It isn’t surprising. Indeed, as predicted with the end of world wide quotas on textiles, China is now annihilating any other country even remotely involved in textiles. The Commerce Department reported on Friday (as reported in today’s New York Times) that imports on textiles and apparel products from China rose more than 63 precent in the first three months of this year compared to the same period last year.

That means tens of thousands of jobs will be lost here—the virtual elimination of the apparel and textile industry in the U.S. is near. But, what troubled me more when I wrote about this last December was the devastation the end of quotas would create in far poorer countries, which had depended on textile export industries for jobs. But, none of these countries, where the wages are damn low and people live in poverty, can compete with China, where the price of labor is artificially suppressed by the government.

The supreme irony is that ideologues rant and rave about the virtues of the so-called free market—yet, they tout the rise of China even though that country is hardly the paragon of the textbook free market. Even though poor countries were willing to engage in the unrestrained, brutal global marketplace, they could not compete against China, which provides the global haven for corporations who spout free-market ideology but thrive in a completely different world of a controlled labor market. Hypocrisy, huh?

Side note: Having thawed out my hands and butt from frigid weather last night at Yankee Stadium, I can report that should the dudes from the Bronx play all year as flawlessly as they played last night (except for Tom Gordon’s need to throw 20-plus pitches to close the game), they will be tough to beat. But, it’s a long season and I am a very much “let’s see what happens” fan. With the sounds of baseball back, life renews itself again.