Krugman Raises White Flag on Trade, admits his “free-trade” cheerleading was mostly garbage

[JDPriestly]

54. We need trade, but we do not need the trade agreements that prevent us from

being able to manage our currency or maintain our industry.

And we do not want "free" trade to prevent us from having single payer, Medicare for all health insurance or other government programs such as a government program that insures that our water is safe and clean and that we are not dependent on fossil fuels as the environment worsens. That's what the proposed trade agreements apparently may require.

We have to rewrite our existing trade agreements to insure the safety of the environment and a balance between our dependency on the rest of the world and our self-sufficiency.

Right now, we are far too dependent on what is going on in other places in the world.

A bunch of religious extremists in Syria and Iraq, and our entire economy and world trade is placed in jeopardy so we think we have to step in and put out the extremists' fire. I do not like religious extremism of other violent extremism of any kind, but we need to be more self-sufficient so that we do not have to fight a war every time some would-be prophet in some country far away decides to kill everyone who disagrees with him.

We enforce these trade agreements. That's why we have been involved in so many wars that have nothing to do with us.

We protect the sea lanes, the ocean waters that permit the transport of manufactured products from poor countries to the wealthy ones. That is costing us a lot of the money in our military budget. At the same time, we are not benefiting in terms of creating wealth that can be taxed to pay for that military budget because of the lost industry in America.

It is all too easy for a company that produces its computers in Asia to buy a small company in, say, Ireland, a small country that does not pay for the huge military that we in America pay for, put its money in that other small country and leave the bills for the safeguarding of the oceans and international commercial space in which that company makes its money from "free" trade to America -- a country with diminished industrial capacity and a huge trade deficit.

This makes utterly, utterly no sense. It places an impossible burden on American taxpayers.

It is unsustainable. I want my grandchildren to have a viable country to live in -- both economically and environmentally.

And our trade policies, these trade agreements are destroying the likelihood that the US will still be viable when my grandchildren are my age.

France was once a great power. It spent too much money fighting England and later trying to manage distant colonies. War. War. War. The price of these wars for us is the likelihood that, as a nation, we will become impoverished.

When a nation becomes impoverished, as France dis at one time, those at the bottom of the food chain become desperate and rise up.

Our foolish trade policy is leading us toward that end.

We need to be wiser about.

The choice is not "free," unfettered throw-away trade policy or no trade policy.

The best trade policy is a realistic, balanced trade policy in which we protect our interests, do not put imperialistic goals first, but rather prioritize a responsible domestic policy and do what we can to promote peace in the world as well as a healthy environment.

"Free" trade will eventually cost us our country. It's got to end. It's really not "free" for the American people. It is only "free" for the corporations.