EP-linked TradeReform.org (Coalition for a Prosperous America) is following the pending trade legislation carefully. It appears now that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will hold a vote on the currency bill Tuesday evening, with the vote on the FTAs Wednesday.
Stumo would like Reid to link the two matters (the currency bill and the FTAs), holding up the vote on the FTAs until the House has voted on the currency bill. Such a strategy would perhaps force the hand of John Boehner, who is believed to be preparing to quickly pass the FTAs while ignoring the currency bill by shunting it off to committee to die or diminish into a gutless wonder before getting to the floor of the House for a vote.
Stumo at TradeReform.org --
Reid supports the currency bill and opposes the FTAs. Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor oppose the currency bill but support the FTAs.
Maybe I’m playing checkers and Reid is playing chess, but if he wants currency (and Pelosi does too), why give up the FTAs until the House passes currency?
The key to understanding this is (1) Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio), the RNC, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and all of GOP leadership in the Congress are committed to passing the FTAs and to defeating (or gutting) the currency bill (S. 1619/HR 639), and, (2) while all of the preceding (Boehner, etc.) are committed to the FTAs and opposed to the currency bill, the currency bill (HR 639) appears to be almost a slam-dunk if it goes to a vote in the House, at this time in its current form.
Trade Reform is asking, "Why not hold the FTAs hostage to the currency bill?" That might, possibly, force Boehner to let HR 639 go to a vote in the House, where it can win unless too many GOP supporters of the bill are scared or bought off by Boehner and company.
The thing is, of course, that Boehner probably has the power to shunt HR 639 off to committee, and that's what is likely to happen. That would bring all the GOP members back together into their group-think mentality that is so comfortable and profitable for them. It would also take pressure off for 2012, allowing everyone to say that they voted for a currency reform bill (which will be gutless and toothless).
This all relates, of course, to November 2012, considering that all members of the House will be up for re-election at that time, unless they choose to take the money and run -- retire comfortably without running for re-election, as has happened before when congress critturs vote for unpopular trade legislation.
There seems to be some spin here, if America did not offshore tons of manufacturing jobs then people in America could buy their own health insurance with no "government" who often sides with Pharma industry & big Corps (who may create more diseases to perhaps later then bill the large one pool massed into the central government health care system??) This is what Nafta is all about the subversion and dismantling of our Constitutional form of government, and our dysfunctional trade policy the vehicle too make it happen with the one party system of Demopublicans complicit in the plot. Is it any wonder why after so many years no one seems to fully understand the Managed trade which is NOT free trade but managed by WTO special interests? The reason for status quo? http://www.stopthenorthamericanunion.com/TreasonAbounds.html
Now banks failing and people broke so as to lead us to a future world government. Even a 5 year old would see through the cloud of nonsense. 95% of our congress srving special interests and not the American people at all turning us into their production units or human production capital????
So Congress knows Americans will lose jobs over this but they don't care. How cruel.
Somebody please tell me, what field are those that lose their jobs going to retrain for?
If Obama said he'd renegotiate NAFTA then he lied straight to the face of the American people. To add insult to injury, he wants more NAFTA style trade deals.
Totally unbelievable. Is this just a nightmare? Pinch me so I'll wake up.
"Each trade agreement is a treaty, which (according to state department dogma) can neither be revoked or altered by congress. ... Once those agreements pass, they are stone collar around the middle class. They are permanent." -- Keith
Of course, we all know that State Department dogma is contrary to the Constitution of the United States. That's what makes our anti-WTO designs so much fun. We really can imagine, at least, following our Constitution to put that State Department dogma to rest ... permanently.
In the USA, we have never considered that the EU (most successful effort so far toward systematically eliminating trade barriers) requires actual approval of each member state through a general referendum, not just once but each time that the EU is enlarged.
Efforts to circumvent the Constitution will not be 'permanent' -- either that or the United States of America will disappear from the map -- and then how much are the treaties worth?
Meanwhile, people are very unhappy about the WTO world system, not only in the USA but everywhere. So, keeping an open mind about all the possibilities, we prepare to move forward beyond a cautious 'watch and wait' policy.
Believe it or not, there was international trade before the WTO ... and there will be international trade after the WTO has disappeared down the Great Memory Hole of history.
*that* is most interesting and I do not believe an article on the ratio of exec. comp to quarterly earnings has been done, at least I cannot recall one. I'd love to run some macro data on this one, but need some data references.
I'm having to break up articles on the unemployment monthly overviews. There simply is too much data for me to give analysis in one article in a timely manner and amplify the outrageous jobs situation that the data points to. I'll try to link up all of the articles into one "master" link. That said, these economic statistics overviews are organized into forums, in part so you can more easily look up recent data by forum category. (they are not forums really, but the format is set up so you can find them more easily).
Goldman Sachs has a problem. 50 Percent of the banks expenses are compensation and 80 percent of that compensation half is executive. Goldman is about to announce a loss. GS is not atypical. What feeds the current crisis is that almost all of Blankfein's income is deferred compensation in the form of Common Shares. Blankfein is one of the many overfed managment class at the banks worldwide.
Common Stock and profits are almost all of what makes up Tier I Capital under Basel II. The more the banks lose due to excessive executive compensation, the less bank capital. At the same time, banks need to issue more common, and participating preferred shares to bolster capital so the banks can lend.
The Fed? These idiots push more and more liability reserves into the banks causing the equity percentage to fall and the ability to lend decrease over time.
But banks cannot issue more common equity because levels of common shares (from executive compensation) are dilutive of primary earnings per share. The more the executives take in the form of common shares, the bigger the financial losses and because the compensation expense reduces earnings and creates EPS dilution.
Europe desparately needs to recapitalize its banks, America too. Recapitalization will not happen because the oxygen of earnings and equity is all sucked out of the collective economic room. Yes, there is class warfare and one class is the aggressor.
Trade Reform is also talking about this insanity, with a plug for GOP Presidential candidate Buddy Roemer. What's more amazing is the main stream press.....you cannot find even a mention of the fact this is a complete flip-flop on campaign promises by Obama.
You know what else the main stream press doesn't mention? The fact these treaties are projected to lose more jobs and the fact that past trade treaties, i.e. NAFTA, China PNTR, are proved to have lost jobs and hurt the U.S. economy by increasing the trade deficit.
Looks like U.S. Chamber of Commerce has a muzzle on all media, except for a few outposts, like this site.
I don't disagree with most of this, but I think that is misses the point. Each trade agreement is a treaty, which (according to state department dogma) can neither be revoked or altered by congress.
The reason that the super-wealthy are so adament about entering into these agreements is that they permanently force some amount of labor artibrage into our economic mix. It is an unstopable way to make money without even having to actually produce a product. It is Nirvana for the well-heeled status quo.
There is no "wait until next year" here! Once those agreements pass, they are stone collar around the middle class. They are permanent.
The three pending FTAs can be connected up to the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011 ... but only if we the People connect them!
The currency bill could act as cover for passing the FTAs, but the trade issues combine into a red-hot iron that no one can hold for long. It all depends on citizen activism and participation, which depends on citizens knowing what's going on.
Now is the time to pick up the phone and call Congress. We want real trade reform, and we do not intend to accept any substitutes!
Politicians are all aware of the power of the trade issue today -- a year before the election, and the trade issue is already a game changer. Boehner may be able to retain his iron grip on the House and thwart the will of the majority temporarily, but if so, it will be a Pyrrhic victory.
What we are seeing today is like Lexington and Concord in 1775. This is only the beginning, but it is the beginning.
Oh yeah, Senator, that'll play real good back home in Kentucky
I love the way things are going for a change. When the 'free' traders obviously are shown to be clueless, they remind me of that old Bob Dylan lyric, "Something is happening and you don't know what it is, do you Mr. Jones?"
Lawmakers such as Rep. Allen West (R., Fla.), a Tea Party backed freshman, aren't shy about taking sides. "If someone's out there cheating, you've got to call them out," he told a reporter on Wednesday night. "We're already in a trade war, whatever you want to call it, the trade imbalance with China," and "if you don't take some type of action, you're going to get even worse behavior, and we've got to call the Chinese out on this."
(That answers the question 'Is there a real Tea Party left in Congress?' Apparently there is!)
I know, I know. It's hard to like Democrat senators like Harry Reid, who supported the DREAM Act with its loopholes. But what's important isn't who you like or what your grudges are -- it's understanding what's going on. Like Buddy Roemer says in one of his videos, "I'm a issues wonk. I like it."
I am focusing on the trade issues here, and on everything involved in a successful resolution of the trade issues, including the politics and the personalities. It's going to take a lot of focus on this bill to keep an eye on what happens, if we hope to see a real improvement in trade legislation.
What can we expect to see developing next week? IMO, 'free' traders -- if unable to halt the momentum behind this Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act -- will be desperately trying to figure out a way to put a poison pill into the legislation. That is, they will want to pass a law that will be toothless and doomed to failure. (Key to such treachery is getting a bill to the Senate-House conference or reconciliation stage, where it can be gutted outside public scrutiny -- like another SuperCongress.)
Unless we get Mitt Romney or (dare we hope?) Buddy Roemer nominated in 2012, we can look forward to the entire mess of the U.S. economy being charged by 'economists' to the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011. "Exactly the mistake that was made in the Great Depression with the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930" -- yes, that's what we'll be hearing from the TV pundits this time next year. "The economy's still in a mess, and it's all the fault of the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011 (as amended)."
Let's do everything we can to make sure that real trade reform legislation is what the great WTO propaganda machine blames it all on.
Did you call your senators Thursday? I did. And I'm going to call them everyday for a while. Also my other congress crittur. Why not?
If there was ever a time that called for citizen activism, this is it!
It's like OWS, but you can do it from the comfort of your home! (And you don't have to go into The City either.) Give 'em hell. It's fun.
Behind the scenes, what has been happening is beyond incredible, it's flat-out amazing.
(Photo grabbed from video at official reid.senate.gov webpage)
About Harry Reid (from Wikipedia) --
"Reid's boyhood home had no indoor toilet, hot water or telephone. Searchlight had no high school, so Reid boarded with relatives 40 miles away in Henderson, Nevada to attend Basic High School where he played football, and was an amateur boxer. .... Reid attended Southern Utah University and graduated from Utah State University. He then went to George Washington University Law School earning a J.D. while working for the United States Capitol Police. .... "
The arcane rules of procedure exercised on the floors of Congress don't get written about very often. But an incident on the Senate floor tonight carried a larger lesson: Push Sen. Harry Reid too far, and he will change the rules of the Senate into perpetuity to put you in your place.
From this night on, senators will no longer be able to move to suspend the rules that require all bill amendments to be on-topic, a move the minority party sometimes avails itself of to force votes on topics the majority would rather block. ....
It started over a disagreement between Reid and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell over what amendments Republicans would be permitted to present to [the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011, S. 1619].
McConnell had been rattling Reid, telling the majority leader that he'd never clear the filibuster-busting threshold necessary to advance the legislation. Mid-day, Reid did with room to spare, pulling enough Republicans on board for a 62-to-38 vote. ....
That meant it was time for an argument about amendments. .... Thursday afternoon, Reid decided [that] he'd take seven of the nine amendments McConnell was pushing hard to include. It didn't take long for Reid and McConnell to come to blows.
McConnell picked seven, but Reid didn't like one: an amendment by Mike Johans, R-Neb., objecting to an Environmental Protection Agency rule that would have declared certain farm dusts toxic. .... Reid couldn't get an agreement from his caucus on that, he protested -- much to McConnell's anger.
As McConnell ranted about the right of Republicans to pick their own amendments, Reid quietly pulled out a procedural move few others saw coming (even though Reid was planning it since Thursday morning): raising a point of order against using motions to suspend the rules, then objecting to it on McConnell's behalf, and finally, instructing his caucus -- all but one of whom did as instructed -- to vote against the objection.
The vote was 48 to 51. Boom. Motions to suspend [the rules on] amendments are dead.
“There has to be some end to the dilatory tactics to stop things,” Reid said of the need for the move. "This has to come to an end. This is not a way to legislate."
"This is a bad mistake ... we are fundamentally turning the Senate into the House," McConnell said, his anger apparent as he complained about Reid's efforts to limit the application of the filibuster and expedite the Senate process by a simple majority, as he did Thursday night. .... "Today's minority may be tomorrow's majority." ....
"Let me tell everyone within the sound of my voice: if I were in the minority, I wouldn't do this," he said, referring to use of motions to suspend [the rules on amendments].
"I think it's dilatory and wrong. I think we have to do a better job of legislating here under the rules," Reid continued. "Am I 100 percent sure that I'm right? No, but I feel pretty comfortable with what we've done."
"Seems GOP is POed because they want to "offer amendments". This is a small piece of a host of policies that need to change." -- Robert Oak
We know what we were following today in the Senate -- the vote on S. 1619 (Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011), which has been postponed until next week.
In the big picture, we also know that what's happening in the Senate recently is a fight over whether to take protectionist steps to counter China's trade abuses, or not.
That's definitely not what was 'supposed' to be happening, according to 'Conventional Wisdom'. What was supposed to happen is that the three pending FTAs would, by now, have been approved by the Senate and the House. That would have been business-as-usual, and that's what was supposed to be happening this week in Congress. Then, with the FTAs concluded, the political game could return to a little brouhaha over the TAA crumbs to be tossed to workers displaced by the FTAs, and corporate news media could return to covering the GOP nomination process (excluding Buddy Roemer) as predictive of November 2012.
But behind the scenes what's been happening recently is a desperate effort by Boehner in the House and McConnell in the Senate to get back to business as usual -- which requires shutting out the China-trade issue. That is, there has been a desperate effort by 'free' traders in the Congress to slow down the growing momentum behind the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011.
Two weeks ago, the currency bill was no more than talk from the likes of Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). Then, popular support began to grow, and so did support from Republicans as well as Democrats both in the Senate and in the House. And then, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) decided to lead the charge of the protectionist forces.
If the protectionist forces were limited to the more progressive Democrats in the Senate, we would by now be back to business as usual (passing the three pending FTAs with a minor disagreement over TAA). However, the currency bill has substantial Republican support and enormous popular backing. And that's all the difference.
Seems GOP is POed because they want to "offer amendments". This is a small piece of a host of policies that need to change. Why these people just cannot pass simple, short bills which over 80% of America wants, the statistics back up the bill, and keep it simple, get something done is beyond me.
CNN has the latest infighting, and the Senate is now calling itself, "dysfunctional", no kidding there Congress.
Both of Ohio's senators -- Senator Portman (Republican) and Senator Brown (Democrat) -- support S.1619, the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act.
The fact they won't let him in the GOP debates, while letting in others who have less popularity is despicable. I'm not surprised at all a host of groups that are non-partisan are picking up on him too. So far, what I'm hearing is a lot of positions that seem based on actual statistics, economics, which by that definition would cross political boundaries.
EP-linked TradeReform.org (Coalition for a Prosperous America) is following the pending trade legislation carefully. It appears now that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will hold a vote on the currency bill Tuesday evening, with the vote on the FTAs Wednesday.
Michael Stumo (in a brief post at TradeReform.org, 7 October 2011) wonders about the wisdom of Reid's timing.
Stumo would like Reid to link the two matters (the currency bill and the FTAs), holding up the vote on the FTAs until the House has voted on the currency bill. Such a strategy would perhaps force the hand of John Boehner, who is believed to be preparing to quickly pass the FTAs while ignoring the currency bill by shunting it off to committee to die or diminish into a gutless wonder before getting to the floor of the House for a vote.
Stumo at TradeReform.org --
The key to understanding this is (1) Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio), the RNC, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and all of GOP leadership in the Congress are committed to passing the FTAs and to defeating (or gutting) the currency bill (S. 1619/HR 639), and, (2) while all of the preceding (Boehner, etc.) are committed to the FTAs and opposed to the currency bill, the currency bill (HR 639) appears to be almost a slam-dunk if it goes to a vote in the House, at this time in its current form.
Trade Reform is asking, "Why not hold the FTAs hostage to the currency bill?" That might, possibly, force Boehner to let HR 639 go to a vote in the House, where it can win unless too many GOP supporters of the bill are scared or bought off by Boehner and company.
The thing is, of course, that Boehner probably has the power to shunt HR 639 off to committee, and that's what is likely to happen. That would bring all the GOP members back together into their group-think mentality that is so comfortable and profitable for them. It would also take pressure off for 2012, allowing everyone to say that they voted for a currency reform bill (which will be gutless and toothless).
This all relates, of course, to November 2012, considering that all members of the House will be up for re-election at that time, unless they choose to take the money and run -- retire comfortably without running for re-election, as has happened before when congress critturs vote for unpopular trade legislation.
There seems to be some spin here, if America did not offshore tons of manufacturing jobs then people in America could buy their own health insurance with no "government" who often sides with Pharma industry & big Corps (who may create more diseases to perhaps later then bill the large one pool massed into the central government health care system??) This is what Nafta is all about the subversion and dismantling of our Constitutional form of government, and our dysfunctional trade policy the vehicle too make it happen with the one party system of Demopublicans complicit in the plot. Is it any wonder why after so many years no one seems to fully understand the Managed trade which is NOT free trade but managed by WTO special interests? The reason for status quo? http://www.stopthenorthamericanunion.com/TreasonAbounds.html
Now banks failing and people broke so as to lead us to a future world government. Even a 5 year old would see through the cloud of nonsense. 95% of our congress srving special interests and not the American people at all turning us into their production units or human production capital????
So Congress knows Americans will lose jobs over this but they don't care. How cruel.
Somebody please tell me, what field are those that lose their jobs going to retrain for?
If Obama said he'd renegotiate NAFTA then he lied straight to the face of the American people. To add insult to injury, he wants more NAFTA style trade deals.
Totally unbelievable. Is this just a nightmare? Pinch me so I'll wake up.
So does this site, EP!
"Each trade agreement is a treaty, which (according to state department dogma) can neither be revoked or altered by congress. ... Once those agreements pass, they are stone collar around the middle class. They are permanent." -- Keith
Of course, we all know that State Department dogma is contrary to the Constitution of the United States. That's what makes our anti-WTO designs so much fun. We really can imagine, at least, following our Constitution to put that State Department dogma to rest ... permanently.
In the USA, we have never considered that the EU (most successful effort so far toward systematically eliminating trade barriers) requires actual approval of each member state through a general referendum, not just once but each time that the EU is enlarged.
Efforts to circumvent the Constitution will not be 'permanent' -- either that or the United States of America will disappear from the map -- and then how much are the treaties worth?
Meanwhile, people are very unhappy about the WTO world system, not only in the USA but everywhere. So, keeping an open mind about all the possibilities, we prepare to move forward beyond a cautious 'watch and wait' policy.
Believe it or not, there was international trade before the WTO ... and there will be international trade after the WTO has disappeared down the Great Memory Hole of history.
*that* is most interesting and I do not believe an article on the ratio of exec. comp to quarterly earnings has been done, at least I cannot recall one. I'd love to run some macro data on this one, but need some data references.
I'm having to break up articles on the unemployment monthly overviews. There simply is too much data for me to give analysis in one article in a timely manner and amplify the outrageous jobs situation that the data points to. I'll try to link up all of the articles into one "master" link. That said, these economic statistics overviews are organized into forums, in part so you can more easily look up recent data by forum category. (they are not forums really, but the format is set up so you can find them more easily).
Goldman Sachs has a problem. 50 Percent of the banks expenses are compensation and 80 percent of that compensation half is executive. Goldman is about to announce a loss. GS is not atypical. What feeds the current crisis is that almost all of Blankfein's income is deferred compensation in the form of Common Shares. Blankfein is one of the many overfed managment class at the banks worldwide.
Common Stock and profits are almost all of what makes up Tier I Capital under Basel II. The more the banks lose due to excessive executive compensation, the less bank capital. At the same time, banks need to issue more common, and participating preferred shares to bolster capital so the banks can lend.
The Fed? These idiots push more and more liability reserves into the banks causing the equity percentage to fall and the ability to lend decrease over time.
But banks cannot issue more common equity because levels of common shares (from executive compensation) are dilutive of primary earnings per share. The more the executives take in the form of common shares, the bigger the financial losses and because the compensation expense reduces earnings and creates EPS dilution.
Europe desparately needs to recapitalize its banks, America too. Recapitalization will not happen because the oxygen of earnings and equity is all sucked out of the collective economic room. Yes, there is class warfare and one class is the aggressor.
Trade Reform is also talking about this insanity, with a plug for GOP Presidential candidate Buddy Roemer. What's more amazing is the main stream press.....you cannot find even a mention of the fact this is a complete flip-flop on campaign promises by Obama.
You know what else the main stream press doesn't mention? The fact these treaties are projected to lose more jobs and the fact that past trade treaties, i.e. NAFTA, China PNTR, are proved to have lost jobs and hurt the U.S. economy by increasing the trade deficit.
Looks like U.S. Chamber of Commerce has a muzzle on all media, except for a few outposts, like this site.
You're right, but Congress must ratify those trade treaties for them to be enacted. I used the word "pass" to imply Congress does have power here.
I don't disagree with most of this, but I think that is misses the point. Each trade agreement is a treaty, which (according to state department dogma) can neither be revoked or altered by congress.
The reason that the super-wealthy are so adament about entering into these agreements is that they permanently force some amount of labor artibrage into our economic mix. It is an unstopable way to make money without even having to actually produce a product. It is Nirvana for the well-heeled status quo.
There is no "wait until next year" here! Once those agreements pass, they are stone collar around the middle class. They are permanent.
The three pending FTAs can be connected up to the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011 ... but only if we the People connect them!
The currency bill could act as cover for passing the FTAs, but the trade issues combine into a red-hot iron that no one can hold for long. It all depends on citizen activism and participation, which depends on citizens knowing what's going on.
Now is the time to pick up the phone and call Congress. We want real trade reform, and we do not intend to accept any substitutes!
Politicians are all aware of the power of the trade issue today -- a year before the election, and the trade issue is already a game changer. Boehner may be able to retain his iron grip on the House and thwart the will of the majority temporarily, but if so, it will be a Pyrrhic victory.
What we are seeing today is like Lexington and Concord in 1775. This is only the beginning, but it is the beginning.
Check out the Buddy Roemer channel on YouTube --
Here's the embed for the Dylan Ratigan interview --
" ... we are fundamentally turning the Senate into the House," McConnell said, his anger apparent ... " -- from Las Vegas Sun (available online), story by Karoun Demirjian (6 October 2011), 'Harry Reid changes arcane U.S. Senate rules to make a point'
Oh yeah, Senator, that'll play real good back home in Kentucky
I love the way things are going for a change. When the 'free' traders obviously are shown to be clueless, they remind me of that old Bob Dylan lyric, "Something is happening and you don't know what it is, do you Mr. Jones?"
From Dow Jones Newswire online.wsj.com (story by Siobhan Hughes, 6 October 2011), 'On Currency Bill, Rank-And-File Republicans Buck GOP Leaders' --
(That answers the question 'Is there a real Tea Party left in Congress?' Apparently there is!)
I know, I know. It's hard to like Democrat senators like Harry Reid, who supported the DREAM Act with its loopholes. But what's important isn't who you like or what your grudges are -- it's understanding what's going on. Like Buddy Roemer says in one of his videos, "I'm a issues wonk. I like it."
I am focusing on the trade issues here, and on everything involved in a successful resolution of the trade issues, including the politics and the personalities. It's going to take a lot of focus on this bill to keep an eye on what happens, if we hope to see a real improvement in trade legislation.
What can we expect to see developing next week? IMO, 'free' traders -- if unable to halt the momentum behind this Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act -- will be desperately trying to figure out a way to put a poison pill into the legislation. That is, they will want to pass a law that will be toothless and doomed to failure. (Key to such treachery is getting a bill to the Senate-House conference or reconciliation stage, where it can be gutted outside public scrutiny -- like another SuperCongress.)
Unless we get Mitt Romney or (dare we hope?) Buddy Roemer nominated in 2012, we can look forward to the entire mess of the U.S. economy being charged by 'economists' to the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011. "Exactly the mistake that was made in the Great Depression with the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930" -- yes, that's what we'll be hearing from the TV pundits this time next year. "The economy's still in a mess, and it's all the fault of the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011 (as amended)."
Let's do everything we can to make sure that real trade reform legislation is what the great WTO propaganda machine blames it all on.
Did you call your senators Thursday? I did. And I'm going to call them everyday for a while. Also my other congress crittur. Why not?
If there was ever a time that called for citizen activism, this is it!
It's like OWS, but you can do it from the comfort of your home! (And you don't have to go into The City either.) Give 'em hell. It's fun.
Behind the scenes, what has been happening is beyond incredible, it's flat-out amazing.
About Harry Reid (from Wikipedia) --
"Reid's boyhood home had no indoor toilet, hot water or telephone. Searchlight had no high school, so Reid boarded with relatives 40 miles away in Henderson, Nevada to attend Basic High School where he played football, and was an amateur boxer. .... Reid attended Southern Utah University and graduated from Utah State University. He then went to George Washington University Law School earning a J.D. while working for the United States Capitol Police. .... "
From the Las Vegas Sun (available online), story by Karoun Demirjian (6 October 2011), 'Harry Reid changes arcane U.S. Senate rules to make a point' --
"Seems GOP is POed because they want to "offer amendments". This is a small piece of a host of policies that need to change." -- Robert Oak
We know what we were following today in the Senate -- the vote on S. 1619 (Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011), which has been postponed until next week.
In the big picture, we also know that what's happening in the Senate recently is a fight over whether to take protectionist steps to counter China's trade abuses, or not.
That's definitely not what was 'supposed' to be happening, according to 'Conventional Wisdom'. What was supposed to happen is that the three pending FTAs would, by now, have been approved by the Senate and the House. That would have been business-as-usual, and that's what was supposed to be happening this week in Congress. Then, with the FTAs concluded, the political game could return to a little brouhaha over the TAA crumbs to be tossed to workers displaced by the FTAs, and corporate news media could return to covering the GOP nomination process (excluding Buddy Roemer) as predictive of November 2012.
But behind the scenes what's been happening recently is a desperate effort by Boehner in the House and McConnell in the Senate to get back to business as usual -- which requires shutting out the China-trade issue. That is, there has been a desperate effort by 'free' traders in the Congress to slow down the growing momentum behind the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011.
Two weeks ago, the currency bill was no more than talk from the likes of Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). Then, popular support began to grow, and so did support from Republicans as well as Democrats both in the Senate and in the House. And then, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) decided to lead the charge of the protectionist forces.
If the protectionist forces were limited to the more progressive Democrats in the Senate, we would by now be back to business as usual (passing the three pending FTAs with a minor disagreement over TAA). However, the currency bill has substantial Republican support and enormous popular backing. And that's all the difference.
Seems GOP is POed because they want to "offer amendments". This is a small piece of a host of policies that need to change. Why these people just cannot pass simple, short bills which over 80% of America wants, the statistics back up the bill, and keep it simple, get something done is beyond me.
CNN has the latest infighting, and the Senate is now calling itself, "dysfunctional", no kidding there Congress.
He's been the bill's main advocate, along with Sanders, Schumer. Ohio has been decimated by the China PNTR, NAFTA.
Both of Ohio's senators -- Senator Portman (Republican) and Senator Brown (Democrat) -- support S.1619, the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act.
The fact they won't let him in the GOP debates, while letting in others who have less popularity is despicable. I'm not surprised at all a host of groups that are non-partisan are picking up on him too. So far, what I'm hearing is a lot of positions that seem based on actual statistics, economics, which by that definition would cross political boundaries.
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