dagblog - Comments for "That Trans Pacific Partnership Needs Nation Building at Home"

It would be a shame to miss

Flavius — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 03:25:19 +0000

In reply to You give me too much credit,

It would be a shame to miss reading about his kindergarten teacher who said Keynes needed to apply himself more.

But otherwise you could skip forward to 1919 when he was part of the ill fated(for the world) peace conference. The allied representatives were forbidden to have any social contact with the German team but they could form a fairly good estimate of their quality from the discussions.

When they were at a delicate point the Admiralty interjected the demand that the German merchant fleet be put under British control , sort of. Germany was starving. As discussed in Keneally´s brilliant ¨Gossip from the Forest.¨ The embargo had to end.

But for that same reason it was a deal point for the Germans to agree with the demand. Keynes understood that it was a pro forma request. After the Brits took control for 5 minutes it would be turned back .But it wasn' t to be explained that way. Don´t ask!

At the elevator bank Keynes found himself as the only passenger besides a German negotiator who had particularly impressed him . As they exited ,without talking of course, Keynes nodded his head with the universal gesture meaning - follow me. The German did.When he described this later in a paper he said he was terrified.

In his room Keynes explained the coming demand- which shocked the German. But also explained that if it was accepted the German fleet would be able to sail immediately. The German picked up the phone, called the Social Democrat who was then in shaky charge of the German Government got agreement and the embargo ended.

The German was a jew. As Keynes related in the paper he wrote years later he had the casual anti semitism of his class although also like others in that class he had close personal Jewish friends like Leonard Wolff.

He and his fellow negotiator remained close thereafter and through the 20s served as a back channel through which their two governments could negotiate. In his paper- which he read to some sort of Bloomsbury discussion group Keynes reflected on the irony that his casual social anti semitism had ended that way.

And on and on. Anyway, itś a good read.

You give me too much credit,

Michael Maiello — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 02:20:16 +0000

In reply to Not a supporter.

You give me too much credit, I have not read Skidelsky on Keynes. Do I have to plow through three volumes?

Not a supporter.

Flavius — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 01:26:27 +0000

In reply to That Trans Pacific Partnership Needs Nation Building at Home

Not a supporter.

I don´t get beyond Keynes position that free trade combined with the international movement of capital is more apt to provoke war than keep peace etc.It seems likely you've read Skidelsky ¨so I ĺl desist.

Purely viewed as a domestic conundrum , it 's highly likely you´re right that extensive trade is the most sensible form of economic assistance.

But only among nations which take care of their poor. Sorry, wrong number!

For us the index of international trade enhancement is the number of homeless.

Michael, this is an extremely

Oxy Mora — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 15:25:31 +0000

In reply to That Trans Pacific Partnership Needs Nation Building at Home

Michael, this is an extremely important topic. Hope to engage this more later. Too much good/bad without a lot of analysis of how this might fit into our economy.

Not sure how I feel about the

Michael Maiello — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 19:23:05 +0000

In reply to With the rapid increase in

Not sure how I feel about the argument "I'm against a living wage because we need to build infrastructure," unless you're darned sure that everybody who is unemployed or who would be made unemployed by our trade agreements has a role to play in infrastructure renewal.

If a bridge needs putting up, I'm pretty useless unless somebody wants to pay me to snark about its design.

But, if there is a place in a giant infrastructure rejuvenation plan for anyone displaced by TPP, then by all means attach that plan to passage of the TPP agreement and guaranty that anyone who loses a job but wants another can have one.

With the rapid increase in

ocean-kat — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 18:00:18 +0000

In reply to That Trans Pacific Partnership Needs Nation Building at Home

With the rapid increase in automation there will likely come a time when we must have a guaranteed living wage but that time is not now and the country is not ready to support it. I'm against it now even if the people supported it mostly because there is too much work that needs to be done. There is a few trillion dollars of long over due infrastructure repair that we need. It will have to be done sometime. That time should be now. We should also be installing billions of solar panels, wind generators, etc. Hillary's plan to install 500 million is just a good beginning. To handle the massive amount of renewable energy that will hopefully come on line in the next decade the electric grid needs to be upgraded. And high capacity super fast internet access should be installed across the whole US. If we actually began to confront the problems of our failing infrastructure and began the much needed upgrades we would find we have a shortage of labor.