“Buy American”: Obama Walks a Knife-Edge On Trade

By: Francis Cianfrocca (Diary)  |  February 4th at 06:02 AM  | 

Obama has been walking back his rhetoric on trade protectionism. Specifically, the “Buy American” clause in the fiscal stimulus bill now under debate in the Senate. Think about it. We’re getting ready to borrow trillions of dollars that our children will need to repay some day. We’re going to give it to the governors of the fifty states, to spend on teacher salaries, Medicare and | Read More »

Henry Paulson Wouldn’t Have Done This

By: Francis Cianfrocca (Diary)  |  January 23rd at 06:46 AM  | 

Treasury Secretary-designate Tim Geithner was reported to have mentioned yesterday that he believes the Chinese are “manipulating” their currency, presumably downward against the dollar in an attempt to goose their exports. This issue is going to get a lot of play in the next few months, because China’s mercantilist policy depends on an artificially undervalued currency. Since this causes tremendous imbalances in global capital flows, | Read More »