World leaders urge free trade to halt crisis

[RB TexLa]

Leaders from Asia and the Americas pledged on Saturday to push for a global free trade deal and reform international lending institutions in an effort to keep the world from sliding into a deep recession.

U.S. President George W. Bush, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and other members of the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group, or APEC, said they would refrain from raising barriers to investment or trade over the next 12 months.

They also supported overhauls of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank at a time when more countries are asking for emergency funds.

"The current situation highlights the importance of ongoing financial sector reforms in our economies," the leaders said at the mid-point of a two-day summit meeting at a fortified defence compound in Peru's capital, Lima.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20081122/tpl-uk-financial-apec-c31991c.html

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. WHAT? This is part of the problem! We're being sold goods we're not making...

.. there are no jobs here. We have no money to spend. Our country is landing in a hellhole thanks to this free trade bs.

[Mojambo]

2. Not gonna change.

Barack Obama has chosen to surround himself with supply side free traders.

Get used to McAmerica.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

5. I can't believe Obama would keep jobs out of the U.S. He said more than once....

that he would reward any companies that were manufacturing HERE in the U.S. by lowering their taxes, while NOT doing the same for companies that manufacture elsewhere. That doesn't sound supply-side voodoo economics to me.

Besides, it was Bush that decided that. Who knows what Obama would've decided if he'd been the president at that meeting?

[Mojambo]

6. You may be right.

I'm premising my comments exclusively on the economic advisers he is putting into place.

Barack Obama wouldn't be the first guy to say a bunch of shit during the election and then flat out do the opposite when he gets into office. (or even before he gets into office - FISA vote) Clinton ran as an economic populist and then was turned into a free trade monster by the same Rubin/Summers crew that will be advising Obama.

I'm a little concerned, but agree that it's still too early to call.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

8. Thank you my friend. We're all so nervous we're about to snap! LOL!

However, Obama is a brilliant man, and he's a lib, but he's also too smart to just take a bat to everything and tear it apart. And remember, the first thing his team began doing was legal research on how to cancel those orders the Chimp-in-chief signed. Hundreds of them!!

[Sinti]

7. There will be no choice - change or they'll have to sell their goods elsewhere

Free trade assumes we have something to trade, other than our money for their stuff. With no manufacturing of anything here, we've got nothing to balance the incoming goods. Have a look at the Current Account Balance - that's how economies go under. The countries at the top sell us stuff, i.e., China, Japan, and the oil-rich nations, while they buy basically nothing from us. Their economies depend on our ability to buy. If we go down, they will also go down.

McAmerica is where we've been while climbing up this mountain of debt. Where we go from here without any manufacturing if McHellonearth, with food riots, shanty towns, and people dying in the street. It may not be immediate, but it is inevitable. If he governs as a "supply-sider", trickle-down, horse and sparrow economics type, there will be nothing left to govern. I do believe he realizes that.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

9. Exactly. The end result of free market economics is always the destruction of the country nt

[OhioChick]

19. That's not a good sign.

If all of the citizens of this country don't see the "change" he's been harping on for his entire campaign (closing loopholes, taxing those that ship jobs overseas, bringing jobs home, etc.) he'll never see a 2nd term.

Here's a gem that I came across that techies are pissed about:

Obama's choice for DHS could flame tech visa battle

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano has a strong record of support for the H-1B program

November 20, 2008 (Computerworld) The person thought to be President-elect Barack Obama's leading choice to be secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, has been a strong advocate of increasing H-1B visas -- a stance that could turn out to be a lightning-rod issue during her confirmation.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9121059&intsrc=hm_list

[RB TexLa]

10. "our country"??? This is a world wide situation.

Nationalism truly is a mental illness.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

11. Stop hyperventilating. China is doing quite well while we're stuck in the hell of debt and ....

bankruptcy. I don't know if you're planning to take off and go live there, but I want my country fixed first so I can stay here and not have to eat dirt.

[RB TexLa]

12. Try thinking past the borders of the US. And, I've never hyperventilated in my life.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

13. You've got to be kidding me. This country is being flushed down the toilet and I'm going to be

putting other countries on an equal-footing?

You must be smoking something.

[RB TexLa]

14. I see, no one is equal to Americans in your mind.

Sick.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

15. I think you've been hittin' the bottle too long. Time to put it down buddy.

And you're welcome to weep for China as they buy out our ass.

I won't be.

[RB TexLa]

16. No bottle, and not "smoking" anything either to answer your earlier insult.

[OhioChick]

17. You're absolutely right. n/t

[Sarah Ibarruri]

21. Thanks nt

[spoony]

18. Yep, and what gall for them to suggest that more of the same

will solve the problems it's created! Madness.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

20. It's insanty. The stores are filled with stuff we can't buy because we middle class have no money

And they want more of the same.

[onethatcares]

3. wtf does that mean?

"the importance of ongoing financial sector reforms"? Does it mean, "we gotta screw every working man out of what he owns so it's all ours"? You can bet they're drinking better than $500.00 a bottle wine at this social gathering.

Fortified defense compounds, cause they can't be seen in public spouting this bullshit.

[gristy]

4. Got a crisis? Pass a law. Doesn't matter if it's not going to help or is even related to the crisis.

Just need to make enough people think it is.