Free Republic

Daniel Hannan cuts through the disinformation routinely spewed by the pundit class to reveal the true historical nature of fascism, albeit as it pertains to British politics. The lessons, however, are applicable here as well. 'I am a Socialist,' Hitler told Otto Strasser in 1930, 'and a very different kind of Socialist from your rich friend, Count Reventlow'. No one at the time would have regarded it as a controversial statement. The Nazis could hardly have been more open in their socialism, describing themselves with the same terminology as our own SWP: National Socialist German Workers' Party. Almost everyone in...

The shutdown of the Genk plant announced by the American manufacturer has sent shock waves through Belgium. But in Valencia, Spain, where the production is moving to, Ford is looking forward to the competitive advantage the region offers. Ford employees blocking the entrance to the US car manufacturer’s Genk plant, October 24, 2012 The October 24 announcement that Ford’s plant in Genk will down tools in 2014 has provoked a wave of anger in the Flemish press. More than 10,000 jobs in the plant itself and in its sub-contractors will disappear. In Gazet van Antwerpen, columnist Paul Geudens rails against...

Yes, you read that correctly. Three years after committing tens of billions of dollars in subsidies to green-energy firms, including massive amounts of subsidies to solar-panel firms like Solyndra, the Obama administration proclaims themselves shocked, shocked! that China subsidizes the production of solar panels in their own country:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO The U.S. Commerce Department announced tariffs on Chinese-made solar panels on Tuesday that it said had benefited from unfair subsidies by Beijing.The preliminary ruling came in response to a complaint from SolarWorld Industries America, a U.S. manufacturer that is a subsidiary of Germany’s SolarWorld. The tariffs were...

The United States Commerce Department said Tuesday it would impose tariffs on solar panels imported from China after concluding that the Chinese government provided illegal export subsidies to manufacturers there. The tariffs were smaller than some American industry executives had hoped for — 2.9 percent to 4.73 percent — which could blunt their effect on the market. But whatever the size of the penalties, Tuesday’s ruling is likely to further heighten trade tensions with China, while holding implications for renewable energy policy in this country.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress on Tuesday overturned a court decision and reaffirmed that the government has the right to impose higher tariffs on goods from China and other state-run economies that subsidize their exports to the United States. The House voted 370-39 to pass the measure and send it to President Barack Obama for his signature. The Senate approved it Monday on a voice vote with no debate. "By passing this law, Congress has taken a clear stand against the unfair trade practices that have put countless American jobs in jeopardy," Vice President Joe Biden said in a statement. The...

The chart above displays annual refined sugar prices (cents per pound) using data from the USDA (Tables 2 and 5) between 1982 and 2011 for: a) the U.S. wholesale refined sugar price at Midwest markets, and b) the world refined sugar price. Due to import quota restrictions that strictly limit the amount of imported sugar coming into the U.S. at the world price, the domestic producers are protected from more efficient foreign sugar growers who can produce cane sugar in Central America, Africa and the Caribbean at half the cost of beet sugar in Minnesota and Michigan. Of course,...

President Barack Obama hit China automobile tire makers with a trade tariff in 2009 and now Beijing has struck back with a potentially more punitive tariff, as much as a 21% tax hike on U.S. car exports bound for China, the world’s largest auto market. This week, the Chinese government upped the ante in the Obama-China trade dispute by surprisingly imposing new tariffs on imports of Honda and Cadillac models, Chrysler Jeep Grand Cherokee, the BMW X5 and X3 and Mercedes Benz models made in Michigan, Alabama and South Carolina. China argues that the U.S. provided illegal subsidies to these...

In his 2010 book "No Apology," Mitt Romney has a lot to say about China, much of it unfavorable. He writes of Beijing's "brutal repression and incarceration of dissidents." He decries the brazenness of Chinese enterprise, with its "rampant theft of intellectual property from Western businesses." He warns that China's "aggressive pursuit" of cyber-warfare capabilities has made it "the most active cyber-combatant in the world." He details the ominous Chinese military buildup in combat aircraft, submarines, and ballistic missiles. He laments the communist government's willingness to shield the odious regimes in Iran and Sudan from international sanction. Nevertheless, Romney's criticism...

Milton Friedman shows the stupidity of tariffs.

Once, it was a Labor Day tradition for Democrats to go to Cadillac Square in Detroit to launch their campaigns in that forge and furnace of American democracy, the greatest industrial center on earth. Democrats may still honor the tradition. But Detroit is not what she was, not remotely. And neither is America. Not so long ago, we made all the shoes and clothes we wore, the motorcycles and cars we drove, the radios we listened to, the TV sets we watched, the home and office calculators and computers we used. No more. Much of what we buy is no...

President Obama's stimulus has failed, just as we predicted. Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke's QE2 has failed, just as we predicted. The administration and the Federal Reserve have run out of ideas. There is still a solution, but Washington is ignoring it. University of Maryland economist Peter Morici sums it up in a June 9 commentary (Cut Trade Gap to Create Jobs). Here is a selection: The trade deficit, along with the credit and housing bubbles, were the principal causes of the Great Recession. A rising trade deficit again threatens to sink the recovery and push unemployment to more than 10...

I have for some time been a basher and hater of "Fair Trade," in coffee and other commodities. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, Russ Roberts and I podcastrated the whole issue nearly four years ago. Sarah Marchmont wrote a very fair-minded article about it. Here is the basic economics--a rent is being created: a price above market price is being charged. In countries where property rights, contracts, and rule of law is tenuous, feel-gooders and scam artists have put together an unholy coalition. The feel-gooders create something called "Fair Trade" certification, which means that the farmers get...

Just a friendly reminder: Americans increasingly don't make things. Any things! Another friendly reminder: Americans increasingly only buy things. A sad reminder: Every single thing we buy, is made elsewhere...

[snip] "A distorted picture" is the result, they say, one that exaggerates trade imbalances between nations. Trade statistics in both countries consider the iPhone a Chinese export to the U.S., even though it is entirely designed and owned by a U.S. company, and is made largely of parts produced in several Asian and European countries. China's contribution is the last step—assembling and shipping the phones. So the entire $178.96 estimated wholesale cost of the shipped phone is credited to China, even though the value of the work performed by the Chinese workers at Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. accounts for...

    Songs that are "golden oldies" have much less pleasant counterparts in politics— namely, ideas and policies that have failed disastrously in the past but still keep coming back to be advocated and imposed by government. Some people may think these ideas are as good as gold, but brass has often been mistaken for gold by people who don't look closely enough.One of these brass oldies is the idea that the government can and must reduce unemployment by "creating jobs." Some people point to the history of the Great Depression of the 1930s, when unemployment peaked at 25...

South Korea's kimchi crisis has deepened, after the president was forced to step in amid fears that cabbage rustlers were descending on farms to steal the key ingredient in the nation's national dish. Kimchi is a fiery side-dish of pickled cabbage President Lee Myung-bak has this week ordered the government to block the price of staple foodstuffs from rising above international levels after the price of cabbage, which is used to make the fiery dish, increased sharply. "There is no reason for people on low incomes to purchase items that are necessary to daily life at higher prices than international...

In his latest NYT op-ed, Paul Krugman takes a break from worrying about the GOP and spending to return to another one of his big issues -- Chinese currency manipulation. Japan's leaders, he notes, have rightfully been concerned about Chinese debt buying, and the effect that has on pushing up the yen (thus killing exports), and he wonders why we can't get the same level of outrage here. Basically, there are two reasons why American leaders are too scared to slap a tariff on China and penalize them for this kind of manipulation. The first is that they're worried China...

According to Wikipedia, Stern makes frequent visits to the Obama White House. According to Dreyfus, he also makes frequent trips to China to visit with China's Communist-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU). Stern justifies his trips to China with the claim that he is helping push the ACFTU in a positive direction. Dreyfus writes: "I get in trouble on Glenn Beck saying, 'Workers of the world unite!' It's not just a slogan," Stern says. It's critical, he adds, for US and Chinese workers to see each other as allies, and he argues that efforts such as his can help...

Sets deadline of October 1, 2010 for Administration to act(Washington, D.C.) –U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) included language in the Fiscal Year 2011 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations bill that calls on the Administration to put forward a plan that would end retaliatory tariffs on Washington state agricultural products by October 1, 2010. The bill passed the THUD subcommittee, which Murray chairs, as well as the full Appropriations committee, and will now head to the full Senate for consideration. “I am extremely frustrated that the Administration has not yet acted while farmers across my home state of Washington...

The AFL-CIO is pressing Congress to take action against the Chinese Government’s manipulation of the value of its currency—the “renminbi” also known as the “yuan.” “It’s bad enough that the Chinese work for lower wages than us,” complained Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO labor federation. “But holding down the value of their currency so the US Dollar has a higher purchasing power is a double whammy.” Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) is sponsoring legislation in line with the AFL-CIO’s complaint. “Not only is the Chinese Government wantonly increasing the purchasing power of the American consumer, it is undermining the US...