You Can Count on America

Yep... you can always count on America to do the right thing... after a long, long, long wait. Here's a bit from the Wall Street Journal:

The U.S. and Canada, its largest trading partner, reached a preliminary deal to settle what had become an acrimonious dispute over "Buy American" provisions in the U.S. stimulus package.

The deal, if approved, will give companies on both sides of the border access to government procurement contracts at the state and local levels. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said the increased access for U.S. firms in Canada would be worth billions of dollars in contracts.

Economists tell you that free trade allows parties on both sides of a border to find deals that benefit each side. But fanatics -- left and right in the US -- closed the border to "save jobs" for Americans. But if you beggar your neighbor, how does that create jobs? Canada is a small country with an unbalanced economy, i.e. it is mostly a "branch plant" and resource extraction economy oriented toward satisfying the needs of its biggest customer, the United States. But under Obama's stimulus plan (and the Bush policy to "deal with" the crisis) Canada got kicked in the teeth.

But now we are all going to "make nice". That's like the bully who has just flattened you and then kicked you until you kidney is bleeding, suddenly smiling and reaching down to give you a hand and say "no hard feelings, buddy!".

Go read the whole article. But notice the key point: the US trade negotiator, Kirk, is gloating over how this is a great deal for American firms to make big profits. Funny, that wasn't the political lingo a year ago or back in 2008. It has been true all along, but the radicals on left and right weren't interested in "good business" or growing the economy. They were interested in appeasing their fanatical bases with a pet issue at the expense of "the other guy", Canada in this case.