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This is the blurb, slanted a bit negatively. We'll see. Dan DiMicco, CEO of Nucor will be on the show, so make sure to watch 60 minutes.
Sunday, Feb. 15, 2009
BUY AMERICAN - The economic stimulus package includes a "buy American" clause that the steel and other U.S. industries lobbied hard for. However, American businesses that export overseas now worry foreign governments will retaliate and keep U.S. products out of their market, hurting their business. Lesley Stahl reports. Shachar Bar-On is the producer.
It will be nice to have DiMicco on national TV to talk about trade and the economy, in the context of Buy American.
The PR folks of the multinationals are in high gear trying to preserve the devastation they have wrought. Remember the U.S. Chamber of Commerce pledging to spend $60 million during the election to beat up candidates on fair trade?
So here's the drill. Serious looking people in suits looking worried. Whining about vague fears of "trade wars" and "Smoot Hawley" tariffs (did anyone propose a tariff?). In front of engaged reporters who feel their pain.
This is what is happening at least once a day right now. Representatives from Caterpillar, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable, etc. are meeting via conference call to compare notes, strategize, give out assignments, and set the next call. They fan out to their reporter contacts, buy ads, and carry out their game plan. If a reporter needs more information, or needs a talking head, emails go out to the group and they find what is needed. They feed the news machine. Manufacture news.
Maybe someone will buy their snake oil again. But the public has not been buying for several years now. U.S. taxpayer money should be spent on U.S. production, not boosting the economy of others. We simply don't have enough money to stimulate the economy of 150 other countries.
This is not a difficult concept. But this is how they buffalo us.
Make sure to watch on Sunday.
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They are:
1. attract and promote primary employers ... that is, companies that ship products out of the region to bring in more funds than are sent out.
2. attract and promote companies that spend money locally to increase the economic multiplier effect.
3. do not attract, and do not promote, "import companies" that send more funds out of the community than they bring in. Examples: Wal-Marts and other big box stores. They also destroy local businesses that do spend funds locally.
In summary, more funds must come into a region than go out for the region to grow and it's a major benefit to circulate and recirculate the funds within a region. The delta between #1 and #3 (funds in minus funds out) is the "trade balance" and #2 is promoting buy regionally ... or, for the nation, Buy American! This is as true for regions within the U.S. as it is for the U.S. as a whole.
What's sad ... and hypocritical ... is that economic development professionals understand these principles, but largely ignore the second and totally ignore the third for political and ideological reasons. They even ignore the first when it comes to the nation as a whole (hence the loss of manufacturing and the "trade" deficit). The "free traders" now oppose "protectionism" that would stop the offshoring of jobs and they oppose Buy American. Opposing these principles for the nation amounts to economic treason ... it's a betrayal of the nation's economic and military security.
Google "Smoot-Hawley Fiction" for more and to see the data and graphs.