Friday, July 31, 2015

Friday Beaver - Trading beaver edition


Beaver hoping the traditional beaver skin top hats don't come back in fashion. Oops! Too late for this beaver.

TPP  NAFTA CAFTA and other stupid ideas

There was a time when TV sets were made in the U.S. Then NAFTA was signed. Slowly that business went first to Canada then to Mexico and finally to China seeking its' lowest labor costs. To date 62,000 manufacturers have left the country. Nothing was spared and nothing is safe. About the only thing left is airplanes and autos and we know autos took a hit with imports. Yes the auto industry came back but new workers now make about 1/2 what the old timers made. And forget pensions. So that raises the question. What happens when the Chinese learn to build our American planes? If you look at our GDP the bulk of it is dedicated to aircraft manufacturing. While aircraft machinists did make a handsome salary with plenty of perks, new workers see a smaller paycheck and a 401K instead of a pension. 

With an all out assault on the middle class and the fact that 70 to 80% of our economy is consumer driven just where do the corporate suits think they'll find customers? They have this delusion that somehow they're the "job creators" when in fact they didn't create one single job. Jobs are created by demand and necessity. You don't start a business unless you know there's a demand for your product or service.

Now we have the TPP Trans Pacific Trade agreement. From what I've read of it it would strip countries of their sovereignty and give it to corporations. Even though your country might have banned a product or chemical a corporation could sue and not just to be permitted to sell the banned item but for future losses. Such was the case in Canada when Ethyl Corporation sued because Canada had banned a gasoline additive MMT. The company won and got $13 million for its' trouble even though EPA and Health Canada indicted that exposure could cause nerve damage.


Does it really make economic sense to ship a pound of beef from New Zealand half way around the world? And who exactly needs to eat watermelon in the wintertime in North America? Much of the problems could be resolved if they took the speculators out of the market. Their only function is to buy and sell contracts thereby driving up the price of a commodity. They have no vested interest in product itself. And now we have hedge funds betting on the rise or fall of a product. Vegas must be jealous.

Bank fails later
No fails this week

6 comments:

billy pilgrim said...

there might be wee flaws in a free market economy but take a look at the managed economies around the world. we have nitwits with low incomes blowing there money on cell phones and lottery tickets so i firmly believe that most low income people inflict more damage on themselves than any corporation.

Demeur said...

Billy - Tell that to the people over 50 who worked their entire lives, played by the rules, lost their homes and life savings to these "banksters". Don't forget what Goldman Sachs did to Greece. Here cell phones are free to low income and what's a couple of bucks in lottery tickets compared to the trillions $$$ the banks stole and got rewarded for doing it ($6 trillion in bail outs)?

Tom Harper said...

I can't believe how many "America is Number One!!!" "Patriots" are all fired up over America's sovereignty -- when it's a convenient soundbite. Mention the importance of safe working conditions or protecting the environment, and they'll start shrieking about UN thugs, black helicopters, a global One World conspiracy, etc.

But if the TPP gets approved, the U.S. can be sued in an international corporate tribunal if any of our domestic regulations might jeopardize a foreign investor's portfolio. And there hasn't been a peep out of the "Obama is a Muslim" "Black Helicopters!" crowd. Go figure.

BBC said...

Why don't you start your own company and make the product here?

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