On the Michigan Talk Network about the media misreporting Trump's trade and tariff policies

Dr. John Lott talks to Steve Gruber about how the media is greatly exaggerating the impact of Trump's trade policies with China. The cost of products will not be going up anywhere near as much as the media claims.

Is it better to spend more money on helping the Olympic athletes or on their clothes?

Possibly with all of Obama's attacks on outsourcing this was inevitable. It surely fits in with the Obama campaign theme. ABC's "Made in America Team" has this investigation. This has to take the cake for being nutty:

“I think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said when asked by ABC News today, “If they have to wear nothing but a singlet that says USA on it, painted by hand, that is what they should wear.” . . .

Did donors to the Olympics care more about winning medals or about who made the clothes? There are only so much funds to go around. There are real opportunity costs.

Ben Stein loses gig for being "unsure" about man-made global warming, but that is only a part of the story

Ben Stein's unsureness about man-made global warming (note he was just "unsure") seems to have cost him this job for a Japanese company. From Reuters:

The conservative pundit and actor -- and former Nixon speechwriter -- alleges that his position on climate change had him kicked off a $300,000 acting gig, only to be replaced by a lookalike.

Stein filed a discrimination suit against Japanese company Kyocera Corporation and New York ad agency Seiter & Miller Advertising, in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday. . . .

In February, Jao called Hurwitz and said "questions had been raised by defendant Kyocera about whether [Stein's] views on global warming and on the environment were sufficiently conventional and politically correct for Kyocera," according to the suit.

Stein then told Kyocera and Seiter & Miller that he was extremely concerned about the environment but unsure whether humans are responsible for global warming.

"He also told Hurwitz to inform defendants that, as a matter of religious belief, he believed that God, and not man, controlled the weather," the suit claims.

That same month, Seiter & Miller President Livingston Miller emailed Hurwitz, telling her the agency had decided to withdraw its offer. . . .

The person who replaced Stein is University of Maryland economist Peter Morici. It is pretty ironic that Morici is working for a Japanese firm that is trying to sell its products in the US given that he blames Japanese and Chinese companies doing this as the cause of the so-called "Great Recession."

The seeds of the Great Recession were sowed by an imbalance of demand between the United States and Western Europe, on the one hand, and China and other Asian economies, on the other. . . .

Despite Morici hating our trade deficit with Japan, it was global warming that seemed to be the more important issue for Kyocera.

Obama: subsidize exports to increase them

Subsidizing exports to expand them? Selling products for less than they are worth is not exactly a way to make the US wealthier.

President Obama unveiled plans Thursday to double U.S. exports over the next five years . . .

Designed to deliver on a pledge he made in his State of the Union speech, Obama's plan includes $2 billion in new export financing through the Export-Import Bank, which helps U.S. companies finance overseas sales; establishment of a Cabinet group to promote U.S. goods and services abroad; and an expanded role for the Nixon-era President's Export Council, to be chaired by W. James McNerney, Boeing's president and chief executive. Restrictions on the overseas sale of some high-end technology goods may also be eased.

If successful, the president said, the program would create 2 million jobs. Experts said the viability of that figure would depend on the type of exports that are expanded. . . .

A lot of "stimulus" money is going for overseas purchases

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone and it would have risked trade wars if there had been some broader prohibitions, but it produces a sticky situation for the anti-trade Democrats. With Democrats completely controlling everything, it will be interesting to see how they talk their way out of this one.

Senate Democrats are furious that the vast majority of grants from the clean-energy program from last year’s stimulus have been awarded to foreign companies.

Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jon Tester of Montana announced Wednesday a new initiative to require the "Buy America" provision of the stimulus to all programs, not just the government ones. A study done by the Investigative Reporting Workshop found that 79 percent of the $2 billion in clean-energy grants allocated since Sept. 1, 2009, has gone to foreign wind companies.

"We are demanding the Obama administration suspend this program immediately ... [and] indefinitely," Schumer said. "We are sending a letter to Secretary [Timothy] Geithner asking him to halt all payouts for this program until we in Congress can go back and fix this law."

The senators highlighted a wind farm project in west Texas, which received stimulus aid and is projected to create 3,000 jobs in China and a tenth as many in the United States.

"Some of us complained about this to the administration back in November when this project was first announced, so it's not that they don't know about it, but the Energy Department in their reply said they were powerless to stop it because projects like this are automatically eligible for the grants. That answer is not good enough," Schumer said. . . .

Is Obama moving towards a trade war with China?

Sure the steel workers' union members and Goodyear will benefit from these tariffs, but other companies and consumers as a whole will be hurt. Why should the government subsidize jobs for those making tires, but make jobs for workers at Ford who have to now sell somewhat more expensive cars more difficult? From the Financial Times:

A full-blown trade row erupted on Sunday night between the US and China after Beijing accused Washington of “rampant protectionism” for imposing heavy duties on imported Chinese tyres and threatened action against imports of US poultry and vehicles.

Trade relations between two of the world’s biggest economies deteriorated after Barack Obama, US president, signed an order late on Friday to impose a new duty of 35 per cent on Chinese tyre imports on top of an existing 4 per cent tariff.

In his first big test on world trade since taking office in January, Mr Obama sided with America’s trade unions, which have complained that a “surge” in imports of Chinese-made tyres had caused 7,000 job losses among US factory workers.

Chen Deming, China’s minister of commerce, condemned the decision, saying that it “sends the wrong signal to the world” at a time when Washington and Beijing should be co-operating to deal with the worst economic and financial crisis in decades.

“This is a grave act of trade protectionism,” Mr Chen said in a statement. “Not only does it violate WTO rules, it contravenes commitments the United States government made at the [April] G20 financial summit.” . . . .

Smoot-Hawley Revisited

Reuters has a story on the Canadian desire to retaliate over trade restrictions:

Canadian municipal leaders threatened to retaliate against the "Buy America" movement in the United States on Saturday, warning trade restrictions will hurt both countries' economies.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities endorsed a controversial proposal to support communities that refuse to buy products from countries that put trade restrictions on products and services from Canada.

The measure is a response to a provision in the U.S. economic stimulus package passed by Congress in February that says public works projects should use iron, steel and other goods made in the United States.

The United States is Canada's largest trading partner, and Canadians have complained the restrictions will bar their companies from billions of dollars in business that they have previously had access to.

"This U.S. protectionist policy is hurting Canadian firms, costing Canadian jobs and damaging Canadian efforts to grow our economy in the midst of a worldwide recession," said Sherbrooke, Quebec, Mayor Jean Perrault, also president of the federation that represents cities and towns across Canada.

The municipal officials meeting at the federation's convention in Whistler, British Columbia, endorsed the measure despite complaints by Canadian trade officials.

Trade Minister Stockwell Day told the group on Friday that Ottawa was actively negotiating with Washington to get the "Buy American" restrictions removed. . . . .

A trade war with Mexico over 97 trucks

Here is where the trade war came from:

The Obama Administration, by putting an end to a program that allowed some Mexican long-haul trucks into the U.S., has triggered a slew of retaliatory tariffs from Mexico. The White House seems to be looking for a way to resolve a dispute that it failed to avert, despite much forewarning. But it looks like it may be too late to avoid the $2.4 billion in tariffs altogether, experts say.

On Mar. 16, Mexico announced tariffs on about 90 items from 40 U.S. states, mostly on agricultural products. It was retaliation for Congress' decision last week to kill a program meant to defuse a dispute that has lasted more than 13 years over the right of U.S. and Mexican long-haul trucks to cross each other's border carrying goods. Mexico contends that the U.S. is violating the North American Free Trade Agreement, which provides for free movement by each member state's trucks. Congressional critics say Mexican trucks are unsafe and do not belong on U.S. roads. . . .

on Mar. 10, Congress passed a $410 billion government spending bill containing a clause inserted by Senator Byron Dorgan [D-N.D.] killing the pilot program, and the following day Obama signed it.

A study used as a weapon by both sides was issued on Feb. 6 by Joseph W. Come, Assistant Inspector General for the U.S. Transportation Dept. The study concluded that long-haul Mexican trucks were in many cases safer than similar U.S. vehicles. But critics of the trucking provision note that the study included a caveat that, in Come's opinion, the number of vehicles inspected was too small to be conclusive. . . . .

Here is more on what this trade war was over:

The program Congress terminated allowed 97 Mexican trucks to roam among them. Ninety-seven! Shutting them out not only undermines NAFTA. It caused Mexico to retaliate with tariffs on 90 goods affecting $2.4 billion in U.S. trade coming out of 40 states. . . . .

The New York Times doesn't see it quite this way, but trade barriers are going up all over the world because of Obama.

After repeated pledges by world leaders to avoid erecting trade barriers, protectionism is on the march, provoking nasty trade disputes and undermining efforts to plot a coordinated response to the deepest global economic downturn since World War II.

From a looming battle with China over tariffs on carbon-intensive goods to a spat over Mexican trucks using American roads, barriers are going up around the world. As the recession’s grip tightens, these pressures are likely to intensify, several experts said.

The surge in protectionism is casting a shadow over an economic summit meeting of world leaders scheduled for London on April 2. At the last such gathering, in Washington in November, former President George W. Bush persuaded the Group of 20 members to commit to protecting free trade — whatever the pressures caused by faltering economies and lost jobs. The members include industrialized and developing nations, and the European Union. . . . . .

Of course, all this going on with trade dropping a lot this year. The BBC reports:

Global trade flows are set to shrink by 9% during 2009, according to a forecast by the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Hardest hit will be developed nations, where trade is set to fall 10%. Poorer countries will see exports fall 2-3%.

The WTO blames the deepening recession for the downturn, but says trade could be "a potent tool" for recovery.

It would be the biggest drop in trade since World War II, said WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, who called on global leaders to fight protectionism. . . . . .

Mass email that I received opposing free-trade

Another American company is deserting the United States, seeking cheap labor, less government regulations and lower taxes. Hershey, whose name has been synonymous with U.S. candymaking for more than a century, is moving a bigger chunk of its production to Mexico. The company has announced as a part of its restructuring that it will scale back its workforce of 1,500 jobs and force some U.S. plants ot close. Management predicts it will save $190 million per year and who can blame the company? The real blame it a the door step of the free trade advocates in your Administration who make it extremely difficult to operate with any success in our country.

E. F. Jones

The last five or so administrations have been pushing what are generally free trade rules. Besides that shouldn't we require each state or better even each town to be self sufficient? I am personally very upset that Virginians could have had jobs producing cars that workers in Ohio and Michigan end up getting. Let's at least be consistent and insist that every local community be self sufficient. While it is true that the costs of products would rise much more than any possible benefit from keeping the jobs, at least we would have the jobs, right? After all, there are a finite number of jobs.