Tag Archives: trade

Germany Closes Its Border With Austria, Hoping to Stop the Refugee Flow

by JohnieC64u Posted on September 13, 2015

Mother Jones

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Two weeks ago I wrote about what might happen if Germany decided to start policing its borders again in response to the huge numbers of refugees and migrants entering the country. Now we’re going to find out.

The German government has announced that the country is closing its border with Austria and also suspending train traffic its southern neighbor, the route by which tens of thousands of refugees have entered Germany in recent days. Those borders have been open for nearly 20 years under the Schengen Agreement, which turned most of the European Union into one large free-travel zone with no internal border checks. Until now, you could go from Berlin to Amsterdam or Paris much like you were going from New York to DC. Along with the euro, the Schengen zone is considered one of the EU’s most important achievements, a powerful symbol of European unity as a well as a major booster of trade and tourism. All of that now hangs in the balance as the refugee crisis strains internal EU politics.

German politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, have been hinting at closing German borders for weeks, hoping to get the EU moving on a quota system that would send more of the refugees to other countries. Germany is currently taking in the majority of asylum-seekers and migrants, while other EU countries are resisting. Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told Berlin’s Der Tagesspiegel newspaper that Germany is “reaching the limits of its capabilities” and called for an EU-wide response to the refugee influx. “By the time thousands of people are walking on the Autobahn, it’s too late,” he said.

Reinstating border checks is sign of how frustrated the German government is with its neighbors—and how divisive the refugee problem is within the EU. “The migrants have to accept that they cannot simply choose an EU member country,” Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said while announcing the new policy.

Germany says the border closure is temporary. But it’s the first major EU country to take such a step to deal with an ongoing crisis like this, and many are wondering whether it will prompt other Schengen countries to do the same.

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Germany Closes Its Border With Austria, Hoping to Stop the Refugee Flow

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Chart of the Day: World Trade Is Down 2% This Year

by LucySpurlock Posted on August 26, 2015

Mother Jones

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Here is your chart to ponder today. It shows the total level of world trade:

You can see the huge dip during the 2008-09 recession, followed by a steady recovery. Until this year, that is. During the past six months, world trade has declined by about 2 percent.

Most of this loss was made up in June, but monthly figures are volatile and June could be just a temporary artifact. Time will tell. Most likely, this is yet another indication of a weak global economy, one that’s going to get even weaker if China’s recent troubles portend a genuine recession.

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Chart of the Day: World Trade Is Down 2% This Year

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Silicon Valley Made a Bunch of Dudes Billionaires, But It’s Making You Poorer

by Lanette25f Posted on July 23, 2015

Mother Jones

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First the tech industry made your life easier with iPhones, tablets, and smart-everything. But is it also making it harder for you to get ahead?

A recent study on global income inequality by the International Monetary Fund identifies technological change as a top factor driving the split between rich and poor worldwide. Specifically, the study’s authors found that the growth of technology accounts for nearly one-third of the widening gap between the top 10 percent and bottom 90 percent over the past quarter century. Other factors include the globalization of trade and finance.

Here’s how tech has contributed to widening the gap: It’s eliminated jobs by automating tasks, and it’s driven up the “skill premium,” meaning jobs that require skills like coding pay more lucratively than traditional blue-collar jobs. But even tech workers aren’t safe, because their industry’s needs evolve so quickly that they may be made obsolete by the very advancements they’re working toward. In the end, the jobs that pay the most are only for those who can keep up with the changing times, and those who can afford the required education to get a position in the first place.

The study notes that technological change has contributed most to rising income inequality in the 39 OECD countries that make up 80 percent of global trade and investment. It finds that inequality has grown the most in the United States and the United Kingdom, even as poverty in emerging economies has decreased.

Education hasn’t alleviated income inequality as much as it could, according to the study. Despite a notable rise in highly-educated workers, the wage gap between high- and low-skilled workers remains. The researchers suggest that education is a viable solution only if governments invest it and make it affordable. “What we find really is that raising income shares of the rich doesn’t trickle down,” says Era Dabla-Norris, the study’s lead author and a researcher at the International Monetary Fund. “And raising the income shares of the poor and middle class is actually good for growth.”

And while other studies have found links between housing costs and venture capital investment, high levels of innovation, high concentrations of high-tech industry and venture capital startups (looking at you, San Francisco), the issue of inequality is a complex one. “There are some common drivers across the world, but the drivers vary,” Dabla-Norris says. “Policies to alleviate inequality have to be country-specific; there is no one-size-fits-all.”

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Silicon Valley Made a Bunch of Dudes Billionaires, But It’s Making You Poorer

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Take that, Trans-Pacific Partnership! Enviros celebrate as Obama’s trade agenda takes a blow

by HaiNorrie587230 Posted on June 12, 2015

Take that, Trans-Pacific Partnership! Enviros celebrate as Obama’s trade agenda takes a blow

By on 12 Jun 2015commentsShare

Environmental groups and a host of allies won a major victory on Friday when House Democrats derailed Obama’s “free trade” agenda — at least for now.

Through some congressional maneuvering, House Democrats threw a critical roadblock in front of a plan to give the president trade promotion authority (TPA) that he could use to push through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade deal that many environmentalists, among others, are deeply skeptical about. (Look out for more acronyms below!) TPA would “fast track” the trade deal, constraining Congress to a “yes” or “no” vote on it and allowing Obama more leeway to negotiate what the deal would contain.

Both TPA and TPP have found favor with most Republicans, but they’ve also brought together a broad coalition in opposition. Tea Partiers who oppose Obama’s authority more or less on principle came together with a whole range of progressives. Many fear the TPP would send domestic jobs overseas — some progressives have called the deal “NAFTA on steroids.” Environmental groups say the agreement would also set back efforts at conservation, tackling climate change, and improving public health. The TPP is currently being negotiated in secret between the U.S. and nearly a dozen other countries along the Pacific Rim.

The Obama administration has been pushing hard for trade promotion authority and the TPP deal. The president himself even turned up to distribute White House–brewed beers and persuade legislators at a congressional baseball game yesterday where Democrats were playing Republicans. Republicans started chanting “TPA! TPA!” when Obama arrived. Yeah, this stuff actually happens. Obama also addressed House Democrats for 45 minutes this morning.

The administration has been saying that the TPP would give the United States the power to write the rules of international trade before China starts doing so. With the reins in America’s hands, the administration argues, globalization might be able to move forward in a manner that TPP’s opponents don’t find quite so odious.

But the opponents are not convinced. In a letter to Congress yesterday, 40 environmental groups urged rejection of the “fast track” TPA bill. “A new model of trade that delivers benefits for most Americans, promotes broadly shared prosperity, and safeguards the environment and public health is possible. To achieve such goals, however, fast track must be replaced with a new system for negotiating and implementing trade agreements,” the letter read. Many of the signatories on yesterday’s letter signed another one, back in April, with 2,000 other groups who opposed fast track authority.

As for the TPP trade deal itself, environmental groups oppose many of the provisions that are rumored to be in it, including ones that would allow foreign corporations to sue governments over their environmental and public health policies. And then there’s the principle of transparency: “After more than five years of negotiation, we still have to rely on WikiLeaks for our information,” Ilana Solomon of the Sierra Club’s Responsible Trade Program told The Guardian.

When it came time for the vote today, Democrats, by a 3-to-1 margin, voted against a provision to provide aid for workers who lose their jobs as a result of trade deals. Though Democrats supported the specific provision, called Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA — another acronym!), they chose to vote it down in order to scuttle the entire legislative process on fast track authority. At the last minute, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who had not previously been clear about her position, told her follow House members that she would vote against TAA, and some undecided Democrats followed her lead.

When the Senate passed its trade bill last month, it included both TPA and TAA. So if the House bill doesn’t also include TAA, then there’s no final version that can be sent to Obama’s desk. Still, even though the failure to pass TAA made a House vote on TPA a moot point, the Republican leadership decided to press ahead with the vote anyway. TPA passed 219 to 211, and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) asked to bring TAA back up for a vote next week. If TAA passes then, today’s TPA vote will stand.

That means the TPA — “fast track authority” — isn’t quite dead yet. Obama has more time to twist arms in an attempt to get Democrats to do an about-face. But the president would have to change quite a lot of minds, so, for now, advocates are celebrating.

“This is a major victory for everyone who thinks trade should be fair and responsible,” the Sierra Club’s Michael Brune said in a statement. “The era of free trade deals that harm workers and the environment is coming to a close.”

Some of those celebrations are more cautious than others.

“Today’s victory, while important, is not decisive,” said Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica. “Friends of the Earth and others will remain vigilant to ensure that future efforts to pass Fast Track and climate-destroying trade agreements are defeated.”

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Take that, Trans-Pacific Partnership! Enviros celebrate as Obama’s trade agenda takes a blow

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The TPP Is Dead. Now Let the Scapegoating Begin.

by FreemanHpu Posted on June 12, 2015

Mother Jones

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The House just voted down fast-track authority for the TPP, handing President Obama a stinging defeat. This happened mainly because too few Democrats voted to support it. But why? Here’s the Washington Post:

Lawmakers said the White House has pushed harder on trade than any legislative issue since the health-care reform effort during his first year. After keeping trade on the back burner, Obama joined forces with business-friendly Republicans after the midterm elections in pursuit of a rare bipartisan deal and launched a fierce effort to win support from his usual Democratic allies over the intense opposition of labor unions.

And here’s the New York Times:

A president who has long kept Congress at arm’s length may have paid a price. Representative Henry Cuellar, Democrat of Texas, said Mr. Obama mustered rousing applause Friday morning as he went through the battles he had fought with fellow Democrats — on labor organizing, health care access and environmental protection. But he could not change minds.

“I wish there had been much better outreach,” Mr. Cuellar lamented.

So either Obama made this his #1 priority or else Obama barely bothered to lobby for it. I assume that eventually one narrative or the other will stick and we’ll all agree on just what Obama did.

UPDATE: Sorry, I jumped the gun. TPP is dead for now, but Obama may get another bite at the apple next week. It all depends on whether he’s able to negotiate a more liberal version of Trade Adjustment Authority to couple to the fast-track bill. The trick is appeasing Democrats sufficiently without losing too many Republican votes. Could be a busy weekend.

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The TPP Is Dead. Now Let the Scapegoating Begin.

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Investigators Are Coming After Apple in an Antitrust Probe—Again

by MariamBeauregar Posted on June 11, 2015

Mother Jones

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Just as Apple catapulted into the music streaming industry at its annual developer conference earlier this week, state and federal investigators, the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and even the European Commission were poking around to see if the multibillion-dollar tech giant had violated antitrust laws.

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that attorneys general in New York and Connecticut were examining whether Apple pressured or colluded with labels to pull listeners away from free streaming services offered by companies like Spotify and YouTube in favor of its own paid product, Apple Music. Days before its unveiling, Apple had been negotiating with music labels over terms, according to Bloomberg News; the labels were fighting for a larger cut of revenue than they currently receive from Spotify. The Verge reported in May that Apple offered to pay YouTube’s music licensing fee if Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music corporation, blocked its music from hitting the site.

In a letter to the New York attorney general, UMG denied wrongdoing and noted it had not made agreements with Apple, Sony Music Entertainment, or Warner Music Group to “impede the availability of third-party free or ad-supported music streaming services.”

But this isn’t the first time Apple has been at the center of questionable antitrust practices. Here are a few other instances in which the tech giant has been under scrutiny:

E-books: Two years ago, in what would be a landmark case in the publishing industry, a federal judge in New York found Apple guilty of conspiring with five major publishers to fix the prices of e-books in an effort to stifle competition with Amazon. Apple is currently appealing the decision.
Employment: The dark side of Silicon Valley hiring practices emerged last April, after Apple, Google, Adobe, and Intel settled a class action lawsuit with about 64,000 employees for $415 million over backdoor “no poaching” agreements to not hire each other’s employees. (The intended result was to suppress wages.) The settlement came four years after the Justice Department called on those companies to stop making those agreements in a federal antitrust complaint.
Music restrictions: In December, following a decadelong class action lawsuit, a federal jury in California ruled that Apple operated within antitrust laws when a software update prevented songs purchased outside of iTunes from playing on iPods. The Los Angeles Times reported that the decision could have cost Apple $1 billion if the company had been found guilty.

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Investigators Are Coming After Apple in an Antitrust Probe—Again

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Rare-earth mining in Chile could make China look bad

by NicoleIrons Posted on June 2, 2015

Rare-earth elements, including neodymium (back center). Peggy Greb, US Department of Agriculture

Rare-earth mining in Chile could make China look bad

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Your smartphone is a little box-shaped devil that sucks up all your attention, ruins perfectly good conversations, and makes you incapable of turning a corner without first looking up where you are on your GPS. But it’s also a pretty useful tool that’s made of stuff. Ever wonder where that stuff comes from?

Turns out, the rare-earth minerals like neodymium and dysprosium used to make iPhones, cars, wind turbines, Tomahawk cruise missiles, glass, and various other consumer goods come primarily from mines in China, where environmental preservation hasn’t always been a top priority. Now, a Chilean company called Biolantánidos is looking to snatch up some of that market in a much greener way. Here’s more from Bloomberg Business:

While operations in China typically pump ammonium sulfate into the ground and wait for the chemical to seep out with the minerals, at Biolantánidos the plan is to dig out the clay, put it through a tank-leaching process with biodegradable chemicals and return it cleaned to the ground, replanting pine and eucalyptus trees. It may be laborious, but [project leader Arturo] Albornoz is hoping companies such as ThyssenKrupp AG, Apple Inc. and Tomahawk cruise missile maker Raytheon Co. will end up paying a premium, knowing their suppliers aren’t destroying the planet.

Biolantánidos plans to start operations in the city of Concepción about 250 miles south of Santiago by the end of 2016, Bloomberg reports. And with the rights to about 772 square miles of land, the company estimates that it can make about 2,500 metric tons of rare-earth concentrate per year at first and potentially 10,000 tons down the road. About 130,000 tons of rare-earth minerals are churned out globally every year, according to Bloomberg.

Unfortunately, now isn’t the greatest time to get into the rare-earth minerals biz:

Prices have declined in recent years after China said it would comply with an order from the World Trade Organization to end export quotas imposed in 2010. Yttrium for example, which is used in jet engines, has tumbled 33 percent in the past year, while neodymium oxide is down 8 percent and dysprosium oxide is down 2.2 percent, according to prices at the Shanghai Metals Market.

“It’s our big bet on green mining,” Albornoz told Bloomberg. Hopefully, that bet will pay off, and companies will be willing to pay up for a clean conscience. And hey — if they’re strapped for cash, they can always divert some funds from their mega-office park utopias.

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Chileans Bet Apple Will Pay a Premium for Clean Rare Earths

, Bloomberg Business.

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The Jeb Bush Adviser Who Should Scare You

by MariZssppgvc Posted on May 13, 2015

Mother Jones

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Last week, Jeb Bush, the all-but-announced GOP presidential candidate, stirred up a fuss when he privately told a group of Manhattan financiers that his top adviser on US-Israeli policy is George W. Bush. Given that Jeb has tried mightily to distance himself from his brother, whose administration used false assertions to launch the still highly unpopular Iraq War, this touting of W.—even at a behind-closed-doors session of Republican donors—seemed odd. But perhaps more noteworthy is that Jeb Bush has embraced much of his brother’s White House foreign policy team. In February, the Jeb Bush campaign released a list of 21 foreign policy advisers; 17 of them served in the George W. Bush administration. And one name stood out: Paul Wolfowitz, a top policy architect of the Iraq war—for the prospect of Wolfowitz whispering into Jeb’s ear ought to scare the bejeezus out of anyone who yearns for a rational national security policy.

Wolfowitz, who was deputy defense secretary under George W. Bush, was a prominent neocon cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq. He was also the top conspiracy theorist in the Bush-Cheney crowd. As Michael Isikoff and I reported in our our 2006 book, Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War, Wolfowitz, prior to the Iraq War, was a champion of a bizarre theory promoted by an eccentric academic named Laurie Mylroie: Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, not Islamic extremists such as Al Qaeda, was responsible for most of the world’s anti-United States terrorism.

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The Jeb Bush Adviser Who Should Scare You

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The Cost of Clean Coal

by Myrna Posted on February 13, 2015

A Mississippi power plant promises to create clean energy from our dirtiest fuel. But it will come at a price. Sara Bernard/Grist On December 14, 2006, Barbara Correro was at home drinking tea, reading the paper. She had spent the past five years and most of her savings on a long-cherished retirement dream: a small mobile home on 24 acres of pine and hardwood forest, a large organic garden, and a pack of friendly dogs in rural Kemper County, Miss. The acres once belonged to her grandmother, who kept cows and chickens, sold the hand-churned butter and eggs, and grew a bale of cotton every year to pay the taxes on the land. “It was hard work, and she was a good woman,” says Correro, a former oncology nurse with bright, quizzical blue eyes, a shock of white hair, and an unflinching voice. By 2006, she’d built 27 raised beds, and was thinking about apple trees. And then, there it was, on the front page of the Kemper County Messenger: “Gasification plant would be ‘world’s largest’: Coal mine could be in future.” Mississippi Power, the largest utility in the state and a subsidiary of Southern Company, one of the largest electricity producers in the country, had announced its intentions to build a $1.8 billion power plant fueled by Mississippi lignite coal, dug out of the ground right next to Correro’s homestead. By converting coal into synthetic gas, the plant would be much safer and cleaner than traditional coal-burning power plants. It would also (although this came out later) be designed to capture 65 percent of its carbon emissions. Read the rest at Grist. Read more: The Cost of Clean Coal

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The Cost of Clean Coal

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Scott Walker’s Budget Includes $250,000 To Study ‘Wind Energy System-Related Health Issues’

by Myrna Posted on February 13, 2015

Previous studies have found no link between wind farms and increased health problems. Gateway Technical College/Flickr The two-year, $68 billion budget proposal Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker unveiled Tuesday includes a request for $250,000 to study the health impacts of wind turbines. Page 449 of the budget proposal includes a recommendation from the governor “directing the commission to conduct a study on wind energy system-related health issues.” The request states that a report should be submitted to the governor and legislature within a year after the budget goes into effect. “The request for a Wind Energy Health Issues Study was included with the intent to provide the Public Service Commission with comprehensive information to consider as they receive requests for future wind energy projects,” said Laurel Patrick, Walker’s press secretary, in a statement to The Huffington Post. Read the rest at The Huffington Post. Visit site – Scott Walker’s Budget Includes $250,000 To Study ‘Wind Energy System-Related Health Issues’

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Scott Walker’s Budget Includes $250,000 To Study ‘Wind Energy System-Related Health Issues’

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