Free Republic

European, Asian and Canadian companies are taking advantage of the weaker dollar to buy their U.S. counterparts at a record pace, increasing investment in the United States but also raising fears about a potential loss of jobs and autonomy. "We could be looking at the world's largest tag sale if we continue to see declines in the dollar," said Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist at DataCore Partners. In the latest large deal aided by a weak dollar, Commerce Bancorp, which is based in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, agreed Tuesday to be acquired by Toronto-Dominion Bank of Canada in a cash-and-shares deal...

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed legislation instituting penalties of up to $150 million for companies and up to $2 million and 10 years' imprisonment for individuals found guilty of gasoline "price gouging." But the real gouger driving up gasoline prices is not the private sector – it is our government. To "gouge" means to extort, to take by force – something that oil companies and gas stations have no power to do. Unlike a government, which can forcibly take away its citizens' money and dictate their behavior, an oil company can only make us an offer to buy...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. The Commerce Department reported on March 14, 2006 that the 2005 current account deficit was $804.9 billion, up from $668.1 billion in 2004. The current account is the broadest measure of the U.S. trade balance. In addition to trade in goods and services, it includes income received from U.S. investments abroad less payments to foreigners on their investments in the United States. In the fourth quarter, the current account deficit was $224.9 billion, up from $185.4 billion in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, the current account deficit exceeded 7...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. The issue: America's free-trade myth Our view: Middle-class America has paid a high price for these policies, but where's the payoff? When President Bush visited India last week to strike a deal expanding that country's nuclear capability, he couldn't avoid questions about the estimated 162,000 U.S. workers who lost their jobs to overseas outsourcing in 2004 alone, with the bulk of those jobs going to India and China. But you could bet your unemployment check that he wasn't backing down on his policy of allowing U.S. companies to profit off of...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Ford is closing 12 plants and laying off 30,000 workers. General Motors is laying off 40,000 workers. Most of these are blue-collar workers or lower-level administrators and all qualify to be called middle class. With these cuts and others, the American middle class is shrinking. A small proportion of it is becoming extremely rich and a larger proportion of it is becoming poor. Middle class in a democracy such as ours is extremely critical because it provides stability for society and prevents revolutions or class wars. It also presents hope in...

The Dubai Ports World deal is waking Americans up to a painful reality [...] we've abandoned the principles of tariff-based trade that built American industry and kept us strong for over 200 years. The old concept was that if there was a dollar's worth of labor in a pair of shoes made in the USA, and somebody wanted to import shoes from China where there may only be ten cents worth of labor in those shoes, we'd level the playing field for labor by putting a 90-cent import tariff on each pair of shoes. Companies could choose to make their...