Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Free Trade: The Best Weapon Against the “Free Traders”

No Comments

Dean Baker makes the point that the free trade evangelists would not be so supportive of free trade if their necks were on the line. (I should note that I made a similar point about press outsourcing to India in Pasadena California).

I am already a member of a profession abused by immigration policies (H1B and L1 visas), so Baker’s point that protected professions should be opened up to competition makes sense to me:

The big winners in this story are the workers who manage to keep themselves protected from international competition. As a result of recent trade and immigration policy, these highly paid professionals can buy low cost furniture, cars, and clothes. They can also have their homes renovated and their gardens maintained at low prices. They can even get cheap nannies for their kids.

But the key to the success of these highly paid workers is maintaining their own protection from international competition. There are long list of professional and immigration barriers that protect doctors, lawyers, and even economists and journalists from the same sort of international competition faced by textile workers and dishwashers.

In addition to the professional and licensing barriers that impose obstacles to foreign professionals working in the United States, there are also immigration barriers. These barriers prohibit a Wal-Mart Hospital or Wal-Mart University from hiring the lowest cost qualified foreign professionals from anywhere in the world, in the same way that Wal-Mart buys the cheapest clothes and toys from any country in the world.

The way to fix this problem is simple: we create transparent licensing requirements for the licensed professions that can be met by students training anywhere in the world. (Let them have test sites in their own country—administered by U.S. certified testers, of course.) We then remove any comparable pay requirements for these professions. The rule is free trade, just like with steel and clothes. If a Chinese doctor is willing to work in the U.S. for $50,000 a year or an Indian journalist is willing to work for $30,000, then they can be hired at these wages as easily as Wal-Mart buys cheap toys from China.

Word Up! Particularly the journalists and economists.

Update on Michigan: Kucinich Out Too

No Comments

I tend that someone at the DNC *cough*Howard Dean*cough* got this organized so that it was a win situation to stay in.

This also means that Chris Dodd and Hillary Clinton will be the only ones on the ballot, and I would expect Dodd to break 25%, just on the number of folks who don’t want to pull the lever for Clinton in the primary.

Hillary is now in a bad position. If she ignores Michigan, Dodd might score a “stunner”, and if she devotes resources there, it’s going to diffuse her efforts elsewhere.

Let’s also say that not being on the ballot in Michigan is the right thing to do. The folks in the Michigan state house just got owned.

Kucinich withdraws from Michigan Democratic primary ballot

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Tuesday, October 9, 2007

DOVER, NH – The Kucinich for President campaign announced this afternoon that it has filed an affidavit with the Michigan Secretary of State’s office officially requesting that the name of Ohio Congressman and Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich be withdrawn from the Michigan Democratic primary ballot.

The sworn statement requesting withdrawal was submitted via fax by Kucinich National Campaign Manager Mike Klein shortly before today’s 4 p.m. deadline.

At the same time, the Kucinich campaign issued the following statement on behalf of the candidate, who is campaigning in Arizona today:

“We signed a public pledge recently, promising to stand with New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, and the DNC-approved ‘early window’, and the action we are taking today protects New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary status, and Nevada’s early caucus.”

The statement continued: “We support the grassroots nature of the New Hampshire, small-state primary, and we support the diversity efforts that Chairman Dean and the DNC instituted last year, when they added Nevada and South Carolina to the window in January 2008. We are obviously committed to New Hampshire’s historic role.”

Klein, who recently moved to Dover, NH to run the national Kucinich campaign, added, “We will continue to adhere to the DNC-approved primary schedule.”

Obama, Edwards, Richardson, Biden Take Names off of Michigan Primary Ballot

No Comments

This is big. This is not a “nudge, nudge, wink, wink, we’re not campaigning here” thing. They have pulled their names from the ballot.

These candidates, particularly Obama and Edwards, have just made the Michigan primary irrelevant.

Hillary is still in there, but now she is competing against herself there, and all she can do is lose. My guess is that either Kucinich or Gravel will break double digits, which will likely be perceived as a loss for Clinton.

Personally, I’d like to see Dodd do well, he’s my favorite of the lower tier candidates.

The delegates won’t matter. It’s who wins the “real” primaries in this front loaded system that count, because the process is even more front loaded than it was in 2004, and it was done in a month.

This is a good move for the party and for the primaries.

Democrats to Cave to Bush on Illegal Wiretaps

No Comments

It looks like Bush will be getting what he wants on the wiretap bill. All reports are that the Democrats are caving.

It looks like telco indemnification is in, as is broad warrants that allow the state security apparatus to listen in to American conversations as long as the Americans are not specifically targeted.

The biggest knock that Republicans have on Democrats is that they have no guts, and now, the reports that “Many members continue to fear that if they don’t support whatever the president asks for, they’ll be perceived as soft on terrorism,” from a national security expert won’t help that.

The Democrats were elected to stop Bush, and they should realize that, particularly in this case, it’s the right thing to stop Bush, and it is to their political advantage.

The can do the right thing, and benefit politically. All they need is some guts.

Cowards.

Democrats Sell Out on Fund Manager Tax Loophole.

No Comments

Harry Reid has assured the brokerage people that their commissions will continue to be treated as capital gains, reality be damned.

Reid is apparently arguing that he cannot get it past the Republicans, but making the ‘Phants vote for a ludicrous tax break for people percieved as hyper-rich cheats is a winning political strategy.

Stupid.

One wonders when how long it’s going to take until the voting public demands real reform from the Democrats.

My, guess is that it will be a while, as nary a week passes without some Republicans getting caught soliciting sex, taking bribes, molesting children, etc.

Bush Admin Compormised Intelligence Asset for Cheap PR

No Comments

SITE Intelligence Group, a small private security firm, got an advanced copy of an Osama bin Laden tape. They tipped the Bush Administration at 10:00am , on the condition that the information not be released in order to protect their sources and mentods.

By mid afternoon of September 7, the tape had been leaked to Fox News.

The founder of the company, the SITE Intelligence Group, says this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group’s communications network.

“Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless,” said Rita Katz, the firm’s 44-year-old founder, who has garnered wide attention by publicizing statements and videos from extremist chat rooms and Web sites, while attracting controversy over the secrecy of SITE’s methodology. Her firm provides intelligence about terrorist groups to a wide range of paying clients, including private firms and military and intelligence agencies from the United States and several other countries.

The precise source of the leak remains unknown. Government officials declined to be interviewed about the circumstances on the record, but they did not challenge Katz’s version of events. They also said the incident had no effect on U.S. intelligence-gathering efforts and did not diminish the government’s ability to anticipate attacks.

Except for the fact that private entities who come across this won’t share the information again, and that SITE’s operation has been more compromised than Brewster Jennings.

They burnt this company, and their intelligence methods, because the Bush administration wanted to get the lead on the news, or frighten Congress into doing what they wanted.

Evil.

Log Cabin Republicans Completly Own Mitt Romney

No Comments

They are running an ad (see below) taking his quotes from his 1994 debates with Ted Kennedy during his senate run. It sounds like a pro-Romney ad, but it quotes him saying things that will make the right wing dead-enders who are the base of the Republican party hate him.

Of note, he killed himself during the debates with Kennedy for asserting that as a rich man, Kennedy never gave anything up about public service (Except, of course, for his brothers Joe, Jack, and Bobbie), and that he had no experience with regard to the complexities of gun control (except of course for his brothers Jack and Bobbie).

The Employment Numbers are Weaker than They Appear

No Comments

Nouriel Roubini’s observations are as follows:

  • The August revision (+93k) was almost entirely government jobs.
  • Private sector employment gains have averaged (+73K), which is very weal.
  • 80% of job created in September were either in government or in health/education services.
  • Housing job losses are under-reported, since illegal aliens are not counted in this figure.
  • The 2007 benchmark for employment figures turns out to be 297k less than predicted.
  • Year over year job growth has been falling for at least a year.

We are in a recession folks (me, not Mr. Roubini speaking).

Medieval Cities Returning

No Comments

Paul Krugman has an an interesting commentary on what he calls the return the rentier city, on his blog.

Basically, from a few hundred years ago (yes, I know not technically medieval) and before, the very rich in a city did not make their money there. They had some sort of holdings that generated their money elsewhere, typically hereditary lands, but they lived in the city.

More recently, the rich in the city have made their money in and around that city, through manufacturing, shipping, publishing, etc. Cities have been centers of business, but the rentier city is returning:

But these days, everything old is new again. Today’s Wall Street Journal (sub. Req.) has a story about the sources of London’s current boom: an influx of very wealthy foreigners, whose income comes from elsewhere. Middle Eastern sheiks, Russian beeznessmen, Indian industrialists, have become the backbone of London’s economy. It’s all helped a lot by British tax law, which gives big breaks to people who live in Britain but are “domiciled” elsewhere (don’t ask.)

Local town authorities are, of course, falling all over themselves, on the theory that it benefits the economy.

Personally, I’m of the belief that they are more of a burden than a benefit, as they push the middle class out of the cities, and raise the cost of housing and other services for everyone.

One comment on his post was very interesting, “But it doesn’t amaze me how 21st century America is starting to look like an accelerated rise and fall version of the Roman Empire: outsourcing civil functions, mercenaries, the Patriot Act, and now rentier cities.”

Yet More of the Freddie Thompson Clown Show

No Comments

The gift that keeps on giving. This time, he
forgets who controlled Congress before 2007.

“The president called me up and asked me to help shepherd judge John Roberts’ nomination through the Senate confirmation process. I was honored that I got that call. I was honored that he thought I had enough friends on the Democratic side that they wouldn’t run me out of town!

“We fought hard against each other, but I always thought that we had mutual respect. And that’s what it takes.
“Even though the other party controlled the Judiciary committee, we got some votes there. For a good, sound, what I would call conservative justice.”

This is particularly egregious because he was the Bush point man for getting Roberts through confirmation.

There really seems to be no “there” there.

A Strike Deadline is Set For Chrysler

No Comments

This Wednesday.

This highly irregular. Normally, the contract negotiated with the target firm is adopted across the industry.

I can think of two potential things driving this, either the differences between GM and Chrysler are driving significantly different contracts, or Cerberus Capital Management is coming from a very different philosophy on running the company.

If it’s the latter, it means that the private equity firm is intending to flip and flee, which is beyond even the incompetent and crony laden management at GM.

I think that it’s the latter, and that Cerberus wants to treat Chrysler like a chop shop treats a stolen car.

Petraeus a Liar

No Comments

The Public Editor of the New York Times*, Clark Hoyt, just called General David H. Petraeus a liar. He was circumspect, but here is the money quote:

Stephen Biddle, a scholar at the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations, said Petraeus’s December number was “very high” but was likely the result of “statistical noise” — the tendency of Iraq numbers to jump all over the place. Biddle was an adviser to Petraeus last spring but believes the general’s testimony was “potentially misleading” because it didn’t discuss all the reasons why the numbers might have improved.

He said the best way to analyze statistics from Iraq is to gather all the numbers from all sources and look for broad trends instead of picking isolated points, as Petraeus did. Biddle examined data from nine sources on Iraqi civilian deaths, including the U.S. military, independent organizations like Brookings and Iraq Body Count and four news organizations. Although the specific monthly numbers varied widely, he said they all showed declines since late 2006.

Let’s be clear. The general is not a politician, or a pundit, and his testimony is given under the authority of his rank, and he purposely misled congress. The man is a liar, and a suck-up, at least that is what his boss thinks.

Petraeus used numbers that his numbers guy said were unreliable, because he’s a lying sack of excrement REMF.

*In less pretentious papers, they are called an Ombudsman.