The Obama Administration Confronts Millions of Angry Maple Leafs.
There is no humor in the sharp words between Canada and the United States over the "Buy American" mandate in the hog farm of a stimulus package passed 244-188 last week in the
House and now certain to grow fatter in the Senate. The mandate was clear that the construction projects funded by the $820 billion must buy steel and iron products from American producers. Canada has gone to battle stations. The facts are in Canada's favor. Not only is Canada our No. 1 trading partner across a peaceable open border, but also we export more in steel to Canada than Canada exports steel to us. And US Steel, a prime lobbyist for the stimulus package, owns mills on both sides of the border. So why is the Congress inciting Canada? Because it is solid jingoist politics for the blue industrial states to preach "Buy American" in order to get the Blue team and the independents behind the hog farm. The President has slated his first foreign trip to Canada this month, Now Canada, at war with us, has told the White House that the steel barriers must be negotiated away first, before Mr. Obama is welcome.
Trade War Goes Global.
What is now apparent to every major financial enterprise is that the US and Canada are part of the global trade war that is well-launched between former partners and allies. Gordon Brown fretted at Davos a few days back about what he called financial protectionism, that is, developed states favoring their own banks with bailouts and preferential shares and job protection. It is already in place and will grow worse until and if banks are allowed to fail and new institutions rise from the ruins. But industrial and consumer trade barriers are the major threat. Why? Because of what happened in June 1930, the infamous Smoot Hawley Act that raised tariff barriers in the United States, the richest and most commercially significant nation at the time. Smoot Hawley was a protectionist monster that destroyed the global markets of the 1930s.
How?
It was steel that started it. The steel index topped at about 135 in the summer of 1929 and plunged to 60 by November 1929 after the stock break; by the summer of 1930 it had
recovered to 95, about the levels of 1928 before the blow off of '29. Then Smoot Hawley, and it never recovered. Same thing for the 25 industrial stocks. Topping at 469 in the summer of 1929, it plunged to 240 in November 1929, then recovered to trade between 330 and 300 in 1930. Then Smoot Hawley, and it never recovered, diving to 40 by the winter of 1933. Did they know at the time that Smoot Hawley was poison? Yes, they knew the risk. Two days before the vote in the Senate, the German steel cartel in the Rhineland moved to cut prices of steel and to cut the wages of the workers to compensate. Germany was ready to use cheap steel to battle with the US tariffs and so were the other European powers. The vote in the Senate on Friday June 10 was 44-42, very close, with all the industrial states of the East and Midwest in favor, all the farm states of the South and West against. It wasn't until Herbert Hoover was certain to sign the bill into law, on June 16-17 (below), that the stock market broke down and confirmed the worldwide beggar-thy-neighbor trade war had started. Within four years, Germany need all of the Rhineland for steel for itself and needed Lebensraum to offset the fall in trade.
O Canada.
Canada can retaliate immediately by filing a complaint at the WTO and then looking for excuses to buy elsewhere or to preaching "Buy Canada" in its own legislation. Right now, the Canadians are stunned. We are at war, and they are not ready to fight. Can the Obama administration call off the contest? No. But it can delay it.
What's the psychological impact on the American of constantly seeing "Made in China", "Assembled in Mexico", "Imported from Malaysia"????
What goods bought with American Dollars, in America, are actually "Made in America"???
American Steel? What Compares?
Every day brings us new examples of "change we can believe in". As far as one's enemies are concerned, one can fight them - been there, done that; or, one can ignore them - been there, done that. Or one can embrace one's enemies and make war on one's friends instead. What a novel idea! "Yes, we can!"
I love all you business guys getting all in a lather! Remember Mr. Harper trying to scuttle President Obama's campaign? Well it's payback time. Canadians seem to be dumb s.o.b.s sometimes.
Good luck
Peter Nagle
Quebec, Canada
When you go to Walmart everything almost everything is "made in china." It should be time to make things locally again; however the international bankers have gutted out most of the US and some of Canada in their ideal goal of "outsourcing everything." Walmart helped in getting most of its products made in China.
Corporations dont want to pay good wages to their fellow Americans because it costs to much. Congress has failed to enforce ethical company standards instead they are using 'cheap and illegal immigrants' to fill in the gap. Corporations and government should be held accountable for taking part of America. However, I dont see it happening except a continuing rise in Corporatism even more so as the year(s) develops.
It's Guessing Game Time!! Here are your clues:
"the international bankers have gutted out most of the US and some of Canada in their ideal goal of outsourcing everything." And WalMart/ BnL helped, too!!
Who believes Corporations are really "Fellow Americans?" Come on now, tell the truth... Chin aben aduin' orit $$$ rit
The GAP needs filled in by cheap, illegal immigrants. For taking a part of America's ethical standards someone (Congress) should be held accountable and even more so for continuing with rising Corporatism as the year(s) delevops.
Now, for a prize of one (1) Zimbabwean 100Tril Note (worth 30 USD) and a place at Mugabe's dinner table (date undetermined as of game time)!!!--->>> And the Question is: Where is Sam from???
Canada is the Democratic party's natural ally: Heavily unionized, Government Health Care, tree-huggers, Anti-war, and our best partner in Afghanistan.
Canada also has a lot of oil and Natural Gas. And AK Gov. Palin just signed a deal to bring Alaska's abundant Natural Gas supplies through Canada to the States. Canada can retaliate immediately and cut our Natural Gas supplies off, (see V. Putin) but they won't, Canadie/ans are far too nice to resort to that level. We need to be reminded alas.
Many Northeastern (AKA Blue) States buy cheap clean Hydro from Ontario and Quebec. NYC's power provider of choice is Hydro Quebec.
Do we really want to tick off our most loyal ally and trading partner for a few hundred jobs in Michigan and Pennsylvania?
Obama's previous statements about shutting NAFTA down must be taken more seriously on Parliament Hill.
I doubt Hillary or McCain would ever have made such a diplomatic blunder, IMHO.
-Wisdom
Good points Sapientia
Moreover, Alberta supplies all the US oil and gas or practically all of it.
Iraq and Afghanistan were wars of connqest for more oil reserves. Even though there are large deposits in Alaska and off the Gulf Coast, but Big Oil only wants to expand their 'tyranny of oil.'
There will be another "war of convience" to get the public off the current economic woes set by the International Bankers. It worked for WWI and WWII so let's go for a trilogy. However, if the US has a war will anyone show up, sign up or answer their patriotic duty to get more resources for the elite class.
HoHumm- Sam in Ant arctik stan
If I said Canada supplies 30 - 40% of overall US oil imports of 60%... how many barrels per day does that come to? Remember Mexico loves us and we love them back, but, everyone knows the time is gonna come when we have to make them sell their oil to US, too.
Mobilizations into Iraq and Afgha were to smite the enemy who had been carrying out deadly attacks on US citizens, military personnel, on our emissaries, and our friends and allies.
We sure have made beaucoup bucks from our conquest to claim the oil reserves in Iraq. It is amazing how BIG OIL has used a coalition of forces from around the world to dictate their wishes to sovereign national oil companies.
I know we are still waiting for Afgha to come through for us and let us drill, drill, drill all their reserves and if they don't hurry and cooperate and get with the program... well, we don't want to even think what might happen. I'm no petro engineer or chemist, but, I would think that it's kind of difficult for BIG OIL to process opium poppies into fuels. But, obviously, anything is possible.
If the US has a world war of convenience, the cousins of a Fat Man and a Little Boy will show up and answer the call of their duty. The elites will love it, too!!!
But, don't fret down there where you are 'cause a nuclear winter is not nearly as cold as it is there and BIG OIL is coming that way for sure to warm things up a bit.
It may not be wise to dismiss Sam so cavalierly.
His point about illegal immigrants I agree with, needless to say. (Feel free to breathe a sigh of relief that I won't rehash my thoughts on the matter.)
I do not advocate trade wars, especially not with those places that have legal and regulatory schemes reasonably similar to our own, such as Japan, the European countries, and especially Canada. Yet I have long been puzzled as to how our country, with not only an inconceivably expensive military apparatus but also an elaborate maze of laws, rules, and regulations in regard to unemployment insurance, workplace safety, pollution control, social security, affirmative action, and so on, can be said to engage in "free" trade with a country such as China, which is largely unencumbered by such things--it's rather like wearing a ball and chain during a footrace with Usain Bolt. The phrase "absolute advantage" would seem more appropriate than "comparative advantage."
Inevitably, certain awkward questions will be raised during this depression, once the realization spreads that we have no obvious economic engine to pull us out of this mess. Even if we somehow manage to invent new generations of clever gadgets that the rest of the world will then want, the dispiriting truth remains that anything physical that we can make can be produced more cheaply by nimble Chinese hands. And thanks to all that fiber optic cable that got overbuilt during the tech boom, even the production of less tangible products can be outsourced, up to and including routine legal work and much of what passes for journalism these days.
Yes, questions will raised. And voices, too. Myself, I would really hate to have the job of trying to explain the thought of David Ricard to mobs of newly impoverished Americans.
I keep thinking of the polymathic Thomas Fleming's observation that that we have no science of economics, only a history of economics. Perhaps we should keep that humbling thought uppermost in our minds during the difficult years ahead. Hubris has destroyed greater societies than this one.
I know, that should be "David Ricardo," not "David Ricard."
Uhhh... you said it, I didn't.
I not dismissing Sam. He just hasn't posted anything that has a point based in fact that I've seen.
I'm razzing him for being so... well, like BIL. I'm sure he believes everything he writes or pasteees.
I'm really trying to help him, wherever he is. What's your guess? You could be a trillionare (sorta)... if you are right.
As far as trade goes, it goes on...
For years we have had immense trade deficits with our wonderful partners. When we stop buying their stuff in order to save or pay off some debt we serve as their whipping boy. Too many lashes and it becomes painless.
Just a question---> What society has existed in history that was greater than the USA and destroyed itself with pride?
Trafalmadorestan is not a country!!! Get Real People!!
No Planets are allowed because the Pilgrim said so!!!
What's it going to be then, eh?
Ask me a hard one. Ancient Athens was a society far greater than ours in virtually ever respect, especially when one takes into account how many brilliant thinkers and artists emerged from such a small population. After the Athenian-led Delian League defeated Persia--that era's version of the Evil Empire, you might say--pride and overweening arrogance led Athens into the Peloponnesian Wars that were her eventual ruin. (Some contend that the United States seems bent on following that path, and I wouldn't argue with them.)
I commend HDF Kitto's "The Greeks" to you. If you have not read that wonderful book it will change your view of the world.
Lovvely... and so well preserved at the foot of Vesuvius. Out of Africa emerged the human race, too.
No comparison to the challenges, fortitude, genius, prosperity, charity, heartache, sacrifice, selflessness,... please contribute to the eventual etceteras, if you can.
Then reach deep in the pan and come up with a society that has impacted the whole of mankind more than America.
Re "Come up with a society that has impacted the whole of mankind more than America":
Again, Athens in particular and Greece in general, because they lit the torch. At best we have carried the flame for a time, and must eventually pass it on.
Gentlemen, you are getting a tad childish.
If the US Government got out of the energy business, we would be a lot better off. Alas, Environmentalists are willing to freeze Northeastern (Very Blue) states, because they *hope* caribou are threatened by Alaska drilling, and a few beachfront Real Estate interests will not be able to sell beach houses if the customer sees two or three lights twenty miles out to sea.
A few 1970s Luddites are adamantly against Nuclear power, and Obama and Boxer are putting nails into the coal (Pennsylvania, W Va, Illinois, Montana, and Ohio) industry's coffin.
Why is Obama willing to save a steel plant, but wants to kill Coal mines?
Our Vanities are destroying us!
Re "Come up with a society that has impacted the whole of mankind more than America":
Let's see:
Austria: Great composers: Mozart, Betoven, Strauss
Greece: Democracy, philsophy, trade, commerce
Italy: Warfare tactics, indoor plumbing
Astronomy, Art, Literature,
China: Steel production, gun powder, fireworks - 15th
Century China
Germany: Modern warfare, advanced technology,
literature, philsophy,
England: Magna Carta, Parliament, functional justice
system
Canada: UN Peacekeepers, musicians, still very young
country. Bill of Rights, no civil war,
telephone, radio, brain surgery
US: Declaration of Independence, Constitution (what
is left of it), Space Program, modern literature,
first battleship, photography, airplane,atomic
bomb, the assembly-line, car
India: Philsophy, Kama Sutra, Yoga, A Functioning
Democracy, art, music
Russia: Art, Music, Literature (War & Peace), Space
Program,
Japan: Steel production, Group participation in
production.
Egypt: Construction, Astronomy, chariot, make-up,
writing, navigation, a library, granary.
Persia/Sumeria: Laws, Writing, Religion, Accounting,
Astronomy
Darn... and here I've been thinking that America was the bestest ever!!!
Hell, we may not even be Top Ten material.
I don't know why everyone looks to US for the answers to their problems then if we are just the runt fighting for a hind tit.
Aaarrrggghhh- Trafaldamore! Billy!! Mon tete exploser!!!
"So it goes"
Sam’s question about who will fight for America is a good one. It won’t be the coaches who get penalized for winning; it won’t be the scribes who blunt their pencils with excuses; it won’t be the apologists for evil; it won’t be the talking head’s permanently contorted tongues; it won’t be the “blame America first” crowd; it won’t be the lawyers, the doctors; the elite academics; it won’t be the children who are forced to watch Michael Moore and Al Gore movies; it won’t be Hollywood that only deals in fake thrills and fake blood; it won’t be the appeasers; it won’t be our legislators who refuse to pay their taxes; ditto those (legislators) who threaten and cajole, hysterically predicting 500,000,000 American job losses per month (if we don’t do as they say); ditto those (legislators) who ask to see the American flag planted (years ago on the moon) in images sent back by Mars Rover - and it might not even be our president who consistently draws lines in the sand and then proceeds to step on them.
You have war on terror -- a Huge lie.
You have war on drugs -- a big mistake and doing more harm than good. The US has the largest prison population in the world with 2.3 million behind bars and counting. The CIA is in cohoots with the Columbian drug cartels for years now. Their own planes carry drugs from Columbia to the States. It is Documented. Besides the US government has to fund it's black ops programs somehow.
I swear the Pentagon should be made into condos or something. It is the military industrial media complex HQ. They want war, war, war and how is the American population going to pay for it when they are 1 trillion dollars in debt. The Pentagon is still living in a Cold War mindset.
The final battlefield most likely be the American populace, Civil War redux. However, it is only a theory.
Re "I don't know why everyone looks to US for the answers to their problems then if we are just the runt fighting for a hind tit":
Uh, I hate to break it to you, but I don't think the rest of the world is exactly craning their necks these days to copy the test answers off of our exam booklet.
I didn't say that... are you denying that we are the leader of the free world and others incessantly ask for our help, approval, and advice?
You are just way too smart for all US Americans.
Greece is hoping for a rennaisance and return to their greatness. Maybe they can get that torch back that we stole from them and have kept safe. You said we eventually have to pass it on. Can you help them out a little?
Damn the revisionists who act intelligent to impress themselves.
Re "I didn't say that...":
Then whose words did I cut-and-paste just now? Kilgore Trout's?
Perhaps next you'll deny saying "I didn't say that..."
Help me! I'm trapped in a chronosynclastic infundibulum!
I didn't say anything about test scores and exam booklets, you know that... and you are right you are trapped
Jack Crabb: General, you go down there.
General Custer: You're advising me to go into the Coulee?
Jack Crabb: Yes sir.
General Custer: There are no Indians there, I suppose.
Jack Crabb: I didn't say that. There are thousands of Indians down there. And when they get done with you, there won't be nothing left but a greasy stain. This ain't the Washite River, General, and them ain't helpless women and children waiting for you. They're Cheyenne brave, and Sioux. You go down there, General, if you've got the nerve.
General Custer: Still trying to outsmart me, aren't you, mule-skinner. You want me to think that you don't want me to go down there, but the subtle truth is you really *don't* want me to go down there!
I'll try again to get a straight answer... Kenneth, do you deny that Amerca is the beacon to the free world and the free world looks to US for leadership?
*Wow, this one got by me*
From Sam in Neverlandistan:
"You have war on terror -- a Huge lie.
You have war on drugs -- a big mistake and doing more harm than good. The US has the largest prison population in the world with 2.3 million behind bars and counting. The CIA is in cohoots with the Columbian drug cartels for years now. Their own planes carry drugs from Columbia to the States. It is Documented. Besides the US government has to fund it's black ops programs somehow.
I swear the Pentagon should be made into condos or something. It is the military industrial media complex HQ. They want war, war, war and how is the American population going to pay for it when they are 1 trillion dollars in debt. The Pentagon is still living in a Cold War mindset.
The final battlefield most likely be the American populace, Civil War redux. However, it is only a theory."
*Maybe you should mind your own business*
Mr. Batchelor, does the sheer futility of life sometimes overwhelm you the way it does me?
*Sam in Whereverstan-*
Tell US where you are so we can do some research and nitpick on your wonderful country.
Then again, if you did tell US it probably wouldn't be actually factual and conclusively a conclusion.
But, I am in America and I say this is true
Oh, Sammy Boy, Sammy Boy, exactly where are you???
I got it! I GOT IT!!! I guess-- *Venezuelastan*
What's up with this never-ending food fight? It's becoming tedious. Manners, manners. This site is beginning to resemble all the other blog fests: a ping-pong game nobody cares to score anymore.
It's okay to respond to posts, but please be intelligent about it. Stop whipping the horse once it's already dead. I note that some of the regulars have already bailed. I'm not surprised.
Well said, Peter. I have been too much elsewhere and not reading close enough. No more of the obvious character. Gentlemen, this is not a warning. The game must move on. When you post and do not see your posts, consider that the need is for discourse and civility. Ad hominem and agitprop unwelcome. We are watching a hundred year event. The challenge is out there, not in a food fight. While we have food.
Fantastic read, You make impressive points in a concise and pertinent fashion, I will read more of your stuff, thank you for your time.