White House gambles on Colombia move

The Financial Times ^ | March 11 2008 | James Politi

[1rudeboy]

Party like it’s 1929.

Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. (Smoot-Hawley was signed in 1930).

This thread is interesting in that there are a number of conservatives arguing for bigger government, higher taxes, and reliving the glory days of the 1950's when the top tax bracket was 90% (or was it higher, I don't remember).

[cripplecreek]

Which is still not as sad as people who think they can screw over their fellow citizens without any blowback.

Life is going to be an SOB for the scumbags who have lied us into this mess and I can't wait to listen to them squeal when their trade "partners" strip them of their assets.

[acoulterfan]

Remember this alleged rumor?

http://wonkette.com/politics/paraguay/state-dept-formally-denies-bushs-south-american-escape-plans-229144.php

They deny that the US military has ties but wasn’t the actual rumor regarding his own personal family compound or property? Didn’t his niece go down there when she was having all her drug problems, etc?

I vaguely remember what the circumstances were. Would like to know what is really factual.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Colombian goods enter the U.S. duty-free under the Andean Trade Preference Act. Our goods are hit with tariffs.

Bares repeating.

Colombia's legal exports to the US are mostly oil, leather goods and flowers. Colombia's imports from the US are mostly manufactured goods, computer/communications equipment and medical equipment.

I know some people would like to fight global warming by raising the price of oil but other than the flower growers and leather smiths, how exactly does the current system benefit American workers?

[1rudeboy]

It stems from the belief (actually, it's an article of faith) that the United States doesn't manufacture anything worth exporting, and even if it did, the American worker cannot compete with a Colombian.

Therefore, the only response is to clamor that the government step-in and protect us.

[1rudeboy]

Help me follow your reasoning. We should not reduce Colombian tariffs on our manufacturing exports, because the lefties have floated a rumor Bush has bought a ranch in Paraguay?

[wideawake]

1rudeboy, you're having a non-debate with Marxist clowns who have no idea how basic economics works, let alone any specific knowledge of the structure of the US employment market or the existing trade relationship between the US and Colombia.

They've no conception of what this article even means and are not prepared to engage in a rational conversation about it.

I'm just waiting for the first moronic comment that it is somehow "unconstitutional" for the President to go ahead without the permission of the protectionist neo-Leninists in the House.

[dennisw]

The horse is out of the barn anyway. The midwest has already been screwed by free trade, and those jobs aren’t coming back. The result is some people made a lot of money and a lot of workers lost their jobs. And because of that, people are going to start voting for socialists, who will then take away the money made by those people who profited from it. It’s sad that people think voting for socialists will bring the jobs back.

Exactly.
Idiotic hyper-capitalism and "free trade" is what ushers in socialism. 
But the guys who became millionaires off of "free trade" live in gated communities so what do they care. A trashed and socialist America is of no concern to them

When the economy turns to shit the masses look for shelter from the storm and that shelter is government. As is Hillary and Barrack pie in the sky socialist promises and rhetoric

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Who in their right mind would move to Paraguay?

There is a good reason for building up a US military presence there - to keep an eye on the Hamas types around Foz and Ciudad Del Este but who in their right mind would want to live there?

It's flat, hot, run by crooks, populated by some of the more poorly educated people on the planet (even by California public school standards and I am trying to be polite here), infested with rats, cockroaches, mosquitoes and muslims. Illegal immigrants from there flock to slums in Argentina.

It has no culture, lousy soccer teams and there's neither a Gucci store nor a Walmart in the whole country. Despite a great deal of post war German immigration the beer is lousy - if you ever have to go there pick up enough Brahma in Brazil to hold you over.

I could go on but of all the countries in the world I've been to Paraguay is about second from the bottom on my personal "fun places to live" list. (The DR being on the bottom but at least THEY have good looking women.)

This is one of those things cooked up by the black helicopter crowd.

[Jean S]

They deny that the US military has ties but wasn’t the actual rumor regarding his own personal family compound or property? Didn’t his niece go down there when she was having all her drug problems, etc?

"actual rumor" So you're spreading that rumor without any proof? That's beneath FR standards.

[1rudeboy]

Idiotic hyper-capitalism and "free trade" is what ushers in socialism.

I thought you were out on a limb with your comment about "Marxists," wideawake, but the above comment placed you back in range.

[expat_panama]

...a number of conservatives arguing for bigger government, higher taxes...

Looks like the freerepublic is coming up with a new definition of the work "conservative".  I just came from this thread where some clown was complaining about Bush spending too much on defense.

Maybe we need to spray for Obama trolls...

[1rudeboy]

I was on one of the TTC threads today, and someone was complaining that the government was loaning money to a private consortium to build it, instead of building it itself (and presumably funding it 100% with our tax money).

[CIDKauf]

I took a new look at this Bush 41 deal and could not agree more.

[expat_panama]

"... his own personal family compound or property? Didn’t his niece go down there when she was having all her drug problems..."

Watch it; it was that kind of cr@p that got Willie Green banned.

[1rudeboy]

I found an excellent article by Michael Barone that correlates one's view of the economy with level of Bush hatred. I meant to post it but I lost it . . . it was on AEI's website.

I just think it's interesting that free-trade threads tend to bring out the conspiracy theories.

[wideawake]

I thought you were out on a limb with your comment about "Marxists," wideawake, but the above comment placed you back in range.

All of Marx's thought is based on two underlying principles: that Ricardo's labor theory of value is valid, and that government intervention is necessary to insure that value is maintained.

That's the excellent lesson to be drawn from Marxism: that seemingly innocent stupid mistakes lead to many, many people being killed.

And, of course, all the free trade opponents on this thread are arguing for a labor theory of value and for government intervention in prices to maintain it.

[mysterio]

Marxist clowns

Were the founding fathers "Marxist," in you opinion?

[wideawake]

Were the founding fathers "Marxist," in you opinion?

The founding fathers neither subscribed to the labor theory of value nor did they imagine government intervention in the economy was necessary to maintain that flawed assumption.

So, by definition, they cannot have been Marxists.

[Recon Dad]

The midwest has already been screwed by free trade, and those jobs aren’t coming back.

I live in Ohio, please let me know what jobs Ohio has lost to a free trade deal with Columbia?

Right now Ohio gains more from Free Trade than we lose. The jobs lost in Ohio were lost for 3 reasons. 1. High personal taxes. 2. High corporate taxes. 3. Rust belt industry that disappeared many years ago because they couldn't compete.