IHT - Japan/EUzone to start trade war with US on Monday

[junker]

so now this week we have the following:

1) trade war begins monday - article and link below

b) the day AFTER the oniell on 60 minutes show
3) the week after gold hit 14year highs
4) the first trading day after the weakest/lamest jobs report ever
e) The SURPRISE that comes to the markets this week in the form of the rapidly escalating interest rate crisis.....

gonna be one HELL of an intersting week.


http://www.iht.com/articles/124496.html
"The purpose," González said, "is to reserve our right to retaliate and protect the interests of our companies suffering from the unfair practices of the U.S. administration. The most important thing right now is that the U.S. puts an end to the practice and stops distributing the proceeds of antidumping cases to its producers."
.

[KoKo]

1. Here's what the Byrd Amendment is all about:

(Mods:It's a press release, so I don't think copyright laws apply)

Byrd Amendment Sending Duties To Injured Industries Included In Report; Headed For House Vote

For Immediate Release

October 9, 2000

WEIRTON, W.VA. – Weirton Steel Corp. officials said they are very pleased that Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., was successful in including in a conference report an amendment that would provide direct assistance to industries harmed by unfairly traded imports.

The amendment is patterned after S.61 – the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act – which Weirton Steel has been backing since its introduction by Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, in January 1999. Industries that would receive fair retribution under the amendment include steel, agriculture and textile.

"Once again, Senator Byrd has come to the aid of industries hard hit by unfair and illegal imports," said Richard Riederer, Weirton Steel chief executive officer. "He understands the crisis the domestic steel industry continues to experience and is working to mitigate the impact of financial losses caused by illegal trade."

Under the Byrd amendment, duties charged on products from foreign countries found guilty of violating U.S. trade laws would go into a fund for eligible domestic producers – such as Weirton Steel – affected by the unfair trade practices. The duties currently go into the federal treasury, instead of to the injured parties.

Over the past two years, Weirton Steel has won several antidumping cases filed with the federal government.

Byrd’s amendment provides that the funds would be distributed on an annual basis to the affected industries for specific purposes such as improving manufacturing facilities, equipment, research and development, personnel training, health care and pension benefits as well as environment equipment, training and technologies.

On Oct. 3, Byrd said that the money in question would amount to $39 million over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

[kalian]

2. You can say that again....

Its understandable that both the EU and Japan decide to place
importation restrictions against what few products the US has to
offer.
I'm curious to see how the US responds...because they really don't
have many options per se.

[RainDog]

3. So...is this correct?

It appears that the US is cooking the books on job reports. --job recovery is worse than is being reported. On top of this, corporations are outsourcing jobs as fast as they can to make fat money for their shareholders, while ensuring, by these actions, that there will be less capital to fund our consumption economy in this country.

It appears that the US is cooking the books on the actual level of inflation in this country.

..does this also imply that Greenspan is complicit in these lies? If not, why not?

It appears that Shell Oil has just come forward to admit that it has lied about its oil reserves level...is this the first of a series of such admissions, like the mutual funds rip offs, or this is a one off?

Japan and Europe are fighting the neocons and their foreign policy via a trade war. (Though Bush did lift steel tariffs when Baker went to France to get them to forgive Iraqi debts.)

O'Neill is talking about the Bush junta's plans to carve up Iraqi oil resources before 9-11. O'Neill also has tons of copies of information about the inner workings of the Bush junta which can now be made available to reporters...and the general public?

Kevin Phillips, a conservative, has written a book which basically admits that The October Surprise (illegal, and unconstitutional), Iran-Contra (illegal and unconstitutional), Iraqgate (illegal and unconstitutional) are all valid reasons for conservatives to admit that the current junta is a danger to democracy.

Like the Reagan/Bush years, in which 5% of the population had a 59% increase in wealth, while the poorest saw no growth in income...we are again in a situation in which the American aristocracy is saying "Let them eat cake and suffer a little...it's good for them...as they park their money in banks in the Netherlands Antilles and convert dollars to gold..

...and Bush is going to get elected how??

...and what is cable news yapping about now, rather than the above?

[rapier]

4. notes

I really hate being a debunker here but all the trade stuff is a sideshow, and of little or no importance short term.

The day it becomes obvious that they are ending the dollar recycling by exiting the T Bond market then we will have something.

While the bond market has been trading like a commodity, which they are I guess, gapping up and down in wild swings the big jerk on Friday was to lower rates. It seem more likely than less now that bonds will have a melt up. Lord knows they want to engineer new lows to get the mortgage game back on top.

The 10 Year is now at 4.07%. If it breaks much below 3.90% then a revisit of the spring lows seems quite plausable.

I must stres again and again and again. Every crisis and near crisis now results in the markets melting up. Someday they won't. Someday the sky may well fall. If it's next week hats off to you. Good guess.

[HumanPatriot]

5. This didn't happen, did it...

Im losing faith oh so quickly.