Comments on: Unfair Trade: 10 Questions About Our Globalized Economy That Neither Conservative Or Liberal Supporters Of Current U.S. Trade Policies Can Answer

By: Philip M.

Philip M. — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 21:14:44 +0000

Unfair trade in our globalized is indeed a real problem. Part of this is because we have three wars overseas. So we can’t tell China to shut up, because China buys our government bonds.

http://www.hedgethebets.com/latest/2010/11/markets-expect-political-gridlock-and-why-it-could-actually-be-a-good-thing/

We squandered borrowed money on supposedly patriotic but rather pointless wars overseas. Some liberal Democrats argue (privately) that the most patriotic course of action would have been saving thousands of American lives and investing in the education of the next generation of Americans.

Many of us Americans were sold on the rather crude and simple ideas of G.W.Bush to save the (f)ailing economy through tax cuts. But the biggest expense of all are the costly wars we are fighting overseas. Obama has thankfully very much scaled down our engagement in Iraq, but it is still ongoing and draining our budget. On top of that, we kicked into higher gear in the war in Afghanistan and can’t really avoid going after terrorists in the nearby Pakistan. So we have three wars now.

Most Americans who voted for then-Senator and now President Barack Obama had three wishes in mind:

1) fixing the economy by creating an economic green energy boom (just like Bill Clinton did it with the dot.com boom in the 90′s)

2) ending all wars overseas, not just merely shifting the war from Iraq to Afghanistan/Pakistan; for parents and families of our men and women in uniform it does not make much of a difference whether their loved ones die in Iraq or in Afghanistan, they just want them safely here back home

3) ensuring that the U.S.A. remains the economic super power number one

In the light of a continuing economic slump–well technically were are not in a recession because two percent growth already qualifies as recovery– Americans of all political stripes and almost all walks of life are rightly disappointed with the state of the Union.

Former President Bill Clinton fixed the economy first. He created a sustainable recovery and a swinging boom but had to sacrifice his health care reform.

President Obama succeeded in what no US President has ever done: he did pass a “comprehensive health care reform”. But without money to pay for it, it is just paper and if it is enforced it will become yet another burden on the ailing economy. So, President Obama entered history books at the speed of light not only as the first President to win the Nobel Peace Price in 2009, he was also the first to sign a sweeping health care reform and a Financial Regulation bill (a.k.a FinReg or Frank-Dodd-Bill). But is he doing the job we hired him to do? You have to wonder whether ending the wars and restoring American economic greatness is anywhere on his agenda right now.

http://www.hedgethebets.com/latest/2010/11/markets-expect-political-gridlock-and-why-it-could-actually-be-a-good-thing/#theStimulus

Because President Obama continued all these wars he inherited from George W. Bush, the US is out of financial options to counter unfair globalized trade.

By: scott bowlan

scott bowlan — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 18:10:52 +0000

look in the history books.
jobs started going away just after clinton signed in the china free trade bill October 10, 2000 shortly after bush went in office so all those problems seemed to be caused by bush when in fact clintion signed the bill in on the last weeks he was in office.this is whay the obama adminustration has blamed bush for the mess we are in.
that bill signed in by clinton allowed overseas manufactures to flood the u.s.market with every thing from food to cheap merchendise,walmart sudenly became chinas largest trading partner. u.s.manufactures can’t compete with overseas cost and prices do to labor wages and manufacturing cost. now oct 2010 millions of manufacturing jobs gone and millions of homes forclosed on.and overseas investors are swarming the u.s.buying up forclosed homes and real estate.
the last months of 2010 threw the first 6 months of 2011 we can expect skyrocketing food,gas,oil prices.
by mid 2011 millions of peoples extended benifets will have run out sending them on the streets and on welfare.
the dollar is crashing and will completely fail do to government spending.states will go broke just like ca and this time the gov will not be able to bail them out like they did in 09 so expect thousands of state and local state government jobs to be gone in 2011
eventualy china and other countries wont take the american dollar do to the value loss.
non of these problems will be fixed unless that same free trade bill that put us here is reversed back to were it was before clinton signed it in and we know the money junkies in congress will never change it so we can expect things to progresavly get worse to the point of complete economic colapce by 2012

By: SueDinNY

SueDinNY — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 02:23:14 +0000

We need to look at solutions and as a nation we’re not. Our politicians are too busy making sure they’re getting rich on contributions to their war chest to care about the state of our great nation. We need to look at where we were when we became a great industrialized economy. What did we produce? What products did we export? Where did our basic materials come from? Look at Canada. Just a few years ago our money was worth 33% more than Canada’s. Now, they are financially stable and we’re in trouble. We need to use our natural resources as Canada does. We get most of our oil from them. We have lumber. We have natural gas. We have oil. We need to remove restrictions on all of it. Those of you who protest – do you drive a car? Do you use gas? Do you heat your homes? Then shut up. You’re a hypocrite. The problem is much larger than re-industrializing, however, because we have politicians (and many rich people and the media) who want to see the demise of the Republic and a new socialist/communist nation. We MUST remove these evil corrupt deceptive people from gov’t and media. This will be a long process, but if we want a free nation, it has to be done.

By: Canadian

Canadian — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 07:09:01 +0000

DEAR MR SYNDER,

IN A WORLD WHERE DECEPTION AND MISINFORMATION PERMETATES OUR LIVES, YOU SIR ARE A BEACON OF HOPE.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. BLN AND THE OTHER WEBSITES ASSOCIATED WITH BLN ARE THE ONLY SOURCES OF INFORMATION THAT ARE TRUSTWORTHY IN MY OPINION. I DO NOT TRUST MAINSTREAMNEWS WHATSOEVER. LIVING IN CANADA SOMETIMES YOU GET A “FRESH” OR “NOT SO PROPAGANADY” REPORTS, HOWEVER OVER THE PAST DECADE I HAVE GROWN MORE AND MORE SUSPICIOUS AS TO THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE INFORMATION BEING RELAYED BY CANADIAN BROADCASTERS.

ON ANOTHER NOTE..
LOOK AT THE COMMENTS ON YOUTUBE FOR ANY VIDEO.. THAT IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE. OUT OF THOUSANDS OF COMMENTS PERHAPS 2-5% ARE ACTUALLY CONSTRUCTIVE COMMENTS. THEY ARE POPULATED BY 99% MORONS. SO PLEASE DO NOT STOP AND THINK THAT THE COMMENTS LEFT THAT ARE DETRIMENTAL TO YOUR ARTICLES, REFLECT THE OPINIONS OF THE GENERAL POPULATION.. ITS JUST A HANDFUL OF IDIOTS.

FOR EVERY PERSON THAT IS ENRAGED ENOUGH TO LEAVE STUPID COMMENTS, THERE ARE 10 PEOPLE THAT WERE INTRIGUED BY YOUR ARTICLE. WHY DIDN’T THEY LEAVE COMMENTS IF THEY WERE INTRIGUED? THATS JUST IT. I NEVER LEAVE COMMENTS AND YET I AM INTRIGUED BY A LOT OF BLN ARTICLES. I HAVE READ ALMOST EVERY SINGLE BLN ARTICLE OVER THE PAST DECADE. BUT DURING OUR BUSY LIVES ITS NOT POSSIBLE TO LEAVE CONSTRUCTIVE COMMENTS FOR EVERY ARTICLE WE AGREE WITH. THIS COMMENT HAS TAKEN ME 20MINS SO FAR TO WRITE. AND IT IS MY FIRST TO BLN. AFTER READING BLN FOR 10YEARS.

DO NOT GET DISCOURAGED!!!

THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE LIGHTHOUSES LIKE YOURS TO HELP KEEP THE PEOPLE INFORMED, SO THAT THE ENLIGHTENED ONES MAY ALL SAFELY NAVIGATE THESE DARK AND TREACHEROUS WATERS WE ARE ALL ENTERING. I CANNOT APPLAUD YOU AND THE TEAM OF BLN CONTRIBUTORS ENOUGH. IF YOU DO HAPPEN TO READ THIS, I HOPE I HAVE BEEN A BEACON OF HOPE FOR YOU AS WELL AND WOULD LIKE TO WISH YOU, YOUR FAMILY, AND ALL YOUR LOVED ONES THE BEST OF LUCK IN THESE UPCOMING TRYING TIMES.

SINCERELY YOURS,
Not a conspiracy nut, just very skeptical of everything that is going on in today’s world.
Canadian Li

By: Nick

Nick — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 04:00:58 +0000

The one’s that came out ahead are the corporate hunchos…..

By: Greg Buls

Greg Buls — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 02:07:50 +0000

freddybobs68k:
A lot of what you wrote sounds like typical liberal moaning. What does ring somewhat true mostly does so on a very superficial level. This was clear after about five stanzas, around the point where everyone quits reading. I’ll bet you’re fun at a party.

By: ray

ray — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 20:35:12 +0000

Actually this is a (long term) death knell for the very businesses who exported these jobs. When you lay off American workers in exchange for cheap foriegn workers, you are laying off customers.
How many Mexicans auto workers cans afford to buy the cars they are building?

By: Lokman

Lokman — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 20:54:49 +0000

Loved your article. Apparently america will not step back from free trade, the answer to your 10 questions will come from war on terror, Iraq’s petrol, untainted mines in Afghanistan, opium trade, arms sales etc. How else can Big Brother finance its huge deficit? In the meantime, I can’t help thinking like that: you exploited rest of the world for centuries, now its pay time, let the second class countries exploit them.

Ps. Not to mention economising, however americans don’t know the word “economise”.

By: GoneWithTheWind

GoneWithTheWind — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 19:33:57 +0000

Freddiebob; America has the best health care in the world. When dictators, Shahs and Kings get sick they come to America for their health care. When Canadians have serious health problems that require immediate treatment they come to America. Our health care is indeed expensive, probably because we have the professionals and equipment the rest of the world only dreams about. The city of Philadelphia has more CAT machines then the entire country of Canada. The U.S. has more CAT machines then the rest of the world put together. If you need a cat scan in England the waiting time is a couple of months. If you need a CAT scan in the U.S. the waiting time is minutes.

By: lostinmissouri

lostinmissouri — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 19:19:25 +0000

Poster above says:
“These stupid tea bagger dolts are part of the problem. what lo information simpletons.”

HOW CAN THE TEA PARTY FOLKS, who were the first to rise up against the Feds, bailing out the banks with tax payer money, BE PART OF THE PROBLEM?

They were the first ones to voice opposition to the government’s TBTF policy, and the lawbreaking acts, of saving failing companies, with taxpayer money.

Dude, you are listening to way too much NPR.