Working Life

    Back on my particular hobby horse today on the idiotic description of the issues around trade. And, as usual, The New York Times is the reason. Robin toner has a piece today entitled “For Democrats, New Challenge in Age-Old Rift.” The article is kind of a profile of Rep. Sander Levin, who chairs the […]

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The crumbling of so-called “free trade” has got to be near when you read The Wall Street Journal and learn that “Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain will use his campaign’s first big economic speech today to talk about downsides of free trade.” Apparently, McCain will “acknowledge that open markets have resulted in pain for […]

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You have to maintain a sense of humor when you read the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal. Though I tip my hat to the quality of the writing, the writers come up just short of self-parody. Today, the wing-nuts have two hand-wringing editorials about trade. The first deals with the tariffs slapped down […]

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Oh, you know, I thought I’d have a nice quiet morning, work out at the gym, read a bit…and, then, I had to look at The New York Times’ editorial page, and it was all downhill from there, forcing me to fire up the computer to post this… The Times continues its rant in support […]

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Part of the reason the president is off to South America (maybe it’s to see if he can find a country where support among the people is stronger for him than in the U.S.) is to bolster support for so-called “free trade” agreements pending with Colombia and Peru, among other trade deals. He’s not going […]

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Wily and experienced negotiator that he is, I have to think that Charlie Rangel believes that sometimes no deal is better than a bad deal. I hope he keeps that mind as he plunges into talks over a compromise over so-called “free trade” agreements. Charlie, there is no deal to be made here, within the […]

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This would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. In today’s Wall Street Journal, there is a story about on-going negotiations between the Administration and Democrats to try to resolve differences on pending so-called “free trade” deals. As I wrote recently, the Columbia so-called “free trade” deal is being held up because of labor rights […]

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Pedro Arenas is not a person that most of the elites in the U.S.—in the mainstream media, inside the Beltway think-tanks, and in elected positions on Congress—would meet in order to understand the real crime of so-called “free trade.” For the elites, so-called “free trade” is an unassailable concept, something that is as natural and […]

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The government of Colombia is apparently riddled with people tied to the para-military forces and death squads. Or so it appears from the resignation of a top Colombian official: The foreign minister of Colombia resigned Monday as the government of President Álvaro Uribe, the Bush administration’s closest ally in South America, struggled with a scandal […]

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The New York Times editorial writers will never get it when it comes to trade (I’m not even going to mention how wrong Tom Friedman is on this issue…I’ve flogged his nonsense enough so I’ll pass today). Today, the Times has a lead editorial entitled “A Bipartisan Trade Policy.” Ah, yes, I knew it was […]

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