Blogs of Note

Trade War? Since the Bush administration took power, the US has been slowly sliding into protectionism -- 9/11 only served to accelerate the process under the guise of security. As a colleague of mine likes to say, "security has trumped trade." But the 9/11 is now only the latest excuse that Bush is using to reinforce the wall around America -- the economic slump the world has been in, resulting in the loss of American jobs and an upcoming election, has put the Bush administration in the position where short term gains and appearances far outweighed long term stability and growth. Recently, the US has been belligerent in its responses to rulings handed down by the WTO. Granted the WTO has mostly sided against the US in the past, but when you really dig into the heart of the matter, you'll find the US the cause of most of its woes. If it wasn't for American businesses striving to give American consumers the lowest cost at the price of American manufacturing jobs, we would have such huge trade imbalances. Read about the latest squabbles the US is having with the EU and China in BusinessWeek Online.