Bush's odd auto industry-free trade link

I work for Caterpillar and if the free-trade pact with Columbia was approved we would employ additional people.

We do not employ people to show up for work and sit in rooms all day and do nothing like the automobile industry does!

So, the reason people say Bush was just a "nice but dumb guy" who got fooled by the criminals who stole the white house, lied about 9/11 and lied about the weapons of mass destruction, Saddam did 9/11 stuff now seems permanently moot.
We need to have a trial for EVERYONE involved, and any pardon Bush may do or cheney may do if Bush resigns after pardoning him, should be rejected.
I'll go see W, but I think the film merely shows how a family raises a son who can commit a fraction of the mass murder caused by the father, George Senior.

The author of this post didn't think before typing.

The author only thinks "how will pushing free-trade help the Republican image"? - but what if Busgh is not worried about image?

If Bush had been worried about image (style over substance) he would have run a much different administration.

Frank James produced a practically useless bit of work here, and he failed to even begin to examine the situation intelligently. Bush is pushing free trade because it is smart and successful, and good for US business

Waste of tax payers money to help the auto industry with their high overhead.

Before helping, Obama should look into the way foreign compnies run thier auto manufacturing or is Obama blindsided?

Frank James admits he can't figure things out.

I believe him.

The stupidity of linking bogus trade agreements with the economic health of our nation is, once again, indicative of the bewildering mind-set of the Bush-McCain Republicans !! Our economy, our way of life is going down the toilet and this inept, failing Bush administration, is still trying to extort, to bully this nation into accepting his ill-advised policies. Enough of this incompetent administration, let Congress pass a bailout bill, like it did for the Treasury Secretary's buddies, for the Automotive industry and if the Bush administration or any of its supporters want to defeat it, let the Republicans add that to their sterling resume !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.

Interesting perspective. On C-SPAN this morning, a caller who was an engineer and manager who left the auto industry a few years back to go into academia stated his reason for leaving. They do not make cars to sell, it is a way to get money so they can earn more money on short term investments. There are no automobile people running the big 3 anymore. It is all investment people. Selling you a car is secondary to just making money. They could care less about producing a quality product...not talking about the workers...He was talking about the guys who have run these businesses into the ground. And now they want a hand out.

The FTA with Colombia is good for the rich of both countries and bad for the workers. We should be worried about the human and workers rights abuses in Colombia. That is what keeps wages low and American jobs having a better potential of going there. Colombia has continually lead the world in murders of union members and in 2008 have already surpassed those in 2007. Most of the murders have been attributed to the government linked paramilitary. There is less than a 3% arrest and conviction rate for murders of union members. Recent Amnesty International and United Nation reports shows that American aid money has gone to government troops killing innocent citizens including labor members. The Santiago, Chile newspaper reported that the civilian deaths by the government in Colombia are worst than those in the 17 year rule of Chile’s General Augusto Pinochet.
The belief is that savings on taxes on products from the USA will be passed on to the consumer and create more sales. But history has shown that the savings go directly into the pockets of the rich. Colombia has more than 55% of the population living below the poverty level, the second largest amount of people displaced from their homes and one of the largest discrepancies in the world between rich and poor. There is a small market for American goods that is actually shrinking. A research report written by a senior at the University of Iowa that visited Colombia and researched it is entitled “Policies Rob Poor; Benefit Rich.” In it he states that Colombia has a population of 43 million and 20 years ago that only 3,200 people owned 36% of the land. Today those 3,200 own 56%. Corruption is another concern. Some reports have shown that corruption eats up 60% of monies before reaching its end point. Even US State Department reports for years have documented massive corruption problems in the country. Labor laws, while written, are not enforced due to corruption. Besides supporting a corrupt government that kills its own citizens, an FTA at this time has a great potential of taking away more American jobs than it can create.

Lochnessmonster: I fully agree with the engineer you saw this morning. The stock market is one of the main problems with our capitalistic society. Businesses need to be owned by business owners…not stock holders. I also heard a statistic once that 30+% of American jobs are in some sort of finance industry!!! One of our fastest growing, and largest industries is the healthcare industry. Neither one of these produce anything! We can not export these services! I fear we are only standing on the edge of this depression canyon, and we have a long way to go down to see the floor.
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This country is going to learn a painful lesson on corporate greed. Publically owned corps have only been concerned about how they can make a quick buck. If that means under-engineering parts, so be it. If that means cutting corners on quality assurance, so be it. Anything that makes more money for them faster….that is the mentality. It was working moderately well, until free trade with 3rd world countries came into things, where there are no laws, no oversight, and no worker rights. Now the US is seeing this business model worked to the Nth degree against themselves.
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In hindsight, we should’ve never started this stock market game. We should’ve never started doing free trade with 3rd world countries. We should’ve never relaxed oversight. And finally, we should have never lost concern for the middle class of this country.

Strange that our commitment to democratic values is greater abroad than at home. Proponents of the misleadingly named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) assert that “democratic sign ups” are the most effective way to determine the wishes of a majority of employees. By using the term “democratic sign ups,” these union groups are implying that card check organizing drives where each employee’s choice is made known publicly (thus being exposed to intimidation) is democratic. Does that work in Columbia?

We don't need owners-managers sticking their noses into workers business ! Support the Employee Free Choice Act !! It's about the workers and their rights, not about owners and managers intimidating their workers !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.

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Posted by: xcellentform | November 11, 2008 11:46 AM
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I disagree. I think the stock market is a good idea and always has been a good idea. I think that it is helpful that people can invest in equity shares of a company. What I don't like about the stock market is that trading has been turned into a form of legalized gambling. Those who seek quick profits on short term investments don't do themselves or anyone else any good. Investors should be locked into at something like 6 month or 1 year terms. That would scare away the gamblers and take away a great deal of the market volatility that hurts everyone else.
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As for what you call "corporate greed" and its consequences, it is important to remember that most for-profit corporations exist only to make money. In fact, there are a number of corporate laws that prevent them from acting in a manner that goes against the profit motive. The stock market didn't make them this way, and its existence didn't change their ethos over time. If these companies are making cheap stuff to sell in a manner that undermines good business practices, it isn't because their shares are traded publicly on the market. There is no discernable connection between being a publicly held corporation and the adoption of a bad business model.
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If a company tries to make a lot of money on cutting corners and doing away with quality control, then its management is either totally foolish or they believe they can exploit some moral hazard created by a mixed economy. In a true free-market system, they would know they would be cutting their own throats with such behavior. It is only by making better, more cheaply priced goods that a company can thrive in the face of competition. It is, in return, the free-market system that requires such competition because the demand side of the equation eventually knows what products are better and, thus, worthy of consumption. Thus, there has to be something other than a free-market motivation for the bad business behavior you have described. It could well be that auto industry management types have succumbed to the belief that their companies are "too big to fail" because they employ too many people and the government wouldn't dare let them go out of business. The belief in the inevitability of a government safety net is precisely the kind of non-free market moral hazard that might tempt them to function in less than a prudent, competitive manner. It certainly isn't the stock market that does so.

Fitzy,

"We don't need owners-managers sticking their noses into workers business" Are you nuts? The workers' business is management's business. If the workers don't like it - either quit or use your own capital and take your own risk and start your own business.

One thing Obama could do to help me regain trust in government would be to push for pure bills--one at a time. Each bill should pass or fail on its own merit. When oranges, bonfires, and lead are mixed into the same bill--I know there is little honesty and a great deal of waste there, and that the American people are hosed, once again, by the people we elected to look after our well-being.