On the Wrong Side of Globalization By JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ

[Ichingcarpenter]

Trade agreements are a subject that can cause the eyes to glaze over, but we should all be paying attention. Right now, there are trade proposals in the works that threaten to put most Americans on the wrong side of globalization.

The conflicting views about the agreements are actually tearing at the fabric of the Democratic Party, though you wouldn’t know it from President Obama’s rhetoric. In his State of the Union address, for example, he blandly referred to “new trade partnerships” that would “create more jobs.” Most immediately at issue is the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, which would bring together 12 countries along the Pacific Rim in what would be the largest free trade area in the world.

Negotiations for the TPP began in 2010, for the purpose, according to the United States Trade Representative, of increasing trade and investment, through lowering tariffs and other trade barriers among participating countries. But the TPP negotiations have been taking place in secret, forcing us to rely on leaked drafts to guess at the proposed provisions. At the same time, Congress introduced a bill this year that would grant the White House filibuster-proof fast-track authority, under which Congress simply approves or rejects whatever trade agreement is put before it, without revisions or amendments.

Controversy has erupted, and justifiably so. Based on the leaks — and the history of arrangements in past trade pacts — it is easy to infer the shape of the whole TPP, and it doesn’t look good. There is a real risk that it will benefit the wealthiest sliver of the American and global elite at the expense of everyone else. The fact that such a plan is under consideration at all is testament to how deeply inequality reverberates through our economic policies.


http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/15/on-the-wrong-side-of-globalization/?_php=true&_type=blogs&partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0


American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001)

[hedda_foil]

1. Steiglitz puts it all together succinctly.

[Jefferson23]

2. Ahem:

When agreements like the TPP govern international trade — when every country has agreed to similarly minimal regulations — multinational corporations can return to the practices that were common before the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts became law (in 1970 and 1972, respectively) and before the latest financial crisis hit. Corporations everywhere may well agree that getting rid of regulations would be good for corporate profits. Trade negotiators might be persuaded that these trade agreements would be good for trade and corporate profits. But there would be some big losers — namely, the rest of us.

These high stakes are why it is especially risky to let trade negotiations proceed in secret. All over the world, trade ministries are captured by corporate and financial interests. And when negotiations are secret, there is no way that the democratic process can exert the checks and balances required to put limits on the negative effects of these agreements.

Thank you for posting...love Professor Stiglitz.

[Turbineguy]

3. The US has been on the wrong side of globalization since WWII

It's a bit like owning the nicest house on the block. You make the other houses increase in value while yours drops.

The key thing to me it seems, is to have social and tax policies that discourage the prolifiration of parasitic jobs. Right now people are rewarded the most for being cannibalistic and useless. People who actually contribute some good to society have to be paid less to compensate.

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. Krugman and Stiglitz are both liberals

and nobel prize winners

Too bad the Obama administration never take their adivice but would rather listen to Banksters.

[Jefferson23]

5. If I recall correctly, Obama did phone Stiglitz, during the first campaign..they spoke

awhile and that was it. This was conveyed through Stiglitz himself btw.

It has always been a deep disappointment to me too.

[Enthusiast]

6. K&R! This thread needs more recommendations.

Kick.

[jsr]

7. +1