China and the Olympics are generating lots of news stories; but one on Marketplace at American Public Media caught my ear this morning. Commentator Will Wilkinson of the Cato Institute was talking up  a recent working paper (warning - pdf file) by University of Chicago economists Christian Broda and John Romalis.

    With the headline Trade With China Gets The Gold, Wilkinson summarized their findings as showing that trade with China has been a net benefit for the poor and not so good for the rich.

  Follow me below the fold to find out why it sucks to be rich - and look at some signs that the GOP Class War on America is heating up.

This story originally broadcast on Marketplace. Quotes in this story include narrative editing.
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By now I'm sure most citizens of the United States who file a tax return have received the notice letter about the "economic stimulus" tax rebate.  You file your tax return, and you get anywhere from $300-1200 back from the IRS in July.

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     January 4, 2007, was the day the 110th Congress was sworn in. The news was all about Nancy Pelosi making history because she's the first House Speaker without a Y chromosome. Otherwise Harry Reid might have been the target of more attention for being the first Mormon Senate leader. Beyond that, the big story was the media trying to spin what the voters really wanted, what the Democrats were going to do, and how good/bad/likely that was going to be. The two "I" words came up a few times too: Impeachment and Iraq.
       The 100 hour agenda was much discussed. Are those mean old Democrats really going to treat the Republicans the way they were treated, or are they going to see the light, be bipartisan, and work hand in hand with President Bush? Lost in all this was how for the last 6 years the record of a GOP Congress has (to paraphrase Shakespeare) been like "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
          Elsewhere though, the gloves are off. There's one element already gearing up for war with the new Congress. (more)

[T]he American Petroleum Institute — that's big oil's main lobbying group — is launching a public relations offensive. Complete with Congressional oil patch tours, and contributions to friendly think tanks. It's trying to convince people rising energy prices are simply the result of higher demand and shrinking supply.

That is from the NPR American Public Media radio program Marketplace, today. Does the business-friendly show buy into this? For the answer, look below the fold . . .

We've heard a lot about the failings of the contracting system in Iraq. But in the latest issue of Business Week magazine, reporter Dawn Kopecki says the system actually works.

Vigeland and Kopecki discussed a Congressional Budget Office study comparing cost estimates for supplies provided by the military itself and by contractors that claimed a nearly 50% savings (on $80 billion) associated with logistical support over a 20-year period. They talked about how people always blame the contractors but mentioned a specific case where several Army reserve officers were siphoning off money.

I saw some great photos from YKos and there was a whole area of booths, and I thought "DUH, why didn't I realize there would be booths of stuff there?" My next thought was "Why don't we do this as a person-to-person e-commerce marketplace offshoot of DKos?" ('Cause that's just how I think, yo.)

So what do you think?

Request for Iraq: $440 billion [Update: this is a mistake by Marketplace, the original story said defense budget]

Annual cost of Christmas decorations: $8 billion in 2005.

From Marketplace(American Public Media), April 26, 2006, last minute (27:21).

This final note - what do you think is more important to the average American - paying for the war in Iraq or paying for plastic Santas? General Peter Schoomaker, the Army Chief of Staff, claimed that we're spending about the same amount on both! Schoomaker said the last year alone Americans spent over 438 billion dollars on Christmas decorations. He said he found the figure in a newspaper clipping. He said that President Bush's request for Iraq amounted to only 440 billion dollars.

Enron czar Ken Lay hasn't testified in his own defense yet, but his chief hatchet-man, Jeff Skilling, took the stand Monday and will likely be there all week and possibly into next. In a copyrighted Enron-Trialwatch blog on the Houston Chronicle site, reporter John Roper captures the similarities between the Bush style and the Enron style.

Dick Mayer, editorial director of CBSNews.com has written In Defense of Dubai, in which he does a stellar job of debunking various myths that have grown up around the controversy.

Think Progress' Faiz published In Pursuit of an Honest Debate On Dubai Ports Deal, in which he also addresses the inaccuracies that characterize much of the argument against the deal.