Working Life

   No surprise, really, that this poll would show that most Americans oppose so-called "free trade": (CNN) — As Sen. John McCain prepares to promote free trade during a high-profile trip to Colombia and Mexico, a poll out Tuesday suggests the issue may be a political hurdle as the general election campaign heats up.   […]

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Yesterday, Sen. Obama made comments to a business reporter that leave the impression that he is already shifting his stated position on NAFTA and, by extension, so-called “free trade”. It is worth looking at as a sign where Sen. Obama really intends to lead us on trade if he wins the White House.   A […]

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   I meant the "breaking" as a snark, in case it wasn’t obvious. For everyone but the pro- so-called "free trade" crowd (economists, elites and too many Democrats), it’s been crystal-clear that the driving force behind trade is wages, not efficiency, a better product, lower prices for consumers and all the other nonsense you read. […]

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I almost broke my pledge of sanity not to blog on the weekends when I read Roger Lowenstein’s monumentally stupid article on trade in the Sunday Times Magazine. The piece was so moronic as to…well, let’s go to the text.   Lowenstein starts out by setting the terms of debate thus: According to Political Science […]

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    This morning is a time to shake off the cobwebs of conventionitis. Conventionitis is a serious form of mental illness brought on by being cooped up in a climate-controlled atmosphere, where the air you breathe is not real, and the steady hum of many voices conversing at a low pitch combines to penetrate the […]

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    Most of what I write about so-called "free trade" has focused on the horrendous hits that workers take from globalization that is all about one major thing: seeking out the lowest wages. But, there is another piece to this: so-called "free trade" is destroying the planet. Oh, yes, I’m sure the advocates of so-called […]

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   Over the never-ending primary season (I recently picked up a not-so-old old New Yorker issue that had a New Hampshire primary and realized that wasn’t so long ago and it seems like ancient history), I’ve pointed numerous times that on the question of so-called "free trade" I wasn’t entirely sure that there would be a […]

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    One of the very under-the-radar things that happened when the Democrats took the seat in Mississippi was that the newly-elected Congresscritter, Travis Childers is a "fair trade" proponent and won’t support any so-called "free trade" deals: Childers has signed a pledge not to approve any international trade agreements if he’s elected, saying that deals […]

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  I’ve said before that I believe that the Democratic nomination fight is over, though the hype may drag on for a bit. But, a nice chunk of super delegates–perhaps as many as a dozen or more–may make their choice based on where the candidates stand on trade. And that’s a good sign for people […]

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    Sen. Sherrod Brown, one of the best legislators in the Congress on just about every issue but certainly on trade, had an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal yesterday that called "Don’t Call Me a Protectionist". Taking on the issue of the so-called "free trade" deal with Colombia, here’s the key passage: Let’s […]

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