Since China devalued its currency 3 percent, global markets have gone into a tailspin. Why should this be? [Reposted from End Global Governance | Pat Buchanan | August 24, 2015] After all, 3 percent devaluation in China could be countered by a U.S. tariff of 3 percent on all goods made in China, and the…
The president of Mexico’s auto industry association on Wednesday (Aug. 26) laid out in detail his objections to a deal worked out by the United States and Japan on the automotive rules of origin in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that has been rejected by the governments of Mexico and Canada because it includes a regional…
Why China needs an overvalued currency to unwind years of undervaluation and manipulation. On Aug. 11, the People’s Bank of China announced a decision to devalue China’s currency — the renminbi, or RMB — by 1.9 percent, by resetting the daily band within which it’s traded. That’s the largest single-day devaluation in the RMB since…
(Bloomberg) — Ford Motor Co.’s top financial executive said the weak yen gives Japanese automakers as much as $11,000 more profit per car and allowed Toyota Motor Corp. to earn an extra $10 billion in 2013. Ford wants the U.S. to intervene against what it sees as currency manipulation. [ by Keith Naughton |…
Molycorp to mothball rare earths mine in California Molycorp Inc., the only U.S. producer of rare earths, on Wednesday said it would mothball its mine in California, laying off almost 500 workers and suspending the country’s sole source of the 15 elements used in magnets, batteries and other high-tech products. [ by John…
China is increasingly using recycled steel, pressuring iron-ore prices and global miners. The world’s biggest producers of iron ore have a problem, and it lies in the steel that has already gone into China’s cars, bridges and skyscrapers. [ by John W. Miller and Rhiannon Hoyle | August 25, 2015 | WSJ ] Over…
Billings, Mont. – Detractors of the United States’ country of origin labeling (COOL) law are reenergized as a result of a recent World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling that determined that COOL violates international trade laws because it results in foreign livestock being treated differently than U.S. livestock. Despite polls indicating overwhelming support for COOL, and…
The unpopular drive by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to reinterpret the country’s pacifist constitution is sapping his government’s political power, a development that could ultimately make it harder for him to conclude a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal, according to an Asia expert at Stanford University. [Reposted from Inside US Trade | August 25, 2015]…
The San Diego Inventor’s Forum held its 9th annual invention contest on Saturday, August 15th at Coleman College’s Kearny Mesa campus to see which product would come out on top as the best technology or consumer product invention of 2015. San Diego is no stranger to innovation. In 2013, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and…
Growing trade deficits and the collapse of manufacturing output following the Great Recession are directly responsible for the loss of 5 million U.S. manufacturing jobs that occurred between 2000 and 2014. [Reposted from the EPI blog | Will Kimball and Susan Balding | August 19, 2015] As the figure below shows, manufacturing started rapidly declining…