo talk, the wacko free trader talking points. "We need more trade" even if the trade is us buying too much stuff, with huge debt and a crashing stock market. "We need more transnational investment" even if it means selling U.S. companies to foreign governments.
"Stop Hating on NAFTA" his op-ed today is titled. Hilarious.
America is the world's No. 1 exporter, with $1.6 trillion in exports of goods and services last year; 2007 also marked our fourth consecutive year of double-digit export growth. Trade plays a significant role in our nation's economic growth, contributing 26 percent of the increase in real gross domestic product last year. NAFTA also accounted for a third of our overall goods exports in 2007. This trade benefits American workers who make the products we send abroad, American farmers who grow the agricultural exports, and American families and consumers who have more choices in our stores.
Yup. Just talk about exports. Too many imports? Doesn't fit the talking points. Never mind.
Taking a "timeout" on trade is akin to standing still at a moment when the rest of the world is moving forward and becoming more competitive.
No Carlos. A timeout means that you stop digging when you are in a big friggin' hole. You and your buddies dug the hole, and need not be upset when those of us being economically crushed make you hand over the shovel.
But Obama and Clinton? Those hateful haters and their hate speech.
Buffett's letter is out. Particularly harsh words directed to the Wall Street financial CEO's, who really are stupid and greedy. Yes, they are stupid and greedy. We should not listen to them and let them write trade agreements anymore.
But he [Buffett] was willing to say, in effect, “I told you so,” in recalling his warning a year ago about “weakened lending practices” in the mortgage market. “Just about all Americans came to believe that house prices would forever rise,” he wrote. “That conviction made a borrower’s income and cash equity seem unimportant to lenders, who shoveled out money, confident that H.P.A. — house price appreciation — would cure all problems. Today, our country is experiencing widespread pain because of that erroneous belief. As house prices fall, a huge amount of financial folly is being exposed. You only learn who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out — and what we are witnessing at some of our largest financial institutions is an ugly sight.” His criticism of other companies was based on the fact that many assume their pension funds will earn 8 percent a year from investments, a return he deems unlikely given the low level of interest rates, but one that lets them report higher profits now. He compared money managers who promise double-digit returns to the queen in “Alice in Wonderland,” who proclaimed, “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” Mr. Buffett added, “Beware the glib helper who fills your head with fantasies while he fills his pockets with fees.” Mr. Buffett pointed out that some companies with pension plans in both Europe and the United States assume better returns on the American plans than the European ones. “This discrepancy is puzzling,” he said. “Why should these companies not put their U.S. managers in charge of the non-U.S. pension assets and let them work their magic on these assets as well? I’ve never seen this puzzle explained. But the auditors and actuaries who are charged with vetting the return assumptions seem to have no problem with it.” “What is no puzzle, however, is why C.E.O.s opt for a high investment assumption: It lets them report higher earnings. And if they are wrong, as I believe they are, the chickens won’t come home to roost until long after they retire.” Mr. Buffett also had harsh words for state and local governments. “Public pension promises are huge and, in many cases, funding is woefully inadequate. Because the fuse on this time bomb is long, politicians flinch from inflicting tax pain, given that problems will only become apparent long after these officials have departed. Promises involving very early retirement — sometimes to those in their low 40s — and generous cost-of-living adjustments are easy for these officials to make. In a world where people are living longer and inflation is certain, those promises will be anything but easy to keep.”
