Free Republic

**********************************************************US President Barack Obama on Sunday defended free trade as fellow Asia-Pacific leaders vowed to fight protectionism after Donald Trump's shock election victory sparked fears for the future of global commerce.Trump's triumph in this month's US presidential poll has raised concerns that years of rolling back trade barriers could be reversed after the populist billionaire vowed to tear up a series of key deals.His victory overshadowed a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group held in Peru this week where leaders, including Obama, China's Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin, found themselves under fierce pressure to defend free trade.Globalization...

Rebellious Democrats shut down the House’s legislative work on Wednesday, staging a sit-in on the House floor and refusing to leave until they secured a vote on gun control measures before lawmakers’ weeklong break. Exasperated Republicans were forced to recess while cutting off cameras that showed the protest. But in an unprecedented step, C-SPAN used live video feeds from one lawmaker’s Periscope account and another’s Facebook page to transmit words and images from the House. Nearly 100 Democrats led by Georgia Rep. John Lewis demanded a vote on measures to expand background checks and block gun purchases by some suspected...

On June 11th at 4 AM five assailants were captured on security camera assaulting restaurant patrons outside Geno’s Steaks. The jihadis beat the restaurant patrons screaming, “Don’t mess with us, we belong to ISIS!” The Philadelphia police released this report: "On June 11, 2016 at approximately 4:15 am, five (05) unknown males were captured on surveillance video outside 1219 South 9th Street assaulting the victims. After the assault the suspects fled in two (02) vehicles, a dark colored pickup truck and a SUV and fled in an unknown direction. Both vehicles had New Jersey license plates. Victim #1 was struck...

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit today unanimously reversed a trial court’s ruling dismissing a fraud case brought against the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The result of the appellate court’s ruling is that CAIR National, operating out of the District of Columbia, must stand trial and allow a jury to hear all of the evidence of the massive fraud and attempted cover up carried out by CAIR and perpetrated against hundreds of CAIR fraud victims. In January of last year, Judge Paul Friedman, the federal judge presiding over a five-year old lawsuit alleging...

What was impressive about this sentiment is that it doesn’t even focus on a trade deficit. No, just the brute fact of buying imports per se is (apparently) enough to doom our children. Before unpacking the specific problems with it, let’s warm up by listing some equally plausible questions: ==> If we continue to buy groceries, where will our children garden? ==> If we continue to buy oranges from Florida, where will New Yorkers work? ==> If we continue to buy from people outside the family, where will our cousins work? ==> If we continue to buy from stores where...

URL: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-05/u-dot-s-dot-increases-trade-with-iran-europe-is-not-happy

Confirming years of warnings from government and private security experts, a top Homeland Security official has acknowledged that computer hardware and software is already being imported to the United States preloaded with spyware and security-sabotaging components.

HONG KONG — Tensions between China and Japan over the arrest of a Chinese trawler captain took another turn for the worse Sunday as Prime Minister Naoto Kan of Japan rejected China’s repeated demand that Tokyo apologize and offer compensation for the incident. The Chinese authorities also flexed their muscles on a wider front, becoming more assertive on trade policy, even as they continued to hold four Japanese nationals whose detention two days ago was widely seen as a move by China to put pressure on Tokyo to release the captain, who was welcomed home to China early Saturday. The...

WASHINGTON, July 9 - The largest U.S. labor group urged Congress on Friday to pass legislation to fight China's currency practices, a day after the Obama administration again declined to label Beijing a currency manipulator. The United States should also keep other options on the table, including a possible challenge of China's currency practices at the World Trade Organization, Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO labor federation, said in a statement. Trumka said the Treasury Department's decision ignored "the overwhelming evidence, including that in Treasury's own report, that the Chinese government has systematically intervened in currency markets over many years...

It is sad what has happened to the United States. For years, as editor of Manufacturing & Technology News, I have heard dozens of domestic manufacturing company CEOs talk about an impending "collapse" of the U.S. economy. These were the men who were in the unenviable position of having to close their companies or shut down factories and watch as most all of their competitors did the same thing. These were the men who implemented Six Sigma, lean, ISO 9000, and the Baldrige National Quality and Shingo Prize criteria. They were leaders who agonized over having to move the world's...

HOUSTON -- It did not take long Tuesday for the Texas Department of Transportation to find out what the Houstonians at a public hearing thought about the proposed 600-mile Trans-Texas Corridor, KPRC Local 2 reported. "George Washington, Sam Houston would vomit on you people," one attendee said. Chris Zora, who opposes the plan, attended the hearing at the Arabia Shrine Center in Southwest Houston. "I'd like to see a show of hands here of anybody that approves of this corridor," Zora said. "Is there anyone in this room who approves of this corridor? Raise your hands if you approve of...

The Wall Street Journal reported that the CPI in China jumped 5.6% for the month of July. Food prices are mostly to blame with meat products rising 45%. China’s Central Bank has been attempting to head-off inflationary pressures by raising short-term rates for the forth time this year. On August 22nd, the one-year rate banks pay on deposits increased 27bps to 3.60%. The one-year benchmark lending rate was lifted 18bps to 7.02%. The People’s Bank of China wants to encourage its citizens to park more of their money in deposit savings accounts which has been a tough sell due to...

The United States could reduce illegal immigration from Mexico by helping its neighbor develop its vast oil resources, the former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton told an industry conference on Wednesday. Thomas McLarty said the United States should partner with Mexico, and to a lesser degree with Canada, in a "Marshall Plan" effort -- named for the U.S. aid offensive for a ravaged Europe after World War Two -- that could inspire Mexico's work force to remain at home. "In Mexico, we need to consider some type of Marshall Plan," McLarty told a Latin American energy conference in...

Testimony of Dr. Robert A. Pastor, vice president of international affairs, professor, and director of the Center for North American Studies, American University before a hearing of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Chairmen Lugar and Coleman, Members of the Committee. I appreciate the invitation to testify before your Committee. You asked me to place the issue of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative within the context of North American cooperation and border control and to relate it to the recent report by an Independent Task Force on the Future of North America sponsored by the...

Using the Clinton playbook for enacting NAFTA in '93, the White House is twisting arms and buying votes to win passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement. And the seductive song the White House is singing sounds familiar. It is the NAFTA theme song. CAFTA will ease the social pressures that have produced waves of illegal aliens. CAFTA will increase U.S. exports. CAFTA will not cost U.S. jobs. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

A WORLD UNRAVELS Two Sock Capitals Rely on Strategies Poles Apart High-tech gear in Fort Payne, Ala., battles low wages and a cluster of suppliers in Datang, China Fort Payne, Ala. This Appalachian town declared itself the Sock Capital of the World for good reason. It began making stockings in 1907 and once boasted of producing 1 of every 8 pairs worn on the planet. The cushion-sole sock was invented here. Local sock makers are models of U.S. manufacturing, working hard, sharing resources, shaving expenses, investing in technology. The Robin-Lynn Mills Inc. factory, for instance, owns some of the finest...

The dollar may get another short-lived respite but it is heading inexorably down. The question is how much it takes with it ALL you need to get into Harvard Law School these days, it seems, is a pair of fuchsia-pink high-heeled shoes. Or so say Buttonwood’s daughters, reliably informed by an early-teen cult film, “Legally Blonde”. What gives with the greenback? In two of the past three weeks, the dollar took a pasting on reports that various Asian central banks, whose purchases of America’s debt help it to go on borrowing and consuming, were planning to diversify their foreign-exchange reserves...

Along the West Coast, expansion programs are in the pipeline to win shipping business from Southern California. A building boom is underway along the Western seaboard of North America as ports strive to handle the growing flood of trade from China — and possibly lure away some of the shipping that clogged the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach last year.Billions of dollars have been committed for dredging and construction projects in Alaska, Canada and up and down the West Coast. Expansion programs are on the drawing boards on the Baja peninsula and at the Panama Canal. Backwater ports...

The White House Conference on the Economy was held December 15-16 to highlight domestic priorities for the second term of President George W. Bush. Areas of concern were clearly marked out: tax reform, lower health care costs, tort relief, job creation, and privatization of Social Security. Unfortunately, little of substance was discussed. Instead, the closed, invitation-only event was a celebration of the Bush administration’s first term accomplishments (and the president’s re-election) and a listing of principles that it wants to govern the wide range of changes that the White House hopes to push through the 109th Congress. Vice President Dick...

The jobs crisis and the GOP Posted: March 10, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc. President Bush and his advisers are puzzled and worried. Economic liftoff took place right on schedule in July when the tax cuts took effect. In the last six months of 2003, the economy blazed along on a growth path of 6 percent. But where are the jobs? Last week's jobs report, with hundreds of thousands giving up the search for work, and manufacturing jobs disappearing for the 43rd straight month, jolted the White House. What is going on? They're calling it a...