[xsysmgr]

A view from across the pond.

[Texaggie79]

[OldFriend]

I guess I have a little different take on this. I would prefer to have our own source of steel rather than take a chance on losing our own steel industry. We need steel for WAR, no way around it. Our national security depends on us having our own resources. What other country in the world would you trust to ensure our security?

[SteveH]

But protectionism also harms the whole economy. In the US, it is a long time since steel was king; vehicle and other manufacturers now employ 50 times as many workers. The steel they use will now cost more, driving up production costs, affecting both profit margins and consumers of their goods. In a globalised economy, that will tempt more US companies to shift production to countries where costs are lower. Thanks to this futile effort to preserve unviable jobs in steel, US labour will be less productively employed than it should be.

Yes, it makes sense that they would see it this way "across the pond". Tariff bad, Nafta good; Friederich List bad, GATT good; Pat Buchanan bad, WTO good; and now tariff-supporting Bush bad, globalization good. Who needs the Brits advice on economics (hah), or anything else-- every 100 years or so they come, either to confiscate guns or to beg for them. Up theirs.

[Free the USA]

Check the Bump List folders for articles related to the above topic(s) or for other topics of interest.

[ContentiousObjector]

This move is to stupid to put into words,

30% tax on imported steel, hmm, I wonder what the people buying that steel are going to do?
Smile are pay 30% more for American steel and lead a rousing corus of "God Bless America" and "Look For The Union Lable" at their annual share holders meeting or... do you think they are going to move their manufacturing to Canada and Mexico, use the same foreign steel, then import the Canadian and Mexican made goods into the United States under NAFTA.

You don't need to be a Wallstreet Economist or a Harvard MBA to figure out that one!

I know I keep repeating this, but it seems to be lost on all the Bush Apologists who would praise him as the greatest if he took a dump on their front porch.