My apologies for the title. Mama always said profanity under any circumstances is bad manners. But on the other hand Mark Twain said profanity provides a relief denied prayer. Given my frustration, I think I'll go with Mr. Twain this time.
The New York Times had yet another editorial expounding on how Free Trade = Good, and how Democratic "protectionism" threatens our Nation's prosperity.
Fortunately, we in the US have an Economy focused on Shareholder value - just ask the Stock flippers on Wall St. who just got $30 Billion in bonuses for perpetrating the crime of the Century using Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs).
Dean Baker of The American Prospect has written a great comebackto the Free Trade Moonies. In just a few short paragraphs he shreds the Free Trade argument to pieces. Several choice excerpts include:
The NYT editorial board warned readers about the dangers the economy faces if a new president abandons the Bush-Clinton-Bush (BCB) trade agenda. It tells us that "throttling trade — say, by reconsidering existing agreements — would hurt a lot more people than it helped." It would be interesting to see any evidence that supports this assertion.
But let’s put this point aside. We can grant that removing protectionist barriers does in general lead to more economic growth. The biggest protectionist barriers in the economy at present are those that protect highly educated professionals like doctors and lawyers and the reporters that work at the NYT. If we could bring in enough fully qualified doctors from the developing world to bring the wages of our physicians down to West European levels it would save patients in the United States close to $80 billion a year on their health care. This swamps the gains from NAFTA, CAFTA, and the other trade deals that the NYT editorial board is concerned about.
Yowza! But he let's 'em have at the end of the article:
The basic story is that the NYT editorial board is very upset by forms of protection that have the effect of protecting low and middle income workers. It is perfectly willing to accept those forms of protection that redistribute income upward – even when these forms of protection impose very large costs on the economy.
I'd love to see Obama/HRC sit down at the table with the AMA or Pharma & talk this one out!
Which is why I consider John Edwards the only real Democrat running for President.
Happy Holidays to All!
(& apologies for the language)