NewsTrust - Trade - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Fair Game: W.T.O. and Barriers to Financial Change

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Gretchen Morgenson - Mar. 17 (Opinion) - The battle to remake the financial markets faces new obstacles in — of all places — the World Trade Organization. Even now, after all we’ve been through, something is still wrong with Wall Street. That’s the takeaway from the extraordinary — and extraordinarily public — resignation of Greg Smith from Goldman Sachs last week. His criticism of Goldman, made in an Op-Ed article in The New York Times, suggested that some of the business practices and inherent conflicts in the financial industry are as troubling today as they were before all of those taxpayer bailouts.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Op-Ed Columnist: What Ails Europe?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Paul Krugman - Feb. 26 (Opinion) - The two common explanations — call it the Republican narrative and the German narrative — are just wrong.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Op-Ed Contributor: Chinese Labor, Cheap No More

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Michelle Loyalka, New York Times - Feb. 18 (Opinion) - The cheap labor that has made China’s factories nearly unbeatable is not so cheap anymore.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Vintage ketch sets sail to launch slow cargo movement - The Guardian

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - Feb. 13 - Vintage ketch sets sail to launch slow cargo movement The Guardian The hope is that, with this symbolic journey, Irene – a lovely wooden ketch built in Somerset in 1907 to transport bricks and tiles – will blaze a trail for wind-powered cargo ships. The project, New Dawn Traders, was hatched by Jamie Pike, ... and ...

NewsTrust Rating: 1.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Daily Show: Fear Factory

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Daily Show - By Jon Stewart - Jan. 23 (Comedy News) - If America wants to compete with China, then it will have to make its factories more like Foxconn's.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

In a cloud over ozone

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Eugene Robinson - Sep. 03 - GOP falsely blames EPA for the jobs shortage.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Congress should reject proposed trade agreements and insist on better policies

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Lynne Dodson, Kathleen Ridihalgh - Jul. 27 (Opinion) - The proposed U.S. trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama would continue to undermine the American economy, write guest columnists Lynne Dodson and Kathleen Ridihalgh. Washington's congressional delegation should reject them in favor of better policies.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Monetary union, always unworkable, has set in train a European disaster | Simon Jenkins

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Simon Jenkins - Jul. 22 (Opinion) - The eurozone is edging closer to doomed fiscal union. But sceptics shouldn't celebrate, as the chaos will reach Britain too At last, a real crisis. The Franco-German salvage operation for the eurozone was inevitable for the simple reason that Armageddon never happens. Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel patched together yet another "temporary" bail-out for the Greeks, and will do so for the Portuguese and Irish if need be. German taxpayers will pay the Greeks' bills and aid Europe's banks as they continue to profit from 20% interest on their sovereign loans. Power always wins, so long as it can get someone else to pay. A more intriguing crisis erupts in Britain. The chancellor, George Osborne, showed impressive cynicism in abandoning his opposition to a "two-speed" Europe and demanding that the eurozone move swiftly to fiscal union – with Britain firmly outside. Only such a union, he said, would discipline the debtor nations and thus avoid bank anarchy that would spill over into the British ...

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

British youth protest needs the spirit of los indignados

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Paul Callanan - Jul. 04 (Opinion) - We're marching from town to town to build a mass movement against the cuts, demanding job creation, not destruction In the past few weeks, Europe has been rocked by youth rebellion. In Spain, young people have taken to the squares and plazas in a movement against sky-high levels of unemployment. In Greece, a huge movement of young people supported by the trade unions has taken to the streets over the government's brutal austerity agenda. And now if young people are to have anything like a decent future in Britain, we need to do the same here. At the moment there are nearly 1 million young people unemployed . We have also seen the right to an education snatched away from working- and middle-class students and turned into a privilege for the wealthiest few in society. Public sector cuts will also impact young people disproportionately as millions more are sent to the dole queue, while those services that support unemployed people are slashed to the bone. And this government of Bullingdon Boys ...

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Agitator by trade unhappy with Obama

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Hill - By Vicki Needham - Jun. 07 (Interview) - Wallach had hoped Obama’s election in 2008 was the moment when her years of advocacy on trade policy would pay off. She expected the pending U.S. trade deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama would be renegotiated with workers in mind. But that optimism is dead and gone. “The president is on the wrong side,” she said.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Brazil reduces poverty but industry feels the strain

Thu, 12 May 2011 16:41:59 -0700

BBC News - May. 12 -

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Latin America shakes off the US yoke | Mark Weisbrot

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Mark Weisbrot - Apr. 08 - The current spat with Ecuador is symptomatic of Washington's failure to grasp that it no longer exercises regional hegemonyOn Thursday the United States expelled the ambassador from Ecuador, in retaliation for Wednesday's expulsion of the US ambassador from Ecuador. This now leaves the United States without ambassadorial relations in three South American countries – Bolivia and Venezuela being the other two – thus surpassing the Bush administration in its diplomatic problems in the region.US Ambassador Heather Hodges was declared "persona non grata" and asked to leave Ecuador "as soon as possible", after a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks showed her saying some disparaging things about Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa. In the cable, she alleges that President Correa had knowledge of corruption by a former head of the national police. Although the Bush administration intervened in the internal affairs of countries such as Bolivia and even Brazil, it was somewhat better at keeping its "eyes on the prize" and avoiding fights that would distract from its main goal. The prize, of course, is Venezuela – home to the largest oil reserves in the world, estimated by the US Geological Survey at 500bn barrels. Washington's goal there for the last decade has been regime change. The Bush team understood that the more they fought with other countries in the region, the less credible would be their public relations story that Venezuela was the problem.It's nothing personal, really – Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez could have chosen to be the perfect diplomat and he would still be treated in much the same manner by the US government. And it's not the oil itself, since Venezuela still sells the US more than 1m barrels a day and there is a world market for oil, in any case. It's just that any country with that much oil is going to have regional influence; and Washington just doesn't want to deal with someone who has regional influence and doesn't line up with its own goals for the region – not if it can get rid of them. (This simple observation explains a lot about US relations with some other oil states: for example, Iran.) And they have come close to getting rid of Chávez, in the 2002 coup – so they are not giving up.But Washington is losing ground there, too. A big blow was the change in Colombia's foreign policy last summer, when President Juan Manuel Santos took office. An important part of Washington's strategy in Venezuela is to maintain tension between Colombia and Venezuela. They have a head start on this project since the 2,000km border between the two countries has been plagued by paramilitary and guerrilla violence for decades. Conflict between Venezuela and Colombia is also important to Washington's electoral strategy in Venezuela. When there is trouble between the two countries, as in 2009, when Venezuela cut off bilateral trade in response to the US effort to expand its military presence in Colombia, it has a negative impact on a lot of Venezuelans in border states. This helps garner some anti-Chávez votes in border states, as in last year's congressional election in Venezuela. And accusations of Venezuelan support for the Farc guerrillas in Colombia – despite Washington's failure to offer any evidence – are a key element of bringing its anti-Venezuela efforts under the "war on terror" umbrella.Although Colombia's previous president, Álvaro Uribe, was – in recent years – very much allied with the United States' strategy toward Venezuela, Santos immediately rejected it and decided immediately to make peace with Chávez. This turned out to be quite easy to do, despite their past fights when Santos was Uribe's defence minister. As anyone who follows Venezuela knows, Chávez is friendly to any head of state or government that is friendly to Venezuela. Santos's U-turn towards Venezuela is very interesting for several reasons. First, it shows how important regional economic integration is as a force for peace and stability in the area. The attempt by Washington and Santos's predecessor to expand the US military presence in Colombia led to a cutoff of $2.3bn of Colombia's exports to what had recently become their second most important trading partner, Venezuela. This was more than 11% of Colombia's exports, and the bulk of it was in livestock and textile products for which replacement markets were not so readily available. Venezuela also has very close relations with Brazil and most of the rest of South America, and they all felt the same way about Colombia's foreign policy. They were especially concerned about the US military expansion in Colombia – and even more opposed after US Air Force documents made it clear that this expansion was for "mobility operations … on the South American continent" and against the "constant threat" from "anti-US governments". Santos was basically faced with a choice of continuing to do Washington's bidding or being part of South America. He chose South America. The key role of commerce here, as South America continues to integrate economically, illustrates some of the most important "gains from trade". These are far greater than the neoclassical "efficiency gains", often exaggerated by advocates of "free trade" agreements. Also, Santos's choice to rejoin South America shows how geopolitical changes led by the left governments of the region have now encompassed even rightwing governments. This is a result of changes in institutions (foreign ministries, multilateral organisations such as Unasur, the Rio Group), ideas, and norms that have taken place over the last decade.Now comes Washington, demanding that Colombia extradite one Walid Makled, an accused Venezuelan narco-trafficker arrested in Colombia, to the United States. No, thank you, says President Santos – this guy goes to Venezuela. Santos cites Colombian law, stating that, first, Colombia has an extradition treaty with Venezuela, not with the United States; second, Venezuela got their extradition request in first; and third, Makled is wanted for more serious crimes (including murder) in Venezuela than in the US (drug-trafficking). All of these are facts that legally require extradition of Makled to Venezuela.This is most infuriating to Washington. To understand why this is so important to the state department, one has to look behind official pronouncements about Makled getting "a free and fair trial" in Venezuela and other nonsense repeated with charming innocence by the major media. Venezuela has a presidential election next year. For every important election or referendum in Venezuela – and there are many, but none more important to Washington than this one – there is an international media campaign, with the participation of the US government. (A recent WikiLeaks cable shows the Colombian government sharing with US officials its coordinated media campaign to link both Chávez and Correa to the Colombian Farc guerrillas.) Makled has already offered to sing about alleged corruption of Venezuelan officials (note that we haven't heard anything about his dealings with Colombian officials – there must not be any narco-corruption there), but only if he is extradited to the US. So, if they could only get him to Miami, they could have a splendid show trial that would be better than any international media campaign that the state department could organise.If all that seems like it's not worth the trouble, it's exactly what happened in 2008. US authorities used a sketchy show trial of a Venezuelan slapped with dubious "failing to register as a foreign agent" charges – but not with actual espionage – in order to broadcast allegations of corruption at the "highest levels" of the Venezuelan government. The allegations made headlines throughout the hemisphere and, of course, were a mainstay of the Venezuelan opposition-dominated media. Just think what the Makled trial could do: no one would ask what the witnesses were offered for their testimony, or whether there was any corroborating evidence for their allegations. It would be one big free-for-all smear-fest, with reporters gobbling it all up.But Santos is not co-operating, despite enormous pressure and, of course, the currently pending "free trade" agreement between the US and Colombia. Perhaps Washington wants this agreement more than he does.In any case, the Obama administration – like its predecessor – is fighting a losing battle. President Obama's recent trip to Latin America was hardly more successful than those of Bush. He gets better press – no riots in the streets or Mayan leaders cleansing the site with sage after his visit. But every president and foreign minister there can see that US policies haven't changed one bit.VenezuelaEcuadorWikiLeaksThe US embassy cablesUS foreign policyUnited StatesColombiaDrugs tradeHugo ChávezBrazilObama administrationExtraditionMark Weisbrotguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Asian countries fear drop in aid funding from Japan | Claire Provost

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Claire Provost - Mar. 16 - India, Indonesia and the Philippines express concern over effects of Japanese disasters on aid from and trade with Tokyo Asian countries that receive development assistance from Japan have expressed concern that aid budgets could be cut as the country recovers from last Friday's earthquake and tsunami. India, Indonesia and the Philippines have expressed fears that projects funded by Japan may be dropped or rescheduled. The full economic impact of the disasters in Japan is yet to be seen, but fears are growing that the country might tip back into recession . Japan is not only a regional economic powerhouse and the world's third-largest economy, it is also the fifth largest donor of development aid, after the US, France, Germany and the UK. According to data from the OECD , aid disbursements from Japan totalled $9.47bn in 2009, putting the country far ahead of Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Canada. On Monday, the Japan International Co-operation Agency (Jica) said ...

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Dilma Rousseff moves Brazil to centre | Vincent Bevins

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Vincent Bevins - Mar. 04 (Opinion) - Brazil's new president picks a different route to prosperity and influence from Latin America's generation of left-populist leaders For those familiar with Latin American politics, the notion that Muammar Gaddafi had fled to Venezuela seemed absurd . Certainly, Chávez and other leftwing Latin American leaders have seemed embarrassed and uncertain how to respond to the events unfolding in Libya. But Chávez has not given explicit support and it is an awkward moment for many governments. In any case, Gaddafi has much better friends in Africa and had some good friends in London as well . It was interesting to see British Foreign Secretary William Hague bring Chávez briefly back to the centre of attention in Latin American politics. Because, for better or worse, Chávez is much less important in the region than he was a few years ago. And there is a new figure on the scene, now in charge of half of South America's population, who may be beginning to embody a new strategy for left-of-centre leaders ...

NewsTrust Rating: 2.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

WikiLeaks has created a new media landscape

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Clay Shirky - Feb. 04 (Opinion) - By avoiding national secrecy laws, WikiLeaks has begun a publishing trend that no regime can stop WikiLeaks affects one of the key tensions in democracies: the government needs to be able to keep secrets, but citizens need to know what is being done in our name. These requirements are fundamental and incompatible; like the trade-offs between privacy and security, or liberty and equality, different countries in different eras find different ways to negotiate those competing needs. In the case of state secrets v citizen oversight, however, there is one constant risk: since deciding what is a secret is itself a secret, there is always a risk that the government will simply hide an increasing amount of material of public concern. One response to this risk is the leaker, someone who believes that key elements of political life are being wrongly kept from public view, and who circulates that material on his or her own. Because this tension between governments and leakers is so important, and ...

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

A new world disorder

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Timothy Garton Ash Timothy Garton Ash - Jan. 28 (Opinion) - Can Western liberal capitalism learn to coexist with other styles, like those of China, India and Brazil's swiftly developing economies? It can -- and it must.Can Western liberal capitalism learn to coexist with other styles, like those of China, India and Brazil's swiftly developing economies? It can -- and it must.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Korea trade pact would hurt the Northwest

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Oregonian - By Arthur Stamoulis - Jan. 27 (Opinion) - Albert Einstein once noted that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This is an apt description of U.S. trade policy, which year-after-year has caused outrageous deficits that cost the nation millions of family-wage jobs.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Don't swallow this pill

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Times of India - By Unni Karunakara - Jan. 21 (Opinion) - MSF's International President urges India not to cut off access to crucial low-cost medicines.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The 'dish' Boehner will miss

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Jena McGregor - Jan. 19 (Opinion) - Political pundits have been abuzz in recent days over John Boehner's decision to skip President Obama's state dinner for Chinese president Hu Jintao.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Immaterial Growth

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Paul Krugman - Jan. 11 (Opinion) - The point here isn’t that GDP is the sole goal of human existence; it is, rather, that even GDP is a much less mechanical number than many people imagine, that it’s quite possible for measured real GDP to rise even if the physical volume of production doesn’t change much. Alan Greenspan used to give talks about how the GDP was getting lighter; despite the source, he had a point.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

From corporate offices to the cafe, Americans speak their minds on making the economy move

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Associated Press - By Calvin Woodward - Dec. 04 (Interview) - The Associated Press asked people across the country to serve up their ideas to set the economy straight, a challenge underscored Friday when the jobless rate climbed to 9.8 percent, topping 9 percent for a record 19 straight months. They answered in a cacophony of voices, from the corporate office to the cafe.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Julian Assange answers your questions

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Julian Assange - Dec. 03 (Interview) - The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, answers readers' questions about the release of more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Axis of Depression

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Paul Krugman - Nov. 19 (Opinion) - China, Germany and the Republican Party are all trying to bully the Federal Reserve into calling off its efforts to create jobs.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

G20 summit: Seoul survivors

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - Nov. 13 (Editorial) - The summit communiqué is full of good intentions but the bottom line is that China has not backed down It is tempting to treat the G20 meeting in South Korea as the "so-what" summit. Lots of leaders had lots of talks in Seoul. But they reached precious few enforceable agreements at the end of them. So what? Yet this was less the so-what than the Sherlock Holmes summit. In the detective story, the significant thing was the fact that the dog did not bark in the night. By the same token, the big story from Seoul is that there was no big story. If there had been, as in many ways there should have been, that story would have been that the United States had successfully forced the Chinese and Germans to stimulate their domestic economies and compelled the Chinese to revalue the yuan upwards to help US exporters. Yet this did not happen. The summit communiqué is full of good intentions, expressions of co-operation and agreements to make future agreements. But the bottom line is that China has ...

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

EU seeks to levy taxes on Europeans to replace national contributions

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Ian Traynor - Oct. 20 - • European commission proposal would end Britain's rebate • Brussels wants to borrow large sums for infrastructure projects The EU executive made its case today for a new system of European taxation to streamline and underpin Brussels' budget, replacing the contentious regime of national contributions as the basis for EU funding. In the opening salvo of what promises to be a bruising, two-year battle to set EU spending up to 2020, the European commission argued for a phased end to, or reduction of, national contributions and the introduction of new budgets based on "own resources", tax revenue directly levied by Brussels. The new system could involve a dedicated European VAT rate, with the money raised going to Brussels, as well as EU taxes on air travel, carbon emissions, banks or financial market transactions. "The current system of EU financing has evolved piecemeal into a confusing and opaque mix of contributions from national budgets, corrections and rebates," the commission ...

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer