Free Trade Costs Berlin, NY Most of its Industries

[Rajiv]

Really good article by Elaine Supkis

Free Trade Costs Berlin, NY Most of its Industries

The devastation of Free Trade is obvious in my community which was thriving before this shibboleth shipping scheme was foisted upon us for economic and political reasons. Before the Doha Free Trade Rounds, businesses in Berlin, NY, were expanding. Now, they are rapidly vanishing. These events are totally connected! This week, one of the insane trade negotiators struggles to figure out how he screwed up. Of course, being stupid, he can’t figure out the obvious. So I suppose it is time for him to tour my little town’s dead businesses.
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[The Outback Oracle]

Re: Free Trade Costs Berlin, NY Most of its Industries

It's a bit of a worry that your negotiators were out-smarted by everyone else. The US negotiators took the Aussie blokes for a real spin! So I'm not sure how dumb that makes our lot.
Her last line on what ought be done is not a bad start!

[Scot]

Re: Free Trade Costs Berlin, NY Most of its Industries

Really good article by Elaine Supkis

Free Trade Costs Berlin, NY Most of its Industries

If those industries looked healthy before free trade, it's because the rest of the nation was being gouged to support them.

Where's the sympathy for consumers in other cities that were for years forced to pay tribute to the people of Berlin, NY?

[metalman]

Re: Free Trade Costs Berlin, NY Most of its Industries

If those industries looked healthy before free trade, it's because the rest of the nation was being gouged to support them.

Where's the sympathy for consumers in other cities that were for years forced to pay tribute to the people of Berlin, NY?

the left figures the equation this way. they'd rather make a $50k wage guaranteed by gov't and unions and pay $500 for a crap bike for the kids than make a $25K or $500k wage... depending on how much they hustle, mostly, but also luck, etc.... and pay $100 for a great bike for the kids.

[Rajiv]

Re: Free Trade Costs Berlin, NY Most of its Industries

I think you are getting confused by the use of the term "Free Trade" -- "Free Trade" as is practiced today is neither free nor is it fair trade. The term "Free Trade" is rather a euphemism.

Free Trade as defined by Libertarians is not practiced generally anywhere on a large scale. The only place it exists is in small isolated communities.

[phirang]

Re: Free Trade Costs Berlin, NY Most of its Industries

Don't worry: those rioting Chinamen who are going to be sent back to cold storage at the farm are losing their jobs for Americans.

[Rajiv]

Re: Free Trade Costs Berlin, NY Most of its Industries

I think the term used for GATT type treaties should not be "Free Trade" but rather "Warped Globalization!"

[Uno]

Re: Free Trade Costs Berlin, NY Most of its Industries

Yes, so many, many Americans have been brain washed by terms such as "free trade", "free markets", "capitalism", "investing" that they are now part of the problem.

There needs to be some type of re-education effort. I'd recommend Obama spend some money on the re-education of America.

[Roughneck]

Re: Free Trade Costs Berlin, NY Most of its Industries

Would you rather pay an extra $200 dollars for a tv you might buy every 10-12 years an put an american to work?

Or 20 bucks extra for a pair of new balance shoes every 6 months to a year and give an american a job.

The globalists have outsourced the middle class.it's hard to have a consumer driven economy when average people don't make enough money to buy consumer goods.

WWII and the manufacturing economy that followed built the middle class in this country and lifted us out of a depresssion.After we spend a billion dollars on the new WPA what are these people going to do 3 years down the road without real,productive jobs?


RN

[GRG55]

Re: Free Trade Costs Berlin, NY Most of its Industries

Would you rather pay an extra $200 dollars for a tv you might buy every 10-12 years an put an american to work?

Or 20 bucks extra for a pair of new balance shoes every 6 months to a year and give an american a job.

The globalists have outsourced the middle class.it's hard to have a consumer driven economy when average people don't make enough money to buy consumer goods.

WWII and the manufacturing economy that followed built the middle class in this country and lifted us out of a depresssion.After we spend a billion dollars on the new WPA what are these people going to do 3 years down the road without real,productive jobs?


RN

The "globalists" are you and I and our neighbours and co-workers. Such US stalwarts as Boeing, GE and a huge number of other US enterprises, that employ a hell of a lot of US citizens, are not viable in a world without global trade. Wishing for, or assuming that there is some way to revert to the circumstances of the middle-20th century where, outside the USA, much of the "developed world" was in ruins and most of the remainder still subsistence agrarian economies, is a waste of time.

There is a very real benefit using trade to exploit comparative advantage. There is no reason for Canada to set up greenhouses and use its surplus petroleum energy to grow citrus crops; it makes a lot more sense to export some oil to the USA and import the oranges from California or Florida [yes, this is a ridiculous example, but hopefully it makes the point].


The current massive distortions in global trade patterns [as evidenced by the outsized deficits and surpluses that have been built up in recent years] have almost nothing to do with trade related to real comparative advantage, and everything to do with years of responding to increasingly out of control FIRE economy interests.

• Asia's drive to build massive official reserves is a direct consequence of their late-'90s "currency crisis", and still-fresh memories of the aftermath when most of those nations [except Malaysia] followed the IMFs dictums, to their subsequent regret; and
• The extraordinary success of US financial interests to inflate another bubble, in housing, to replace the TMT bubble...what is the incentive for any population to make anything of use to anyone else at home or abroad when extraordinary "wealth creation" is but an ARM-length or two away? This fashionable illusion swept the world from the Algarve to Almaty, Cyprus to Sydney...even the climatically-challenged Dubai and Moscow were able to peddle the "investment" merits of buying luxury flats off-plan.

The level of global insanity was subordinate only to the type of insanity that leads to world wars...and for that perhaps we should be thankful.

Yes, so many, many Americans have been brain washed by terms such as "free trade", "free markets", "capitalism", "investing" that they are now part of the problem.

There needs to be some type of re-education effort. I'd recommend Obama spend some money on the re-education of America.

Unfortunately the "re-education" we are most likely to be subject to is an assault on trade and calls for tariff and non-tariff barriers. This will be sponsored primarily by FIRE economy interests [and their apologists in Congress and the Administration] to deflect scrutiny of their responsibility for the current tragedy. Expect these cowards to make good use of their newfound allies in organized labour as their front [coming soon to a theater near you ].

The finger-pointing abroad, blaming others, claims that "it's all China's fault"...a depressingly familiar behaviour pattern for the USA every time it suffers any economic setback...has already started. The ghosts of Reed Smoot and Willis Hawley stalk the land still.