Economy News

U.S. lawmakers launch push to repeal NAFTA

   Doug Palmer, WASHINGTON
   Thu Mar 4, 2010 4:35pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A small group of U.S. lawmakers unveiled legislation
on Thursday to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement in the
latest sign of congressional disillusionment with free-trade deals.

The bill spearheaded by Rep. Gene Taylor, a Mississippi Democrat, would
require President Barack Obama to give Mexico and Canada six months notice
that the United States will no longer be part of the 16-year-old trade
pact.

Even as the American economy shows tentative signs of a rebound, the human toll of the recession continues to mount, with millions of Americans remaining out of work, out of savings and nearing the end of their unemployment benefits.

Economists fear that the nascent recovery will leave more people behind than in past recessions, failing to create jobs in sufficient numbers to absorb the record-setting ranks of the long-term unemployed.

A reluctance to spend MAY be a legacy of the recession??

Even as evidence mounts that the Great Recession has finally released its chokehold on the American economy, experts worry that the recovery may be weak, stymied by consumers’ reluctance to spend.

Energy expert and former CIBC economist Jeff Rubin says global economy will get the "shock of its life" within 12 months of the end of the recession when oil prices hit triple digits and the age of globalization starts to come to an end.

The reason Free Traders and Free Marketeers rage against so-called "Protectionism" is because it regulates and contains their excesses and provides real justice for smaller and weaker economies.

Tentative Deal for G.M.’s Opel Is Latest Shift for Industry

For all the drastic cuts and financial overhauls that are meant to secure a future for General Motors and Chrysler, their prospects in coming years will be determined more by the answer to a simple question: Can American drivers live without that new-car smell?

 The economic Crash is U.S.-created, and it began even before the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

The great world financial meltdown of 2008-9 was not, as they desperately keep repeating over and over and over again, something that noone could have seen coming - it is, rather, the greatest sting of history.

The erasure of any political theory that conflicts with Capitalsit and "Free Market" theory has flattened political thought.  The result is blind enslavement to bad ideas. 

As government data revealed that 651,000 more jobs disappeared in February, a sense took hold that growing joblessness may reflect a wrenching restructuring of the American economy

 The advocates of "Free Trade" never cease extolling its virtues.  But it has none.  "Free Trade", in fact, doesn't exist, but is a code name for exploitation of the weak.

The financial crash, the credit freeze,  and the economic downturn we are living through are presently being "repaired" by the very people who caused the disasters - over decades. Something is deeply wrong - and will get worse until ordinary people demand something very different from the present "solutions".

Commentary: Uniting U.S., Canada, Mexico money could result from crisis

Thomas Jefferson once said: "When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on." As the global financial system pushes on a string, investors are desperately trying to hold tight.

If the idea of bailouts and government spending is to "grease" local economies, why is the Harper government so determined to be the exception to the rule?

As is usual with this government:

Officials from the Department of National Defence did not answer several requests for an interview....