Monday, December 27, 2004
Updating 2nd term Bush criteria
UPDATE: The ginger haired yank thought this posting was too disheveled yesterday, so am revising.
I had previously given my criteria to judge Bush's 2nd term:
I had previously given my criteria to judge Bush's 2nd term:
Trade: Approval of the Doha RoundToday's WSJ had a good editorial The Bra in Your Wardrobe (subscribers only unfortunately) By JAGDISH BHAGWATI and ARVIND PANAGARIYA. Their bottom line is that 'free trade' prospect aren't looking good given the lead-up to the end of the Multi-fiber Arrangement (MFA) & the administration's response
Deficit: Keep the promise of cutting the
deficit in half ($220B)
War: Less than 20 deaths per month for a 3-month
moving average
...the Bush Department of Commerce has slapped these
so-called 'special safeguard' quotas on imports of Chinese socks.The non-transparency of this administration make sthe Clinton era look like a model of free information
(snip)
Instead of imposing import restraints, the rich countries had used pressure to force exporting countries into restraining exports: a phenomenon hilariously called 'voluntary'
(snip)
And now China has announced that she will impose an export tax on textiles, which is of course a 'voluntary export restraint' (VER)"
Will post more tomorrow on 'free trade'.
