The Progressive Community defends America’s honor

I found this over at CommonDreams: Breaking News and Views For the Progressive Community:

Some of Obama’s claims about TPP on Friday took some creative license with the truth. He said that he wanted a trade deal that would allow American automakers to sell more cars overseas, without mentioning that Ford and autoworker unions do not support the pact. He also said that he had not included any language barring currency manipulation — a key tactic by which Japan and China undercut American production — because it might hamper the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy operations. That scenario would only be possible if the pact defined “currency manipulation” in a particularly bizarre manner.

Yes, the Japanese have recently engaged in some aggressive QE, and I would not deny that currency appreciation was a hoped for side effect.  But it’s absurd to claim the Fed would ever contemplate doing something similar.  Yes, the dollar fell 6 cents against the euro on the day QE1 was announced, but that was just an unintended side effect.  Imagine people concocting “particularly bizarre” theories that the United States of America would act selfishly to create jobs at home by “manipulating” the value of our currency.  President Obama is one of those people that Jeane Kirkpatrick used to call “blame America first” liberals.  I’m glad to see America’s progressives standing with Scott Walker and Pat Buchanan in their vigorous defense of America’s working class, and against the soulless cosmopolitanism of the man who spent his childhood in Honolulu and Jakarta.

Progress in America can only occur if we cut down on those service jobs and send Starbucks baristas off to do real work in factories making t-shirts and Christmas ornaments.

PS. I just got back from 6 days of traveling, and as you might have noticed I’m burned out. I’ll try to get back to real blogging soon.

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PPS.  Is this Pat Buchanan’s favorite flag?

PPPS.  Philip Johnson called it the “greatest house of the 20th century”, and now I’ve finally seen it.  By an odd coincidence, my favorite American artist grew up in the same town as I did.  Don’t miss nearby Kentuck Knob, with an amazing invisible window.

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16 Responses to “The Progressive Community defends America’s honor”

  1. Gravatar of Brett Brett
    26. April 2015 at 16:54

    I’ll be so happy when the culture finally shifts and no longer treats manufacturing jobs as “Real Work” versus those “merely” Service Sector jobs that “don’t make anything”. Of course, that will probably have to wait until the point where manufacturing is like agriculture, with tons of output and relatively few numbers of jobs.

  2. Gravatar of Zack Zack
    26. April 2015 at 17:38

    I always love hearing progressives criticize free trade by using the same arguments conservatives use against immigration- “they’re gonna steal our jobs!” Pat Buchanan is one of the few people who is at least consistent on this stuff.

    I agree with Brett though. What exactly is so special about manufacturing as opposed to other industries? And if i’m not mistaken, actual manufacturing output in the U.S. has increased at a fairly steady rate in recent decades even though employment isn’t as high as it once was.

  3. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    26. April 2015 at 18:03

    The BIS and CFR planned for China and the US to depreciate the RMB and USD precisely so that China can supply the US with “cheap” goods in return for “protection”.

  4. Gravatar of LAL LAL
    26. April 2015 at 18:08

    Too much irony…I must be getting stupider…

  5. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    27. April 2015 at 03:33

    Central banking in America was borne out of the progressive movement that held progress is made when workers become busy doing real work like making t-shirts and Christmas tree ornaments instead of digging up precious metals out of the ground.

  6. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    27. April 2015 at 03:37

    In other words, progress is only made when people do what the socialists want them to do.

    Socialist money hampers coordination. Instead of integrating “cash hoarding” in real production, which the free market can easily handle, there is instead hatred and animosity towards a perfectly peaceful activity.

  7. Gravatar of benjamin cole benjamin cole
    27. April 2015 at 05:39

    Frank Lloyd Wright…everything stunning. Time and again, too.

  8. Gravatar of Ray Lopez Ray Lopez
    27. April 2015 at 08:33

    Sumner being too clever by half, hard to tell if Poe’s law at work or not, I half expected to see the American flag hung upside down. As for service jobs, the reason they are disparaged is that they have low productivity compared to real work like manufacturing. As for “Falling Water”, before it was turned into a tourist trap the actual occupants found the house nearly uninhabitable, with too much humidity and gurgling sounds. But let’s not let facts stand in the way of mythology, like NGDPLT.

  9. Gravatar of Slappy McFee Slappy McFee
    27. April 2015 at 08:37

    Why does Pat Buchanan hate Hawai’i???

  10. Gravatar of Daws Daws
    27. April 2015 at 11:45

    Prof Sumner, it seems like you’re treating Pres Obama’s comments in the same way you treat the comments of central bank officials calling for fiscal activism

    in practice, currency manipulation might b interpreted more broadly than “explicitly identifiable mercantilist exchange rate cheating”

    manufacturing seems to have strategic value (as of now, a lot of tech transfer seems to head in the direction of emerging geopolitical rivals that export goods). military considerations r considered

  11. Gravatar of Steve Steve
    27. April 2015 at 12:28

    I’m confused. What does Patrick Buchanan have against Hawaii?

  12. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    27. April 2015 at 12:34

    Ray, Some of us like gurgling sounds. But I am not surprised by your taste in architecture.

    Daws, I was joking.

    Steve, I was joking. (It’s the only majority non-white state.) He used to favor free trade with developed white countries, but not developed non-white countries.

  13. Gravatar of collin collin
    27. April 2015 at 13:45

    But, But! Vietnam will the huge winner of TPP and why don’t liberal like it for the poor people of Vietnam making clothing to sold at Target! (Marginal Revolution) From most of what I read about TPP, I am the closest opinion to Krugman that the benefits of TPP are relatively minor and not worth the effort to pass it with ~39 other countries and their special interest getting into the mix.

    I believe the Iranian nuclear deal pass and that will improve our economy a lot more than TPP.

    C’mon free trade and immigration (at least until 2012) were issues that had cut across Party Lines. If you don’t believe me than explain to me the 1992 Ross Perot run. I find it amazing that Ross Perot might have weakened Bush Sr. enough to lose to Clinton and now 24 years later we might have another Clinton-Bush run! Is there some kind of Quantum Leap episode where he can change the Ross Perot run?

  14. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    27. April 2015 at 14:30

    Sumner wrote:

    “Ray, Some of us like gurgling sounds. But I am not surprised by your taste in architecture.

    It is comments like these that reveal the deep disrespect and contempt for individuality, regardless of what is otherwise showboated with superficial libertarian verbiage, as even aesthetical judgments are to be made collectively binding.

  15. Gravatar of Major.Freedom Major.Freedom
    27. April 2015 at 19:01

    Even if EMH is correct, it does not apply to anything that can be observed because what can be observed is not a free market.

  16. Gravatar of Matt McOsker Matt McOsker
    28. April 2015 at 04:40

    Either way, the TPP is not a good deal, and we should not sign.

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