The hyping of the Trans-Pacific Partnership has begun. But on some issues it’s cover for a predatorial United States.
Free trade
The American middle class – a thing of the past?
The middle class of America is apparently facing a slow and systematic decline. Need proof? Michael Snyder has 22 statistics to support the claim.
Hugo Chavez: the new leader of the Latin American left
How an alliance between Cuba and Venezuela, formed 15 years ago in protest to an American free trade agreement, has grown into a $7 billion socialist trading partnership, with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at its helm.
Free trade, first movers and carbon mercantilism: why unilateralism is good
You thought Copenhagen was just about climate change? Australia, and most other countries, are treating Copenhagen like a trade negotiation. Such carbon mercantilism will cost us in the long run.
Where are all the voices that support immigration?
It’s not just Australia getting worked up over asylum seekers. In the UK, anti-immigration fans get all the press. But, if you believe in free trade, you must also believe in the free movement of labour, writes Alex Massie.
Guy Rundle: The utopian borderless free world is fiction
Globalisation has created international economic dependency that erodes state power, writes Guy Rundle.
Fisher and Paykel: Rudd’s first trade credentials test
Fisher and Paykel appliances is closing its Brisbane whitegoods plant and moving it to Thailand to save money. Here’s an early test of the Rudd Government’s trade credentials, writes Glenn Dyer.
US08: Free trade, protectionism and taking on China
Hillary Clinton is promising bans on Chinese imports, if they don’t adjust their currency to a level more favourable to US exporters. But would she actually follow though with that? Guy Rundle examines America’s free trade conundrum.
Richard Farmer’s political bite-sized meaty chunks
Meaty snippets from the home of government plus the daily reality check and the pick of other people’s political coverage. Richard Farmer writes.
