Paulson: Protectionism no answer to financial crisis

Reuters ^ | 12 Oct 2008 | Glenn Somerville

[BGHater]

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson cautioned on Sunday that countries that turn to protectionist policies to try to escape damage from the global financial crisis may make it worse.

"Isolationism and protectionism will not offer a way out," Paulson said in a statement prepared for delivery to the World Bank's development committee.

[randomhero97]

Here we go. So the conspiracy theorists aren’t crazy afterall?

[Sundog]

This is double-speak.

He means money from the US Treasury should be spent on foreign banks and businesses.

[combat_boots]

W, FIRE THIS ASS.

FIRE COX.

LET SLIP THE DOGS, W.

[mysterio]

Paulson doesn’t recognize that “free” trade rotted the economy from the bottom up. He should be ****canned.

[eyedigress]

Yup! Protectionism hasn’t been heard in some time and the Democrats are the pacifists that spouted it. Screw the world, were OK.

[1rudeboy]

There you go again. This one was from the top down . . . I’m surprised you don’t see it.

[Star Traveler]

Yeah, it’s the formative moments of the world-wide financial system that is going to be put into place. It’s happening right before our eyes...

[mysterio]

BS. If you guys hadn't shipped out all of the jobs, a lot more people could have made those mortgage payments.

All so we can save ten cents on cheap Chinese junk.

The only bright side to this whole mess is watching "free marketeers" forced to support the nationalizing of the financial sector. Priceless.

[EGPWS]

Paulson doesn’t recognize that “free” trade rotted the economy from the bottom up.

Oh, YOU again.

You're making the rounds today at FR aren't you.

[kcvl]

I think I would keep my mouth shut if I was in charge of the mess we are now in! So far, he has been wrong about everything.

[mysterio]

Yes, I’m pretty upset about this whole mess.

[arasina]

W, FIRE THIS ASS.

FIRE COX.

LET SLIP THE DOGS, W.

Ain't gonna happen. Bush and Paulson are BFF.

[M203M4]

I agree with the statement at face value...but is the unstated corollary that anything short of globalism is "isolationism"?

Interfaces (areas where one can exploit differential rates of taxation, etc) are some of the most marvelous structures in economics; they introduce strong mechanisms for expressing and relieving economic, migratory, and political selective pressures. Interfaces are what make federalism so great - via political 'natural selection' punishing bad policies and rewarding good ones. Interfaces and differentials preserve liberty in the long-term.

I am all but assured this is merely Paulson's prelude to calls for "enhancements" in the global socialist order. More Keynesian/fascist assaults on freedom, with American sovereignty abdicated to the like of the IMF, WTO, UN, etc. "And if you disagree, you are an isolationist populist know-nothing kook, probably with anti-Semetic tendencies..."

[1rudeboy]

Interesting you would say that: the only bright side for us is watching the protectionists try to pin the blame on the free-traders.

Question for the forum: let's say I got it in my head that everyone "deserves" a decent home, and decided to favor a government policy that makes it happen. Am I more likely to favor protectionism or free trade?

If you have difficulty answereing the above, substitute "decent job" for "decent home" and try again.

[mysterio]

We've been telling you for years that something like this would be the ultimate result of shipping out US jobs. Your response was charts and the "we're doomed" picture.

Funny, I haven't seen either posted very much lately.

[KriegerGeist]

"Here we go. So the conspiracy theorists aren’t crazy afterall?"

Remember "The Trilateral Commission" then the "CFR"? It used to be the 'area 51' 'tin-foil hat club' warning us about this and now it looks as though it's working as planned. George Jr. is following through on George Sr.

Check out the membership names of this outfit of "New World Order" people:

The Trilateral Commission

[arasina]

[Conservative Vermont Vet]

W, FIRE THIS ASS.
FIRE COX.
LET SLIP THE DOGS, W.

I fear that W has had a series of "Senior Moments" for some time now. And I can say that as someone who will be 65 this coming week.

If I EVER hear the words "Compassionate Conservative" again in my lifetime, I think I will take out my trusty .357 and .....

WTF is wrong with Bush anyways? Why in the world (with all of the highly qualified people) did he pick a liberal, moonbat, EnviroNut as his Sec Treas?

Didn't he learn from keeping Clark on in his cabinet?

If not, then surely Minetta should have shown him "the light?"

Oh no, much like McPain, he keeps digging his own grave deeper and deeper.

Sheesh, is it Jan 20th yet?

[Conservative Vermont Vet]

W, FIRE THIS ASS.
FIRE COX.
LET SLIP THE DOGS, W.

I fear that W has had a series of "Senior Moments" for some time now. And I can say that as someone who will be 65 this coming week.

If I EVER hear the words "Compassionate Conservative" again in my lifetime, I think I will take out my trusty .357 and .....

WTF is wrong with Bush anyways? Why in the world (with all of the highly qualified people) did he pick a liberal, moonbat, EnviroNut as his Sec Treas?

Didn't he learn from keeping Clark on in his cabinet?

If not, then surely Minetta should have shown him "the light?"

Oh no, much like McPain, he keeps digging his own grave deeper and deeper.

Sheesh, is it Jan 20th yet?

[EGPWS]

Yes, I’m pretty upset about this whole mess.

Substantiate your wanton directive toward the stifling of "free trade" if you would.

[Future Snake Eater]

It’s amazing how poorly he’s handled this ordeal. If ever there was a president who’s had “short-timer’s attitude,” it’s Pres. Bush.

[babygene]

“Question for the forum: let’s say I got it in my head that everyone “deserves” a decent home, and decided to favor a government policy that makes it happen. Am I more likely to favor protectionism or free trade?”

People don’t “DESERVE” a God damn thing unless they work for it... And the only way to make the rest of the world as prospers as us is to lower the level of our prosperity. Get it?

[Illinois Rep]

You are preaching to the choir.

[1rudeboy]

That's just braindead. The subprime crisis leading to the current credit crunch is not a result of "shipping out US jobs." I could post some facts and even some charts, but what good would it do? When things are going well, you argue the numbers are cooked. When things are going poorly, you make fun of the people that post numbers.

It's transparent, and the reason you don't see me making fun of it as often is because this is no longer a time to make fun of people so emotionally vested in their arguments (because emotions are running high).

[The_Reader_David]

So Paulson can be right about something.

For anyone wishing to dispute that he’s right about protectionism, I have two words:

Hawley-Smoot.

[combat_boots]

I hear ya, brother.

[1rudeboy]

That takes care of the zero sum argument, thanks. I’d make fun of it but I’d rather not.

[EGPWS]

We've been telling you for years that something like this would be the ultimate result of shipping out US jobs.

And you have been wrong with your reason.

Shipping jobs overseas has been a scenario created long ago to maintain freedom in a free market which has been distorted and politicized recently to promote union crones who by definition promote socialism.

If left alone, freedom will survive.

If forced to change well, it's no longer freedom is it.

[Travis McGee]

"The logic of the conspiracy theorists in this regard is, of course, impeccable: Goldman alumnus Josh Bolten runs the White House, while his former boss, Hank Paulson, runs the Treasury. They both speak regularly to former Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin, now over at Citigroup, who ran Goldman before Paulson and who keeps Paulson and Bolton dangling like puppets on a string. They all supposedly touch base with the heads of the Italian and Canadian central banks—both Goldman alumni—and with Robert Zoellick, head of the World Bank, ex Goldman. What's more Paulson is now getting his advice on how to handle the crisis from Ken Wilson, the recently retired Goldman partner and financial-institutions M&A banker, who Paulson just recruited to Washington to help him out. Already at Treasury were Goldman alumni Dan Jester, Anthony Ryan, David Nason and Bob Hoyt, the department's general counsel. And—the conspiracy crowd can't help but point out—Neel Kashkari, 35, a former vice-president at Goldman who Paulson recruited as assistant secretary of international affairs in 2006, has just been appointed—by Paulson—to run, on an interim basis, the new $700 billion bailout fund."

~~William Cohan, "Does Goldman Sachs Really Rule the World?" October 2008

“Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time, and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the eternal God, I will rout you out.”

~~President Andrew Jackson, on the 2nd National Bank

[zerosix]

That's what the "Bail out" bill is designed to do (with OUR money).

Pay off British, French, German and Chinese bankers who invested in our "sham mortgage" boondoggle.

Why should they suffer for our "bad business decisions?"

Why else do you think that the finance ministers of G7 are meeting in U.S.?

This is what has Americans on the edge of their seats, our own government plans on granting our tax dollars in the billions to "repay" foreigners for "investing" in U.S. sham companies, with our hard earned $$$ while the perpetrators who created this mess walk.

[mysterio]

1. We shift manufacturing jobs to slave labor markets that don't have OSHA or pollution controls.

2. The factory workers take multiple lower paying jobs and have less discretionary income.

3. They can't pay their mortgages and are overextended from borrowing.

4. Eventually, they default. Many of them defaulted at once, and the default was made exponentially worse by a boatload of people trying to flip houses.

5. Pretty soon the whole country experiences what I told you was going on in the town next to me four years ago. The proposed answer? Socialism.

Which would have never been necessary if we had just kept the manufacturing jobs here.

[bitterohiogunclinger]

Who exactly is “shipping” jobs again? We're losing jobs because we've allowed our government and lawyers to make us a hostile environment in which to try to do business. If I were wealthy, why should I risk my assets to open a business here?
The government never seems to be content with the amount of wealth they confiscate, the trial lawyers stand ready to sue for any excuse they can dream up, and the work force seems to think they are owed a living. I won't even go into the impact the environmental nuts have on businesses.

[gidget7]

Amen!! I am sick to death of these PC clowns. Protectionism is another in a long list of PC anti-American leftist talking points, and I don't believe in anything on the list. PC will ruin this country.

[gidget7]

I agree with the statement at face value...but is the unstated corollary that anything short of globalism is "isolationism"?

AMEN, RC gone amuck!

[american colleen]

I don’t know what industry you are working in but I have seen IT decimated within large US Corporations - thousands and thousands of white collar jobs (no union shop, never has been) shipped overseas and a lot of the jobs that stay here are taken over by H1B visa workers. This is not at all because we don’t have the US brainpower, it’s all about cheap labor and no benefits.

[mysterio]

We're losing jobs because we've allowed our government and lawyers to make us a hostile environment in which to try to do business.

That's one part of it. The other part is that businesses are almost encouraged to ship jobs to China, where many workers earn less than a dollar an hour.

I'm left wondering why these places aren't treated like the sweatshops that they are. What American factory can compete with that?

It might have resulted in cheaper products, but it is also going to buy us the biggest helping of socialism this country has seen since the new deal. And that makes those cheap products pretty expensive.

[1rudeboy]

Which would have never been necessary if we had just kept the manufacturing jobs here.

In other words, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, and a host of unscrupulous characters (Left and Right) could have engaged in their shenanigans for a longer period of time if only they had more basic* manufacturing workers to rip off.

_____
*By basic, I am merely referring to those manufacturing jobs that have been disappearing world-wide for decades.

[babygene]

“The subprime crisis leading to the current credit crunch is not a result of “shipping out US jobs.” “

Actually it is, partly... For an economy to grow, the country has to create wealth. I’ll try to explain it to you: Creating wealth means taking raw materials and making something more valuable out of them. There are only a handful of ways to do this. That would be:

Farming (including forestry)
mining (including oil and natural gas)
manufacturing (including taking pigs and chickens and making breakfast)
probably a few others (but not many)

The service economy we have today will not sustain our nation long term.

We are bankrupt, because, for the most part we are not creating wealth.

Now there are crooks that took advantage of the situation, but they didn’t cause the problem in the first place.

[gidget7]

oops PC that would be.

[gidget7]

I would add, Americas economy is in a downward spiral because we do not produce anymore. Not even oil! We got our of the depression because we produced and the economy thrived. Industry and a great deal of our tech jobs are outsourced, AND we are producing 20% of our oil needs, as apposed to the 70% we did 30 years ago. If we do not produce, exactly what are we trading? Money? That is the one thing the fed is pretty good at producing, too bad it has less and less value!

[ari-freedom]

you don’t create wealth with higher taxes or having the govt pick winners and losers

[babygene]

“you don’t create wealth with higher taxes or having the govt pick winners and losers”

Your damn right you don’t...

[1rudeboy]

So despite the fact that we are manufacturing more than we’ve ever manufactured in our history, we are creating less wealth than before?

[gidget7]

No they definitely accelerated it, caused the collapse. But it would have taken them longer to cause it. But then they had nefarious objectives all along. Another cause of the economy collapsing is the price of oil/gas, and subsequently every other commodity because of it, tripled the American budget for these things, and many budgets just didn’t have triple disposable income to compensate. A LOT of them are losing their houses, sub prime or not.

[EGPWS]

...it’s all about cheap labor and no benefits.

So what are your thought's to resolve this economic demise?

[1rudeboy]

I agree that OPEC over-played its hand (and we asked for it by not producing enough of our own oil).

[babygene]

“So despite the fact that we are manufacturing more than we’ve ever manufactured in our history”

Your full of bologna. Where do you get this crap?

[babygene]

I’ve always liked the name Colleen... Must me Irish.

[1rudeboy]

Heritage, Cato, AEI . . . where do you get yours?