The Damage Done in Losing Another Friend

After years of negotiating the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement and an unprecedented move by Colombia to comply with a mumble-jumble of shifting American demands, President Barack Obama has sadly kept the U.S.-Colombia relation in a “deep freeze.” While Obama never fails to bend to the whims of American trade unions that see trade agreements as a threat instead of an opportunity, Colombia has rightfully lost patience with the U.S. This, after both countries originally signed the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement in 2006 in a deal that once signified the preeminence of democracy and free enterprise. The agreement would immediately create much needed well-paying U.S. jobs as tariffs on U.S. exports to Colombia would vanish overnight. Unfortunately, we continue to live in a time warp of... Read More

Egyptian Unrest Could Harm U.S. Trade Relations

Egyptian Unrest Could Harm U.S. Trade Relations

Political instability in Egypt will negatively impact U.S. trade for the foreseeable future. Egypt has been one of our most stable trading partners in the Mideast and is currently the 34th largest export market for U.S. goods. The U.S. goods trade surplus with Egypt was $3.2 billion in 2009. U.S. goods exports in 2009 were $5.3 billion. Corresponding U.S. imports from Egypt were $2.1 billion. In an era of seemingly uncontrollable U.S. trade deficits with just about every country, Egypt has been a breath of fresh air. American products have historically been very popular with consumers in Egypt. Any time the U.S. enjoys a trade surplus, that’s good news good news for job creation and job retention. The biggest threat to the U.S. would be the closure of the Suez Canal, which is largely controlled... Read More

Neal Asbury: China Is Master of Deceptive Shell Game

Neal Asbury: China Is Master of Deceptive Shell Game

China has become a master at slight-of- hand tricks, diverting our attention one way while they do something else to their benefit and our detriment. For example, they recently put teeth behind an internal anti-monopoly policy that seeks to stem price collusion and predatory pricing among Chinese manufacturers. In fact a law recently enacted attempts to stop manufacturers from setting “unfairly low prices” in the Chinese marketplace. While this gets positive world attention, behind the scenes China erects no such policies when it comes to their exports to the United States. The manipulation of their currency, the Yuan, gives them a tremendous advantage over US produced goods. In every way this helps China establish “unfairly low prices” which has become a pillar of their global... Read More

China Exacts Its Revenge from Morphine Economics

China Exacts Its Revenge from Morphine Economics

At one time, Western nations treated China like a poor stepchild, even going to the point of illicitly providing opium to its citizens enabling a terrible addiction. After President Obama’s recent Asian debacle, China now treats the US like the poor stepchild. Now it is America that is hooked on the sinister drug of Morphine Economics and it is largely China providing the US the drug that is making us weaker each day. Here’s an historical perspective. Low demand for British goods in China and high demand for Chinese goods such as silk and tea in Britain during the 17th century forced the British traders to purchase these products with silver and gold, the only currency accepted by the Chinese. The British quickly began accumulating a large trade deficit that it could not sustain. They... Read More

It’s Not Just World Trade — It’s Human Development

It’s Not Just World Trade — It’s Human Development

If you think of world trade as the exchange of products for money, its real power is the exchange of ideas to create innovative breakthroughs. In fact, a recent Wall Street Journal story characterized international trade “as the most momentous innovation of the human species; it led to the invention of invention.” The editors suggest that the new buzz word is “collective intelligence.” They define this as the notion that what determines the inventiveness and rate of cultural exchange of a population is the amount of interaction between individuals. You will be amazed to know that the oldest evidence of human trade comes from roughly 80,000 to 120,00 years ago, when shell beads in Algeria moved 100 miles from the seas and obsidian tools in Ethiopia came from a particular volcano. What... Read More