Drat! And I was so hopeful that an Obama administration would improve America's image in the world. It seems our neighbors to the North are upset. I guess that al Arabyia interview was a good idea. At least one region of the world likes us, right?
A "buy American" component of the stimulus package has some of our trading partners upset. Oh well, if he won't change it for the political party that received 46% in the last election, perhaps he will at least change it for someone else. Did anyone even bother to read the thing before this?
“U.S. protectionism is about to make Canada’s recession a lot worse,” Ralph Goodale, house leader for the opposition Liberal Party, said today in Parliament.
‘Serious Matter’
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday that he will complain to U.S. officials over the “buy American” measure. “This is obviously a serious matter,” he said.
The provision also is opposed by U.S. companies with significant sales overseas such as General Electric Co. and Caterpillar Inc., which warn it may spark other countries to retaliate by restricting U.S. products.
The Senate is working on its own version of the stimulus legislation.
The U.S. provision is “clearly against trade agreements,” and Canada would be able to file a complaint under either the North American Free Trade Agreement or with the World Trade Organization, said Simon Potter, an international trade lawyer with McCarthy Tetrault in Montreal.
It's too bad we don't have history books to look back to, with things like Smoot-Hawley protectivism, tax increases and ineffective governmental spend on foolish shovel-ready projects that sucked capital and credit from the private market. No, I'm sure these specific actions are a great idea.
Obama's such a smart man.
Posted by: HatlessHessian | Friday, January 30, 2009 at 09:39 PM
Who needs slanted history books when you have Thomas Sowell?
Another Great Depression?
"With both Barack Obama's supporters and the media looking forward to the new administration's policies being similar to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's policies during the 1930s depression, it may be useful to look at just what those policies were and-- more important-- what their consequences were.
The prevailing view in many quarters is that the stock market crash of 1929 was a failure of the free market that led to massive unemployment in the 1930s-- and that it was intervention of Roosevelt's New Deal policies that rescued the economy.
It is such a good story that it seems a pity to spoil it with facts. Yet there is something to be said for not repeating the catastrophes of the past."
http://townhall.com/Columnists/ThomasSowell/2008/12/23/another_great_depression
Posted by: Lala | Friday, January 30, 2009 at 09:52 PM