Free Republic

U.S.-China S&ED by: Anthony Kang, July 27, 2009 Fresh off the heels of President Obama’s first visit to and summit in Russia, the new White House administration will kick off its initial high-level dialogue with China on July 27th and 28th. The U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) was initiated by President George W. Bush in 2006 as a means to discuss economic relations between the two international powers with a very complex and multi-faceted relationship. Though the U.S. and China are not enemies, they are not allies and there has been a history of tension and grievances from both sides...

The ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) today called for all its union members to oppose the coup in Honduras by focusing protests on the Honduran merchant fleet. The global union organisation, which represents 656 unions worldwide with four and a half million members, has made the call as its latest move to defend democracy in the coup-stricken Central American nation, and in support of the Organization of American States’ (OAS) condemnation of the military takeover. The action call is likely to affect the loading and unloading of the 650 ships flying the Honduran flag, which the ITF considers a flag...

It’s bad enough that the Obama administration wants to penalize all Americans for their energy use through the cap-and-tax scheme that will hobble our economy and hike electricity and gas costs, but until now they only proposed to penalize us for our own energy use. With China refusing to join the West in economic suicide, who will pay for their emissions ? Commerce Secretary says that the American consumer is to blame for China’s energy-production emissions — and we’ll pay for that instead of the Chinese :

THERE is a serious danger the international adoption of cap-and-trade legislation to limit carbon-dioxide emissions will trigger a new round of protectionism. While aimed at reducing long-term environmental damage, cap-and-trade policies could produce significant harmful economic effects in the near term that would continue into the future. Scientific evidence appears to indicate that the accumulation of in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels – mainly in electricity production, transportation, and various industrial processes – contributes to gradual global warming, with long-term adverse effects on living conditions around the world. It is with this in mind that representatives of...

Doing business with China has never been easy or without risks. It’s a littlie dicier these days because what’s regarded elsewhere as commercial information instead is seen by Beijing as a state secret. And that’s especially true when trade negotiations aren’t going China’s way. Case in point: The recent “detention” of four Rio Tinto Group employees in Shanghai on charges they had steel and iron ore market information. Australian iron ore mining giant Rio Tinto and the Chinese steel industry, the largest in the world, have been haggling for months over a fiscal 2009-2010 master supply contracts. China wants a...

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - The U.S. government will get tough with governments that don't live up to trade deals, including those with substandard labor practices, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk was set to announce on Thursday. The USTR and U.S. Labor and State departments will identify and investigate labor violations in countries with which it has free trade agreements and insist problems are fixed, instead of waiting for complaints to initiate enforcement, according to prepared remarks. "If they won't fix their labor problems, we will exercise our legal options," Kirk was set to say in a speech at a U.S. Steel...

Al Gore and Wall Street traders will rake in millions of OUR MONEY while the cap and trade plan won't do a thing to help the environment!Obama's cap and tax scam isn't just a payoff to the environmental lobby, or the big government liberals salivating over the gold mine of new tax revenue they can use to buy more votes. Nope! The cap and trade scam will be a huge financial payoff to the rich Wall Street traders who overwhelmingly backed Obama in the presidential election. It's no secret that the security and investment community gave the majority of their...

An executive from a member of the American Coalition for Free Trade in Tires says the duties that the United States International Trade Commission (U.S.) wants to apply to certain consumer tire imports from China would make the tires "non-competitive." Last week, the ITC proposed that a 55% duty be placed on Chinese tire imports during the first year of sanctions, with a 45% duty the following year and a 35% duty applied the third year. Those duties would be in addition to current duties. The United Steelworkers originally petitioned the federal government to impose a quota of 21 million...

Cap & Trade Bill: Follow the MoneyJuly 1, 2009 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, we have talked extensively here about the cap-and-trade bill and the fact that nobody read it, particularly the 300-page amendment that was dumped on the floor of the House at 3:09 a.m. Friday. Well, a member of the press has read it. His name is Edward Felker. Edward Felker has read the 300-page amendment. Let me give you this excerpt: "When House Democratic leaders were rounding up votes Friday for the massive climate-change bill, they paid special attention to their colleagues from Ohio who remained...

To The Office Of The President Of The United States, Dear Mr. Obama We are the heads of a few of your largest constituents, including Dow, GE and DuPont. This letter represents our sentiments in wishing to express our gratitude for your and Ms. Pelosi’s efforts on our behalf. We thank you, our shareholders thank you, and certainly all of us look forward to contributing to your Presidential Library, once you leave office, if we did not sufficiently contribute already prior to the election. We can appreciate that neither yourself nor your dear friends in Congress have had time to...

A U.S. federal probe has found that about a third of American Apparel's factory workers in the Los Angeles area had supplied suspect or invalid records and were not authorized to work in the United States. The findings, from a January 2008 federal investigation, may deal a blow to the corporation's image as a proponent of immigration reform. But the company said on Tuesday the potential loss of those 1,800 workers would have no significant impact on its results. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency found that some 1,600 current employees at American Apparel's Los Angeles factories appeared to...

111TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2454 AN ACT To create clean energy jobs, achieve energy independence, reduce global warming pollution and transition to a clean energy economy.

Don't we want to prevent global warming? First of all, this is not about pollution – unless you believe you are creating air pollution when you boil a kettle of tea or brew a pot of coffee. The overwhelming amount of so-called "greenhouse gas," as defined by this legislation, is water vapor – about 75 percent, in fact. The other major gas reined in by cap and trade is carbon dioxide – also not a pollutant but a naturally occurring gas vital to life on the planet. Every time you exhale, you release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than...

(2009-06-27) — Senate Republicans today introduced an “innovative alternative” to the 1,300-page cap-and-trade climate change bill which passed the House 219-212 virtually-unread Friday night as the nation sat transfixed by wall-to-wall coverage of the death of an iconic pop singer. Supporters said the GOP-sponsored ‘Michael Jackson Energy Act’ will clear away a raft of environmental regulations that currently discourage construction of nuclear power plants, and will spark energy independence while reducing emissions of so-called greenhouse gases. The 1,897-page Michael Jackson Energy bill includes more than a thousand pages of uninformed speculation about the cause of the performer’s death, gossip about...

Regardless of the scientific merit behind doomsday predictions of global warming, President Obama and Congress seem intent on instituting a U.S. policy regime to address the specter of climate change.The debate on the most effective way to "green" America--cap-and-trade, carbon taxes, tough energy standards and regulations, some hybrid approach, or sticking to open markets--will be a heated one. With affordable green technologies still in development, policymakers need to recognize that the economic cost of limiting U.S. production of greenhouse gases on U.S. consumers and companies will be high--high enough to question whether the costs are worth the equally uncertain...

The House Democratic leadership succeeded in passing the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill by a 219-212 margin. In all, 44 Democrats voted against the bill, and 8 Republicans voted for it. It’s always interesting to examine the roll call on a close vote on an important issue—when members are voting for keeps and when some significant number of members cross party lines. And House roll call votes provide useful clues in gauging the legislation’s possible fate in the Senate. This bill was passed by the votes of one-third of the nation—the Northeast (New England, NY, NJ, DE, MD) and the...

A day after strongly praising energy legislation passed by the House, President Obama on Sunday spoke out against a provision in the bill that would impose trade penalties on countries that do not accept global-warming pollution limits. At a time when much of the world is mired in recession, Mr. Obama said, “We have to be careful about sending any protectionist signals.” He said that certain energy-intensive American industries — like steel, aluminum, paper and glass — had legitimate concerns about competition from developing nations and that he would seek to level the playing field in international negotiations. But he...

House Democratic leaders Thursday weighed tough trade penalties on countries that don't cap so-called greenhouse-gas emissions, while President Barack Obama sought support from wavering lawmakers ahead of a vote on a climate bill. The trade proposal is designed to protect a half dozen trade-sensitive U.S. industries, including steel, cement and chemical manufacturers, from competitors in countries that don't cap their output of greenhouse gases. [Climate Cost] Top House Democrats and many members of the Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over trade policy, led the negotiations and effectively signed off on details of the plan late Thursday. The measure...

Betrayed by Congress with the Cap-and-Trade Bill South Orange, NJ Saturday, June 27, 2009 By Alan Caruba Mark it on your calendar, June 26, 2009 was the date that the House of Representatives betrayed every American in the name of saving the nation and the Earth from global warming. It was the day that 219 Representative voted for the obscenely misnamed "American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009" Only eight Republican members of the House voted for it and 44 Democrats voted against it. The bill, some 1,200 pages, was not read by those men and women voting on...

"CO2 is not a pollutant. In simple terms, CO2 is plant food. The green world we see around us would disappear if not for atmospheric CO2. These plants largely evolved at a time when the atmospheric CO2 concentration was many times what it is today. Indeed, numerous studies indicate the present biosphere is being invigorated by the human-induced rise of CO2. In and of itself, therefore, the increasing concentration of CO2 does not pose a toxic risk to the planet." - John R. Christy, Ph.D. Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alabama "Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant but a...

Despite indications that much of President Obama’s agenda is meeting intra-party skepticism all over Capitol Hill, there is one policy nexus where congressional leaders are still doggedly determined to move the country left: energy and the environment. Speaker Pelosi will reportedly allow a vote on the controversial Waxman-Markey “cap-and-trade” legislation at the end of this week. And it gets even better. Not content to tempt political fate by imposing huge carbon taxes on the American middle class, Democrats have added a provision which imposes stiff tariffs on our trading partners if they don’t adopt aggressive carbon restrictions of their own....

...The 8 Republicans who voted FOR HR 2454 have 5 days to change their votes. ...

Had enough? You and I, and all informed and concerned Patriots have spent countless hours on the phones and sending e-mails to our representatives, only for them to ignore us once again. Now what are you going to do? Have more TEA PARTIES? That worked out great, didn't it? I appreciate your efforts; been there and done that when our Fedgov would still listen. However, you are butting your heads up against the newly formed marxist Fedgov leviathan with signs and slogans, with nothing to back it up. Once again, I say it is time for civil disobedience. THE only...

The German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück has told the BBC that Germany must begin to reduce its dependence on foreign trade. Germany was ranked by the World Factbook as the biggest exporter in the world last year. But the downturn in global trade caused by the credit crisis has hit it hard. The German government expects the country's economy to contract by 6% this year, largely because of very steep falls in exports. Some economists have argued that Germany had relied far too heavily on foreign trade, which made it rich in the boom times but left it vulnerable to...

Win or lose in today's cliffhanger vote on climate change legislation, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) can be forgiven if he's already looking ahead to next week. An avid golfer with a seven handicap, Boehner is playing golf with Tiger Woods on Wednesday in the pro-am portion of the AT&T National at Congressional Country Club, hosted by the world's No. 1 ranked golfer. Named after Tiger's late father, Earl Woods, the pro-am matches up top PGA Tour pros with local celebrities and corporate executives. Leaving the House floor today lobbyists rushed to Boehner's side not to ask about the...

We need your help to stop the cap-and-trade energy tax! The time has finally come for a vote on cap-and-trade, H.R. 2454. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called a vote just before the 4th of July recess, hoping to use the specter of keeping everyone in DC and ruining their holiday, to force cap-and-trade legislation through.This is the key target list based on our most recent information. If your Congressman is on an undecided or leaning list below PLEASE click here and enter your zip code to get your representative's number and talking points on this issue.If you have new...

U.S. House Democratic leaders are scrambling to secure the votes for quick passage of a carbon cap-and-trade law, arguing that aggressively attacking greenhouses gases will save the planet and restore America's standing in the international community. But some of their more moderate colleagues are balking and for good cause. This bill will break the budget of U.S. households. Cap-and-trade will set a limit on the amount of carbon manufacturers and energy producers can emit. Those that exceed the limit would have to buy credits from those who are under their cap. The Obama administration contends this will create free-market trading...

House to continue Energy Bill Debate with Possible Vote Today Later today, the House will continue general debate on the American Clean Energy & Security Act, Pres. Obama's climate change legislation. The bill centers on a renewable electicity standard, encouraging the use of renewable energy and a cap-and-trade policy.

Cap and trade will likely cost $700 to $1,400 dollars per family per year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xOxwW4Toio

Cap and Trade Flashback Obama: Cap and Trade Plan Will Bankrupt Coal Industry  Video: Plan Will Bankrupt Coal I... In a candid interview in San Francisco Barack Obama states that his plan will bankrupt the coal industry if they decide to build more coal fired plants. Biden: No more Coal Plants here in American Build them Over there (China) Obama/Joe Biden "No Coal Plants Here in America" Obama VP Joe Biden speaking with an activist in Ohio. Tells  her he doesn't support clean coal here in the US and that he only wants coal plants built in China.  

‘Waxman-Markey Just Plain Sucks’ [Steve Hayward] The environmentalist case against Waxman-Markey. Some of the arguments are bad, but it's nice to watch the greens cut each other up. Indeed, if Bush and the GOP Congress had proposed this bill back around 2005, the greens would have lined up unanimously in opposition (with the possible exception of Environmental Defense, which will endorse anything that has "trading" in it). This may mark a new high water mark for environmental hypocrisy.

(1) Keep all lines of communication to the House flooded with "no" to the Waxman cap & trade bill. (2) Call you Senate offices and ask them to weigh in upon their delegation, asking them to vote no. (3) call your governor's offices and ask them to also call their respective House member and vote "no." Let's open up all fronts! And by all means, get all your friends involved. We can win this.

... The CBO estimate says that, under the cap-n-trade plan currently being considered in the House, the average family will face additional costs of about $165 a year. Families in the lowest income quintile will actually see a benefit of $40, largely because some portion of the revenue will be used to fund a rebate and tax credit for low income families. Families in the top quintile will pay an extra $245 dollars a year. That looks pretty progressive. But families in the second highest quintile will end up with an additional burden of $340 a year -- more than...

For a household of four, energy costs go up $436 that year, and they eventually reach over $1,241 in 2035 and average $829 per year over that span. Electricity costs go up $468, gasoline goes up $565, and natural gas goes up $161 by 2035. That’s a 58 percent increase in gas prices, 90 percent for electricity, and 55 percent for natural gas. Cumulative higher energy costs for a household of four from 2012-2035 would reach nearly $20,000.

Proponents need to stop pretending cap-and-trade will cost nothing and create tons of jobs.

On Friday, Democrats are going to try to force the Waxman-Markey climate change bill to a vote.

If you ever wondered how trade wars start, pay attention. We are in the early stages of saber-rattling on trade and if some adult supervision does not come along, it could get much worse. Here’s how. Politicians tries to curry favor with unions or the steel industry or the auto industry and they insert a “Buy American” clause into legislation. In this case, it was the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009, otherwise known as President Obama’s economic stimulus plan. Then, politicians in other countries get the same ‘bright’ idea and they insert protectionist trade policies into legislation over...

Barack Obama's plan to overhaul the structure of financial regulation leaves in place the split between those regulators who supervise the trading of futures at the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and those who supervise stock trading at the Securities Trading Association. And while there may be good reasons to keep the commissions separate, mostly likely none of those informed the Obama administration's decision. Instead it was probably just cold politicial calculation. Merging the commissions has long been a popular idea with reformers. It was proposed by Hank Paulson when he was Treasury Secretary, and it is supported by many who...

The European Union urged the United States on Wednesday to open talks on scrapping a ban on foreign online gambling companies, saying it breaks global trade rules. The EU says it could seek compensation from the World Trade Organization because the 2006 ban unfairly prevents foreign Internet gambling sites from operating in the United States. But it said it would hold off launching legal action until it had the chance to negotiate a solution with President Barack Obama's administration — another sign of a thaw in EU-U.S. relations since President George W. Bush left office.

Bloomberg. Title and link allowed only. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a_15TjtHqhwM

On January 10, two of President Obama's economic advisors (Christine Romer and Jared Bernstein) put together a report in which they projected the effects of President Obama's economic recovery plan. The blue line in the chart below shows the unemployment rate that they predicted would result. Unemployment was supposed to peak in the middle of 2009 at about 7.9% and then decline thereafter. But in April 2009, it hit 8.9%. The actual unemployment line, shown in red, demonstrates that, despite Obama's recovery plan, unemployment has continued to rise steadily. His plan is failing to meet its projections, even though it...

The elected representatives of 'we the people' were hard at work last week on our behalf. The new Obama administration churned out proposals and legislation on a variety of fronts including the environment, the economy, and the (former) war on terror. In response to the Federal Reserve's report of an increasingly gloomy economic forecast, with an expectation for higher unemployment and a steeper drop in economic activity, our public servants in Congress introduced the Paid Vacation Act, requiring companies with more than 100 employees to offer a week of paid vacation for both full-time and part-time employees after they’ve put...

The world’s shipping lines may double the number of idled container carriers to 20 percent of the global fleet amid a surge in new vessels and as the recession saps demand , said First Ship Lease Trust’s Philip Clausius. “It’s the start of the crisis,” said Clausius, chief executive officer of First Ship, which leases 23 vessels. “There are too many container ships coming on line and not enough demand,” he said in an interview in Tokyo yesterday. A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, the world’s largest container line, and other shipping companies have anchored vessels as demand to move electronics, furniture and...

Government interference has simply never, repeat never, enhanced the efficiencies of markets. While Obama may claim to be a scholar of history, he appears not to heed what he has read, or simply does not believe it. Learning, real learning, is a long process of trial and error. History is full of trials and errors. Why is this not obvious to the current White House resident? Attaching operational strings to government stimulus money is forcing many companies to take actions they would not otherwise implement. Along the longest and biggest by dollar volume trading border in the world, are endless...

This "Cap and Trade," carbon tax, is certainly going to have a crippling effect on American businesses. Unfortunately, the unintended consequence of this algorean stupidity, is to raise the cost of living for those that can least afford it. So you see, ladies and gentlemen, President Obama's rhetoric about caring for poor people is, shall we say, "hot air!"

Do you use energy? Ever turn on a light switch? Drive a car? Then you will be hit hard by President Obama's "Cap and Trade" program, which is nothing short of a new National Energy Tax that will be paid by everyone. That's right, I said "everyone".

Trucking Headlines U.S.-Mexico trucking plan may resumeBy Jill Dunn The United States may allow Mexican trucks to do business here as early as June, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood reportedly said May 22. This spring, Congress ended the cross-border trucking program between the two countries. Mexico responded with 90 tariffs totaling $2.4 billion on U.S. products, casting a heavy burden on U.S. producers, LaHood said in a Bloomberg story. Candice Tolliver, the new communications director for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, did not immediately respond to questions. In recent weeks, the FMCSA began work with the U.S. Trade...

Is this what the first trade war of the global economic crisis looks like? Ordered by Congress to "buy American" when spending money from the $787 billion stimulus package, the town of Peru, Ind., stunned its Canadian supplier by rejecting sewage pumps made outside of Toronto. After a Navy official spotted Canadian pipe fittings in a construction project at Camp Pendleton, Calif., they were hauled out of the ground and replaced with American versions. In recent weeks, other Canadian manufacturers doing business with U.S. state and local governments say they have been besieged with requests to sign affidavits pledging that...

Dear Friend,Congressman Henry Waxman is trying to finish his "Cap and Trade" Energy Tax bill by today, in order to have it ready for a full vote by Memorial Day. And as Politico reports, he's had a "hidden helping hand" this week from Al Gore. They write that Gore has "mobilized his green grass roots, marshaled his well-endowed lobbying organization and even personally called Democratic committee members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee."So, we're launching a nationwide "Stop the Energy Tax" campaign to stop this. It's been estimated that the Waxman energy tax bill would raise an average...

"...Sorry to be the “fly in the ointment” but..."