[Swiftwater Gazette] Economics and War

Mon Sep 14 10:04:29 EDT 2009

Brad,

When you go to the doctor with circulation problems, does the doctor take
blood out of your leg and put it back into your arm to get that blood moving
around better??? Stupid right??? Does that kinda sound like cash for
clunkers???

I am just simply befuddled at the amount of people who don't and/or don't
want, to see how things always work out in countries with
socialist/facist/marxist regimes. It's happened a hundred times over the
centuries. It's written in the history books so much that it sticks out like
a sore thumb. You always end up with two classes of people. The 95%
(governees) to use one of Obama's favorite numbers. who take whatever scraps
the governing class doesn't waste on themselves. And the 5% of the boot
lickers who have curried favor with the governing class by throwing money or
other favors at the governers who live quite extravagantly and well.....
UNTIL they piss off the governer above them. Then if they're lucky they are
thrown out to spend their days in the bread line with the rest of the 95%
or, if they're not so fortunate, there always seems to be plenty of jail
space for those that have trouble agreeing with the party line. Sometimes if
things get bad enough these folks might even disappear ......

People can't/won't see that this administration is loaded with little
governers that are thinking along the lines laid out above. Look at the
people he surrounds himself with Van jones (self-avowed communist) Cass
Sunstein (Not a S/C justice yet, but I bet they try), Ron Bloom (union
boss/hack) deputy secratary of labor and the list goes on and on. Just look
at the name Mr. Obama has chosen to use for his closest advisors. Czars,
does it get anymore soviet than that??? 'Course, I guess Bush started that
in his admin. But I don't care, I just hate that we would even use such a
word. It's just one more step down the slippery slope of indoctrination.

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/08/out-commie-truther-green-jobs-czar-in-union-hack-manufacturing-czar/

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/11/the-cass-sunstein-vote/

The chinese say: May you live in interesting times. Personally, I hoping for
a little less "interesting" than this.

Rik

On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 6:31 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Here we go again.  For a quick refresher on history and economics, go here
> -
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot-Hawley_Tariff_Act
>
> For a short story on the predictable folly of Cash-4-Clunkers go here -
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090913/ap_on_bi_ge/us_life_after_clunkers
>
> Now, the looking out for special interests (steelworkers union) is
> starting to get really dangerous (see story below). We took Cora to
> the county fair yesterday and I stopped by the  New Holland dealer's
> equipment display.  The local dealer I bought my backhoe and
> skid-steer from and then shipped to Gulfport went out of business.
> The company that took over from them has gone out of business.  The
> local Case dealer recently went bankrupt (both Case and New Holland
> are owned by Fiat). We talked equipment and I made some complaints
> about our rubber tracked skid-steer's engineering (built in Kansas)
> and shared our "fixes" that my brother engineered in the field. We are
> extremely pleased with our New Holland backhoe (formerly Ford) that is
> built in Italy with a Cummins diesel engine (Indiana). The dealer
> asked if I was in the market for an excavator and I explained that we
> had one - a Hyundai, Korean designed, built outside of Beijing with a
> Mitsubishi engine and a Clark (US) drive train. If I were to buy
> another one it would be a Sany, designed in China with final  assembly
> done in Georgia with a Cummins engine. I don't buy Caterpillar or
> Komatsu because it is too expensive on the front-end.  You recoup that
> cost when you sell used but I don't plan to sell anything.  The bottom
> line is this - there is no such thing as a pure domestic construction
> equipment manufacturer.  My sister-in-law was the CFO for Greater Asia
> for a mining truck manufacturer based near Bill E (CT)for over a year.
>  You start a major trade war and all kinds of unforeseen consequences
> start happening. Caterpillar equipment is very popular in China - I
> saw a lot of Cat equipment on the train ride from Shanghai to Beijing.
> Are we going to bailout the UAW in Peoria when the Chinese market for
> CAT get's shutout? What about GM?  We, the taxpayers own GM. Shouldn't
> we be a bit worried about retaliation against Shanghai Buick? What
> about Boeing? This is a slippery slope we're being led down by someone
> with a poor understanding of economics, or perhaps someone who
> understands economics quite well but is really a Marxist.
>
> Brad
>
> -------------
>
> US tyre duties spark China clash
>
> By Geoff Dyer in Beijing and Tom Braithwaite in Washington
>
> Published: September 13 2009 06:53 | Last updated: September 14 2009 11:57
>
> A full-blown trade row erupted between the US and China after Beijing
> accused Washington of “rampant protectionism” for imposing heavy
> duties on imported Chinese tyres and threatened action against imports
> of US poultry and vehicles.
>
> Trade relations between two of the world’s biggest economies
> deteriorated after Barack Obama, US president, signed an order late on
> Friday to impose a new duty of 35 per cent on Chinese tyre imports on
> top of an existing 4 per cent tariff.
>
> In his first big test on world trade since taking office in January,
> Mr Obama sided with America’s trade unions, which have complained that
> a “surge” in imports of Chinese-made tyres had caused 7,000 job losses
> among US factory workers.
>
> Chen Deming, China’s minister of commerce, condemned the decision,
> saying that it “sends the wrong signal to the world” at a time when
> Washington and Beijing should be co-operating to deal with the worst
> economic and financial crisis in decades.
>
> “This is a grave act of trade protectionism,” Mr Chen said in a
> statement. “Not only does it violate WTO rules, it contravenes
> commitments the US government made at the [April] G20 financial
> summit.”
>
> Beijing said it had requested WTO-sanctioned consultations with the US
> over Washington’s new duties on tyres. Yao Jian, a commerce ministry
> spokesman, said the duties were in ”violation of WTO rules”.
>
> China said it would now investigate imports of US poultry and
> vehicles, responding to complaints from domestic companies.
>
> The US earlier warned Beijing against taking retaliatory action.
> “Retaliation would be inappropriate, as the United States acted
> entirely within the bounds of trade laws and within the safeguard
> provision that China itself agreed to upon accession to the World
> Trade Organisation,” said an official from the Office of the United
> States Trade Representative.
>
> US officials said they were scrutinising the export of poultry and
> vehicles, but said any action in retaliation by China could result in
> a complaint by the US to the WTO.
>
> Key Tokyo rubber futures tumbled more than 9 per cent to a three-week
> low on Monday, according to Reuters. News of the additional duties on
> US tyre imports from China combined with sharply lower oil prices and
> a stronger yen to push Tokyo rubber futures prices below Y200 a
> kilogramme.
>
> The dispute comes less than a fortnight before Mr Obama is due to host
> world leaders at a summit of G20 nations in Pittsburgh and ahead of
> his planned visit to China in November.
>
> The decision to impose extra tyre tariffs followed a petition by the
> United Steelworkers union, which represents workers at many US tyre
> factories. Official US figures show an increase in imports by volume
> from 14.6m tyres in 2004 to 46m in 2008. The US data shows that the
> value of tyre imports from China increased from $453.3m in 2004 to
> $1.8bn in 2008. Four US plants closed in 2006 and 2007 and three more
> are likely to be closed this year. US production capacity has fallen
> by 17.8 per cent in the past four years, according to the official
> data.
>
> Eswar Prasad, professor of trade economics at Cornell University,
> warned that the disagreement could escalate. “These protectionist
> measures, some of which amount to domestic political posturing rather
> than substantive restraints on trade, could easily ratchet up into a
> full-blown trade war and inflict serious economic damage on both
> countries,” he said.
>
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-- 
"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it
is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." …. George Washington
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