[Vision2020] When Will "FREE" TRADERS be held accountable?
Ted Moffett
ted_moffett@hotmail.com
Fri, 11 Jul 2003 20:35:34 +0000
Tim et. al.
I agree completely. While we are sold on free trade and getting rid of
government regulation as some sort of patriotic agenda to get big government
off our backs, and administer the principles of capitalism as though they
solve all problems, the main beneficiaries of this approach are the
multinational corporations who can access the cheapest labor with none or
few worker protections, avoid environmental regulation and US taxation, and
then ship the goods manufactured in this manner wherever they get the best
price on the planet. US workers are not yet on average seeing some grand
improvement in their lot since NAFTA and the WTO, etc. have pushed the free
trade agenda in recent years.
And on the subject of corporation loyalty to the USA, how many people
noticed that the US Congress passed legislation in the past few years under
Bush that allows corporations receiving government contracts to still avoid
paying taxes by sheltering assets off shore?
Ted
>From: Tim Lohrmann <timlohr@yahoo.com>
>To: Vision2020@moscow.com
>Subject: [Vision2020] When Will "FREE" TRADERS be held accountable?
>Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 12:49:58 -0700 (PDT)
>
>
>Visionaries,
> When will the neo-cons and so-called Democrat
>Leadership Council types be held accountable for the
>colossal failure of what they call FREE TRADE?
>
> They(the leaders of the 2 major parties) keep up
>the big lie that this exportation of jobs is good for
>our economy. It seems to be like a religion for
>everyone that is given any serious coverage by the
>mainstream press.
>
> Notice especially towards the bottom of this
>article that the country contributing the most to our
>trade deficit is of course China. The same country
>that not only openly boasts of having missiles capable
>of hitting our west coast cities, and continues to
>occupy and oppress Tibet but was the beneficiary of
>top-secret missile technology that was passed on in
>return for campaign contributions under Clinton.
> And speaking of Clinton, the NAFTA godfather, where
>are his comments about the deficits with the original
>NAFTA partners? ($4.09 Billion deficit with Canada,
>and the $3.42 Trillion yep that's trillion with a T!)
>
> The Free Trade agreements were sold on the racist
>notion that we could send the "grunt-work" jobs
>overseas for the lessers while we here in the good ole
>USA could all be software engineers. Unfortunately,
>that approach left out reality. The reality that the
>rest of the world is as good or better than Americans
>in the high tech sector. And not only that they'll do
>that work at a tenth of the wages.
> Let's face it, the Free Traders have failed. The
>only winners have been the new "International"
>coporations. "International" in this context is easy
>to define. It means not loyal. Not loyal either to the
>country that gave them their start or to the people
>that got them to where they are today.
> TL
>
>
>
> > > U.S. Trade Deficit Climbs in May
> > >
> > > By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
> > > AP Economics Writer
> Friday, July 11, 2003
>
> > > America's trade deficit, on track to set an
> > > all-time high this year, edged up slightly to
> > $41.84
> > > billion in May as imports of foreign cars,
> > > televisions and business equipment all showed big
> > > gains.
> > >
> > >
> > > The Commerce Department reported Friday that the
> > > May imbalance rose by 0.5 percent from the April
> > > deficit of $41.65 billion even though U.S. exports
> > > posted their best gain since January with
> > shipments
> > > of American-made autos and auto parts, computer
> > > chips and industrial machinery all showing gains.
> > >
> > >
> > > For the first five months of this year, the U.S.
> > > trade deficit is running at an annual rate of $492
> > > billion, well above last year's record high of
> > $418
> > > billion.
> > >
> > >
> > > Critics point to the soaring deficit as evidence
> > > that the Bush administration is pursuing a failed
> > > trade strategy that has furthered the loss of
> > > millions of American manufacturing jobs as U.S.
> > > companies have closed their American factories and
> > > moved production overseas to take advantage of
> > > cheaper labor.
> > >
> > >
> > > The administration, however, insists that the
> > > rising trade deficit reflects bigger economic
> > > forces, namely the fact that the U.S. economy,
> > while
> > > mired in an anemic economic recovery, is still
> > > growing faster than the rest of the world.
> > >
> > >
> > > Administration officials have been urging
> > Japanese
> > > and European authorities to do more to boost their
> > > growth rates and provide stronger markets for
> > > American goods.
> > >
> > >
> > > Also this spring, the administration made a
> > subtle
> > > shift in its policy regarding the dollar,
> > signaling
> > > that it did not plan to intervene in currency
> > > markets to stem the greenback's slide, a position
> > > American manufacturers had been urging the
> > > administration to take for years.
> > >
> > >
> > > U.S. companies have complained that an overvalued
> > > dollar was pricing their products out of overseas
> > > markets and making imported goods cheaper and more
> > > attractive for U.S. companies.
> > >
> > >
> > > The dollar's decline this year did appear to be
> > > boosting demand for American exports, which rose
> > to
> > > $82.05 billion in May, a 0.9 percent rise which
> > was
> > > the strongest monthly increase in percentage terms
> > > since January.
> > >
> > >
> > > The increase reflected gains of $117 million in
> > > sales of autos and auto parts, which rose to $6.76
> > > billion in May. Other products showing increases
> > in
> > > May were exports of industrial machinery, up $101
> > > million; computer accessories, up $96 million, and
> > > computer chips, up $50 million.
> > >
> > >
> > > These gains offset declines of $9 million in
> > > exports of farm products, which fell to $4.29
> > > billion, reflecting a big drop of $177 million in
> > > shipments of soybeans, which offset gains in
> > exports
> > > of corn, meat and poultry and fruit.
> > >
> > >
> > > Imports were also up in May, rising by 0.7
> > percent
> > > to $123.89 billion. That increase reflected a 4.7
> > > percent rise in imports of foreign autos and auto
> > > parts, which increased to $17.67 billion during
> > the
> > > month. Imports of business equipment were up by
> > $75
> > > million while shipments of televisions and video
> > > recorders climbed by $69 million.
> > >
> > >
> > > Imports of foreign petroleum dropped by 8.3
> > percent in May to $10.34 billion with the
>improvement reflecting a decline in crude oil prices
>to an average of $24.11 per barrel, down from $26.02
>in April and a high this year of $30.46 set in
>February. However, the volume of crude oil
> > imported set a monthly record of 320.5 million
>barrels as the United States increased its dependence
>on foreign oil supplies.
> > >
> > >
> > > By country, the United States recorded its
> > largest deficit with China, an imbalance of $9.86
>billion,an increase of 4.3 percent from the April
>level.
> > The deficit with Japan shrank a sharp 24.8 percent
>to$4.49 billion in May, the smallest imbalance since
> January 1998.
> > >
> > > The deficit with Canada rose 7.2 percent to $4.09
> > > billion in May while the deficit with Mexico,
> > > America's other partner in the North American Free
> > > Trade Agreement, was up 2.3 percent to $3.42
> > > trillion.
>
>
>__________________________________
>Do you Yahoo!?
>SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
>http://sbc.yahoo.com
>
>_____________________________________________________
> List services made available by First Step Internet,
> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
> http://www.fsr.net
> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com
>ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
_________________________________________________________________
Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online
http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963