Posted on 01/30/2009 6:00:30 PM PST by Kaslin
Economy: In barring foreign steel from infrastructure projects and forcing payment of "prevailing wages," the stimulus bill merges the Davis-Bacon and Smoot-Hawley acts in a way that could be a recipe for depression.
In an amendment inserted by Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., and approved by the House Appropriations Committee, none of the stimulus-funded infrastructure projects can proceed "unless all of the iron and steel used in the project is produced in the United States."
This provision was naturally supported by steel companies such as U.S. Steel and Nucor and just as naturally opposed by steel users and exporters like GE and Caterpillar.
Caterpillar, heavily dependent on exports of its earth-moving and construction equipment, recently announced huge job cuts. The Peoria, Ill., company got more than 60% of is revenue outside the U.S. in 2007.
"You would be creating an ample basis for countries to close their markets to U.S. products," said Karen Bhatia, GE's senior consultant for international law in Washington. GE, the world's largest maker of jet engines and locomotives, gets half of its sales from outside the U.S.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
The fools on the hill never learn.
Unbearable Debt:
“Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and mechanical products, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalized, and the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism”
Attributed to - Karl Marx, Das Kapital, 1867
Well, Marx had half of it correct.
The new Oakland bay bridge in San Francisco is having a major problem, due to cracked welds on critical steel subsections purchased in CHINA.
Am I the only one who wonders why America is buying finished steel sections for a major American bridge project that are built (badly) in CHINA?????
History repeating itself, oh well... I wonder if another world war is on the horizon as well.
Marx had it all wrong. The state stimulated capitalists to invest along unprofitable lines and the state encouraged the extension of credit for people to buy stuff they couldn’t afford.
Still, the state doesn’t “have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism.” They could take the other road. The road that doesn’t involve easy credit, rising prices, and malinvestment. The road that doesn’t lead to economic ruin. But that’s not what the state does.
Perhaps it’s better to let the Democrats utterly destroy our economy, in order to cleanse this nation of socialism once and for all. We should withdraw all of our assets from the public markets, trade with each other in gold and barter, and “opt out” of this disaster. Without productive Americans to leach off, King Rahm will soon find his empire in a shambles.
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