You should read the last Krugman column in the NYT...
Krugman is a realist, an economist with a leftist bent, meaning he looks beyond the numbers to include the human factor in his equations....
Here is a snippet from his column....
Nothing divides Democrats like international trade policy. That became clear last week, when the announcement of a deal on trade between Democratic leaders and the Bush administration caused many party activists to accuse the leadership of selling out.
The furor subsided a bit as details about the deal emerged: the Democrats got significant concessions from the Bushies, while effectively giving a go-ahead to only two minor free trade agreements (Peru and Panama). But the Democrats remain sharply divided between those who believe that globalization is driving down the wages of many U.S. workers, and those who believe that making and honoring international trade agreements is an essential part of governing responsibly.
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/opinion/14krugman.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnistsYou should read the whole column...
Free Trade is, in theory, a great way to even the playing field for all concerned...
The problem with Free Trade as Wall Street see's it is that it means only one thing; capital should be as fungible as possible...
What the dem's have been pushing for, perhaps not as ardently as they should, is to achieve that delicate balance between leveling the playing field while raising the environmental, labor and living standards of people from other countries that we deal with...
So far that has been little more than a pipe dream...
Perhaps this is the best we can hope for; in Krugman's terminology, significant concessions from the Bushies...
If we export our high, well at least before Bush, standards of labor protection, environmental concerns and consumer safety, the world would be a better place...
That, I firmly believe, is what democrats should always insist on when ever any free trade discussion is entered into...
If not, then it should be off the table...