Free Traders Can’t Name a Single Trade War

  Failed 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been claiming that Donald Trump’s (and by logical implication, Bernie Sanders’) proposed rejection of free trade would start a trade war and tip America into recession. [Ian Fletcher| March 8, 2016 |Huffington Post] Failed 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been claiming that Donald Trump’s (and by…

Sanders: Clinton ‘very, very wrong’ on trade

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders on Thursday went after rival Hillary Clinton‘s record on trade, highlighting their “very different points of view.” [Vicki Needham| March 3, 2016 |The Hill] The Vermont senator blasted Clinton’s record of supporting the North American Free Trade Agreement, establishing trade relations with China and the changing of her stance on the Trans-Pacific Partnership…

Government Report: Trade Deficit Worsened in January, Exports Declined, Trade Agreements Failed

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 4, 2016Contact: Paola Masman, Media Director 202-688-5145 ext 2, [email protected] Washington ~ The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) said today that a new government report shows that US trade policy and trade agreements continue to shrink America’s economy. The Bureau of Economic Analysis released its report on US International Trade…

China Begins to Tackle Its ‘Zombie’ Factory Problem

  Leaders will use National People’s Congress to push overhaul of state industries—but pace of reform is questioned. [Mark Magnier| March 3, 2016 | The Wall Street Journal] BEIJING—China’s leaders two decades ago decided that a combination of restructuring, privatization and massive job cuts was needed to revitalize the economy and shake up state industries…

JEC Report Bashes TPP, Citing Faults On IP, Financial Services, Market Access

The bicameral Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of the U.S. Congress stepped up Republican criticism of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) by including language in a formal report on the U.S. economy that blasts the deal as falling short of congressional demands in the areas of pharmaceutical intellectual property (IP) protection, financial services data flows and goods market access.…

Why Trump and Sanders Were Inevitable

  There were, in retrospect, clear signs of what was to come—signs that if Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders did not appear on the scene, someone else like them would have. We’ve had decades of forewarnings as the top income earners —the “one percent”—began taking bigger shares of our economy starting in the 1980s: The…

TPP: Would anybody mind if the deal fell over?

  TRADE DEAL’S BENEFITS MAY BE EXAGGERATED The new Trans-Pacific Partnership may not deliver the benefits the government is claiming, says Peter Martin.  [Peter Martin| March 3, 2016 | The Sydney Morning Herald] Hillary Clinton is misguided. Her opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership is based on “misinformation”. Malcolm Turnbull’s new trade minister says so. Within…